- Location
- Utrecht
why wouldn't they benefit?
Luck and Deception are universal.
Vampires are by nature night prowlers...
And in theory, they could set up shop somewhere in Sylvania as a twisted sort of Protector.
[WHF] The Broken Mirror - A Divided Loyalties Peggy Sue
Luck and Deception are universal.
Vampires are by nature night prowlers...
And in theory, they could set up shop somewhere in Sylvania as a twisted sort of Protector.
I don't think cultural inertia is going to matter for much here. We are not saying the vampire is good we are saying 'they might be a useful intel asset'. Granted 'cannibal' is a low bar for one's hiring, but I'm betting there are quite a few grey wizards that have gone below it. This is not a public announcement and will not be weighed by the public with their notions of right and wrong, it will be weighed by the Grey College and not all of them at that.
- Location
- Earth
Given that we are taking that vampire while under employ of van Hal and he has the Hatred:undead trait, it is very much relevant.
True, on the other hand he has shown himself to be really practical in some matters, including carrying around the big book of necromantic apocalypse. He does not have to like the vamp, he just has to think she is more useful helping to kill others of her kind than dead.
SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
Vampiric souls are explicitly cut free from the Aeyther. No channel for the god to bless them directly. Doesn't make it impossible as Ranald could still manipulate the wider environment but it's much more difficult when he doesn't have a soul to channel through,
He could also give the vampire and artifact, those work fine for them. The bar for a vampire getting divine help is higher than for non vampires both practically and let's call it ideologically. If Ranald was indeed a god of Nehekara than he is unlikely to like Vampires.
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] [Maltor] Imprison him after Mindholing him again and taking steps that he learns nothing useful in the process of being taken into custody.
[X] [Cassandra] Spy on her, but take no action.
-[X] [Human] If she's human, capture her.
-[X] [Vamp] If she's a vampire, retreat.
[X] [Cassandra] Spy on her, but take no action.
-[X] [Human] If she's human, capture her.
-[X] [Vamp] If she's a vampire, retreat.
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
It's important to note that the only way a vampire can avoid using Dhar is by drinking the blood of sophonts. Either they feed on blood or they feed on a Dhar vortex that grows within them.
One of the greatest pitfalls for any vampire who wants to stay good is that not feeding on people gives them ever-increasing dhar-poisoning. And while vampires are more resistant to dhar than humans, they are not entirely immune to its mental effects.
I mean there are plenty of sophonts the Empire (or at least the Grey College) would not mind getting eaten. Orcs spring to mind, they even grow from spores
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
So I need to transfer over some or all of these skill upgrades:
[Skill increased: Colleges of Magic, Advanced: You've worked with your fellow Wizard of the Eight Colleges of Altdorf on numerous occasions. +1 Diplomacy]
[Skill increased: Kislev (2/2): You've developed a basic understanding of the northern realm of Kislev. +1 Diplomacy]
[Skill gained: Kurgan (1/2)]
[Skill gained: Strategy - Knights (1/3)]
[Skill gained: Strategy - Wizards (1/3)]
[Skill gained: Tactics - Wizards (1/3)]
[Skill gained: Scouting (2/3)]
[Skill gained: Logistics (1/3)]
[Skill gained: Kislev Pantheon (1/3)]
[Skill increased: Bibliothecography (2/3)]
[Skill gained: History (Old World) (2/3)]
[Skill gained: Linguistics: You've gone beyond a mere knowledge of languages and are developing an understanding of language itself. +1 Learning]
Currently trying to decide how to treat the difference between Xeno-linguistics and Polyglot - leaning towards making them work the same - i.e. moving the +1 learning to Linguistics skill, and adding an additional +1 diplomacy to the trait - does that seem right to you lot?
[Skill increased: Colleges of Magic, Advanced: You've worked with your fellow Wizard of the Eight Colleges of Altdorf on numerous occasions. +1 Diplomacy]
[Skill increased: Kislev (2/2): You've developed a basic understanding of the northern realm of Kislev. +1 Diplomacy]
[Skill gained: Kurgan (1/2)]
[Skill gained: Strategy - Knights (1/3)]
[Skill gained: Strategy - Wizards (1/3)]
[Skill gained: Tactics - Wizards (1/3)]
[Skill gained: Scouting (2/3)]
[Skill gained: Logistics (1/3)]
[Skill gained: Kislev Pantheon (1/3)]
[Skill increased: Bibliothecography (2/3)]
[Skill gained: Linguistics: You've gone beyond a mere knowledge of languages and are developing an understanding of language itself. +1 Learning]
Currently trying to decide how to treat the difference between Xeno-linguistics and Polyglot - leaning towards making them work the same - i.e. moving the +1 learning to Linguistics skill, and adding an additional +1 diplomacy to the trait - does that seem right to you lot?
Sounds good to me, Ranald knows were going to need both in the tasks ahead.
- Location
- Earth
The narrative explanation for Mathilde gaining the stats is that she made use of them and therefor gained experience in them.
This will not apply to any further happenings in DL, because our Mathilde will go a different path now.
We will not gain any more skills after this.
Our Mathilde may earn skills for things she does, but not for things DL Mathilde does from now on.
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- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
Yep, indeed I've decided that the History upgrade probably came from the pre-project research, which is after the Point of Divergence, so that won't be applying to this Mathilde.
I mean the reason we get stats here is because the events happened before the point of divergence.
Vote closed
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
1) Shrouded (Arcane Mark)
2) Deep Shadow
3) Zero Emission
4) Riding Cloak
5) Permacloak
6) Shadowclone
2) Deep Shadow
3) Zero Emission
4) Riding Cloak
5) Permacloak
6) Shadowclone
Ah the legacy of the original quest continues here I see!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Believe it!
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
You were due for some good luck after the temporary-death debacle.
consequences
Not A Nice Person At All
- Location
- Jerkville
'Wait, Divided Loyalties is a shonen anime with the most obvious ninjas ever?'
'Always has been.'
'Always has been.'
Checking on Cassandra
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
[X] [Maltor] Imprison him after Mindholing him again and taking steps that he learns nothing useful in the process of being taken into custody.
[x] [Cassandra] Spy on her, but take no action.
-[x] [Human] If she's human, capture her.
-[x] [Vamp] If she's a vampire, retreat.
[x] [Cassandra] Spy on her, but take no action.
-[x] [Human] If she's human, capture her.
-[x] [Vamp] If she's a vampire, retreat.
You decide to check on Cassandra immediately, in case she's a human slave of the vampires who can be freed from her indenture - or a human thrall who can be pumped for information. That does mean leaving Maltor behind, but there's an easy solution to that; you cast sleep and mockery of death on him - along with a mindhole that helps confirm the accuracy of his spiteful testimony - and then you stash him in a barn, leaving Wolf to guard him until you can return and take him to Fort Redemption.
Then it's an hour of hard riding to Kaneston to find Cassandra Pale. You've got her location from Maltor, and whether she's a vampire or an infiltrator you'll be able to see the Dhar within once you find her.
----
With dawn two hours away you're pretty sure that whether vampire or human, Cassandra will be home. You take a very guarded approach to the two-story cottage that Maltor believed to be Cassandra's home - Pepescu is most likely still in his mist-form, unable to coalesce, but you've been unlucky once already tonight and you have no need to tempt fate - you weave your shadowcloak with the greatest of care to avoid letting any trace of Ulgu leave its bounds to indicate your presence to magesight.
Your unruly shadow objects. You've been stuffing it down a lot with your streamlined shadowcloak in social situations, and it takes the opportunity provided by your tightened casting to partially solidify, taking your form wholesale as a physical cloak of shadows with nothing beneath it, just as you cloak yourself. With a bit of coaxing, and a silent promise that you'll allow it to use your shadowcloak in this manner on some future occasions, you get the cloak to return to you and proceed onward.
[Learning: 92+30=122 vs. ??=18+?? - critical success. Spell Mastered.]
When you make it to the house you make no attempt to enter - instead you concentrate on your magesight which has little trouble going through the thin wooden walls. And sure enough you can sense a snarl of Dhar within, and although it is fainter than you'd expect from a vampire it is most certainly not that of the Dhar Matrix - it would seem Cassandra has yet to develop the strong Dhar Vortex seen in many older vampires, which is both a good thing and a bad one. On the positive side it means she's likely to be less insane, on the negative she's almost certainly feeding regularly on those living around her in order to prevent its growth.
Still, whatever your conclusion you know that tonight is not the night for you to fight yet another vampire, this one in her lair. She has no way of knowing you've been here, and no way to be sure you even know about her existence - this is a fight for another day.
-----
Mastery Gained: Shadowclone - When using Shadowcloak you may have the cloak partially or entirely detach from you, as long as it remains in line of sight. If fully detached it is impossible to tell apart from your appearance under a full shadowcloak, while if only partially detached you maintain a partial benefit while the Shadowclone is partially transparent.
This shadowclone is insubstantial and is controlled by whatever part of you controls your unruly shadow - meaning you cannot entirely control its behaviour - but it will tend to behave in a useful manner without your input.
No vote, next update will be the first part of the social turn.
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Well looks like we have something to do tomorrow! Hey Abelheim? How do you feel about having a fun night out hunting a vampire? We can bring the boys! And by boys I mean the army.