Chojin Patriarch
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When is anything simple in this world? But Paol's plan may work, given the time and resources to work on it. And given that several highly-placed figures in the fight against the Ruinous Powers think it will work, that should be a good indicator that it might just succeed.4th Sigmarzeit 2512
Late Morning
"It's that simple?"
I glance at Richilde, but she's keeping her face blank.
To be fair, I suspect such businesses don't particularly delineate themselves so clearly. An alehouse with a few pliable waitresses willing to take a little time for 'private parties' could qualify as a whorehouse, after all. It's not like they have family-friendly restaurants."Countess?"
"The roads, man." She gestures to the map on the table between us, which has gotten me a few mildly dirty looks from the… I want to say 'restaurant', but I'm not sure that 'club' wouldn't be a better description. It's very clearly situated near to the expensive part of the city, is richly decorated and doesn't exactly appear to be interested in a high density of clients. "You're saying that if we do this we can stop worrying about the forces of Chaos entirely?"
Gee, she sounds like she thinks he paid a lot of money for the privilege."I realise that it's a big-."
"If I hadn't seen the Tower of Hoeth's seal on the document I'd have had you thrown in the river like every other charlatan. Which of the Loremasters did you convince to put their seal to this?"
Pfft. I doubt many of the Counts like Karl. They mostly tolerate him because he was the least bad choice they could all agree on.I like to think that Karl-Franz's seal on it also had an impact, given that he's the reason that she's an Elector Count over other claimants.
"High Loremaster Teclis."
And that alone will be invaluable. Though maintaining them might be a little more expensive and time-consuming in and of itself...For a moment her mildly curdled expression turns into something… Else. Uncertainty? Disquiet? But it's gone a moment later.
"Though I should emphasise that it's not just building the roads. The roads have to run along lines of hysh flows, and we have to build monuments at the intersections. And the effect isn't total and.. requires quite a large section to be completed before they'll be an overt effect. Ah, other than the.. normal benefits to travel from better roads."
Which makes me wonder just how complex the pattern gets in some places. Especially major locations where multiple leylines cross.She reviews the map of her province once more. "You've left several towns out of the network."
"If they're excluded, it's because they're not in geomantically significant locations. The road network can be extended to them, there just isn't any sort of magical benefit to it."
Now, whether that's a bonus as far as she's concerned, or a drawback, remains to be seen."Who made these calculations?"
"My point of contact with the Light College is Master Alric, though I've also have the work checked by the High Loremaster." And Djubti, High Liche Priest of Lybaras, but I feel that mentioning his involvement would be needlessly distracting. "Short of having a slann or an old one go over it, it's as good as it can be made."
...Eh, it's varied over the years. But ultimately, most people see toads when they look at one."Slann? The toad-men?"
"They actually look more like fat lizards than toads."
It's not impossible that they're some kind of broadly-built reptilioid that superficially resembles a toad. After all, they were masters of evolution and genetic engineering.The slann models from 5th edition looked like toads, and I remember the Drachenfels point of view part of the novel Drachenfels where he remembered the arrival of 'the toad men who came from the stars'. The oldest records the lizardmen were willing to let me see seemed to indicate that the old ones were somewhat toad-like in appearance, but the images could equally have been some sort of extinct servitor species or a different model of slann.
I'm impressed they let you get that close, really. You must have done something impressive to receive such a high honour."Have you met one?"
"No. I was at the opposite end of a large room while a skink priest asked if I could petition it. It didn't respond, but I did get a good look at what it looked like."
And that's a very sensible decision, given that Temple Guard are especially large and viciously protective Saurus wearing bone armour. Think 'upright velociraptors with Mayan weaponry made of enchanted gold' who stand about seven feet tall.I didn't try scanning it, because we were inside a warded building and the Temple Guard surrounding me were loaded with enchanted equipment. I couldn't take the risk that someone would object violently.
"What good would this do to me?"
...You know, you can be replaced with someone more agreeable."If it were fully implemented?" She just looks at me. "There would be no residual built-ups of dhar in the region. Necromancy and Chaos magic would be weaker and harder to use, mutation less common and certain types of innately magical monster would try to avoid the area affected. It would be more difficult for daemons to manifest and they would need more power to remain materialised. Hysh-basic magic-."
"I wasn't asking what good it would do. I asked what good it would do for me."
Honestly, the Chaos Lord would have been proud to be called a maggot, given the association with Nurgle maggots and flies have amongst them.Oh dear. "You personally would receive all of those benefits. You had a chaos warlord-."
"Yes, I remember it well. The maggot did not need dark magic from my state; he brought it with him."
...Wrong thing to say, Paol. On the up side, she won't be the only one facing such a reaction.She's glaring, but I don't think I've entirely lost her yet.
"My intent is to ultimately extend the network to all parts of the world, but in the mean time it would also weaken dark magic in the entirety of the world, though the.. strength of the effect would be reduced by distance. I can't guarantee that building the network in your state would prevent attacks by chaos worshippers. In fact I imagine that in the short term the Chaos Gods will incentivises their followers to attack places using it."
And not just from the Ruinous powers. I'm sure there are those under you with eyes on your seat. ...Of her throne, not her... Well, given the way she presents it, I wouldn't be surprised of the other one."So you want me to pay millions of crowns and devote our entire stone supply and most of my labourers in order to mark my state and my people out as targets."
"With the greatest respect, Countess, you're already a target."
...Oh, god, she's just the first one you've come to? I suppose it makes sense, because of the Engineering school."More of a target. You want me to go from being a target of a warlord once a century when one of the accursed scum managed to conquer the rest to being the only thing they target!"
I frown. "And… Small attacks are.. worse..? You'll have enough roads to move horsemen to counter their warbands wherever they are, and attacks like that wouldn't ever be able to threaten Nuln itself. Or even a walled town, really. And you certainly won't be the only target since I intend to prevail upon all Elector Counts to follow this plan."
So, one out of about twelve provinces.Her eyes narrow. "Who has consent to this?"
"So far, just his imperial majesty, but I intend to try to visit everyone this week."
There is that, true.
You'd think the Emperor would have sent runners with word of this. Then again, given the mortality rate on the present roads..."He'll be swarmed by beast-tribes from the Reikwald before it's halfway complete."
Oh! Oh. Slow communications surprises me again.
Granted, such an extermination campaign would normally take tens of thousands of soldiers, and still not get every tribe. But Paol does have certain advantages.
Good lord, could that fellow look any more evil if he applied himself? Still, I bet he got quite the eye-opening look at Paol's capabilities."How do you think I got him to agree to this? I sought out and destroyed every single tribe. Destroyed every Herdstone. Took a while, and I had to take his least popular minister along as a witness, but I got it done."
She frowns again, in puzzlement rather than irritation. "How?"
Well, it's not like he could leave any hostile tribes alive. They'd be rather vexed by the treatment, after all."I'm quite good at killing. Sorry, I realise that I should have led with that. I'm not used to information travelling so slowly and just assumed that you knew."
"You killed all of them?"
I think he's got an afternoon or two free to handle that, surely."Well, all the males. Female beastmen are fairly docile, so I moved them to land marked for farm development and set them to work instead. No problems so far. And I… Can't completely guarantee that a few human-looking ones managed to flee. But they're not I the area any more."
"Are you willing to extend your services to me as well?"
True, it's not like there's a grand map of each warband's territory around.I shrug. "I'm willing to extend them to anyone. If it worships Chaos, it's my enemy. If you know where my enemies are, I'll thank you for the information and then deal with the matter. If you want some particular group culled, just name them."
"And you can find them?"
Ah... The Skaven creeping out of their holes, looking for a chance to stab people in the back."If you can provide a physical description and their approximate location, yes. Though it might have to wait until after this week. If I'm trying to get rushed meetings with the Electors, I can't guarantee exactly when I'll be available."
"We've had an upsurge of ratmen sightings since the invasion. I want them dead."
Oh, he's entirely serious. Though committing that level of genocide might be an all-day job."The local warren or the entire species?"
She looks at my face for a few moments.
Heh. The joy of making good use of Construct Lanterns."Ideally, the latter, though I'll take it as a show of good faith if you manage the former."
"The species is on my long list, but I can handle the local warren…" Hm. "Actually, if you pull back your guards and ignore… Exactly how I do it, I can get started today."
Especially the blood-letters. It's what they're built for, after all.She gives me a flat look. "What will I be ignoring?"
"Wide scale… Automata usage? Ill-educated people might say they're daemons or something… That's why I'm concerned. But they're very good at killing what I tell them to kill."
I suggest preparing yourself with a couple of stiff drinks, ma'am. No way do you want to see this sober."That will be acceptable. But I want to see these 'automata' for myself first."
"Certainly, Countess. Shall we go now, or would you like time to prepare?"
Heh. Speedrunning Vermintide-style encounters with effectively AI assistance. Now that's doing it Lantern-style. Admittedly, it'd likely panic a people already a little on edge after surviving a Chaos invasion just a couple of years earlier. Though the sight of Chaos Daemons annihilating the Ratmen instead of them might buoy their spirits. Or drive them to spirits.
Mr Zoat, some corrections:
...to be completed before there'll be an overt effect.
Hysh-based magic-."
... the Chaos Gods will incentivise their followers...
Her eyes narrow. "Who has consented to this?"
But they're not in the area any more.