Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Boney · Oct 20, 2023

-[*] Attempt to create a liminal realm
-[*] Waystone: Foundation (Thorek, Hatalath, Sarvoi, Egrimm, Elrisse, Niedzwenka, Zlata)
-[*] EIC: Negotiate and plan a magical route through the Schadensumpf to allow for easier trade with the Eonir without compromising their defenses
-[*] SERENITY: Observations on the Windfall north of the Dark Lands (Egrimm as primary author)
-[*] Eike Study: Enchanting class at the Grey College (1 CF)

You look over the gathered representatives of seven separate magical traditions from four different nations - Elves, Dwarves, humans, Wizards and Witches and Lords. "The Waystone Project has come a long way," you say to them, "and so far we've been the equal of every obstacle. At least part of the credit for that goes to each of you, as well as the power of so many disparate traditions pulling together, but I suspect a part of it is that this final piece of the puzzle is going to turn out to be the really tricky bit."

You turn to the projected diagram of the Waystone floating above the meeting table that you prepared earlier, and point to its base. "The tall, pointy, above-ground part of the Waystone that we're all familiar with comprises less than half of the mass of the total structure. As we've confirmed, that part is responsible for the attraction and absorption of magical energies, but the storage of them, and the introduction of them to the leylines below, is done in the foundation. The storage part is straightforward to replicate to some degree - we might not be able to match the capacity of the original designs, but storing and discharging magical energies is a well-trod path by enchanters of all stripes - but the part where it drops it into the leyline is going to be where the real challenge is."

You wave your hand and the familiar colour pattern of the Wheel of Magic appears next to the Waystone. "Magic is introduced into the leyline as between two and eight Winds orbiting a kernel of Dhar," you say. "According to my figures, that's two hundred and forty seven different combinations that it's capable of creating." Those figures were a page filled with every possible combination that you then counted. You're sure there's a more mathematical way to arrive at that number, but finding it and learning how to apply it would have taken longer than just writing them all out. "We can simplify that by only dispending the two Winds that the Waystone has accumulated the most of, even if this does reduce the throughput, but even then we're looking at twenty-eight possible combinations. I'm hoping there's at least one paradigm where that doesn't mean you need twenty-eight different enchantments."

"It would simplify matters a great deal if all of it was simply reduced to Dhar," Sarvoi says thoughtfully, "but that comes with a great many dangers of its own, and it does make it impossible to pull Winds back out again."

You nod. "That would be the brute force solution, and I don't want it to come to that. Even the creation of a small amount of Dhar to form the kernel is going to be politically difficult within the Empire. Speaking of which, the other focus of our research is going to be the method of putting the Winds into a proper stable orbit around the Dhar. This would seem like it would be the easier task, but Dhar interactions and manipulations are a rather suppressed topic of study in most places, so there's much less existing theoretical research to work from." There's nods from some and thoughtful frowns from others at that.

After some more discussion to make sure everyone's on the same page, the group breaks up as everyone goes to turn their respective crafts to the problem.

---

[Rolling...]

"Has anyone seen Zlata or Niedzwenka recently?" you ask a reconvened but slightly diminished group several months later.

"Caught in weather, perhaps," Thorek says. "There's been some terrible storms in the Sea of Claws recently."

"Well, we'll have to push on without them for now and update them when they get back. Lord Thorek, what have you brought with you?" Thorek arrived at this meeting with a large mechanism of gears, valves and cranks, and you're more than a little curious about what's up with it.

"It struck me that trying to do such rote and predictable work with any of our crafts was misplaced effort," he says. "The Engineers Guild of Karak Hirn put this together for me, a hand-cranked proof of concept for a mechanism that would be linked into Wind-sensitive valves. It would take input from the array of eight valves here," he points to eight small steel drums, and pushes three of them downwards. "Using mechanisms adapted from a stepped reckoner, it opens between two and eight valves when the input from enough of them is above some arbitrary threshold." He turns a wheel, and with a rattle of gears and a sudden click, three rods push downwards, and then retract back up again as the machine resets itself. "It seems to me that the most appropriate design would be based on a mainspring that would need rewinding once a month, but it could also work with vanes or a millrace or similar."

"And if those rods were conductive, it could bridge the storage batteries and the leylines," you say with a nod. "That does seem a lot more easily scalable than any enchantment-based solution. Lord Hatalath, what have you and your fellows produced?"

"Lords Skathrai and Yngra worked together on an orbital mechanism," he says, tapping on a stack of notes in what looks like an Anoqeyån-based shorthand. "They both have a long history of developing things for military use, so they know the importance of keeping mechanisms simple for widespread deployment." He slides over a set of thaumaturgic schematics towards you and you frown down at them. Sure enough, you're pretty sure that creating the enchantment detailed here would be within the capabilities of even most human enchanters, but that doesn't mean you understand how it works - it's all elegant interweavings and interdependent and recursively self-referential crosshatchings.

"Meanwhile, Lord Elrithish and I," Hatalath continues, "have reverse-engineered and replicated the original storage mechanisms - though I very much doubt we've recreated the way they were originally made. Even by the standards of that time, this would be a nightmare to have to create in any substantial number." The second schematic covers three and a half scrolls, and you feel a headache brewing before you finish skimming the second. This shows none of the elegance and efficiency of the other schematic, instead being a brute-force piece-by-piece recreation of every individual component of the enchantment, with a great deal of struts and scaffolding to prevent it all from collapsing in on itself before its completion. This might make a starting point for further refining - hopefully a great deal of refining - and perhaps as a basis for theoretical research into Elven enchanting techniques, but unless you stumble upon a few thousand underemployed Archmages its current form is not going to be usable for creating new Waystones in any usable number.

"There are some heavily guarded things in there that need to be even more heavily guarded," Egrimm says with a grimace. "But we did find a few relevant treatises on the subject of moving Dhar from place to place. Including, interestingly, a paper from your former colleague, Jovi Sunscryer, and a few collaborators. It seems they had some ambitions for Sylvania that his untimely death thwarted." Not the only knock-on tragedy from his miscast, as you recall. "There are Hysh cantrips that have a repulsive effect on Dhar - not enough to meaningfully damage beings that consist of or rely on it, but enough to shunt Dhar around within an enchantment without it actually touching and tainting the enchantment."

"We also did a delve of College libraries for Wind storage mechanisms," Elrisse says, "both enchantment- and material-based." The paper she slides over to you lists a number of options, charted by material cost, craftsman-hours, Wizard-hours, and approximate magical throughput. You slide it over to Thorek, who spends a moment calculating exchange rates before adding a few Rune-based options at the bottom.

Sarvoi, it seems, has a lot to share but little of it of immediate use - he and the Druchii Sorceress had apparently engaged in some rather recursive mind-games to try to winkle magical secrets out of each other, and while it seems both of them enjoyed the challenge and Sarvoi is eager to retell what he considers to be the most thrilling gambits of it, there seems to be a profound lack of usable results from it. Still, the meeting in general has been quite productive and the Eonir contribution specifically is very significant even without Sarvoi bringing something to the table.

Several weeks later, a harried-looking Zlata and a smug-looking Niedzwenka sail back into the city. Their plans to confer with other Ice Witches - well, Zlata's plans to confer with other Ice Witches while Niedzwenka loiters nearby and frowns at them - went astray when their path took them through the lands of a Boyar who launched what most would call a very minor and mostly symbolic show of force to try to keep secure the expanded rights of Kislev's nobility. Niedzwenka, as it turned out, called it justification enough to rain hell and nightmares down upon those lands in general and the Boyar specifically. A deeply mixed blessing for the newly-crowned Tzar, who already had plans to bring the Boyars to heel but now also had devastation and terror to rebuild and recover from.

That, you suppose, is one of the benefits to being an ancient terror - instead of working around others, you get to be the one that other people have to work around.

---

In front of a gathered crowd of House Fanpatar nobles, innumerable flying insects, and some curious ducks, you lay out your plan for allowing passage through the Schadensumpf without compromising it as a defensive barrier: a series of enchanted towers that can project your spell Rite of Way in the path of approved travellers, under the sole control of House Fanpatar so that it cannot be used as an invasion corridor in the same way that a road or series of bridges could be. The magical underpinnings of the plan attract much comment from the more magically-inclined parts of the crowd, at first because they insist that it can't work and then, after trying it themselves, insisting that it shouldn't. The more practical remainder are cautious but not quite skeptical, reasoning that as long as the infrastructure is mostly on their side of the swamp, they can always just knock it over and sink it into the swamp, should it contain any unwanted trickery. With sufficiently vigorous knocking and a sufficiently deep swamp, there's not much that doesn't work on.

With House Fanpatar giving cautious assent, you leave them to engage with the political side of things while you turn your attention to the technical. There's a curious kind of freedom to taking a spell that was designed to be contained within a single human soul and remaking it with all size constraints removed, but that joy evaporates as soon as you run into the primary adaptation you need to make: where the spell was based on the location of the caster, a version built into a tower needs to project the effect out along a specific path. The spell was built along the assumption that the spell would only need to be targeted directly in front of the caster, which not only simplified its design a great deal, but also bypassed a lot of inefficiencies that usually creep in when a spell is made to have an effect over a distance. This means the spell needs not so much adapting as it does complete rebuilding to work with a new set of targeting parameters, which would normally be nigh impossible but is merely extremely difficult because you're the one who made the spell in the first place and you still have all your notes.

You toy with a number of potential solutions - a path relayed by Waystone-inspired menhirs, some sort of beacon to be carried by those who have permission to pass, a sort of punt-mounted Battle Altar - but in the end the method that comes up most promising on paper is to split the enchantment over two towers, with the path being projected directly between them. It's nowhere near as efficient as the original spell, but it doesn't have to be.

[Planning the Waystone Towers: Learning, 57+29+10(Enchanter)+5(Library: Enchantment)=101.]
[House Fanpatar understanding: 17.]

You're sure that the schematics that emerge over several weeks of effort are, if not your very finest work, then at least a solid demonstration of the concept, but it seems House Fanpatar's Mages disagree. You'd hoped that the common origin of the enchantment paradigm of the Eonir and the Grey Order would make the gap between the two bridgeable, but many fruitless days are spent trying to blaze a communicable path through the intuitive leaps that your design is built upon. Eventually, to your relief and theirs, the higher-ups of House Fanpatar decide to bring in someone hopefully more able to understand the bizarre ways of human enchantment.

[Sarvoi interrupt: 82.]

Sarvoi reads over the schematics, laughs, frowns, mutters something about cobbling for centipedes, then disappears for several days. When he returns it's with an armful of scrolls and a manic gleam in his eye, and he spends several weeks walking the Fanpatar Mages through your logic and several hours getting you to include details so minor and self-evident you have to look up how to actually describe them. By the time the year starts to draw to a close the foundations are being laid down for the towers, one atop a southern rise of the Misty Hills and the other among the ruins of Vorbegwerk. Without any further assistance from yourself it will likely take several years for the path to be completed, but it is underway.

[Major Trade Route: The Schadenweg, from Middenheim to Tor Lithanel via the Schadensumpf (estimated completion: late 2493)]

---

"Great streamers of energy covering the sky from horizon to horizon, glowing so brightly that even the least gifted can see the shimmering in the air. Any one of those great ribbons would be enough to cause a storm of magic in more southern latitudes, but up here are entirely focused on their flight from the Frontier of Chaos. The Kurgan Sorcerers of all eight Winds learn techniques for drawing in magic from far above that in the Empire are the sole domain of the Celestial Order. It is only once they reach the mountains that frame the southern border of the steppes that a facet of their nature that we would recognize reasserts itself, and they plunge downwards in intertangling Windfalls, scattering pearls of forbidden iridescence across the bone-strewn wastes."

Egrimm's verbiage is a bit flowery for academia, but it seems to be entertaining Eike. You toy with the idea of working it into the paper to entertain your readers, but the tone ends up clashing drastically between the descriptions and the technical details, so you end up having to leave it out. The result is still a fairly readable description of a fascinating magical phenomenon in far too dangerous a place to be visited safely, so you're confident it'll garner a decent amount of attention. Especially since it is an undeniably natural phenomena that results in the creation of Dhar, which goes against a lot of orthodox Sevirric theory that argues that as it is inherently unnatural, it can only be created by corrupted beings. You're careful to avoid any suggestion that this in any way legitimizes the energy or its use - it is merely an unfortunate side-effect of an otherwise beautiful process.

[Writing the paper: Learning, 51+29-10(Freshness: Faded)+7(Library: Sevir)=77.]
[Egrimm's contribution: 6+23=29.]
[Max's contribution: 55+18=73.]

[Observations on the Windfall on the Road of Skulls, 2490. Subject: Rare, +1. Insight: Shattering, +3. Delivery: Competent, +0. Exotic, +1. Varied, +1. Unpopular, -1. Shared Credit, -1. Total: +4.]

---

[Rolling...]

On top of shadowing you for the Seviroscope development and the matter of the Schadensumpf towers, Eike has been attending enchantment lessons at the Grey College. How much of an affinity she'd have for the art of enchantment is something that it's only just occurred to you to be concerned about - it's come as naturally as the spellcasting for you from as far back as you can remember, but that definitely isn't the case for all Wizards, and there's no reason that it would be the case for Eike. So you keep a close but surreptitious eye on how her understanding of that art grows over the months. She is not, you quickly realize and reluctantly accept, a natural talent in the same way that you were, but her grasp of the Sevirric theory keeps the pace of her learning high anyway, and by the time the year draws to a close, she's at least halfway to the level where she'd be able to produce her own permanent enchantments.

But where she's really flourished is in her understanding of the interactions between magical energies and different mediums. You've typically stuck to the tried-and-true staples for magical conductors and insulators, and when you needed something exotic you consulted the various reference materials and often had to pay dearly for them - though often with someone else's gold. But Eike hasn't just memorized the known facts of material conductivity, she's developed a habit of evaluating the materials she encounters for how they'd react to different magical energies. Her earliest examples of enchantment, while as primitive and temporary as expected for someone just starting out, use all kinds of mundane-seeming materials that are perfectly suited for their place in the larger piece. Not only will this serve her well for any form of magical craftsmanship she sets out to learn, if she develops this skill further it would also make her a more formidable spellcaster, as she'd be able to cast her spells in such a way to take advantage of the material conditions of the terrain around her.

She's growing quickly, and not just in the sense that you now have to pat her shoulder instead of her head when she does well. You're confident she's going to grow into a very impressive Magister one day.

Eike has learned:
Enchantment (1/2)
Materials: Eike is able to quickly and precisely evaluate how conductive a material is to various forms of magical energy, and how to compensate for or take advantage of that conductivity. +1 Learning, Advanced will give +1 Magic
Windherder (1/4)

---

Your return to experimenting with the Vitae is a cautious one, but not a very cautious one, as you're performing it on a ledge of the mountain on the other side of Death Pass from Karagril instead of waiting for reality to have fully repaired itself within your White Tower. If this experiment goes similarly to the previous one, you're confident that you'll be able to put enough distance between you and whatever it is you attract the attention of that they will succumb to reality and dissipate before they can cause any meaningful trouble, and if necessary they can be given a little help in getting on their way by the artillery overlooking Death Pass.

After some minor preparations - not strictly necessary, but it's easier to focus on the task with somewhere comfortable to sit and some shade to keep the sun at bay - you prepare a measure of the Vitae and focus your will upon it. This time you know what to look for, and you're able to notice the very slight compression as the Vitae begins to succumb to the pressure. Or perhaps the Vitae isn't compressing at all, and the give you're feeling is actually a compression of reality itself as your will squeezes the Vitae against it? You wonder if there's a way to test for that, but you can't think of any ways to measure it that won't be occluded by the Vitae, and the thing about reality is that you don't often venture outside of it. And the few times you do are generally places you don't want to risk puncturing.

[Squeezing the Vitae: Learning, 84+29=113.]

Your attention is yanked back to the task at hand as the Vitae stops pressing back against your will, and seems to shrink down in size as it drains away through a newly-formed slit in reality. As before, the miniature realm you can glimpse on the other side of the slit seems to be entirely normal in every measurable way. You keep your attention on it, ready to act or flee as needed, but time ticks by without anything untoward happening, and eventually you exhale. Maybe you simply got unlucky last time, or perhaps the being in question had been waiting for an opportunity to make its pitch to you. Either way, it seems that while the creation of a liminal realm isn't necessarily safe, it also isn't guaranteed to attract unwanted attention from the other side of the liminal barrier. You note your observations on the slit, including that the word 'slit' is inadequate. A slit is a hole in a two-dimensional object, allowing passage through it in a third dimension. This is a hole in three-dimensional reality, allowing passage through it in a fourth dimension. But as far as you know, no words for such a thing exists in Reikspiel, which was a language built for three spatial dimensions. Perhaps Anoqeyån, or Daemonic, or some other magical language has a vocabulary to describe these kinds of shapes. For now, you settle for noting that the shape of the 'hole' appears to be dipyramidal or trapezohedronal, while the empty grey realm on the other side appears spherical.

You bring over some more Vitae from a supply cache a safe distance away - it wouldn't do to have it right there when you're doing dangerous magical experimentation, after all - and begin trying to introduce it to the slit. You've performed enough experiments with the Vitae to reasonably think you can predict how it will react in a given situation, and for this one specifically you've theorized three possible results: either nothing happens, or it dissolves into Winds, or it dissolves into Winds and then dissolves away into a size increase of the liminal realm. At first you were hoping for the third of those options, and that the reaction is possible indefinitely instead of only in the initial moments after it is created, before you realized that if that was the case, it might make it impossible to bring any of the Vitae into the grounds of the Grey College without it dissolving, since it occupies a liminal realm of its own. So you watch with as much detached neutrality as you can maintain as more Vitae runs down a glass stirring rod and into the slit. Sure enough, the Vitae shatters into Winds and then shimmers into nothingness as it is absorbed into the liminal realm, but the reaction also travels back up the rod to the rest of the Vitae in the beaker and detonates the lot, causing the beaker to shatter and a small vortex of Winds to form as you jump backwards.

You frown at the hole for a while as you think, then set up ropes to cordon off the area it occupies.

---

A few days later, the shot tower you'd asked some of the Karak's Dwarves to set up is completed. This one is much shorter in height than most you'd find throughout the Karaz Ankor and the Empire, as unlike those designed for turning molten lead into lead shot, this one only needs to be tall enough for falling Vitae to form into distinct drops, rather than also needing them to fall far enough to cool and harden. The only difficulty was in convincing the Dwarves to make it only strong enough to last out the experiments instead of something that will still be standing for centuries to come, but you managed it by making it clear that this was for dubious Zhufokri experiments, and thus would require lightweight structures to minimize the amount of shrapnel produced. With this tower, it will be simple to moderate the rate at which Vitae drips down, allowing you to achieve maximum throughput without causing the reaction to spread wastefully to Vitae still on the wrong side of the entrance. You set it up with a much larger measure of the Vitae than that which originally created the realm in the feed tray, and begin your observations from a safe distance, then move closer as nothing unexpected happens.

You could, of course, simply throw an entire beaker in all at once, or even an entire carboy, and that way the reaction wouldn't have time to spread before the entire volume is entirely within the liminal realm. You're mostly sure that would have the same effect as feeding it in one drop at a time. But 'mostly sure' would make for a poor epitaph. Once you'd confirmed that it's working as intended, you allow it to run and move on to your next stage of experimentation: poking it with a stick and seeing what happens. You'd picked this spot for its emptiness, which means there's no handy sticks for poking mysteries with, only a few scattered rocks. But being a Wizard of wisdom and experience, you'd thought ahead and brought several sticks with you. At first you simply poke it, and watch as it protrudes into the realm on the other side. It looks quite normal from behind, but looking at it from an angle makes it look like its bending as it enters the slit, though withdrawing and examining it shows that it's still straight, and it wouldn't be able to actually bend that way without breaking. It seems that your eyes, like Reikspiel, aren't able to fully make sense of four-dimensional movements.

Next you move the stick into the slit from side-on, so that the middle of the stick will come into contact with the slit while both ends will remain outside of it, and as it comes into contact it stops in place, and you feel a slight pulling, rather than an abrupt jolt. You wave it back and forth a few times to confirm that, then swing it with some strength and examine the stick for any damage. So there's no physical barrier around the sides of the liminal entrance to obstruct the middle of the stick from entering, but it is still prevented from doing so because it cannot stretch enough for the middle part of the stick to go further into the liminal realm while the ends of it remain outside. You had been concerned that the middle section of the stick would be simply severed by the edges of the liminal entrance as if it had run into an impossibly thin edge, such as what is manifested by the Penumbral Pendulum. That would have made this hole in reality rather dangerous to be around. As is... well, if someone tripped into the hole at full speed and the wrong angle the abrupt change in velocity might cause injury, but the same would be true of a large rock. And if the entrance was large enough for a person to easily pass through, even that problem would no longer be the case.

Speaking of which, you'd hoped that the slit would grow with the size of the liminal realm, but by your measurements it is the same size it was the other day, despite the constant drip of Vitae into it. A sounding line shows that the depth of the liminal realm has almost doubled, so if it has remained spherical on the inside, its size must have increased almost eightfold. Though it occurs to you that that calculation assumes that the depth from the slit is the radius of the liminal realm, which would only be the case if the slit was at the centre of the liminal realm, rather than at its edge. Circling the slit with your trusty poking stick reveals that it remains accessible from all sides, which must mean that it does lead to the centre, rather than remaining at the edge. You frown and climb up the ladder to turn off the drip - if it gets much bigger, then you'd face the real danger of someone who enters it being unable to reach the slit to leave it again. You make a note to bring a ladder and some rope with you for tomorrow's testing.

---

Part of you wants to be the first being to enter your liminal realm, but the rest of you is quite aware how foolish a way this would be to discover whether it's safe to enter, so instead you've secured a handful of mice as test subjects. You didn't want to just drop one of them in and have it stuck on the bottom of the liminal realm, running around the place making a mess and trying fruitlessly to scrabble up the sides, so you mildly sedate one of them with a very small dose of a tincture the Karak's farmers use on the goats, then attached a leather strap around its middle and lowered it into the hole with a rope and pulley. You pull it back out after a few seconds to confirm that it's still alive, then lower it back down again and wait several minutes. When you pull it back up again it takes some poking to rouse it from its drug-induced slumber, but that it does eventually open one eye and squeak sleepily at you confirms that the air is breathable on the other side.

You frown at the hole in reality, and then take a deep breath and stick your hand into it - your right hand, just in case you need the Seed of Rebirth in your left to regrow it. Your hand feels entirely normal, not even any sort of mystical tingle to signify it has entered another realm. You wiggle your fingers, then lean to one side and grimace as the change in angle makes your arm appear to bend unnaturally. You move your hand around the slit, frowning - your initial ideas for enlarging the slit involved simply trying to pull on it, and then trying an escalating series of mundane and magical blades, but there isn't actually a physical edge to cut, just a point in space where one realm gives way to another. To be able to address the slit with a knife, you'd need to be able to move your hand in a fourth spacial direction, that of the liminal barrier. The only part of you able to do that is your soul, which exists partially in the Aethyric realm and is able to delve deeper into it, most commonly during dreams. When magic enters a soul, it gets closer to the realm that birthed it, which is what makes magic so powerful and dangerous. Which means that if you pass magic back and forth between your soul and your body at the edge of the slit, sawing back and forth like a cheesewire, then...

With an indescribably unpleasant noise that echoes off the mountains, the tear grows unevenly and jerkily in the direction of your effort of will, widening the hole between reality and the liminal realm. As you circle around it you wince at the uneven shape of it compared to the slit that it had been, but at least it works. It's slightly alarming to create a rent in reality with such a small effort, though it makes sense that it's so much easier to enlarge an existing hole than to tear a new one.

With the hole enlarged to something that a person could fit through, you struggle up the drop tower with a cannonball you borrowed from the Undumgi and drop it down into the hole. The thud that echoes back out of it has an unnerving sort of resonance to it, but looking down into the hole reveals nothing unexpected, so you feel confident enough to carefully lower a ladder into the hole and to climb in yourself. You'd expected it to be cooler inside the hole than out of it, but it feels the same temperature inside than it was out, but that's the only real complaint you have. The uniform greyness in all directions is slightly disorienting, but as long as you keep a hand on the ladder to orient yourself, it's actually rather soothing. The surface is smooth to the touch, but not as slippery as that smoothness would suggest, and it does not give way to any amount of pressure.

Your measurements reveal the realm to be spherical or close to it, which causes you to frown in thought. Your promotion to Lady Magister was in a similarly all-grey realm that houses the Grey College, but that had a flat surface. Perhaps an Archmage skilled in High Magic could keep a grip on the primordial Winds and shape the realm that they form, or perhaps there's a way to shape the realm after it is created. Or it could be that the method Teclis used to create the Grey College - did he create the Grey College's liminal realm? Is it possible he simply made use of an already-existing one? - is entirely separate to the one you have stumbled upon here.

You spend some time at the bottom of that hole in reality, trying to figure out how to best make use of a perfectly spherical area, before doing the sensible thing and kicking the problem over to some Dwarves. You get a number of flat looks from the carpenters of Clan Ironspike as you lay out the requirements - building techniques to create structures within spherical caps of varying dimensions without drilling, nailing, or screwing into it. They ask you why, then insist you stop explaining why. After a great deal of thought, debate, and grumbling, they produce a set of schematics and joints that would allow one to build entire structures within a spherical realm, as long as they take up most of the space within it. Multiple completely separate structures within one spherical realm would, they speculate, be impossible to create with entirely mundane techniques.

Throughout all of this you've been keeping a very careful eye on the hole itself, which remains static in size while under use but, once you finish delving in and turn most of your attention to other tasks, begins to heal up - first at the tears you made and then, very slowly, at the initial slit. It seems like a liminal realm, or at least one created in the way you created this one, requires at least semi-regular comings and goings by living beings to maintain its entrance. The realm itself, however, remains unchanged. You begin to wonder how many forgotten liminal realms there might be out there, the entrances healed over but their contents remaining preserved, like an insect in amber or a pearl within an oyster.

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 five with the most votes will be chosen, not counting those locked in.

[+] Social interaction initiated by someone else (locked in)

Laurelorn
[ ] Eike
Have a discussion about faith, the Gods, and the role they play in one's life.
[ ] Swordplay
Test your newly-completed swordfighting style against the swordsmen of Tor Lithanel.
[ ] Niedzwenka
Ask Baba Niedzwenka how she feels about the new Tzar, and about the political landscape of Kislev in general.

Karak Eight Peaks
[ ] Okri
You've met Loremaster Okri of Karak Eight Peaks once before. Pay him a visit and see how his great ambitions for heavily-armed Ironbreakers delivered by Gyrocarriage are going.

Foreign Relations
[ ] Middenland
See how the Ulricans are going with their new Eonir coreligionists.
[ ] Nordland
See what's going on with the Ulrican schismatics that Nordland is backing.
[ ] Wissenland
Though the Elector Count is his usual self, some of their actions recently have hinted at the hand of someone a great deal defter. Investigate who took the job of his Spymaster after you turned it down.
[ ] The Black Water Canal
Attend the grand opening of the Black Water Canal as it finally bridges the waterways of the northern and southern halves of the continent.
[ ] Druchii Diplomats
Check in on these unexpected visitors to Tor Lithanel.
[ ] Eonir Tourism
Despite language and cultural barriers, some of the Eonir have begun venturing out into the wider Empire. Check how this is going, and get a glimpse of the Empire you were born in from the point of view of those to whom it is alien.

Friends Abroad
[ ] Tzar Boris Bokha
Attend the coronation of the new Tzar of Kislev.

Following Up
[ ] Amber College
Check in on the salamanders.
[ ] Skull River Ambush
Look into the investigation of the mining of the Skull River, and any consequences of it.
[ ] Kalashiniviks
Observe the fate of the Kalishiniviks, who have been made a scapegoat for the death of the Tzar.

- There will be a six hour moratorium to allow for people to suggest social actions.

Boney · Oct 25, 2023

[*] The Black Water Canal
[*] Tzar Boris Bokha
[*] Eike
[*] Eonir Tourism
[*] Nordland

Tally

As you well know from your discussions of the matter with the Knights of Ulrikadrin, the matter of the growing schism within the Cult of Ulric is an extremely sensitive one, so you reluctantly put aside your tried and tested information-gathering method of showing up somewhere in full Lady Magister regalia and bothering people until they tell you what's going on. Instead you send a letter to the offices of the Provost and the Librarian of the Grey Order and ask for a surface-level briefing of the matter, and after it is prepared you set aside an afternoon the next time you're passing by Altdorf to go through the materials they've accumulated on the topic, from historical background of the dispute to the events currently unfolding within it. Nothing in it is especially secret or sensitive, but you smile at the sheer breadth of the information the Grey Order is able to deliver on short notice.

The roots of the schism, you mentally summarize as you go through a deskful of papers that have been set aside for you, run parallel to the history of the Nordland Hedgewise. During the time of Sigmar, the tribe of people that would become Nordlanders split in two, with some staying within the Forest of Shadows and remaining loyal to their patron Goddess Halétha and others following King Marius into the lowlands of Westerland in an attempt to claim it as the Jutonsryk. Historians are divided as to whether they settled those lands and Marienburg was named after Marius, or whether they were trying to invade the lands of the Endals and Marienburg was named after King Marbad. In either case, the Endals were eventually victorious, and the Jutones were forced to return to the Forest of Shadows. But they did not do so directly - they passed through the lands of the Teutogens, ancestors of the Middenlanders, and while doing so converted to their God, Ulric. Instead of returning in shame to a land and Goddess they abandoned, they returned as conquerors. The Haléthan loyalists, now called the Was Jutonians, were split into two groups as some survived on the outskirts of Jutonian society and some fled east into the lands of the Udosians, and they would go on to become the Nordland and Ostland Hedgefolk. This set the stage for the Jutonians to become the Nordlanders, and also laid the foundations for the complicated relationship with their coreligionists in Middenland.

Nordland was not one of the founding provinces of the Empire - its Runefang, Crow Feeder, was originally granted to the Endals. But Middenland brought it into the fold by force during the March to the Frontiers as a vassal, bleeding it of silver until the era of Drakwald Emperors, where Emperor Boris Goldgather granted Nordland independence and a Runefang to weaken his family's ancestral rivals in Middenland. This independence came just in time for the Black Death, and Norscans migrated in large numbers to the towns and villages of Nordland cleared out by disease and likely would have conquered all of Nordland outright, had the Skaven Wars not arrived. Norscan and Nordlander put aside their differences - and, according to the more dramatic recountings of the history, the siege of Salzenmund - in the face of the invasion from below. When the dust had settled the Norscans decided to make a permanent peace with the Nordlanders, foreswear the Chaos Gods in favour of Ulric, and swear fealty to the Elector Count of Nordland. How much of that was due to kinship forged in battle and how much was due to the arrival of a freshly-crowned Emperor Mandred Skavenslayer at the head of the Imperial Army is open to interpretation. But though the Norscans had saved Nordland, their incorporation into the province and eventually the intermingling of their customs and bloodlines with that of Nordland drove another wedge between them and the Middenlanders, with their beliefs in the superiority of unmixed descent from the Imperial Tribes in general and the Teutogens in particular.

During the strife of the Time of Three Emperors, the missteps of the Ar-Ulrics of the time - who were, like all Ar-Ulrics to this day, Middenlanders of Teutogen descent - in backing the Ottilian Emperors of Talabecland, and their eventual ignominious return to Middenheim, led to the subjugation of that office by Middenland's temporal ruler. The most obvious and detested part of that was the enforcement of a Vow of Celibacy upon the priesthood of the Cult of Ulric that lasts to this day. To enforce this, or perhaps to avoid having to actually enforce this, the Ar-Ulric decreed that all women would be expelled from the priesthood. Needless to say, Nordlander Ulricans were not convinced that their priests should suffer for the failed politicking of the Ar-Ulric and most stopped even pretending to follow the decrees of the Middenland Ulricans, and for most of that tumultuous period Nordland sided with the Elected or Marienburg Emperors, rather than the Ottilian or Wolf Emperors. And though the rise of Magnus the Pious restored the unity of the Empire, his confirmation of the authority of the Ar-Ulric did little to heal the rift within the Cult of Ulric.

With tensions between Nordland and Middenland so high, all of the political, racial, and sexual rifts within the Cult of Ulric are wider than ever. The two main rallying points on Nordland's side are the High Priest of Salzenmund, the foremost Ulrican Priest within Nordland, and the High Priestess of Sudfast, the leader of an all-female Ulrican Temple that dates back at least two thousand years. They're not quite in open revolt, but they're clearly maneuvering for when they will be, and are preaching a populist doctrine that seeks to open up the wider priesthood to women once more, and the higher ranks of it to those not of Teutogen descent. With the physical borders drawn right down the border between Nordland and Middenland - a narrow and heavily forested strip of land hemmed in by the Middle Mountains on one side and Laurelorn on the other - the matter will not, thankfully, be settled by violence. The only way this comes to a conclusive end is if one side is able to garner enough support of the wider Cult of Ulric to drown out the voices of the other, and thus the attention of the two factions is turning to the farflung branches of the Cult. The natural other major players would be the High Priests of Talabheim and Wolfenburg, who hold authority over Talabecland and Ostland Ulricans respectively. Neither has made moves towards one side or the other yet - the Talabheim branch of the Cult of Ulric has a long and complicated history with the Middenheim leadership, and the Ostland branch tends to stay out of politics - but the most natural result of the undoubted overtures being made is that Ostland sides with Nordland and Talabecland with Middenland, reinforcing the stalemate.

The Knights of the White Wolf, the Cult of Ulric's militant wing and the largest Templar Order in the Empire, are theoretically loyal only to the Ar-Ulric, but the existence of Ulrikadrin stands as a monument to the rift within it. Of its sects and suborders, the Teutogen Guard, the Ar-Ulric's personal bodyguard, and the Brotherhood of the Axe, a suborder thick with Teutogen-supremacist beliefs, can be assumed to be siding with the Ar-Ulric. The Sons of Ulric, a secret and heretical sect within the Knights that believe themselves to be literally descended from Ulric and therefore the only suitable leaders for the Cult and the Empire, are outlawed and heavily persecuted in Middenland, so they're natural allies of the Nordlander Ulricans, unless they choose to repudiate the self-proclaimed fractional demigods. The Fellwolf Brotherhood, the portion of the Knights permanently attached to the Army of Middenland, are following the lead of Middenland's Elector Count in remaining uninvolved in the conflict. And Ulrikadrin, you learned from Hubert, has been approached by both sides, with the Ar-Ulric offering a return to the pack and Nordland their choice of Frote or Neues Emskrank as a monastic demesne. While there are certainly those among them that would like to return to the Empire, having to do so as part of a widening schism within the Cult they're still faithful to troubles them.

There are also a few other Ulrican Knightly Orders that you know of that might be moved to back one side or the other. The Knights of the Order of the Grey Wolf are unlikely to be shifted from their oaths to keep Grey Lady Pass open, but their deeds and opinions are respected within the Cult of Ulric. The same could be said of the Knights of the Northern Cross, an ascetic order with a monastery in the Middle Mountains that battle constantly against the evils that call it home. The Knights of the Bloody Fist could be argued to be more of a mercenary band than a Knightly Order, but either side could tempt them with gold or land to back them. And there's non-Ulrican Knights that might become involved, too - the Knights Panther are technically secular but they do swear their oaths to Sigmar and Ulric, and they have a large presence in Middenheim and close links to the Knights of the White Wolf. And the Knights of the North Star are likewise secular but based in Salzenmund, and though they've yet to get involved, they're likely to follow the Grand Baron's lead.

Then there's the original instigation, if not the instigators, of these troubles: the Elves of Laurelorn and their adding of Ulric to their Pantheonic Mandala, and the nascent Priesthood being assembled by House Ellemakil. Though it was the Ar-Ulric that claims credit for their conversion, they're not necessarily destined to side with him in this trouble - after all, the Eonir are likely to prefer a levelled Cult hierarchy, rather than one that has them subordinate to human authority. The Ar-Ulric could head off that problem by promising them a free hand to see to Ulrican matters within Laurelorn, but doing so formally would aggravate those within the Cult that already disagree with the addition of non-humans to the faithful.

The final wildcard in all this mess is a really tricky one. The Order of the Winter Throne are a monastical sect that believe that Ulric is going to cleanse the powers of Chaos from the world with Evernacht, an apocalyptically prolonged and vicious winter, and that their duty is to be ready and able to survive however long it takes for the world to thaw once more. Most of the Order do so by building and stocking monasteries in the coldest and most remote parts of the continent, but an extremist portion do so by burning silos and storehouses to the ground in winter as sacrifices to Ulric, and to force people to learn to survive frozen privation. The frozen fortresses of the Order can be found throughout Nordland, Ostland, Kislev, and even parts of southern Norsca, but even this doesn't account for the surprising amount of reach and influence they have within the Cult. If they could be recruited to one side or the other, they could shift the balance in the struggle for the soul of the Cult of Ulric.

Part of you is happy that you're able to file all of this under someone else's problem, but another, deeper part of your mind is already noting the pressure points where influence could be brought to bear to bring the different groups under one banner or the other, and tallying up the amount of influence one could wield by playing kingmaker, and the amount of strife that could be avoided if this matter was put swiftly and forcibly to rest. You allow the mental notes to be made and tuck them away neatly in a corner of your mind, just in case.

Boney · Nov 17, 2023

"Are you still a worshipper of Shallya?" you ask Eike casually one evening. Well, not quite casually, but there's not really a way to ask that sort of thing without it being abrupt to some degree. You instead did your best to say it in such a way that would express curiosity without judgement. You'd spent some time considering and came to the conclusion that that would be the least problematic tone.

"Intermittently," she replies after a moment of thought, setting her book aside and carefully not letting wariness into her voice. "There's a physician that hosts a gathering when their business is quiet, I attend when we're in Karag Nar for them."

"Why Her, if you'll forgive my curiosity?"

She goes quiet as she thinks about that for a while. "I like Her," she says simply. "I did for the reasons most do when I was a child. And now because the things She does, and that Her people do, are good in a simple and straightforward way. The things we do are good in a complicated way. It's refreshing."

You nod. There's a lot of different ways Grey Wizards make peace with the morass of grey areas and lesser evils that the Order is often forced to operate within, and patronizing the Cult of Shallya is probably one of the healthier ways you've heard of. "So you're more of an admirer of Shallyans than a Shallyan yourself?"

She considers that. "An appreciator, I'd say. And I suppose I'd like to be a supporter, once I have support to give."

You can't help but smile at that. "Those are fine things to be."

"But I don't consider myself bound by the Cult's strictures. There needs to be soldiers to protect and be healed by the Shallyans, or otherwise you won't have any Shallyans." She gathers up the courage to outright ask, "what about yourself, Master?"

"I don't make much of a secret that I have a good relationship with Ranald," you say, with an amused little smile at your understatement. "Much of what I do is aligned with His interests, and as a youth it struck me as only sensible to act in accordance with Him and receive His aid, than do so in spite of Him and hope for no worse than His indifference."

"Do you think that was the right decision for you to have made?"

It's a fair question. "My life would certainly have been simpler without Him, but I wouldn't say it would have been easier. I think Volans was right to have imposed an officially irreligious stance on the Colleges, but I think that there's a lot of Wizards for whom it makes sense to reach their own individual accords with the Gods. If you can square your duties as a Grey Wizard with the desires and affinities of Shallya, or with any other God you feel compatible with, then I think that it can be a useful relationship to pursue further."

She's quiet for a long time, and you turn most of your attention back to your reading as she digests that. "You've researched the Gods a fair bit, haven't you?"

"That might be overstating the matter, but yes, I've done some reading and discussing on the matter."

"What are They?"

"That's a big question." You take a moment to get your thoughts in order. "Volans theorized that the Gods 'need the faith of mortals to maintain their unique identities'. We can see for ourself that exertions of willpower are able to control the Winds, which are themselves energies of the Aethyr, so it stands to reason that willpower channelled through the faith of thousands could be a source of power or sustenance for the beings of the Aethyr. There seems to be a threshold, or a series of thresholds, where spirits that grow strong enough can become more and more conceptual in nature. A spirit of a tree becomes a spirit of a forest, and then a spirit of forests in general, and then, say, of something like 'growth' or 'fertility'. This seemingly unshackles them - or, ha, uproots them - allowing them to move and grow beyond their origins, both physically and metaphorically. When the Imperial Tribes arrived on this continent, they brought with them conceptual Gods, or possibly primordial versions of them. Because past a certain level of strength, a spirit stops being bound to a singular concept and starts being able to cultivate and defend a territory of sorts, made up of similar concepts. Mercy, compassion, and healing are all clearly related, but they are all separate concepts that Shallya nonetheless simultaneously embodies.

"At this point the Gods treat concepts as territory on a map, with blurry borders and territorial disputes and all. Taal and Rhya claim sovereignty over all nature between them, putting them at odds with 'lesser' Gods of things like Fertility, the Hunt, Rivers, and Bogs. Some of those, especially those within Talabecland, have been subsumed into the mythology of the Cults of Taal and Rhya, as aspects or manifestations or subordinate spirits, and others have been eliminated or pushed onto the fringes of society. Sigmar, Ulric, Taal, and Myrmidia all claim parts of warfare from different directions. Manann and Mathlann might clash for sovereignty over the ocean, or they might be the same being worshipped in different ways with different aspects emphasized by different cultures.

"Casting a shadow over all of this are the Chaos Gods, whose conceptual reach is vast enough that there are few concepts that at least one cannot taint. Ranald duels with the Plotter over chance and trickery, all of the war gods with the Wrathful, Shallya with the Diseased over the nature of compassion and succour, and wherever faith and its expression are taken to extremes, the Tempter lurks. This might be the most important role of the Gods, to refuse the Chaos Gods dominance over every concept they touch. I shudder to think of what life would be like if we were forced to cede all of that to the Four and cobble together an existence made of what little remains."

Eike is quiet for a while as she digests that. "So if that were the case, it would be a symbiotic relationship. They feed on our expressions of faith, and in turn shelter us from the influence of the Chaos Gods."

"That's the theory."

Eike frowns as she considers that. "Then there must have been a time when They were lesser. How did they gain a foothold against the Chaos Gods, if that was the case?"

"Good question. According to a Dragon I discussed the matter with, the Chaos Gods did have dominance over this world for a very long time, and the Shartak - usually called 'Dragon Ogres' - and Fimir are remnants from that era. But an alliance of the Dragons and a now-gone race generally referred to as the Old Ones came to this world and pushed back their influence long enough for spirits to develop, and possibly assisted some of them in doing so. That is why Chaos flows from the poles, because those were the frontiers that Chaos was pushed back to."

"Came to this world from where?"

"That's a big question. The Old Ones aren't around any more to ask, and most of the surviving Dragons that weren't born on this world are sleeping under the Kingdom of Caledor in Ulthuan. Those Dragons consider those that we know of in the Old World, the ones that allow themselves to be bound to a Wind like our neighbour is to Hysh, to have betrayed their nature as nomads between worlds. All we know for sure is that the Chaos Gods exist on these other worlds, which is why they can be thwarted despite their power - most of their attention is almost always elsewhere. There are some that claim to have seen visions of these other worlds, but these accounts are heavily censored and those that record them usually end up on a pyre or in an asylum."

Eike's expression of serious thought is one that looks out of place on a face that young. "Where do Gods like that of the Orcs and the Skaven and the Fire Dwarves fit into this?"

"Hard to say. There certainly seems to be some sort of difference there, as instead of having entire pantheons like the humans and Elves and Dwarves, they have one or two Gods that seem to face no competition. Most religious authorities consider them to be lesser Chaos Gods, if such things exist, or particularly successful Higher Daemons. It could be that they're Gods that have staked out concepts alien to human minds, and that this makes them able to entirely dominate the beings They rule over. Or it could be that there's no fundamental difference and this trend is just happenstance, though it seems unlikely considering how neatly the divide is between the pantheons of the 'Civilized Realms' and the deific monodominance of the 'Enemies of Man'." You frown as you consider it further. "Cathay might be a counterexample, what little I know about them suggests they may only have one or two Gods. Though they might just deify their current Emperor, if the title of 'Dragon Emperor' isn't literal."

Eike goes quiet as she considers that, and though she doesn't ask you any further questions, you do notice a few books on theology intermixed with her reading materials over the coming weeks. There's a fair bit that you know and a great deal that you suspect that you haven't outright said, and you can tell that she can tell that those unspoken words are floating overhead, unseen but not unfelt. The lure of those secrets are a strong lure for any Grey Wizard worthy of the title, and you've no doubt that in proving herself worthy of those secrets, she'll uncover ones equal to or greater than them.

---

Laurelorn's agreements with Nordland, back when they were still being honoured, were based on strictly limiting human encroachment into it, so no provisions were made for Eonir passage into human lands. Their agreement with Middenland is a very different one, based on proselytism and common cause against Beastmen and Nordlanders. This makes it a matter of prestige for Middenland, rather than one of monetary profit, and this means that instead of squeezing out every pfennig, Middenland has included a number of things that would hopefully prove to be incentives to maintain the relationship. One of those is a right of free passage to citizens of Laurelorn through Middenland, which gives them implicit permission to travel freely through any province of the Empire that isn't explicitly excluding them.

The barrier to taking advantage of this is the peculiar laws of the caste system of the Eonir. The most obvious restriction of this is that the Forestborn cannot spend a night within the walls of Tor Lithanel, but arguably even more restrictive is that unless given explicit permission, Cityborn cannot spend a night outside of them without losing that status. Said permission has historically only been given to Eonir directly serving the crown, usually in a diplomatic or military capacity. This means that the Cityborn are not in a position to do any travel, as very little of the Empire can be reached, appreciated, and returned from within a single day.

There exists, you're aware, an undercurrent of envy that the lower classes of Cityborn had of the Forestborn and their relative freedom, but that freedom had been rather ephemeral when the world of the Eonir ended at their borders and it was largely a question of having to sleep in a city or having to sleep in a tree. With an entire continent opening up, the more adventurous of the Forestborn have been taking advantage of a freedom that had previously largely been a freedom to starve and freeze in the wilderness. The stories they're spreading upon their return are perhaps a bit vindictively embellished for the Cityborn audience that flow into the groves and odeons they make their declarations from, then embellished even further when retold by their Cityborn admirers.

The first story you hear is of what you take to be the Reikwald, as they speak of their initial horror and emerging wonder at a vast and apparently healthy forest without any vestige of an oversoul. Without millennia of immersion in high levels of ambient magical energies, and without any native spirits to meddle, the flora and fauna to be found within strike the Forestborn as pure and primeval, and they speak at length of the insights into the basest nature of trees and animals they thought they knew everything about. To you, an owl that sees your soul and speaks riddles of the deepest wisdom seems very noteworthy, but it seems that to these Elves, one that does nothing but hoot and devour small animals is the novelty. The Forestborn in question also speaks at length about how they had returned richer than they had left, as they had been used to hunting deer that were capable of identifying a trap and bartering with local spites to disarm it.

The next came from a devotee of Kurnous, a God that has been demoted from the upper echelon of the Eonir pantheon, and says that they have uncovered a myth completely unknown to the Elves - one you quickly recognize as that of Taal's Victory, where Taal's battle with a great dragon carved out the Talabec and formed the crater of the Taalbaston, but told with a lot more characterization to the being only identified as 'Ancient Wyrm' in most Taalite tellings. They speak of the Great Dragon they believe to be Abraxas with respect but not reverence, as according to Elven legend he betrayed his first master for one of the Cytharai, then Them for Isha, then finally abandoned Isha, Ulthuan, and the knowledge of Elven historians. This teller identifies the service of Rhya as Abraxas' final destination, and speaks of Kurnous pursuing and violently chastising Abraxas for his disloyalty to Kurnous' wife, but in doing so encountering Rhya for the first time and falling victim to the same charms that had snared the Dragon. Under the name Taal, this Forestborn says, Kurnous rules over a forest at least ten times larger than that of Chrace, and they believe that a deeper communion with Kurnous is possible there than anywhere within Laurelorn.

When one Forestborn speaks at length of a city that blows thick with Ghur, it takes you a few minutes to realize they're speaking not of Talabheim but of Altdorf, where Dragomas' continued role as Supreme Patriarch causes his Wind to dominate the streets. The tale of a hunter becoming more lost in Altdorf's streets than they had ever experienced in the depths of any forest is surprisingly gripping, even if the parts where they hunt the feral dog packs to sell to the piemen turns your stomach. They talk with detached fascination of the endemic warfare of the human packs that mark their territory with glyphs and colours instead of clawmarks and urine, of its very many and assorted spires and the seemingly bottomless depths of its undercity, and of the sheer size of a city that has districts larger and more populous than Tor Lithanel. It's a strange experience to hear a city you thought you know so well described as a place as alien to the speaker as Tor Lithanel once was to you.

Of surprising interest to the speakers and their audience are the open plains of Averland and the Veldt. Entire generations of Elves have lived and died without ever knowing the sight of open grasslands from horizon to horizon, and they seem to find the experience either disquieting or thrilling, depending on whether they arrived on foot or on a steed. Also looming appropriately large are the World's Edge Mountains - knowing only the Middle Mountains and considering them a very poor imitation of the Annulii Mountains of their dimly-remembered homeland, seeing for themselves that this continent has peaks that could rival them for grandeur seems to have captured the imaginations of many. Then there's the rivers of the Empire that some have fixated on, as where the northern Empire has only a handful of perfunctory rivers that flow in mostly straight lines from inland to a notoriously treacherous sea, the rest of the Reik Basin being interwoven with one massive, interconnected, and fairly traversable river system has some describing it as the Empire's very own Inner Sea.

All of these wonders are beyond the reach of the Cityborn, and for once it is the richest and most influential of them that are feeling the bite the keenest, as they are the ones most jaded and starved for novelty. This tension could be addressed by granting diplomatic sinecures to those with the influence to request them, allowing the rich and powerful the privilege of travel with a mumbled explanation about deepening diplomatic ties between the Eonir and their new allies. That this hasn't happened probably indicates that this disquiet is being cultivated, the pressure being contained and allowed to build. If done carelessly this would eventually lead to an explosion, but this sort of pressure can be a very useful motive force if properly harnessed. Eonir society seems like it is set to undergo several major changes in the coming decades, and in each of them the hand of the Queen seems to be at work, moulding the eventual shape of the society to come.

---

There are many ways for news to travel through the Old World. The least urgent goes with the postal carriages that trundle their way between the major cities on a regular basis. More urgent than that goes via a postal courier who changes horses at every waystation to maintain a respectable speed. After that comes the pigeon post. The penultimate levels of urgency calls for couriers mounted upon griffins or pegasi, most of whom are nobles or Wizards of significant rank and need a matter of considerable urgency to sway them from whatever they're currently doing.

Most people are unaware that in times of great need, there are other, more arcane ways to send the most urgent of messages. Your first indication that this has occurred is when Hubert alights on your balcony one day, carrying news that had been emblazoned upon the sky itself for those with the eyes to see it. The bulk of the message he relays to you vocally - that the Asur had sent a delegate to discuss a matter with the Colleges of Magic, and that it would be appreciated if you could make yourself present to handle the matter as soon as reasonably possible. The rest was enciphered, as is reasonable when the night sky is to be your notice board, and you try a few intermediate ciphers before you manage to tease out the remainder of the message, which consists of the identity of the Elf in question. Not Teclis, unfortunately, nor any of the other very few living Asur you know the names of offhand. You can only hope, as you signal for your Gyrocarriage, that this 'Prince Eltharion of Yvresse' is a reasonable sort of Elf.

Boney · Dec 8, 2023

The Elf you take to be Prince Eltharion wears the blue-and-white livery of Yvresse under incredibly ornate armour, topped by a helm with two towering feathered horns that threaten to cause trouble should he stand too close to the chandeliers. His longsword is of an unmistakably Elven design, but the Runes it bears mean it must be an heirloom of unimaginable age. Despite being so fine as to make the meeting room of the Imperial Palace he is standing within seem shabby and worn, his armour seems like it would not restrict his range of movement at all, and his posture as he turns to face you is one that would allow him to draw his sword against you in a single motion, should he feel the need.

"Archmage of Ulgu, Mathilde Weber?" he asks as you approach.

You set aside the elaborate greeting you've spent the trip here concocting. "I have that honour."

"I am Prince Eltharion, the Warden of Tor Yvresse, and I am Ulthuan's delegation on the matter of recent interference with the Waystone network in the lands of the Empire." His sentences are clipped and simple, barely a step above battlefield cant, and you're not sure if he's condescending to you or if he habitually spurns the full range of Eltharin.

"What is Ulthuan's stance on the matter?" you ask neutrally, carefully examining the Prince.

"Initial reactions among the Phoenix King's advisers were negative, but the point was very firmly raised that if there is a way to expand the Waystone network that Ulthuan depends upon for its survival, then that is something that should not be erased out of hand just because we did not come up with it." The look in his eye makes you suspect it was him that very firmly raised that point. "For that reason, I am here to open negotiations for Ulthuan to acquire full documentation of the techniques and methodology of your additions to the Waystone network, as well as anything related you are developing."

"Why does Ulthuan need what we have developed when it pioneered the entire field?" It's a question you couldn't stop yourself from asking, even if you wanted to.

"The Waystones we have covered your lands and ours in is the artisanry of the Inner Kingdoms. In every foreseen scenario, it performs its task perfectly. But it does not deal well with the unforeseen, or with deliberate sabotage. What you have created may not be fit for Saphery's libraries, but there may be a place in Yvresse's armouries for something that can be taught and deployed quicker and easier than a Sapherian masterpiece."

You nod in understanding. "The Empire would be open to those negotiations, but it is not the only party involved. This project has been performed in concert with the magical traditions of Kislev, Tor Lithanel, and the Karaz Ankor."

He does not hesitate. "Then I am here to open negotiations with Kislev, Tor Lithanel, and the Karaz Ankor."

You do your best to refrain from hesitating too, even though the matter is one that would perhaps benefit from some hesitation. "Very well," you say. Luckily, there's a convenient time and place approaching where such a meeting can be arranged.

---

Kislev City is filled to bursting. Though Boris has wielded the power of the Tzar since a few minutes after his father's death was discovered, his coronation proper is still seen as a proper milestone, the moment the new ruler is presented to his Gods and subjects. Every tavern and public house is filled to capacity and then some, but in the proximity to a ceremony that is sacred to, among three others, the God of Hospitality, those who arrive too late to find conventional quartering are able to find something that will at least keep them warm and off the street. Thankfully, you and the other members of the Waystone Project are able to claim space within respective embassies to wait until the appointed hour.

The coronation of a Tzar of Kislev is a straightforward affair, but that does not mean it is a simple one. In the Western Hall you originally met the Tsarevich in several years ago, the Boyars and their retinues take up most of the space with the remainder going to foreign notables. This leaves the Druzhina and Atamans to compete with each other for the remaining space, with the losers spilling out into hallways and courtyards to crane for a glimpse. But even those are better off than those with no noble title at all, who are left to mill about the roads closest to the Bokha Palace, as if hoping to absorb some sort of significance from the event by sheer proximity.

At the epicentre of it all are the chosen High Priests, and at the centre of those four is Tzar Boris Bokha. Once there had been a single set of regalia that a Tzar would be coronated with, but over the centuries Kislev has accumulated quite a selection, and in modern times the exact pieces a Tzar chooses are taken as statements of their intentions as ruler. Some past Tzars and Tzarinas have been crowned in the name of only a single God, particularly the Khan-Queens in the name of the Widow, but Boris has High Priests of all four of Kislev's chief Gods, and the regalia has been chosen to match. Each one speaks ritual words of an ancient and unfamiliar language that cause the energies of the room to ripple in unfamiliar ways as they step up to adorn the Tzar.

By a particularly aged crone of the Widow who manages not to be dwarfed by the other three High Priests, he is presented the same halberd that you've seen him wield in battle, glowing brightly in a nimbus of the Widow's strange magics.

By an incredibly large man, naked from the waist up, with muscles rippling under fat, he is clad in armour of scale and fur, the usual secure clasps and buckles temporarily replaced with ones that can be secured in place in a more timely manner.

By a tall and slender man with a soul entwined with some sort of fiery spirit he is draped with a mantle bearing the bejewelled golden crests of the three cities of Kislev, interspersed with ones representing the four oblasts, where the majority of Kislev's nomadic tribes live.

By an impressively muscled and moustached man who almost glows with barely-contained energy he is crowned with an oaken circlet studded with polished lightning-glass.

There's a clamour of cheers from the crowd as Boris stands there in his mismatched regalia, the energies of the four Gods flowing over him without interfering with each other with what seems like familiar ease, and he seems to grow larger in some ephemeral way. You've seen history being made before, but this is history being cast, the usual jumbled mess of conflicting forces and people and events being manhandled into a pattern that can be written directly into the history books.

"People of Kislev," the Tzar's voice booms out, somehow different to the voice of merely Boris, and you strain your limited Kislevarin as best you can. "This day will be recorded in many different ways. Here, it is the 966th year of the Gospodarin Calendar, and the 496th Urtza. The Imperinyi reckon it as the year 2490, the Karzełki the year 7013. But to me, the most important measure is that 188 winters have passed since the end of the Great War.

"For the rest of the world, the Great War was long ago, its history already fading into myth. But here in Kislev, the wounds of the Great War still bleed as freely as they did when they were first carved. Praag remains ruined, Troll Country remains swelled larger than ever before and colonized by Norscans, and our churches squabble with foreign faiths instead of serving the land and the people. There are mutants and spirits in the forests, and Orcs and Goblins in the mountains. Half of Kislev does not answer to Kislevites.

"We all know the truth of Kislev, that there will be another. Tomorrow or next year or ten years from now, there will always be another. If they find us as we are now, we will be ended. For us to survive, we need to be more than we are. I swear upon the Land and the Gods that I will make it so, and that I will bring ruin to any and all that would stand in the way of Kislev's rebirth."

---

Out in the streets, there is feasting and drinking as the common folk are gifted the means to properly celebrate the ascension of the new Tzar. Inside the Palace the spread is even grander and greater, but it is largely neglected by most in favour of the richer banquet of politics. There are a great many people that want to be among the first to speak to the new Tzar, some to show off their status, others to find out for sure whether or not their status still exists in this new regime, and a precious few with actual business that actually needs attending to. That there is a foreign Wizard so high on the list draws a great deal of comment. You hear your name bandied about in connection with the Battle of the Shirokij, and with the Expedition, and with the Elves of Laurelorn and Ulthuan, but thankfully not with the succession itself.

Officially, you are here to speak with him regarding the Waystone Project as it undergoes the ephemeral but hugely significant change in status from the pet project of the Tsarevich to a key part of the Tzar's mandate, and to attend a meeting of representatives of the Project's current stakeholders. Unofficially, there's also the matter of your hands and his being stained with his father's blood, and the consequences of that commonality are yours to dictate.

Blood Price - For the crown he now wears, Tzar Boris promised to pay the price demanded by yourself, your Order, or your Emperor. If necessary, Mathilde would have retroactively laid any groundwork required off-screen.

[ ] [BLOOD] Personal (specify what)
Ask a price that serves your own interests - money, access, titles, knowledge, whatever.
[ ] [BLOOD] Order (specify what)
Ask a price that serves the interests of the Grey Order or the Colleges, whether that be with Kislev itself or the magical traditions or other organizations that exist within it.
[ ] [BLOOD] Empire (specify what)
Ask a price that serves the Empire, such as advantageous treaties, greater economic or military ties, or a renegotiation of disputed borders.
[ ] [BLOOD] Nothing
Ask no price at all. This may or may not be appreciated by the Tzar.

Waystone Negotiations - Prince Eltharion has arrived from Ulthuan to negotiate for access to what the Waystone Project has discovered and developed. Though Ulthuan will inevitably make the argument that they have a right to that information, their lack of influence with the involved parties means that a price can be extracted from them. Every polity involved will have had the chance to formulate a list of desired items, information, or concessions, but you could also have convinced the other parties to present a united front for a specific goal, as long as it benefits everyone involved.

[ ] [ULTHUAN] Cooperation
Ask for Ulthuan to supply information to further the Waystone Project, most notably the method of connecting new Waystones to the existing network.
[ ] [ULTHUAN] Marienburg
While this matter alone is not enough to pry Marienburg and Ulthuan entirely apart, concessions could be extracted that would be advantageous for all of the polities involved in the Waystone Project, such as the free flow of trade from the Reik to the Sea of Claws, and an explicit stance from Ulthuan regarding the canal matter instead of their current deliberate ambiguity.
[ ] [ULTHUAN] Payday
As academically successful as the Project has been so far, from a certain point of view it has absorbed quite a bit of resources and delivered very little that is of concrete value in the here and now. Allowing each of the polities involved to extract their own price from Ulthuan will please the backers of the Project and burnish the good name of everyone involved. The Empire's share would be decided in a later vote.
[ ] [ULTHUAN] Other (specify what)

- There will be a two day moratorium for people to prepare their wishlists.

Boney · Dec 20, 2023

[*] [BLOOD] Empire (Canal linking the Urskoy and Lynsk)
[*] [ULTHUAN] Cooperation

Tally

The scribes and advisors surrounding the freshly-coronated Tzar have already accumulated a small mountain of notes, missives, and future declarations, but he dismisses them with a wave as you enter the audience room. As the door clicks closed behind the last, he turns to you, his face bleak and determined. "You did what needed to be done, and did it as best it could be done. What will Kislev do in return?"

Well, if he wants to get right down to business, you have no problem with that. "The Empire would be happy to hear that a canal was to be built between the Urskoy and Lynsk rivers," you reply. You'd been hesitant to ask for something that would handicap Kislev as Boris tried to restore it, and not entirely comfortable with asking for something personal. But a canal that would link the Urskoy and Lynsk rivers - and therefore allow traffic from the Empire's rivers to reach the Sea of Claws via Erengrad and be able to bypass Marienburg altogether - would be beneficial to Kislev as well as the Empire, and would hopefully bring the two peoples closer together.

You'd also sent an enquiry via the Grey Order to the offices of the Reiksmarshal and of the Sea Lord of the First Fleet, and both had bemusedly confirmed that yes, the Empire would be very happy to have a means of getting the First Fleet into the Sea of Claws without having to pass through Marienburg, even if it did involve travelling the length of the Talabec.

"One wide enough for Wolfships to pass through?" Boris asks shrewdly, and you nod. "Hmm. It would be good to have a river route from here to Praag and Erengrad. It would not have been the first priority, but it would serve to bring the land together more, make the Tzar a little less far away." He tilts his head as he thinks, his eyes roaming the walls. "It would have to be from the Mazhorod. There have been plans made for canals in the area - minor ones to bypass the shallow waters of the ford. That would provide a starting point to get together the expertise and equipment, then more manpower can be brought in to branch the greater canal off of it..." He looks to you again and nods. "It will be done. May it bring Kislev and the Empire closer together, as we were during the time of Alexis and Magnus."

"I hope so too."

He nods, and exhales as he regathers himself, some of the shadow seeming to pass from him. "Very well. This Elf of Ulthuan, what is his business here?"

"Ulthuan has noticed that the Waystone network is expanding, and he is the one that has been sent to deal with it. In that, I feel we have been fortunate. He is the ruler of the Kingdom of Yvresse, which was where Waaagh Grom ended up after it left the Old World back in the '20s. Apparently it did severe damage to the Waystone network there, and it seems that while the Elves are capable of replacing that infrastructure, it takes time and expertise that even the Elves cannot easily spare. He hopes that our design will be something that can be deployed quickly and easily to prop up a damaged network, and seeks to acquire it from us."

He smiles. "The wealth of Ulthuan is legendary. I can think of many ways Kislev could be convinced."

Yes, everyone else reacted that way at first too. "That may not be the best price to extract from them. The means of connecting a new Waystone to the network cannot be reverse engineered - it has a security mechanism of sorts protecting it - and must be acquired from either Ulthuan or Naggaroth. There are potential workarounds for that we've been working on, but they would be inefficient and could negatively influence the area around them. It was my hope that Ulthuan could be convinced to become a part of the Project, which would involve them providing that means."

He frowns. "Negatively influence, how?"

"It would involve using rivers to transport the energies, and then spilling them out to be reabsorbed by nexuses at the mouth of rivers - in Kislev's case, Erengrad and Castle Alexandronov. The exact effect would depend on the energies in question, but considering the priority for Kislev would be removing the Chaos taint from Praag and Troll Country, it could be very bad for the affected places. It's possible we could refine the details to minimize that problem, but if we had Ulthuan's knowledge, we could build our additions directly into the existing network and not have any of those problems in the first place."

He mulls that over a while longer. "Very well. Wealth alone cannot restore Praag. But if we can get more than just words from them, we should."

"Agreed."

---

[Rolling...]

Most of the introductions go as expected, but there's a strange moment while introducing the Kislevite cohort. "This is Baba Niedzwenka, the foremost Koldunja, or Spirit-Mage, of Erengrad," you say to Eltharion.

"Ah," he says, giving her an evaluating look. "You must be the one responsible for keeping at bay the 'Sea Witch' that the Cothiquans speak of."

There's a collective wince from everyone at the table except Niedzwenka, whose smile only widens. "That is one of my greatest claims to notoriety," she says cheerfully.

"As I've heard it, the Mist Mages and Loremasters still argue with each other about how she managed some of the things that have been witnessed." Eltharion gives Niedzwenka a long, considering look, then the dialogue seems to move on.

Seems to.

Eltharion does not seem to possess the same brand of sneering arrogance for other races usually seen as typical of Elves, but he does carry himself with the bearing of a King. He treats the Tzar as an equal and the others as social inferiors whose skill makes you worthy of being listened to. But as the discussion goes on he treats Niedzwenka with more and more cautious respect. For a moment you thought he might genuinely fear her, until you realized the Shyish stirring in him is moving with purpose. Something no longer of this world is whispering to the Prince, and if you had to guess, you'd say it's letting him know exactly what he's sitting at a table with.

Perhaps in response to this, Baba Niedzwenka takes a surprisingly active hand in the discussion despite being the only one here not representing a nation or a formal Order. Over the course of the discussion she manages to extract a promise from Eltharion that his 'Mistwalkers' - the elite warriors of Yvresse - will pay an unannounced visit to a number of Sarl colonies in the Kalti delta, on the north coast of Kislev. It's unclear why that group in particular has apparently earned Niedzwenka's ire, but nobody at the table has any objections to Ulthuan's might coming down hard on Norscan incursions into the Old World proper.

That, however, is just a sideshow to the main purpose of this meeting, and over several hours the bones of an agreement are hashed out. There is widespread agreement on the central point: that the Waystone Network is good, important, and should be bigger, and acknowledgement that no one party present can achieve that on their own. The problem is that everyone on the table is wary of that sentiment concluding with 'so you should give me all your magical secrets', not least of which because everyone at the table is open to the possibility of uncovering someone else's secrets.

The Bokha Palace Accords

1. It is indisputable that the Great Vortex at the heart of Ulthuan is the sole creation, possession, and responsibility of the Asur of Ulthuan, as led by the rightful and unburned Phoenix Kings.

This one was foundational for Ulthuan's agreement, and one that nobody was that interested in fighting against. Nobody at the table has any plans to invade Ulthuan and annex the Inner Sea, as far as you're aware. Putting the acknowledgement of the 'rightful and unburned' Phoenix Kings - that is to say, not Malekith - on paper might make future negotiations with Naggaroth more difficult, which might be another reason why Eltharion pushed for it.

2. The composite parts of the Waystone Network were made by many hands of many races. Those that fall within the recognized lands of a signatory to these accords are the recognized possession and responsibility of that people.

This one probably would have received more push-back from a more stereotypical example of an Asur. As it is, between the Karaz Ankor being a part of the discussion and that this entire meeting came about because there's new additions being made right now made the core premise fairly unassailable. That it implicitly waives Ulthuan's ancient colonial claims to the land in question is something that the humans of the Old World aren't all that fussed about, but could have big repercussions on relations between Ulthuan and Laurelorn.

3. All signatories to these accords will disclose to all others the approximate location of Nexuses within their lands, as well as promptly communicate to the others should any of those nexuses be destroyed, damaged beyond their ability to repair, or captured beyond their ability to retake.

During the Great War Against Chaos, the destruction of Almshoven meant that all of the Empire's Waystones were cut off from the rest of the network, which meant that the Empire and Kislev would have begun a slow but inexorable slide into the grip of Chaos were it not for the creation of a new nexus at Fort Solace. That nobody in the Empire or Kislev knew about this until very recently is something that looms quite large in the minds of many of those present. You don't know for sure if the nascent Colleges could have devised a solution, but under the leadership of legendary figures like Teclis and Volans and von Tarnus, you feel like an opportunity was lost. What might the Colleges be today, if their founding had involved the development and construction of peacetime infrastructure as much as it had exploits on the battlefield?

The possibility of assistance in replacing, restoring, or recapturing lost nexuses within a signatory's lands is very much implied, but is not made an explicit part of the accords. The fact of the matter is that even if the Empire had known of Almshoven, the war against the Everchosen's forces would still have had to be the immediate priority. The dangers of a severed branch of the network exist in the long term, and nobody wants to bind themselves to something that might require them to ignore more immediate threats. Nor is anyone entirely keen about waiving their right to refuse a foreign military entry to their land.

4. No signatory to these accords will threaten or perform any interference with the proper operation of the Waystone Network as a means of coercion or act of sabotage upon another signatory. Such an act is detrimental to the entire world and benefits only the forces of Chaos.

This one is primarily a shot across Marienburg's bows. Having this in writing would make it impossible for Marienburg to play that card and for Ulthuan to remain coy about whether or not they would defend Marienburg from the consequences. You don't know if anyone in Marienburg had even so much as considered the possibility, but it is something that has made a number of important people in the Empire very uncomfortable. It would also delegitimize any attempt by the Empire to coerce Ulthuan by restricting the flow of magical energy, but the Empire knows far too little about Ulthuan's side of things to gauge how credible a threat that would have been. It's possible that the legendary prosperity of the Inner Kingdoms and the defences of the Outer rely upon a constant influx of magical energy from the rest of the world, but it's equally possible that the Vortex is eliminating a huge surplus of unneeded energy and the entire Old World could be cut off without immediate consequence to Ulthuan.

The wording of this line is carefully done to prevent any suggestion that Kislev's adaptation of their portion of the network, or anything similar done by anyone else in the future, would fall under it. Even if the argument can be made that diverting a portion of the network's power could be considered 'interference with the proper operation', that it would not be done as coercion or sabotage against another nation would mean it is not referred to by this line.

5. It is recognized that the proliferation of techniques for expanding the Waystone Network benefit all of the world's civilized realms. It is also recognized that the secrets of the magical traditions of the signatories are paramount to their security. Neither of these should be sacrificed to serve the other.

This one is unfortunate for your desire to hang Eltharion upside down and shake him until magical secrets fall out, but there was no possibility of it being elsewise. The Wizards of the Colleges and their forebears have killed and died to keep their knowledge their own, but groups like the Runesmiths, Ice Witches, and Grey Lords would go (and have gone) to even greater lengths to defend their deepest secrets. Acknowledging this tension will hopefully prevent any toes from being stepped on while trying to work around it.

6. Signatories are encouraged to share spells, rituals, techniques, and any other relevant informations that are of direct use in maintaining and expanding the Waystone Network, so long as it is possible to do so without revealing a disproportionate amount of the underpinnings of their traditions.

'Encouraged' is a softer word than you like here, but the accords don't actually have any enforcement mechanisms, so it wasn't worth the argument to harden it to 'required'. Likewise, the word 'disproportionate' is one that can carry any amount of weight if a party decides it must. The foundation of these accords is that everyone benefits from an improved Waystone network, so the matter supplies its own impetus without the accords needing to invent one.

Eltharion has outright said that should Ulthuan receive what he seeks through this line, he will ensure that Ulthuan will reciprocate in the form of the details on how to connect new Waystones directly to the existing network. You would hopefully be able to get more than that if the right people in Ulthuan are feeling cooperative, but Eltharion has promised that as an absolute minimum.

7. In times of need, and with the consent of the signatories involved, there may be military interventions performed by some or all signatories to restore, defend, or expand the Waystone Network throughout the Old World and its frontiers.

This one is formed with nervous glances in the direction of Los Cabos. Should it come down to it, all those present would rather violate the territorial claims of an Estalian Petty King than let the entire continent slide into the Chaos Wastes. The word 'frontiers' pushes the borders of this claim of authority to cover the Badlands, the Dark Lands, Norsca, and arguably the western Great Steppes. And Albion, Hatalath says with a chuckle, which is shared by all those present (but also side-eyed by some).

General sentiment around the table is that if any Old World power doesn't like that this line does not require their consent for the signatories to intervene in their lands, then they should seek to become a signatory. Nobody here thinks that they need the entire world's consent before saving it.

8. These accords are made and signed under the sight of the Ancient Widow and Dazh, Asuryan and Hoeth, Grungni and Thungni, Sigmar and Verena, and Isha and Hekarti.

Depending on your point of view, this is either completely symbolic or a solemn oath that ties the entire document together and binds the rulers that sign it to abide by its spirit. The order of precedence was a much more tedious debate than it needed to be.

There are no signatures on the current draft, but the final copy will accumulate those of Tzar Boris Bokha of Kislev, Emperor Luitpold I of the Empire, Phoenix King Finubar the Seafarer of Ulthuan, Queen Marrisith of Laurelorn, and High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer of the Karaz Ankor, making those nations the current signatories of the accords. There are no obstacles to further signatories being added in the future, should there be no objections from the current signatories.

Is Mathilde happy with this draft of the accords?

[ ] Yes
[ ] No
-[ ] Specify why

- There will be a sixteen hour moratorium.
- You can specify as many problems with the accords as you want, as vaguely or as specifically as you want. The actual threshold for what will get addressed is not yet decided, it might be best to think of this as more of a vibe check than a matter of hard numbers.

Boney · Dec 24, 2023

[*] Yes

Tally

Though powerfully tempted to meddle with the final version of the accords to sneak in surreptitious tributes to Ranald and Halétha, you reluctantly think better of it in the end, and allow the Kislevite scribe to do his work of creating five copies of the accords uninterfered with. Tzar Boris has the honour of putting the first signatures on them, and from here it will go on quite a journey through the Old World before finally setting off for Ulthuan, and then one copy of each will return to the signatories.

You return to Laurelorn with Eltharion, you in your Gyrocarriage and him atop a majestic Griffon called Stormwing that draws all the attention that your Gyrocarriage usually gets and then some. When led through the headquarters of the Waystone Project he examines all the prototype components with a blank face, his soul churning with Shyish as he consults whoever or whatever he consults. He takes a copy of the ritual for Liminal Germination immediately after it's described to him - it seems that nearly all of Ulthuan is covered by something equivalent to it, though not always forest-themed, and it would be directly applicable in some places and hopefully easily adapted in others.

Your efforts at grappling with the Leyline problem seem to fascinate him the most, and he spends some time scrutinizing one of the bags of rocks, by force of will alone remaining resolutely unbaffled. He listens to your theorizing on the Titan-metal used in the original capstones, and confirms that the Kingdom of Caledor would have the ability, though not necessarily the inclination, to make more of the stuff. Though he doesn't outright say it would be expensive, it's implied enough that you're happy you considered the alternatives.

The Grey Lord contributions make him quiet and thoughtful, and he seems disappointed to hear that you've had very little dealings with most of them. When he asks about a Lord Sarriel you're forced to admit you've not heard the name until now, and he drops the line of inquiry. The Dwarven contributions seem to make him maudlin, and you notice him lightly touching the hilt of his sword several times, as if to remind himself it's still there.

By the end of it, he's convinced enough of your progress that he sees no problem with sharing now what a stingier Elf might demand a completed Waystone prototype for. He opens his mouth and says nothing that your ears can hear, but which causes a ringing in your soul. You have him repeat it, and this time you catch the string of orphaned Eltharin diacritics that somehow texture the unbroken quiet. You repeat it back to him, fighting the urge to cough from the tickle of rippling Winds within your throat, and he nods. Of course the password for interfacing with the controlling intelligence of the Waystone Network would be an Anoqeyån tongue twister.

That was the immediate payoff you were hoping for, but he doesn't stop there. He confirms not just the existence of Albion, but tells you something of its nature, or at least what Elven legend tells of its nature. It is, he says, one of the few intact remnants of what was once the northern half of the continent of the Old World, where the Old Ones made their stand against the forces of Chaos pouring in from the newly-formed Chaos Wastes. The Sea of Claws, the Sea of Chaos, and the jagged mountains of Norsca were all carved out by weaponry and magical puissance unimaginable in modern times, or so he claims, destroying the massive verdant paradise that stretched for hundreds of miles across the top of an unimaginably large plateau. It is said that the Old Ones left the world before that war ended with the creation of the Great Vortex, but the Vortex was built atop a nascent Waystone Network consisting of the standing stones the Old Ones left behind, and when the Elves sought to expand it out into the rest of the world, they found that Albion had already joined itself to Ulthuan.

All this is Elven legend, because as far as Eltharion knows, Elven adventurers have had as little luck as human ones in actually travelling to the island, though he mentions that the mists of Yvresse were either based on or inspired by insight gleamed from Albion's protections. In his words, 'even if you set out from Northwatch and follow the leyline, you lose your way long before you ever spotted mist, let alone land'. Apparently many a sailor has tried, with the Cothiquans apparently taken personal insult to an island almost directly opposite their coastline that refuses to cooperate with the desires of their explorers and merchants.

Finally, he delivers on Ulthuan's part of the requirement to disclose the location of the nexuses within their lands, rattling off a list of eight locations in Ulthuan that will mean nothing to you until you're able to consult a map - Tralinia, Port Elistor, Lothern itself, Summersong, Whitefire Tor, Tor Anroc, Northwatch, and Rokhame. He also cites three locations within the Great Ocean, none of which are particularly surprising - Arnheim, the colony city just south of, and perpetually besieged by, Naggaroth; the Fortress of Dawn, the outpost and harbour on the southern tip of the Southlands; and the Citadel of Dusk, the same on the southern tip of Lustria.

All in all, a refreshingly practical and straightforward experience with a representative of a place usually known for not being those things. If Eltharion and those like him remain the go-between for the Old World and Ulthuan, you foresee a very prosperous partnership in your collective futures.

---

Looking at a map of the southern Empire has always made bridging the body of the Black Water and the rivers in the Reik Basin a beguiling possibility, but actually traversing the land in question has historically been enough to dissuade most from any further consideration of the possibility. The Dwarves of Zhufbar are about as far from most as can be, and over the past decade have carved out a titanic amount of stone between the massive lake and the Upper Aver to make way for a series of locks and canals to allow passage of river vessels between the two.

Easier said than done, even if one is fully aware of the scale of the most immediate and obvious task. One thing that had to be done to make the canal possible was to divert some of the waters of the Blue Reach to the Aver Reach. As these two branches meet at the Halfling border town of Dreiflussen to become the Aver proper, in the grand scheme of things, this is fine. In the less grand scheme of things, the village of Hardenburg has had its watermill left high and dry from the dropping water level, and the Countess of Sigmaringen and the Grand Mayor of Schramleben are complaining of some ephemeral loss of status from having a less grand river running by their towns. Zhufbar mollified some of these concerns by upgrading many of the roads in the region, which also served as a way to usefully divest themselves of some of the waste rock that digging the canal had generated.

Another problem is the Black Water itself. Carved out by an immense meteor impact millennia ago, rich veins of gromril and warpstone can be found in its deepest recesses, the former attracting the Dwarves to found two Holds on its banks and the latter generating new forms of horridness in the deepest abysses, as well as worsening whatever may have already been there. The Dwarves of the Golden Age drained the Black Water for a time to mine out much of the gromril, but enough caverns and crevasses remained submerged for the myriad forms of ancient and malevolent life to survive and nurse their grudges in, allowing them to repopulate the resurgent waters. While the Dwarves are quite practised at warding off attacks from the worst of these beasts, a more exotic concern is that some of the smaller examples of this uniquely foul ecosystem might colonize the rivers of the Reik Basin. It's hard to imagine worse than the likes of Stirpikes, Reik Eels, and Bog Octopi, let alone the interlopers from the Sea of Claws, but you don't doubt that the depths of the Black Water would be up to the challenge.

In the face of Dwarven obstinance and ingenuity, these obstacles have been dispatched at a cost of several years of additional work, but this just seems to have given Zhufbar's diplomats and traders more time to drum up interest in the matter. Time that they seem to have put to very good use. There is a critical mass of important personages that an event attracts that, when reached, begins to draw in more and more who may have had no interest in the original purpose of the event, but definitely have an interest in the networking opportunities it presents. From a beginning guest list of one Elector Count and two Dwarven Kings, this event managed to reach that threshold almost immediately and has been accumulating momentum since. The first solid indication of this was the Chancellor of the Imperial Treasury making plans to attend, which drew the attention of the notables of the Old World just as, in rapid succession, Councillors from Karaz-a-Karak, Karak Eight Peaks, Karak Kadrin, and Karak Vlag were added. At that point just about every Elector Count recognized the need to send someone, as did most of the Tilean City-States. Even Marienburg has sent someone - the High Priest of Manann, possibly the only person on their Directorate with an interest in the matter but no suspicion of involvement with the matter of the mine on the Skull River.

It would have been dramatically appropriate to have this event somewhere overlooking the canal itself, but one end is still the Black Water and the other is still right on the border of Sylvania, and the sheer density of potential major political incidents attending makes that a rather fraught proposition. There was some discussion about building some sort of stage atop Barak Varr's riverine Ironclad and having the event atop the Black Water itself with enough of the rest of the brownwater navy present to shoot down any uninvited guests that might try to claw their way aboard from below, but the rapid inflation of the guest list put an end to that possibility and in the end it simply takes place in Zhufbar. Though that does mean a lack of spectacle for the event itself, most attendees will have to pass through the canals and by the many ships Barak Varr has berthed in plain view of the passage to reach it, and again when they leave.

You arrived via one of the telescopic launch bays that Zhufbar is riddled with, and fled into the Dwarfhold as a flock of clucking Engineers descended upon the Gyrocarriage to see what horrors a human Zhufokri pilot might have inflicted upon it. The Feast Hall is festooned with the banners of Barak Varr and Zhufbar and already filling with guests, but your eyes are drawn to the display in the centre of the room. It is a massive model of the Black Water, the Aver Reach, and the mountains that divide the two, the tallest of which are twice your height. The canal weaving its way through valleys and foothills while descending from chest height to the floor displays the staggering scale of the project and the amount of artisanry and ingenuity it must have taken at a glance, and the tiny model ships sitting atop the flat blue surface of the water reinforce the demonstration of naval might that the visitors had to pass to reach here.

You're used to having the initiative at events like this, but it seems that news of recent events and your reputation have preceded you. Again and again you politely rebuff earnest questions from the sort of person who knows nothing about Waystones but quite a bit about how lucrative the Elven trade can be, and are quite curious about Elven signatures alongside that of the Tzar and the Emperor. None of the questions touch on matters of Kislev's rivers, and when Wilhelmina takes you into a quiet corner for you to confirm that Kislev's upcoming canal to bypass the Mazhorod ford is only going to be the first stage of a much more significant project, her cackle unnerves everyone brave enough to hover nearby. Then she launches herself like a projectile in the general direction of the representative from Ostermark, because if Kislev's going to be in play soon, then the Karak Kadrin canal becomes a lot more significant and the mere detente with the League of Ostermark will be insufficient.

You begin to scout the lay of the crowd to consider your next move when you notice the tell-tale signs of the attention of the Dwarves turning towards the Master Engineer of Zhufbar, indicating him as the winner of what must have been a civil but hard-fought battle for status among the canal's many contributors. You hustle over to refresh your drink while politeness allows your attention to be elsewhere. Dwarves approach speech-making with the same thoroughness and lack of mercy that they do a battlefield, and if there are members of the audience that cannot appreciate a mere twenty minute digression relating to an unexpected granite cross-seam interspersed with loose shale and the cunning employed to carve a tunnel through it without casualties or structural deficiencies, then that speaks to a deficiency within those listeners.

---

Once the speech draws to a close, you use the vantage point you had spent the speech identifying and occupying to oversee the now-resumed social flow of the room. The representatives from Nordland and Middenland are very pointedly ignoring each other, and the High Priest of Manann and the High Priest of Manhorak are circling each other warily without directly engaging. The Markgraf of Sylvania flows with gregarious confidence through the crowd, backed by a posse of the subordinate rulers of Sylvania. The Undumgi have sent a representative draped in silks, and you frown at him, knowing that his outfit is made of failed experiments stitched together with strands of Cathayan silk rather than the genuine article. At least, you console yourself, Francesco must be confident that he's closing in on a solution to have spent the time, effort, and money to drum up interest in We-silk.

You manage to intercept Wilhelmina as she bustles from one victim to another to ask the latest news from the EIC, but it seems this time all the news is what you've made yourself and all of the EIC's immediate plans have been upended by the necessity of getting in place for the new canal before anyone else has a chance to.

As soon as Wilhelmina moves on, you find yourself enveloped in the fluid mechanics of the gathering. You're quite used to standing aside from it and delving in only on your own terms, and usually the robes of a Grey Wizard are sufficient to make that happen. But it seems something has changed in the perspectives of the movers and shakers of the Old World, as a great many of them approach you of their own accord, some just to exchange a couple of pleasantries, others to ask your opinion on matters abroad, others still that think you have information on the inner workings of one flashpoint or another and might be convinced to divulge a crumb or two. You're consulted on matters of Sylvanian investments, on the character of the new Tzar, on the Nordland-Middenland conflict, on the perennial Marienburg issue, and on dozens of other matters, most of which you have no involvement in and some of which you've never heard of before.

It's a more bewildering experience than it should be. The simple fact of the matter is that you're no longer an opportunistic interloper at an event like this, where those that have the power to shape the future of the Old World meet and mingle. You have become one of those people.

It's a rather sobering thought, but this being a Dwarven event, there's a ready cure for that. The company of a refreshed flagon helps you reacquire your equilibrium and delve back into the crowd, ready to meet the self-assuredness of all those present with your own. There might not be any further useful intelligence to be gleamed from this event, but many of those present will be allies or opponents in your future endeavours, and there will be value in being able to put faces to names.

Library Purchases:
[ ] [LIBRARY] Colleges of Magic
Name four magical, non-divine topics to acquire all available Empire books on.
[ ] [LIBRARY] Barak Varr booksellers
Name three public topics to acquire all available Empire and Dwarven books on.
[ ] [LIBRARY] Library of Mournings
Name two non-magical topics to hire Cityborn scribes to copy all available Laurelorn books on.
[ ] [LIBRARY] Back-fill.
Instead of seeking books on specific topics, give a very broad direction and have your bookselling contacts grab everything on it that you don't already have, with special attention to existing but incomplete topics. Possible categories: Dwarven religion, human religion, geography, war and combat, social science, natural science, applied science.

Dwarf Favour Purchases
Aethyric Vitae can be spent instead of favour at an exchange rate of 3 favour per gallon; for Rune-related purchases, this will also guarantee the cooperation of Runelords who may otherwise be disinterested. To use this, simply add 'paid by Vitae' or similar to an item you are voting for.
[ ] [DWARF] No purchase.
[ ] [DWARF] Write-in.

College Favour Purchases
[ ] [COLLEGE] No purchase.
[ ] [COLLEGE] Write-in.

Other Purchases
[ ] [PURCHASE] No purchase.
[ ] [PURCHASE] Write-in.

- There will be a twelve hour moratorium. I considered having a longer one so that Christmas would be wrapped up before voting opened, but that felt a bit condescending when I wrote part of this update on Christmas. So I'll just say that if there's something you'd rather be doing than grapple with this, you should. The quest will still be here when you return.
- That said, merry Mondstille and a happy Year Blessing to all that celebrate it. May your Taal-log burn all week long, and may the children of Ulric remain a safe and respectful distance from your village.
- Ulthuan's assistance will be automatically sought during future Waystone actions that they'd have useful insight into.

Boney · Dec 31, 2023

[*] [LIBRARY] Back-fill: Social science
[*] [DWARF] No purchase.
[*] [COLLEGE] No purchase.
[*] [PURCHASE] Ulric (Imperial Esoteric, 100 gc)

Tally

Ethics - +2 D
Law - +2 D
Linguistics - +1 D
Music - +5 D
Philosophy - +5 D
Rhetoric - +5 D
Theology - +2 D
Trade - +3 D

The City-States of Tilea - +5 D
The Estalian Kingdoms - +5 D
The Great Cities of Nehekhara - +1 I / +5 D
The Ten Kingdoms of Ulthuan - +3 D

Beastmen - +1 D
Undead - +1 D

You've once more given your bookseller contacts in Barak Varr an opportunity to offload whatever they can dig out of their warehouses and pick up on the cheap from their own contacts onto your library, this time with a focus on social sciences to round out the recent influx from the University of Nuln. With the speed and efficiency you've come to expect from them, books arrive by the cartload covering every imaginable detail of Dwarven attitudes towards music, philosophy, and rhetoric, and by fewer cartloads for those covering what parts of ethics, law, and theology that don't encroach on Guild, Cult, or Clan secrets. They also fill out your shelves on the matter of the nations of the Old World, and either they had some very deep and old warehouses or they went above and beyond, because some of the gaps they filled in your sections on Beastmen and Undead were very old and so obscure you'd never even heard of them. You also get a large amount of newer copies of extremely old books about Nehekhara, and you have to exert a significant amount of willpower to not sink yourself into days of reading after you discover that it includes books written in the immediate aftermath of the Great Ritual, by Dwarves who had known the living that the mercurial Tomb-Kings had replaced. You settle for a satisfying hour spent separating out the relevant books that had previously been filed under Undead.

With an outlay of your personal funds to make it an entirely personal matter, you've also secured a number of books containing the deeper, more esoteric, and more controversial holy secrets of Ulric from Ulrikadrin, where your good name and contacts are enough to bypass the usual restrictions on who they're sold to. These are the sorts of tomes that people study for a lifetime and glean new insights from the entire while, but just from a skim you can see why these sorts of tomes are hard to come by. Within them are doomsday predictions, justifications for a societal caste system based on which Imperial Tribes one can trace their descent from, and conceptions of Ulric built by Norscans that depict him as a fifth Chaos God. There are written arguments on the topic of the Ulricskinder, a shapeshifter either blessed or cursed with the ability to shift between a human form and that of a massive wolf, which were considered to be not only sacred but the literal descendants of Ulric during the Cult's early years, but are now considered and hunted as Chaos-tainted mutants. There is quite a lot of debate about whether the existence of dogs is a gift from Ulric or a blasphemy against Him. There are arguments that the very concept of civilization is an affront to the Ulrican virtue of self-sufficiency. No Cult is free of extremists, heresies, and distortions, but the Cult of Ulric has more than its share of deeply unpleasant streaks that its literature lays bare.

You make sure these tomes are kept locked away in secure and reinforced compartments and make sure the library's index has it recorded that only Ulric's priesthood can access them without seeking dispensation. All knowledge being freely available sounds like a nice sentiment and you might not have a personal stake in keeping Ulric's secrets, but these would be the last books on a sensitive topic you're ever able to get your hands on if you start spilling divine secrets to anyone that wanders in the door.

---

From the beginning of the Waystone Project, the inevitability of Ulthuan noticing and doing something about it was always hovering menacingly in the background. That it has finally occurred and been actually beneficial was rather unexpected. Perhaps it shouldn't have been, since Ulthuan would be a beneficiary from an expanded and strengthened Waystone network. Perhaps spending so much time around Dwarves, and at the periphery of Marienburg-related affairs, has led you to expect worse of the Elves of Ulthuan than they deserve. But in any case, Prince Eltharion has given you a very useful piece of the puzzle - the ability to connect a new Waystone directly into the existing network, or at least to instruct the intelligence at the heart of the network to do so for you.

It occurs to you that if Waaagh Grom hadn't so badly ravaged Yvresse and its Waystones, there wouldn't have been an Asur Prince with such a single-minded focus on preventing the same from happening again, and Ulthuan might have sent someone more interested in obstructing or extorting the project. Perhaps this is what is meant when people talk about the self-defeating nature of the forces of destruction - the damage inflicted by Waaagh Grom might ultimately lead to a greater material betterment of the world.

But that's getting a bit ahead of yourself. You should actually get the job done before you start patting yourself on the back for how well you did it.

Now is the time to combine everything that the Wizards of the Empire, the Witches of Kislev, and the Mages of Laurelorn have developed over the past years and finally build a new Waystone, which is something that the Old World hasn't seen for thousands of years. To take the first step in reversing a decline that began with the War of the Ancients and has threatened the continent with an inevitable encroaching doom, and that has been overlooked in favour of more immediate concerns for all that time. To mark a point in history where the influence of Chaos reached its zenith, and then began to wane.

You have five action points (AP) you can apply without engaging in overwork. For every two AP spent across all members of WEB-MAT, including recruiting new members, you can spend one 'free' additional AP with any member of WEB-MAT. WEB-MAT actions are performed by Mathilde alongside that person when possible, such as studying something alongside that person, cowriting a paper together, one teaching the other, both of them learning something new, et cetera.
Current overwork status: [-] [ ] [ ]
Each box will be filled by one action of overwork, and will take the two turns after that to fade as you recover. The first box incurs no penalty. The second will give a -10 penalty to all actions during the first turn of recovery. The third will give a -20 penalty to all actions on both turns of recovery.
Overwork incurs no penalties on the turns taken, only on the turns recovering from it. You can take as many actions of overwork as you have unfilled boxes.
When you use overwork it fills the left-most empty box, so [-][ ][ ] becomes [-][+][ ], not [+][-][ ]. All boxes recover in parallel and independent from one another, but second and third apply maluses on your actions during that cooldown period.

WEB-MAT: Magister Maximilian de Gaynesford, Gold Wizard
[ ] MAX: Learning: specify what and from who. You may pay for a trainer.
[ ] MAX: Study an artefact: specify which.
[ ] MAX: Receive dictation: specify which two papers or one book will be written.

WEB-MAT: Magister Johann, Gold Wizard
[ ] JOHANN: Learning: specify what and from who. You may pay for a trainer.
[ ] JOHANN: Study an artefact: specify which.
[ ] JOHANN: Write a paper: specify which.

WEB-MAT: Lord Magister Egrimm van Horstmann, Light Wizard
[ ] EGRIMM: Attempt a Windherder enchantment with Egrimm (specify what)
[ ] EGRIMM: Learning: specify what from who. You may pay for a trainer.
[ ] EGRIMM: Study an artefact: specify which.
[ ] EGRIMM: Write a paper: specify which.

WEB-MAT: Other
[ ] WEB-MAT: Hunt an apparition with a member of WEB-MAT (specify who and which)
[ ] WEB-MAT: Attempt to recruit someone to WEB-MAT (specify who)
[ ] WEB-MAT: Enchant or otherwise modify your Gyrocarriage (specify how)

The Waystone Project, Recruitment

[ ] Attempt to bring an Order into the Waystone Project (specify which)
[ ] Attempt to bring a non-Order magical tradition into the Waystone Project (specify which)
[ ] Attempt to bring a human Cult into the Waystone Project (specify which)
[ ] Attempt to bring a Major House or Ward into the Waystone Project (specify which)
[ ] Attempt to bring a Karak's Runesmiths into the Waystone Project (specify which)

The Waystone Project, Research

[ ] Waystone: Build a Waystone (NEW)
There will be a subvote for which components it will be made of. You can take this multiple times to create multiple Waystone designs in parallel.
[ ] Waystone: Attempt to secure a supply of Titan-metal
Specify source: Ogres, Cathay.
[ ] Waystone: Experiment with alternatives to the Waystone Rune

[ ] Waystone: Nexuses
Specify which: Marienburg (Almshoven and Fort Solace), Forest of Shadows (Brass Keep, Blood Fane, Tower of Melkhior), Mordheim, Los Cabos, Bugman's Brewery.
[ ] Waystone: Tributaries
Specify which type: Scythian, Lornalim.
[ ] Waystone: Mapping
Specify two of: Bretonnia, Tilea, Estalia, Araby, Badlands.
[ ] Waystone: Other Networks
Specify which: Karaz Ankor, Kislev, Laurelorn, Athel Loren, Nehekhara.

The Waystone Project, Development

[ ] Waystone: Tributary Design (select one or multiple: Ranaldian, Druidic, Ice Witch, Runesmith, Teclisean)
[-] Waystone: Tributary Prototype (no untested designs available)
[ ] Waystone: Leyline Prototype (select transmission medium: Air, Material, Road)

The Waystone Project, Deployment

[ ] Tributary: Haléthan (specify province)
Roots of Stone requires a Nordland or Ostland Hedgewise caster to be used outside of Nordland, Ostland, or Ostermark.
[ ] Tributary: Dreaming Wood (specify province)
Liminal Germination requires the caster to spend a significant amount of time in the local Dreaming Wood. This is safe-ish in Nordland, Reikland, Hochland, and Talabecland, dangerous in Middenland, Ostland, and Ostermark, and impossible in other provinces.
[ ] Tributary: Water Spirit (specify province)
Aethyric Impluvium requires the presence of a Water Spirit, the easiest source of which would be cooperation with the Cult of Taal and Rhya, the Elementalists, or Hag Witches.
[ ] Tributary: International (specify country)
Share information and expertise on how and where to create the tributaries to supplement existing Waystone networks.

For the above options, remember to also state who you will be researching or performing this with. You can specify as many or as few members of the Project as you please, as well as bringing in people from outside the Project if you pay for their services or convince them in some other way. If the only ones involved are members of WEB-MAT the action can count as a WEB-MAT action. In general the fastest progress will be made by involving only those with the most applicable knowledge, but also keep in mind how each individual might feel about being included or excluded in a particular investigation. For the Tributary actions, the details of how exactly it is pursued will be the subject of a subvote after Mathilde investigates the options and possibilities, but will generally involve getting the okay of local authorities, then finding, recruiting, or striking deals with people with the ability and inclination to spend the next several years creating tributaries.

Lovely Laurelorn
[ ] Explore one of the Wards of Laurelorn (specify which: Storm, Rain, Frost)

Self-Improvement:
[ ] Receive training: specify who and what. (acquaintances may train you for free, or you can hire someone with money or favours)
[ ] Attempt to learn Battle Magic at the Grey College. (1 College Favour per attempt)
[ ] Attempt to gain control of one of your Arcane Marks (specify which)
[ ] Try to see through Pall of Darkness with your improved magical senses.
[ ] Practice shooting while invisible. (applies to Substance of Shadow and Invisibility)
[ ] Attempt to finish off the Grey College spellbook by learning Shadow of Death, Cloak Activity, and the MAPP.

Research and Publishing:
[ ] Study an artefact: select which.
[ ] Write a paper: select which.
[ ] Write something else: write in.
Once per turn, you can write a paper or write a 'something else' without spending an action thanks to your Tower of Serenity.
[ ] The Second Secret of Dhar teaches how to collapse it upon itself. Practice upon local Dhar taint, and very cautiously see if this works with Warpstone.

Aethyric Vitae (19 gallons):
[ ] Create Orbs of Sorcery solo (requires one of each Power Stone)
Mathilde will have full control over what happens with the resultant Orbs, including the option of presenting the full collection as a shockingly impressive fait accompli. Any Power Stones Mathilde does not have will be acquired for 5 CF each.
[ ] Create Orbs of Sorcery with College buy-in (no cost)
Mathilde will not have to source her own materials, but will have to negotiate in advance what happens with the resultant Orbs.
[ ] Create a liminal realm (specify size, location, and purpose, 6m³ per gallon) (NEW)

Enchantment and Spell Creation:
[ ] Codify the spell Knightbringer (NEW)
[ ] Enchant an item: specify what and how (current skill level allows for Fiendishly Complex spells and lower; you may use Windherder to attempt to enchant something with spells from different Winds)
[ ] Attempt to create a spell (see Approved Spells threadmark)
[ ] Attempt to capture an Apparition (specify which)
[ ] Turn a staff (specify for whom) (optional: specify from what)

Foreign Relations:
[ ] Enter into negotiations with the Druchii delegation to Laurelorn
The Druchii have proffered magical knowledge and advance information on Karond Kar corsair movements in exchange for information on and samples of interesting creatures and phenomena of the Old World, but all kinds of other deals could be negotiated.
[ ] Involve yourself in current affairs: specify what and how.
Current examples: Eastern Stirland pacification, Marienburg affair, Cult of Ulric schism
[ ] [ ] [ ] Travel to Nagarythe at the invitation of Ambassador Daroir, and join their eternal war against Naggarothi invaders for three months.

Personal Relations:
[ ] Spend time assisting or ingratiating yourself with someone else: specify who and how.
[ ] Spend time investigating a character without their knowledge: specify who.
[ ] Teach Eike (specify what)
[ ] Wolf is fully grown, very smart, and a Very Good Boy. Train him further. (specify what he will be taught)
[ ] Wolf is fully grown and very magical. Deepen your familiar bond. (may unlock a new familiar ability; risks obsession)

The Eastern Imperial Company
Your share of EIC profits: 250 crowns / turn
Current Focus of the EIC: Preparing for the Zhanyka Canal
EIC Handler: The Hochlander
The first AP spent in this category is free. Any additional choices cost 1 AP.
[ ] EIC: Completely hand over management of the EIC intelligence apparatus to the Hochlander.
[ ] EIC: Found an auditors division, to make sure the ledgers are in order.
[ ] EIC: Insert agents into a particular province, cult, company, or institution to start gathering their secrets. (specify who)
[ ] EIC: Reach out to Roswita, and have the EIC start passing on tips about any tax evasion or other naughtiness by the EIC's rivals.
[ ] EIC: Improve and expand the EIC's paramilitary river navy. (optional: specify how)
[ ] EIC: Have the EIC keep tabs on mercenaries so that they can be more easily hired if needed.
[ ] EIC: Gather as much Ithilmar from throughout the Old World as possible to resell to the Eonir for a one-time profit
[ ] EIC: Attempt to establish a trade route with the Eonir (pick one: ore)
[ ] EIC: Assist in the creation of the magical route through the Schadensumpf, both personally and with the EIC's influence and resources (NEW)
Estimated completion without Mathilde's assistance: late 2493.

Kron-Azril-Ungol
Status: Being colonized by a new We, training and recruiting human and Halfling scribes from Karak Eight Peaks, open to braver members of the general public.
The first AP spent in this category is free. Any additional choices cost 1 AP.
[ ] Begin copying the full corpus of a Partner Library. (specify which)
Current options: Aquila Academy of Nuln, Imperial School of Engineers, Imperial Gunnery School, Minor Colleges of Nuln, The Mootland Genealogical Library
[ ] Hire educators to teach a language or group of languages to your scribes (specify which)
Some package options: Old World Languages (Khazalid, Estalian, Bretonnian, Kislevarin), Eltharin (Ulthuan's Tar-Eltharin and Laurelorn's Yen-Eltharin dialects), Academic Languages (Classical and Old Reikspiel) (NEW)
[ ] Seek the publishing contacts to start acquiring large amounts of books from a nearby realm (specify which: Bretonnia, Kislev, Tilea/Estalia, Araby)
Gives wide and easy access within a language, but is subject to local restrictions and is a less efficient use of the Library's acquisition budget than other methods.
[ ] Seek an exchange arrangement with another Library or a Karak's archives to be able to make copies of their corpus (specify which, eg: Great Library of Marienburg, Great Library of Altdorf, Ancient Library of Carroburg, Karaz-a-Karak Archives, Karak Vlag Archives)
Difficulty will depend on the size, prestige, and disposition of the library in question, and the relative impressiveness of Kron-Azril-Ungol.
[ ] Seek an agreement with a Cult to have access to their libraries (specify which, eg: Verenans, Myrmidians, Sigmarites)
Difficulty will vary heavily depending on the Cult in question, but can allow access to rare tomes and esoteric subjects.
[ ] Set up a no-questions-asked bounty system for books within the Cult of Ranald
Results will be unreliable and depending on what is sought may result in blowback, but this may allow you to acquire books that would otherwise be entirely inaccessible.

Apprentice Eike Hochschild

Diplomacy: 7+1+1+1-2=8
Martial: 8+2+1+1+1=13
Stewardship: 6+3+1+1=11
Intrigue: ?
Piety: ?
Learning: 13+2=15
Magic: 1+1=2

Traits:
Grey Wizard: She has the ability and education to wield the winds of Ulgu, the grey magic of shadow and illusion.
Apprentice: She has reached the level of training where she is able to begin learning the simplest of spells. Her Master is Lady Magister Mathilde Weber.
In Awe of Mathilde: Every story Eike grew up hearing about Mathilde has convinced her to make the most of the opportunity to learn from her directly. This will be replaced by one of Mathilde's traits at some point during her Apprenticeship.
Seen, Not Heard: Eike learned at a very young age that there are few benefits and many drawbacks to drawing attention to herself, an instinct that serves her very well in some ways but holds her back in others. +3 Intrigue, +1 Piety, -2 Diplomacy
Keep The Wagons Rolling: Eike believes implicitly that logistical efficiency is absolutely essential for the continued survival of the Empire and its allies. +2 Learning, +3 Stewardship
Mark of Ulgu: She bears the Mark of Ulgu upon her right arm, signifying the claim that the Wind has laid on her soul. +1 Magic.

Diplomacy:
Colleges of Magic (1/3)
Empire of Man: Under the tutelage of her grandmother, she has achieved a solid understanding of the provinces of the Empire. +1 Diplomacy
Eonir of Laurelorn: A period of immersion in Tor Lithanel during her teenage years gave her a solid understanding of the Eonir. +1 Diplomacy
Karaz Ankor (1/3)
Nobility: Her upbringing gave her a deep understanding of the realities of nobility. +1 Diplomacy
Politicking (1/3)

Martial:
Fitness: Beneath her robes lies the muscle of a warrior rather than the soft flesh of a typical wizard. +2 Martial
Greatsword: Eike has developed a basic understanding of the Tilean spadone style, with a few Imperial flourishes. +1 Martial
Greatsword, Advanced (1/3)
Naval Tactics: She has a fascination with the many historical sea battles in the Sea of Claws. +1 Martial
Naval Tactics - The Empire (1/3)
Pistols: She was taught to wield her grandmother's weapon of choice from a young age. +1 Martial

Intrigue:
???

Stewardship:
Accounting: As heir apparent of the EIC, she has been taught the arcane art of double-entry bookkeeping. +1 Stewardship
Trade: She has a basic understanding of the endless flow of goods and gold that keeps civilization running. +1 Stewardship

Piety:
Old World Pantheon (Northern) (1/3)
Old World Pantheon (Southern): Having grown up in the softer corners of the Empire, she is familiar with the more civilized of the Empire's Gods.
Shallya (1/3)

Learning:
Economics (Old World) (2/3)
Linguistics (1/3)

Languages:
Reikspiel
Lingua Praestantia
Tar-Eltharin (Eonir accent)

Magic:
Natural Alchemist: Eike has both an intuitive grasp and a solid grounding in the theory of the way the Aethyric Winds interact with mundane matter, and vice versa. Skills that rely on this, such as Alchemy, Enchanting, Potions, and Turning, are one step easier to learn and advance (eg: Basic Alchemy requires 2/2 instead of 3/3 to learn).

Enchantment (1/2)
Materials: Eike is able to quickly and precisely evaluate how conductive a material is to various forms of magical energy, and how to compensate for or take advantage of that conductivity. +1 Learning, Advanced will give +1 Magic

Waaaghbane (2/5)
Windherder (1/4)

Spells known:
Drop, Glowing Light, Magic Dart, Marsh Lights, Sleep
Aethyric Armour (Mastery - Indefatigable)

Specify which of the above actions Eike will be present for and (hopefully) learning from, as well as what she will be directed to study when she's not doing so. Her study may involve lessons you pay for, or tutoring from your employees and allies. These do not cost AP.
[ ] Eike Actions:
[ ] Eike Study:

Ranald's Coin - specify which face it will be set to
[ ] The Gambler: specify an action this will apply to.
A +20 bonus to up to two dice rolls resulting from a single chosen action.
[ ] The Night Prowler
As long as you are outside of private property and within a town or city, nobody will question your presence and nobody will be able to find you if you do not wish them to.
[ ] The Deceiver: specify how this will be used.
Lies you have developed beforehand will be delivered perfectly. The listener may believe you to be mistaken, but they will never believe that you are lying. Cannot be used to tell truths.
[ ] The Protector
When you act in a way that defends an individual or group from a danger that you did not cause, they will become aware of what you have done and will believe you acted selflessly in doing so. Rule of thumb: if you have to explain why this might apply, it probably doesn't.
[ ] The Father
Ranald's daughters, and Their followers, will recognize you as being worthy of trust and faith.

Ranald's Coin (note from Ranald: don't)
Vampire skulls
Branulhune - investigate the odd flash when it is desummoned underwater

The Vampire Prophecies of W'Soran
Vlad von Carstein's study notes of the Carstein Ring
Ghyran Nut
Kurgan Shrine to Mannslieb
Kurgan enchanted weapons

Note: Fresh and Refreshed papers confer a +10 bonus; faded ones a -10 malus.
Papers get one step less 'fresh' each turn: Fresh; Fading; Mostly Faded: Faded. Only the first and last have an effect on the diceroll.

Linguistic Drift in Lizardmen Glyphs (FRESH)
The Polyphenic Theory of Lizardmen Society (FRESH)

Seviroscope (large, based on glass and alchemical inks) (TIMELESS)
Preliminary paper on Aethyric Vitae (TIMELESS)
Coins of Nehekhara's Fifth Dynasty (TIMELESS)

You can literally write the book on a topic for the same amount of effort as two papers; this can be split over multiple turns. You don't need to have all the pieces to do so, but it would be more efficient and impressive if you did.
Aethyric Vitae (missing: creating Orbs of Sorcery)
Branarhune
The Currency of Strygos
The Currency of Tylos
Coins of Nehekhara's Fourth Dynasty
Coins of Nehekhara's Sixth Dynasty

- There will be a 48-hour moratorium for anyone who is inclined to celebrate the new year to do so, recover from doing so, and formulate a plan. Voting will be in plan format.
- Speaking of which, best wishes for the coming year to all readers.

Boney · Jan 6, 2024

[*] Plan Pondering Orbs and Nuts
-[*] Create Orbs of Sorcery solo
-[*] Waystone: Build a Waystone (ALL) (The Gambler)
-[*] Waystone: Other Networks (Karaz Ankor) (Thorek)
-[*] Study an artefact: Ghyran Nut with Panoramia
-[*] Attempt to gain control of one of your Arcane Marks (Unnatural Shadow)
-[*] SERENITY: Aethyric Vitae Part 1
-[*] EIC: Gather as much Ithilmar from throughout the Old World as possible to resell to the Eonir for a one-time profit
-[*] KAU: Hire educators to teach a language or group of languages to your scribes (Old World Languages)
-[*] COIN: The Gambler
-[*] Eike Actions: Ghyran Nut study, Karaz Ankor network, KAU action
-[*] Eike Study: Infiltration and Tradecraft with the Hochlander

Tally

It is all well and good to declare that it is time to make a Waystone, but that determination is only the starting point for several subsequent decisions. Over the course of the Waystone Project you and the other contributors have come up with a number of ways to replicate the function of each individual piece of the Waystones, and now it's up to you to decide what the optimal combination of them would be. While there are easy answers for the variables of cost and difficulty, some difficulty arises when you have to choose between cheap and easy.

Even more difficulty arises when you have to account for how some components can only be made by some nations. Would it be better to have something that requires the cooperation of Elves, Dwarves, and humans to create, to give your peoples one more reason to seek peace with each other? Should you look for a design that can be built entirely by the Colleges to increase their influences? Would something buildable by those behind the ancient and proven defences of Tor Lithanel or the Dwarfholds of the Karaz Ankor be more desirable than something built by those behind city walls that have fallen multiple times through the centuries? That's something for you to decide.

---

At the very top of the Waystone is the capstone, the mechanism that draws in Winds from the area around it. In the Golden Age Waystones, this was made of the metal now known as Waystone Gold, an alloy of gold and a metal from the land of the Titans, far to the east. Something about the combination and the way it is cooled after being combined makes it attractive to all eight Winds, except for when it is actively absorbing one of them, at which point it becomes repellent to the other seven. But without a source of titan-metal, you must choose one of the three alternatives that the Project has prototyped.

The first is the Collegiate Fascis, your own invention, which involves eight rods bearing simple enchantments around a conductive core. While this has minimal material costs and could be replicated by just about any Wind-based enchanter, eight separate enchantments is a substantial amount of effort, and it was built under the assumption of a connection to the Waystone Network and will not function without it.

The second is the Stone Flower designed by the Grey Lords Elrithish and Seilph, consisting of a single simple enchantment on carved stone that absorbs and relays energies exactly as needed. The only problem is that it is a product of High Magic, and as such can only be made by a small number of highly skilled Mages from Laurelorn or Ulthuan.

Finally there is the Runic Inductor, Thorek's design incorporating two simple Runes, one of which he rediscovered. While very simple and cheap to make, it is also a very basic instrument, simply absorbing and transmitting energy without regard for the consequences of them intermingling. Most of the time the Winds' tendency to naturally repel each other would be sufficient to prevent the creation of Dhar, but when multiple Winds are present in large amounts and being absorbed by a Waystone incorporating this component, more of it would be transmitted downstream as Dhar than would be the case for the other two components.

[ ] [CAPSTONE] Collegiate Fascis
Requires a Wind-based Wizard. Moderately difficult, low cost. Requires a connection to the Waystone network.
[ ] [CAPSTONE] Stone Flower
Requires High Magic. Simple, negligible cost.
[ ] [CAPSTONE] Runic Inductor
Requires a Runesmith. Simple, negligible cost. Will result in more Dhar and less of the other Winds when large amounts of multiple Winds are present.

Reinforcing the attractive properties of the capstone is the Rune on the side of the Waystone. On the Golden Age Waystones this was the Rune for 'Waystone' in Eltharin carved by a Dwarven Runesmith, using both Anoqeyån resonances and Dwarven artifice to passively reinforce the intended purpose of the Waystone. This is one element where the Golden Age can be exactly replicated, though if the necessity of a Runesmith could be a problem, an alternate Rune could be devised to be carved by any Wizard. If even that would be a problem, the Rune itself carved by a mason would still have some effect.

[ ] [RUNE] Dwarven
Requires a Dwarven Runesmith. Simple, low cost.
[ ] [RUNE] Wizard
Requires a magic-user. Simple, low cost.
[ ] [RUNE] Carved
Requires a mason. Trivial, negligible cost.

The next portion of the Waystone is the storage mechanism, where Winds are kept before being relayed out. The necessity of this is a product of how Winds are relayed through the Waystone Network, where multiple Winds are put into a stable orbit around a small amount of Dhar, which is then subject to the pull of the Great Vortex, and so a single Wind cannot be sent until a second arrives to counterbalance it. A Waystone that doesn't use the Waystone Network would therefore not require a storage mechanism, which on top of the effort and money savings would result in a Waystone much less able to accumulate dangerous amounts of Dhar if disconnected or malfunctioning. It's also one that would have no stored magic for Wizards to take out of them for their own purposes, but as far as you know only the Jade Wizards have techniques to do so.

Failing that, you have a range of options at different levels of cost and effort required, based on the natural properties of various materials and optionally improved by enchantments or runic enhancements. Egrimm and Elrisse were quite exhaustive in their investigations and there are an uncountably large number of possible combinations, but you can broadly break the options down into a few price points with roughly correlated abilities to absorb magical energies. The greater the storage capacity, the greater an effect the Waystone will have during times of high magical saturation - the cheapest options might have no noticeable effect during a storm of magic and only return things to normality over time, while the dearer options might make an area more able to withstand the immediate effects of a storm of magic or a full Morrslieb.

Finally, the Grey Lords Elrithish and Hatalath have recreated the original enchantment of the Waystones, albeit in a monstrously ungainly form. While it is currently a barely-functioning mess, it is likely that cumulative iterations and improvements over the construction of dozens or hundreds of Waystones will make it a lot more manageable.

[ ] [STORAGE] [Cheap/Moderate/Expensive] Material
No requirements. Trivial, low/moderate/high cost.
[ ] [STORAGE] [Cheap/Moderate/Expensive] Enchanted
Requires a Wind-based Wizard. Simple, low/moderate/high cost.
[ ] [STORAGE] [Cheap/Moderate/Expensive] Runed
Requires a Runesmith. Simple, low/moderate/high cost.
[ ] [STORAGE] Reverse-engineered
Requires Von Tarnus or an Elven Archmage. Very difficult, low cost. Difficulty and requirements will reduce over time if built in large numbers.
[ ] [STORAGE] None
No requirements, no cost. Not compatible with leyline transmission.

Then there's the base of the Waystone, the mechanism that prepares and drops the magical energies into the leylines of the Waystone Network. This is not just technically difficult, but also legally and politically questionable as in the absence of natural Dhar, it is required to create some. There's a hair to be split about whether an enchantment that creates and takes advantage of the attractive properties of Dhar would be considered a 'sorcery or witchcraft that utilises the wicked powers of Dark Magic', but it's not the sturdiest of arguments and the Colleges would much rather not need to make it. For that reason, it might be preferable to unload that task onto someone else.

The Grey Lords Skathrai and Yngra have developed an enchantment that is not just within the capabilities of the lesser Mages of Laurelorn, but also many of the Colleges' own enchanters. It's a very elegant piece of magical engineering, all interweavings and crosshatchings that can be replicated without being understood, and you're not sure whether to credit that to them being helpful or a deliberate attempt at keeping their methods inscrutable.

Thorek commissioned the Engineers of Karak Hirn for a clockwork instrument that would incorporate a number of Wind-sensitive materials to fulfil the purpose of the foundation with mechanical action alone. While it's an undoubtedly tricky piece of work, it's one that can be done by any moderately-skilled engineer or, for that matter, a clockmaker, which are in higher supply and lesser demand than enchanters. The downside is that it is dependent on a mainspring to power it, and so either needs monthly rewinding or some sort of external power source like a vane or a millrace, making it either dependent on regular maintenance or vulnerable to damage by weather or deliberate sabotage.

Speaking of enchanters, Egrimm and Elrisse found enough components, cantrips, and theoretical writings in the Light Order's libraries that a purely human-sourced enchantment could be cobbled together. While the resultant enchantment would be simpler than that designed by the Grey Lords, it would also make the Colleges directly implicated in the creation of Dhar. It is also dependent on the properties of Hysh specifically, so it would rule out seven out of eight Collegiate enchanters.

[ ] [FOUNDATION] Grey Lord
Requires a Wind-based Wizard. Moderately difficult, low cost.
[ ] [FOUNDATION] Clockwork
Required an engineer or clockmaker. Moderately difficult, low cost.
[ ] [FOUNDATION] Collegiate
Requires a Light Wizard. Simple, low cost.

Finally, there's the mechanism of transmission - how the energies gathered, stored, and arranged are pointed in the direction of Ulthuan and sent off to make their long journey there. There's two options here: either you connect it to the existing Waystone Network using the passphrase given to you by Prince Eltharion, or you use the method theorized by the Waystone Project: using the rivers of the Old World as the transmission method, intermingling them with the waters to be recovered downstream, or to be allowed to flow harmlessly into the endless oceans. Because while branches of the Waystone Network can be found throughout much of the world, it's pointedly absent in many parts of the world where it's needed, such as Sylvania and northern Kislev. The sticking point is the Dhar, which would be a bad idea to introduce to the drinking water of a continent, but several methods of sending it underneath the river instead have been put forward.

The Hedgewise method of achieving riverine transmission has been of quite a bit of utility already, as the prototype - a pouch of patterned river stones - has baffled every Elven Mage to encounter it. But while it performs the duty required of it, in exchange it requires the sacrifice of a salmon or trout once a week. Exactly how much of a hardship this would be to maintain varies based on where the Waystone might be located.

The Jade Order has supplied an alternate method, which would require either a member of their order or someone else skilled with Ghyran to create and would require more skill and effort than the Hedgewise alternative would, but does not come with a constant upkeep. There was also a feather-patterned astrolabe bearing an Eonir-made enchantment that performed the same riverine effect as the previous two methods, but it has since been returned to the vault it was originally fished out of and would be quite difficult to pry loose again.

There's also the possibility that Niedzwenka put forward - to negotiate with the river's dominant spirit for them to transport the energies for you, whether that be the Naiads of the wild, the River-Gods of the Empire, the more modest but also more malicious spirits of Kislev's wilds, the Melusines of Bretonnia, or even stranger and more mysterious beings from further afield. While the cost of making the Waystones able to accommodate such an arrangement is trivial, the cost that the spirits involved might extract are unknowable in advance.

Then there's the possibility of creating a Waystone that can interface with the Waystone Network and a river it is built atop. While this would compound the difficulty, a Waystone connected to the leylines that can fall back upon riverine transmission should they be cut off from the wider network would be an actual, tangible improvement upon the Waystones of the Golden Age, and would make for a very hardy foundation from which the most tainted and hostile lands of the continent could start to be reclaimed.

[ ] [TRANSMISSION] Leyline
Requires a speaker of Anoqeyån or Lingua Praestantia. Simple, trivial cost.
[ ] [TRANSMISSION] Riverine (Hedgewise)
Requires a Hedgewise. Simple, trivial cost, requires weekly maintenance. Reduces difficulty and cost of Foundation.
[ ] [TRANSMISSION] Riverine (Jade)
Requires a Jade Wizard or Druid. Moderately difficult, low cost. Reduces difficulty and cost of Foundation.
[ ] [TRANSMISSION] Riverine (Spirit)
Requires negotiation with the river's spirit. Reduces difficulty and cost of Foundation. ? difficulty, ? cost. Reduces difficulty and cost of Foundation.
[ ] [TRANSMISSION] Both (specify which Riverine)
Requirements as per Riverine component. Very difficult, moderate cost.

Of these several hundred possible combinations, it falls to you to choose just one. It would, of course, be possible to create several different Waystone designs if you think it would be easier to make multiple Waystones to fit into the varying political and magical requirements of the continent and possibly beyond, but the necessity of making sure each of the components will work in harmony indefinitely means that each one would take just as much effort as this one will. In any case, the Waystone you design today will hopefully be dotting the landscape of the Old World for centuries to come.

- There will be a twenty-four hour moratorium, both to let you formulate plans and so I have a chance to wake up tomorrow and fix any mistakes I've made in tabulating results across a fair few turns. Voting will be in plan format.
- Please don't ask me to give you any values in hard currency. More cheaper is more better, and the numbers don't make human sense on the scale of continents anyway.

[ ] [CAPSTONE] Collegiate Fascis
Requires a Wind-based Wizard. Moderately difficult, low cost. Requires a connection to the Waystone network.
[ ] [CAPSTONE] Stone Flower
Requires High Magic. Simple, negligible cost.
[ ] [CAPSTONE] Runic Inductor
Requires a Runesmith. Simple, negligible cost. Will result in more Dhar and less of the other Winds when large amounts of multiple Winds are present.

[ ] [RUNE] Dwarven
Requires a Dwarven Runesmith. Simple, low cost.
[ ] [RUNE] Wizard
Requires a magic-user. Simple, low cost.
[ ] [RUNE] Carved
Requires a mason. Trivial, negligible cost.

[ ] [STORAGE] [Cheap/Moderate/Expensive] Material
No requirements. Trivial, low/moderate/high cost.
[ ] [STORAGE] [Cheap/Moderate/Expensive] Enchanted
Requires a Wind-based Wizard. Simple, low/moderate/high cost.
[ ] [STORAGE] [Cheap/Moderate/Expensive] Runed
Requires a Runesmith. Simple, low/moderate/high cost.
[ ] [STORAGE] Reverse-engineered
Requires Von Tarnus or an Elven Archmage. Very difficult, low cost. Difficulty and requirements will reduce over time if built in large numbers.
[ ] [STORAGE] None
No requirements, no cost. Not compatible with leyline transmission.

[ ] [FOUNDATION] Grey Lord
Requires a Wind-based Wizard. Moderately difficult, low cost.
[ ] [FOUNDATION] Clockwork
Required an engineer or clockmaker. Moderately difficult, low cost.
[ ] [FOUNDATION] Collegiate
Requires a Light Wizard. Simple, low cost.

[ ] [TRANSMISSION] Leyline
Requires a speaker of Anoqeyån or Lingua Praestantia. Simple, trivial cost.
[ ] [TRANSMISSION] Riverine (Hedgewise)
Requires a Hedgewise. Simple, trivial cost, requires weekly maintenance. Reduces difficulty and cost of Foundation.
[ ] [TRANSMISSION] Riverine (Jade)
Requires a Jade Wizard or Druid. Moderately difficult, low cost. Reduces difficulty and cost of Foundation.
[ ] [TRANSMISSION] Riverine (Spirit)
Requires negotiation with the river's spirit. Reduces difficulty and cost of Foundation. ? difficulty, ? cost. Reduces difficulty and cost of Foundation.
[ ] [TRANSMISSION] Both (specify which Riverine)
Requirements as per Riverine component. Very difficult, moderate cost.

Boney · Feb 9, 2024

[*] Plan Building A Better Future (With reverse engineering)
-[*] [CAPSTONE] Stone Flower
-[*] [RUNE] Dwarven
-[*] [STORAGE] Reverse-engineered
-[*] [FOUNDATION] Grey Lord
-[*] [TRANSMISSION] Both (Jade Riverine)

Tally

The configuration you've decided on is one heavily reliant on components designed by the Grey Lords, with only the Dwarven Rune and the Jade riverine transmission being designed by others. If taken as a message, it would be one that argues the wisdom of Laurelorn as the host of the Waystone Project and seeks to justify the nascent alliance Middenland struck with them. But as the piece of magical architecture it actually is, it is a vanguard, and it is in that where one can find the true statement of intent. If all you wanted was to fill already-secured territory to make it proof against the ravages of Morrsleib and storms of magic, or to gradually chip away at the edges of corrupted areas like Sylvania and the Drakwald, then there were much easier ways to accomplish that. This configuration is built for beachheads, to be erected where it is least welcome and to begin the work of draining away the worst pockets of corruption on the continent. In that purpose it not only matches the Waystones of the Golden Age, but exceeds them.

Hatalath and Thorek take responsibility for the capstone and the rune respectively, while the foundation and transmission are taken back to their Colleges by Elrisse and Tochter. That leaves the storage mechanism, which is going to need a great deal of careful work to get it to the point where mere words can describe how difficult it will be to make, and after some thought you send word to House Tindomiel that it's time for them to start making good on your agreement with them. You've been a bit disgruntled that they'd winkled concessions from you even though the political situation meant they had no choice but to cooperate, which means you don't feel even slightly bad about dropping such a headache into their laps.

---

Several months later the last of the components are delivered to the Waystone Project's estate. Within what was once a ballroom a number of individually incomprehensible stone blocks lie on sheets of thick canvas, waiting for you and your team to assemble them into something that will change the fate of the world. Which is, of course, significantly easier said than done.

So far when thinking about the construction of Waystones you've started from the top and worked your way down, since that is the path the Winds take when being absorbed into and travelling through them. But mentally planning out the process of assembly presented several major problems, not least of which is the annoying insistence of gravity to get involved when working with large stone blocks, so for this you'll be starting from the bottom.

[Transmission, Jade Order: 52+??=??.]

The Jades have delivered exactly as promised: a granite menhir, selected and harvested using criteria and methods dating back millennia, has been carved with flowing spirals and paired with a flat-topped granite spike. They've performed further testing to ensure that it will work when simply planted in the silt at the bottom of the river, rather than needing a tunnel to be dug below the river. How much easier that will be will depend on the river, but even the most difficult of watercourses are easier to dredge than they are to tunnel under.

[Foundation, Light Order: 92+??=??.]

The Grey Lords had delivered a set of enchanting instructions so complex and interwoven that they would have had reason to believe that human enchanters would be capable of no more than slavishly following them. Overwhelming smugness exuded from Elrisse and Egrimm as they reported to you in private that the Grey Lords were severely mistaken. Deep within the pyramid of the Light Order, the thaumaturgic schematics were scrutinized not just by their enchanters, but also by their mathematicians, philosophers, cipherers, and steganographers, as well as anyone else interested in locking horns with minds that predate the Empire. Under the collective scrutiny of minds honed by finding hidden messages in correspondence and hidden mental traps in benign-seeming books and pamphlets, the enchantment schema has been unravelled, studied, and recompiled in ways more conducive to the Light Order's enchantment paradigm. The insights gleaned from the process are making their way through the Colleges' publication process, though it remains to be seen whether anything of practical use could come of it, or if it is merely of academic interest as an insight into a specific subset of Elven enchantment techniques. Also produced is a block of shiny white marble, into which the enchantment and its material components have somehow been embedded while leaving the stone intact.

[Pharological Perspective on Recursion in Elven Enchantment, 2491. Subject: Rare, +1. Insight: Revolutionary, +2. Delivery: Competent, +0. Very Exotic, +2. Varied, +1. Contributor, -3. Classified, -2. Total: +1.]

[Foundation-Transmission compatibility: 10+??=??.]

But while the Lights being able to make adaptations to the enchantment at all is an impressive feat, some of the lustre is diminished when it's discovered that something about those adaptations makes it no longer compatible with the Jades' granite spike, causing the Dhar to leak out and be reabsorbed instead of sent on its way. Though nobody's exactly happy to hear about this, you'd primed everyone to expect delays and set aside copious amount of times to deal with them. As long as this doesn't set the tone for the rest of the assembly process, this should still lead to something workable.

[Storage, House Tindomiel: 28+??=??.]

The reverse-engineered storage mechanism is going to be an utter beast to try to create the first working example of, and you're somewhat disappointed that House Tindomiel set to the job without complaint. The frazzled-looking Mage that delivers the block of basalt containing the mechanism leaves it in the custody of Sarvoi before happily turning their back on it and leaving, and judging from the overlapping layering of Runes in varying depths and with various material inlays, it took quite a bit of work above and beyond the original schematics to stabilize the enchantment to Elven standards. Sarvoi is already taking notes on improvements that can be made for the next iteration of this component. You wonder how keen they'll be to take advantage of their right of first refusal for constructing the Waystones after this preview.

[Storage-Foundation compatibility: 72+??=??.]

Thankfully, despite the aesthetic clash between the dark grey of the stone Tindomiel decided to work with - maybe basalt? would there be a source of basalt nearby? - and the marble of the Lights, the two manage to harmonize with only a minor amount of calibration.

[Capstone, Grey Lords: 20+??=??.]

You'd expected something special from the Grey Lords, and from Hatalath's disgruntled mien you suspect he did too and he's not happy about delivering exactly what was asked of them and no more. It is, at least, less flashy than the original, resembling a stone pyramidion of similar dimensions to that of the golden one atop regular Waystones. You say 'resembling' because when you get close it becomes apparent that it's actually an octagonal pyramid with the angles flattened to resemble the square pyramid shape you're familiar with - one face for each Wind, naturally. This would have required the builder to come up with four pairs of Winds that are the least obstructive to each other, and as soon as you realize the conversation this is likely to spawn, and the inevitable debate to follow, you quickly move on to getting it cooperating with the storage section. Gotthilf Puchta dedicated an entire chapter of their enormous Modest Treatise to the subject of Wind cardinality, and you doubt a month has passed since the founding of the Colleges without a debate on the matter breaking out.

[Capstone-Storage compatibility: 78+??=??.]

In this you find more to admire, and you make no attempt to hide your pleasant surprise at the capstone slowly and gently rotating itself in place until it interfaces with the storage mechanism with a pleasant hum, dormant sections of the enchantment activating and bridging the gap between the two without actually touching.

[Rune, Thorek: 60+??=??.]
[Rune-Capstone compatibility: 52+??=??.]

Thorek's part in this needs to wait until the stone cladding is put over the assembled components - as necessary as it is for insulation and durability, hiding away the clashing aesthetics of the multiple components is equally important in your eyes - but once it is done, Thorek spends several days running his hands over it and examining it from every angle while taking copious notes, and then a mere afternoon chiselling a Rune - three diagonal lines coming off one horizontal one - into one side of the new Waystone. Nothing visibly changes but you can feel the faint suction already pulling on Ulgu in the room strengthen slightly but insistently. Similarly invisible but inexorable is that within the Waystone the Winds are drawn constantly downwards, greatly reducing the chances of any Winds managing to escape as they are passed from one component of the Waystone to the next.

With the Waystone complete and almost functioning with only a single major flaw, most of the members of the project begin testing the functioning parts of the Waystone prototype, turning the Schaukel slightly more magical in the process, while Tochter and Elrisse coordinate on seeking a solution to the incompatibility between their components. Monitoring their work with careful discretion, you're unsurprised to learn that the Jades are hesitant to turn over the details of their side of things, but as the Lights are working with someone else's secrets they don't hesitate. This brings a new set of eyes onto the vivisected enchantment and before long another paper is in the works and the Jades are able to make the necessary corrections on their side to bring the two components into harmony. You don't have time right now to give the papers more than a skim, but what you do manage to grasp from them convinces you that it could be wise to find the time in the near future.

[Agrological Perspective on Recursion in Elven Enchantment, 2491. Subject: Rare, +1. Insight: Agreeing, +1. Delivery: Competent, +0. Very Exotic, +2. Varied, +1. Contributor, -3. Classified, -2. Total: +0 (rounded to +1).]

In the end, a new granite spike comes out of the Jade College and makes its way to Tor Lithanel, and it slots into place without trouble. After weeks spent connecting and disconnecting these pieces, it's somewhat anticlimactic that this time, barely distinguishable from all the others, is when the work is complete. Still, as you look at the uprooted Waystone propped up in the middle of the former ballroom, you feel a tickle of pride and smile. Perhaps it will feel realer once it's actually planted out in the world and fulfilling its actual purpose.

The New Waystones
(will be renamed if other Waystone types are created)

Advantages:
Dual Transmission - Leyline + Riverine
Iterative Improvements - Storage Mechanism
No Visible Precious Metals

Flaws:
Very Difficult Storage Mechanism
Requires High Mage and Runesmith

Quirks:
Octagonal Pyramidion
Aesthetically Offensive (hidden by cladding)
Visibly Dwarven Rune

---

For your study of the Waystone Network of the Karaz Ankor, you and Thorek have decided that the safest specimen would be where the flow from Karak Eight Peaks joins that of Karak Azul, directly south of Karaz-a-Karak and directly east of Karak Eight Peaks. The mountain in question stands beside the path from Karak Eight Peaks' East Gate to Death Pass and as such is frequently travelled by merchants and patrolled by the Undumgi, so only a modest escort of Clan Ironbrow Longbeards was deemed necessary. Said escort had harrumphed quite a bit at the presence of an Umgi child until Thorek had explained that she was your Apprentice, at which point she became considered an extension of yourself and her presence on this trip was as beyond question as that of your weaponry.

The Rune in question is absolutely massive and easily visible when you know what to look for, and indistinguishable from the natural crags and contours of the mountainside if you don't. On this particular mountain it's on the southwestern flank and so gradually becomes visible as you approach. Eike becomes aware of your eyes on her before she spots the Rune, which tips her off that there's something to see and leads her to finding it a few moments later.

"We could go out today and carve the same runes upon a mountain, and it would last until the next rain or snow or rockslide," Thorek says as you near the base of the chosen exemplar. "Barely enough time to have begun accumulating momentum. If that was all there was to it, the ones that connect the Karaks could not have survived the millennia that have passed, or earthquakes like those that marked the beginning of the Time of Woes. That these Runes have survived to this day means they can only have been carved with a full understanding of the discontinuities, catchment funnels, and gap winds that act on the mountains over time, so that these forces will carve the Runes deeper, rather than obliterating them. I cannot even begin to fathom how they were able to so deeply understand an unbroken chain of mountains from Karak Azgal to Karak Vlag more truly than we today do those of our own Karaks."

You run your eyes over the stone within the fissure which shows no sign of ever having felt a pick. The World's Edge Mountains is rich with earthbound magic, the largest portion of which was once Azyr that was blown into it by the wind or earthed by storms, and that faint background glow makes anything the Rune might be doing impossible to perceive from here. To actually examine what it is doing would require you to dig into the subterranean flows of magic deep below the roots of the mountains, far below the depths where Dwarven or even Skaven tunnels usually penetrate. "It was my impression that Runes are remarkably sensitive to the exact alignment of angles."

"Aye, but if you measure them you'll note that even today they're within tolerance of even the pickiest of Runesmiths. Working on this scale means being off by tens of meters is equivalent to an error too small to be normally visible. Over enough time the gradual changes do accumulate enough to weaken the Rune, but the cumulative effect it has had on the nature of the mountains themselves grows in strength faster. At this point it would require levelling a dozen mountains to make the connection weaker than it was when the Runes were first carved, and that's not the sort of thing you could even begin to do without being noticed by Rangers or Gyrocopters."

"It's self-reinforcing?" Eike asks.

"Aye," you say, "so the longer it has to establish itself, the harder it would be to try to shift it. Remind you of anyone?" If anything, you privately suspect, Thorek might actually be understating the effect it would have had. If huge amounts of magical energy have been travelling through the same path for thousands upon thousands of years, then you suspect that every mountain with this Rune upon it could be levelled and the flow would continue uninterrupted. But Dwarves place a lot of metaphorical weight on the unchanging nature of stone, and so would be uncomfortable with the idea that it is quite possible for what amounts to a very large amount of stone to be permanently and irreversibly changed.

You'd very much like to be able to take a sample of that stone. You'd even more like to have a very large amount of it to experiment with.

---

After you've taken sufficient observations and notes on the Rune, every one of which match what Thorek expected to find, you take the opportunity to converse with Thorek out of earshot of your Apprentice and escort. "The question of what happens to the magical energies when they reach Karaz-a-Karak is one I have heard broached before, and with a certain intensity," you say, with oblique understatement. "A similar question has been asked regarding energies reaching Ulthuan. The Sevir have the status of both unwanted pollutant and a powerful resource, depending on specific context. Currently most considerations of the Waystone Networks are entirely that of pollutants being removed, but a consideration of a resource being transferred from one polity to another becomes murkier."

"That would especially be the case if there are existing tensions," Thorek says, his voice carefully neutral, and you nod. He might be talking about tensions between, say, Laurelorn and the Empire, or the Karaz Ankor and Ulthuan. He's not, but he might be. "So the first question must be whether questions should be asked at all, as they cannot be un-asked."

"It might be less potentially troublesome to keep our investigation entirely about the point-to-point logistics instead of asking questions about what happens next," you agree. "Either way, it would cause trouble if we were inconsistent in this. Even if we never examine the workings of Ulthuan, both Laurelorn and Kislev would be put out if we started asking questions of them that we did not ask of the Karaz Ankor."

Thorek nods, then frowns in thought. "The opposite would also hold - if the Dwarves were seen to share a glimpse of the most ancient of secrets, then it would be difficult for the Elves and Wyrzhufokri to argue that their own deserve greater consideration."

"It would," you agree.

"The precise nature of the asking would also matter. The Karak Azul Runesmiths asking the Karaz-a-Karak Runesmiths would have a different nature to Karak Eight Peaks asking Karaz-a-Karak."

"As would the Empire asking the Karaz Ankor, or the Colleges asking the Runesmiths." Or, you think but don't say, you could just ask Kragg yourself, as the only individual more likely to know the truth of the matter would be the High King, and you have something of a rapport with him. But Kragg is, to put it lightly, not big on revealing secrets to the undeserving, and is also not Thorek's favourite person.

[ ] Empire to Empire
Ask the Karaz Ankor on behalf of the Empire.
[ ] Karak to Karak
Ask Karaz-a-Karak on behalf of Karak Eight Peaks.
[ ] Guild to Guild
Ask the Runesmiths Guilds on behalf of the Colleges of Magic.
[ ] Runesmith to Runesmith
Ask the Karaz-a-Karak Runesmiths Guild on behalf of the Karak Azul Runesmiths Guild.
[ ] Okri to Okri
Ask Kragg on behalf of yourself.
[ ] Other (write in)
[ ] Do not ask
Leave the matter outside of the scope of the Waystone Project.

- There will be a two hour moratorium.
- Dice rolls for the Waystone were made here.
- It is intended that 'do not ask' might win even if the other options receive more votes collectively - the matter is sensitive enough that it should be shelved if no possible approach can make itself a clear winner.
- If 'do not ask' wins, Mathilde will spend the remainder of the action mapping and studying the Karaz Ankor network, including trying to figure out if it's possible to take a sample of the leyline-stone.

Boney · Mar 8, 2024

[*] Karak to Karak

Tally

Belegar grumbles as he pushes aside another failed draft at a missive to the High King. He'd quite like to screw it up and throw it into the fire, but parchment doesn't grow on trees, so he'll clean it off with pumice once the ink has dried, just like all the others. He casts his eye over the growing pile of discarded failures, and regrets that the matter the letters attempt to speak of is too sensitive for the task to be handed off to someone else.

Belegar's craft was once that of hammer and throng, and now he does his best to turn his talents to that of throne and scepter. Blunt instruments all, some more literal than others. It has not been a life where subtlety and care and caution have been emphasized, so for the most part he hasn't learned any more than he needed to. But today he must assemble words with as much care, as much necessity, and with as much risk of disaster, as the one who put him to this task shapes the magical energies that haunt the surface world.

Belegar generally acts with confidence and surety, but that is the privilege of those that know where they stand. In this matter, he is painfully aware that he lives in one of two worlds. In one, the High King is an imperfect ruler of the Karaz Ankor, doing his best to shoulder the weight of thousands of years of accumulated oaths and grudges and enemies and sometimes stumbling. In the other, the High King has been blinded by history and shackled by tradition, and bleeds the rest of the Karaz Ankor to keep the vaults of Karaz-a-Karak full and its primacy unquestioned. In the former world, Thorgrim's abandonment of Karak Eight Peaks was a battlefield amputation that would have seemed justified with the knowledge available to him. In the latter, it was the perfect opportunity to rid him of a renascent Karak that once rivaled the power and influence of Karaz-a-Karak itself before it could do so once more. In the former world, there is some more important purpose that the magical energies drained from the other Karaks are being put towards, and some sort of explanation for why this is being done so without the knowledge or consent of their Kings. In the latter, there is not.

Belegar thinks of the past temptation to take valuable silk from the unknowing We for next to nothing and how that opportunity was left primly untaken, despite the damage to the Karak's large but not bottomless vaults. And he wonders if at some point the High Kings chose otherwise.

In both worlds, Belegar is failing in his duty. In the world where the High King is right and righteous, Belegar's duty is faith and loyalty. In the world where the High King is corrupt or corrupted, Belegar's duty is no less required for it being unthinkable. This middle ground, the tension and the dark looks and the silences that speak entire tomes, is as wrong directed at a rightful High King as it is insufficient for an unrightful one.

So today he must chart a course through two maps at once, and put together a missive that is both respectful and demanding at once, one that will not offend a righteous High King but will corner an unrighteous one.

After long labour and much time spent sorting through the previous drafts for salvageable fragments, he has the beginnings of something appropriate.

Recent advancements in the understanding of the Waystone Network have brought with them an awareness of the ways in which the energies involved can and have been put to use for the betterment of various Peoples and Polities. In the light of this knowledge, it is troubling to find that great volumes of magical energies are being drawn from the surrounds of Karak Eight Peaks to an unknown end. The first response of any rational ruler would be to end this state of affairs, but the possibility has been raised that there exists a proper explanation for this state of affairs. Should this be the case, then the full truth of the matter should be vouchsafed to the rulers from whose Karaks the energies are being siphoned.

In the absence of any such explanation, the only course of action that can rightfully be taken would be to sever this unknown connection so that the resources rightfully belonging to the Karak can be used for the betterment of the Karak...

It will do for a start. When a missive might change the course of history, one has an obligation to give it at least a revision pass or two.

---

Of all the possible responses, simply sending a messenger back with a reply was probably the most likely, but Belegar still feels wrong-footed for it being so prosaic. The only oddity is that the messenger has requested to meet him outdoors, at the top of the exterior stairs of Karag Lhune and outside the entrance that leads to the Hall of the Moon. For a wild moment Belegar considered whether this could be an assassination attempt, before dismissing the thought as unworthy of even the worst of worlds. Still, he brings his usual escort of Hammerers with him.

Outside it is a few minutes shy of the height of the day, when the shadows are at their shortest, which at this latitude means they barely exist. As if to confirm this, the messenger is consulting a small portable sundial as Belegar approaches. He looks up, bows to King Belegar, and without speaking turns to look out over the valley. Part of Belegar wants to do his best to disrupt whatever pageantry this is, but he decides to see where this is going and follows the messenger's gaze towards the Citadel at the center of the titular eight peaks.

The first indication that something was amiss was when the heat haze, which on particularly hot days could completely obstruct the view from one side of the Karak to the other, grew stronger and more turbulent above the Citadel. Then, without a sound, bright yellow fire from nowhere started at the base of the haze and climbed swiftly upwards, and a pair of immense but lazy flames danced atop the Citadel's two towers, so bright as to be almost transparent, and without a wisp of smoke emerging from it.

"The High King sends his warmest regards to you and yours, King Belegar," the messenger says, and without another word he turns and leaves, beginning his long journey back to Karaz-a-Karak.

---

"Let's operate under the assumption that the High King wasn't being deliberately mysterious," you say to Belegar. After the massive flare of apparently non-magical fire had filled the sky over the Citadel, his messenger to you had met you halfway to him. He hadn't moved from where the High King's messenger had delivered his obscure message, but he had had a table set up and a few relevant tomes brought out for him to start leafing through for clues. "The most likely reason for a message being sent in that way is that a message cannot be sent at all. To my eye, this smacks of a secret that cannot be told, but must be shared."

"That seems like a sensible place to start," Belegar replies, to your relief. He's gotten a better grip on his habit of reflexively interpreting everything from the High King in the worst light possible than he once had.

"So if we assume this is a direct response to your question, then it's saying 'this is what that energy is doing'." You're leading him in the way that you normally would Eike, rather than a King, but with a safe harbour in sight you don't want things to run aground at the last moment.

He nods. "I've seen paintings of the Karak in its youth where immense airships were moored to the tips of those towers. If we assume that that was the original purpose of the Citadel, rather than just a convenient place for them to tie off to, then it seems reasonable to suppose that what we saw was some sort of liftgas being burned off."

"The creation of which, I've read, is usually quite problematic. The sort of thing that an immense amount of magical power might be needed for, say. If it relies on an energy network that spans the Karaz Ankor to function, it would also explain why it's controllable from Karaz-a-Karak."

"It is said that before the Underway was built, various forms of floating transports were used to trade between the Karaks. Perhaps Karak Eight Peaks was once a center of aerial trade to Azul and Drazh and Izril and Ekrund, a counterpoint to the rivers and lakes connecting the central Old Holds."

"That makes a lot of sense, actually," you say, looking out over the farms and pastures that have filled the sheltered center of Karak Eight Peaks. "I'd wondered what the purpose of all this space was in the original Karak Eight Peaks, as it's much more above-ground space than any other Karak I've ever seen has claimed. This Karak being a hub for immense airships would make sense - both Dwarven and foreign."

"Foreign?" he asks.

"Elven Skycutters, most obviously, and possibly more peaceable forms lost to these more fractured times. I know next to nothing about it, but ancient maps show an Elven settlement called 'Oeragor' in the Badlands, and I've wondered how a colony would work that far inland. Airships could be the answer. And I've read of Nehekharan Sky-Boats, and Arabyan flying carpets, and many kinds of airships of Cathay that all might have travelled here in ancient times. Perhaps even Fozzrik himself might have paid a visit." You contrast the mental image against the pleasantly bucolic valleys of today, and suspect that most would call the past greater than the present.

"In any case," you continue after considering that, "the clear insinuation seems to be that the power sent to Karaz-a-Karak is being used to fuel ancient wonders throughout the Karaz Ankor, which were thought lost but are actually inoperable due to a lack of power. Is there anything that occurs to you that could have been a remnant super-project?"

"The Rune of Eternity on the Throne of Power, perhaps," Belegar says quietly and consideringly. "It is said to be the only Rune with which Grungni was ever wholly satisfied, and that it grants the High King the wisdom of all his predecessors."

"Something with an area of effect of a single individual in a single place shouldn't require anything like that much infrastructure to support it, no matter how dramatic the results," you say. "Possibly the Underearth itself requires a continuous input of power for its role as an afterlife, or the Glittering Realm does to be a source of the underpinnings of Runesmithing." Or both, but that the two realms are the same is a Gazulite secret you're not able to casually share. "A lot of reasons why what Runes do are impossible under Teclisean theory disappear if their operation is supplemented by an external source. That would justify any amount of secrecy."

"The Eyes that are making the Second Silver Road War possible might be another example of one of these grandmasterpieces."

"If so, the reclamation of Karak Eight Peaks might have made it possible."

"And Karak Vlag," he says pointedly.

"I suppose so. And through it Karag Dum is reconnected, and considering its location, it must be pouring energy in."

"Then why would he not have supported the Expeditions more than he did?"

"Perhaps he simply didn't know that the flow could be restored so easily. Before us, no Karak had ever been wholly retaken. He might have thought that whatever it is that makes a Karak-Waystone would need to be performed from scratch, and the impression I have is that the modern Runelords are not capable of doing so. That would explain his sudden shift of priorities from vengeance to revanchism."

Belegar is quiet for a while. "If you are correct, and the Underearth requires an input of power to maintain itself, or perhaps to maintain its connection to the world of the living... that may be even more of explanation for his Age of Reckoning. If a day was coming when an afterlife with our ancestors was lost to any Dwarves that still lived, then an extinction in the name of vengeance before that day came might be preferable."

"'Die well'," you quietly recite.

"Was he waving me through a door that might soon be closed? That he might have thought would become closed to me and mine if rescued?"

It's not a question that you can answer, and not one that you're expected to. You simply sit with the King as he rethinks every interaction he's ever had with the High King.

Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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