TreeQuest: Magitech (Riot Quest)

[X][Action] Water/Fire Negacion (Magic Elements)
[X][Focus] Water/Fire Negacion (Magic Elements)
[X][Focus] Water/Fire Negacion (Magic Elements) x2
[X][Focus] Raise Shield
[X][Focus] Raise Shield x2
 
I wonder if we could create a banishing tree? Like put it on the front line of any frontline and uses its limbs to just banish whatever hits it into a random direction up down, anywhere. Like far though, half a mile at least. That would be interesting.
 
We'd need to have an offensive banishing technique in the first place. Space and Time are hard magics to handle, but perhaps Void could do that at a higher level?
 
Same issues as any other form of esoteric attack; there are good reasons most nations still depend on soldiers with swords. Esoteric and exotic magics are dangerous to train, and risky to handle. Swords full of Severing and Ending are nearly as effective and much safer.

Which doesn't mean we can't do it, the Forest has a lot of advantages in researching and using dangerous magics that humans lack. Just that we should expect it to be difficult and expensive.

I'm currently debating on if we need another combat Ent designed, if I should go for an economic one this time, or stick to the Bio-Armor project.
 
I just realized i didn't vote yet.
[X][Action] Veritas (Magic Elements)
Truth to unveil the spy net.

[X][Squirrel] Incorporated Growth
[X][Deer] Focus on growing the Relay Trees
[X][Bees] Focus on growing the Relay Trees
[X][Moles] Built Tunnels
-[X] From Forest to Newton Village
[X][Ants] Incorporate Plant: Magic Mushrooms
"Adds optional drowsiness/delirium effect to Pollen attacks, which penalizes most further rolls by affected targets."
Is perfect for non-lethaly defeating enemies with lungs.
Like... People brainwashed to be spies for the enemy.
[X][Wolves] Investigate Andrewsburg
[X][Herbalist] Teach the Forest Alchemy
[X][Herbalist] Research the Forest growing Alchemy ingredients
[X][Herbalist] Research the Forest imbuing Spores to function as alternative Alchemical ingedients

[X] Clan Infiltration
-[X]1 Focus to investigate and (quietly!) subvert Woo spy network cells where found.
-[X]Other focus to continue as in "Preparing for & keeping busy in Winter"

[X][AutoFocus] Clan Infiltration 2
-[X] 2 Focus to investigate and (quietly!) subvert Woo spy network cells where found.
-[X] return to "Preparing for & keeping busy in Winter" afterwards
[X][Corvids] Contribute to Hevel
[X][Bears] Teach Death Magic
[X][Speaker] Further Focus, use additional Focus for "Incorporate Plant: Magic Mushrooms"

[X][Lesser Wraith] Assist with Void Forest
[X][Lesser Fire Salamander] Salamandastron

[X][Dire Bat] Assist with Monster Energy

[][Talanburg] Write-in: Focus our efforts on tracking and subverting our known out-of-town contacts. Any actions against the Talanburg cell's interference should be strictly deniable or beneath notice. Walk away if we have to.

[X][Talanburg] Write-in: Walk away for now, to fully Focus on subverting the spy-network. Return when the network is subverted.
[X][Talanburg] Walk away

[X][Steve Robertson] Teach Swordsmanship to the Squirrels (et al) (cost: 1 Unusual Lumber and 3 Resources per Turn) (he's not going to be stingy, but he's not going to give something valuable for free… just for cheap) (this will almost certainly give the Forest an upgrade quest - I'm looking at you, Sword Tree)

[X][Spynet Focus] 4

[X][Wolves] Woohoo Spynet Eradication
[...]
[X][Speaker] Ben & Betty Grim Focus on Education
[X][Speaker] Ben & Betty Grim Focus on Education
We could be specific about how the Wolves aid Spynet Eradication by having them do "Investigate Andrewsburg".
Also, Speakers could do "Further Focus, use additional Focus for "Incorporate Plant: Magic Mushrooms"". It is something safe (happening inside of our Forest, far away from any dangerous enemies) and very useful (an additional focus on an action that gets us a non-lethal weapon that penalizes most future rolls of the enemy.

@Robinton
if the same enemy gets hit by Magic Mushrooms based Spores multiple times, does that increase the penality?
 
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Realistically, I'm looking at the fact that they are still kids and it would be nice if they actually did some general well-rounded education study focus.
Huh...
@Robinton
What is the education in Newton Village like, what is the Grimms role in it?
Would them doing work ("additional Focus" level) mean they miss parts of their education, or can they do it besides (or have they already finished the school part and would now gather experiences in apprentice-esque roley?
 
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Buttt, at this point I'm more focused on trying to communicate my idea accurately than argue for it being a good idea.
I rather like this. I think you could do just as much, twice as easily, by ensuring that you can Magically sense the other side of the next portal to open, and making sure that you have studied Astronomy and the Magnetic Field. But I still quite like it!

Also, one potential fix to "people will sense your broadcasting" is actually part of the GPS system IRL. The satellites beam out a signal with a very specific sequence, quietly/weakly enough that it's hard to detect. The sequence is known to the receivers, which pick it out by:
  • What I tell kids / people afraid of math: "the same way you hear your name spoken in a loud room - you're familiar with it."
  • What I tell programmers / nerds: "treat the incoming wave and known pattern both as sequences of -1's and +1's, multiply the two together, and add all the results; keep checking and each time this either gives roughly 0 (no correlation) or a huge positive number (you've got a match!)."
Now, if you asked me how to get direction out of that - then I'd have to start researching (or hope you get a large sensor sphere).

@Robinton, I have two Veil/Light magic mechanics questions, the sort of thing one can check in 20 minutes or less. If the Veil is up and we try to emit some visible light, can we detect that light easily or does it 'vanish' or be hard to perceive?
And if the Veil is up and we emit some visible light, can it be perceived by people we're not connected to?
One addendum to my prior answer: This seems to maybe have a range limit? Or get less effective with distance? It's hard to tell for sure, since you're unable to test from that far away, even with help from Corvids and some clever work on their part trying to count as an enemy of the Forest temporarily. Anyway, most such effects have a range limit or at least get weaker with range - with the exceptions being certain Monster Powers or really high-level stuff - and you don't have reason to believe yours is an exception.

The range would most likely propagate through a Portal unless said portal was specifically warded against it.

Due to their Woohoo origins, I expect very very little of their spy networks to be recoverable in the long term unless their spies are effectively biological robots with a cover identity personality, or we're able to actually turn them and drive them towards redemption, so I am entirely on board with creating our own intelligence assets.
Some aren't entirely willing, and some will work for the highest (or scariest) bidder. But point taken.

I have some questions about Zorn based on the new world map.
A few of those would be self-explanatory if I'd added labels to all continents already... alas. Regardless: only the land above the isthmus is Zorn. The 'south-half minus the islands' still needs a name - but is considerably less dangerous (barring, arguably, the isthmus itself). Not very inhabited yet - it's typically listed as "Deep Wilds" with a few pockets of barely-surviving civilization and the occasional Vampire who dug deep enough to be impractical to destroy - the huge desert across the center doesn't help.

In your first picture: the red line is a death sentence after the halfway mark. The blue line might be survived, but spends too much time close to Zorn for comfort. Black is fine - for a definition of "fine" that includes "yeah, occasionally a boat gets eaten by a sea-serpent."

In your second, you're theoretically proposing trips from the Great Pebble Archipelago (which is actually fairly safe and is about a decade from a land-grab for the last sparsely-settled islands). But the snippet you've captured is actually showing The Spine, which Taschia knows about in theory - via very old maps or asking explorers from the Great Pebble Archipelago, who say "yeah, it's just as dangerous as Zorn. We can get within line-of-sight, but only at great risk, and only because those mountains aren't short."

The massive-and-less-massive pair of islands are typically considered a pseudo-continent together (though technically only the bigger one is actually a continent), and they also need a name. That whole area is (effectively) the only continent on the planet that can be visited but can't directly be visited from Taschia. So your knowledge on the place is primitive at best, and typically a ways out of date - unless somebody's got a magical / high-tech way of transferring knowledge. There was a semi-public domain link set up by a researcher at some point, according to Mr. Tavish, though he has no idea if it's still up or not. Last you checked, the smaller island had two big countries, and the bigger island was in a superficially-similar state to Taschia.

Edit: Known names added to map on Page 1. (Yes I kept a copy of the original. Multiple copies, even.) I'll try to figure out the other two tomorrow.
 
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Let's see, I've got some decision paralysis, so maybe I'll ping the thread;

Do people think we need more work on the armor project, or some kind of economic Ent-Form more?
 
Let's see, I've got some decision paralysis, so maybe I'll ping the thread;

Do people think we need more work on the armor project, or some kind of economic Ent-Form more?
I think that building more Defender Ents or upgrading the one we have is sufficient so armor is better and strenghtening allied two-legs and our Creatures should be done anyway.
 
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... For a terrifyingly short moment I thought we are now in Warhammer Fantasy. Glad to know that we aren't.
Thankfully not.

Soooo good! So amazing. What a spectacular update. Not lying (giggle at that) it really was great.
:) :) :)

The Woo wants to come, they find SORD ready!
Gimli-voice: "Let them come! There is one Tree yet in the Forest that still draws steel!"

What do the out-of-town contacts look like, if there's a pattern at all?
There's a trader who is supposed to be in contact with various places, and uses that to slip along letters everywhere.
There's a hunter who is, likewise, supposed to be out-of-town regularly, who tends to be the direct Woo contact.
The other three seem to have passed along messages as-needed / as-we-get-golden-opportunities.

send Sensing Tree to Talanburg to see why Elves keep dying
Will do, next turn. Though that could also be a write-in (this turn, next turn, etc.) if desired.

This turn might not be an ideal time, since I'm pretty sure the Forest is going to want to hunker down under a solid Shield...
 
Well, I suppose I should start working on my vote. First, though, wow, I didn't do well last turn. Looks like I'm trying to rush things just a bit. So, back to fundamentals.

[X][Action] It seems I need to work more on perfecting my music before I try to infuse it with magic. So, during the chills of winter I will be doing that, trying to find those sounds and combinations thereof that are pleasing to both man, tree, and beast. Hopefully, I will not scare or anger my audience...

(will come back and add more to the vote later...)
 
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we might not catch their agents again if we give them space to develop countermeasures
For the record, you're fairly certain that the Forest will generally trump most foes as far as Mental combat / truthseeking / etc. are concerned. You got lucky - very lucky - but you were always going to figure this thing out eventually, unless the dice just hated you.

Yes they'll come up with countermeasures. Yes you will miss some of those at first. Yes you will be able to break them after you figure out they're present and work on them for a bit.

Does severing magic also bump up offensive options or is that just death?
It should buff any physical or TK attacks, and add a new ranged attack option.

I can't help but wonder if Veritas and to a lesser degree Lie could help with research by simply knowing how true a theory is. It might require higher levels to actually divine the truth from reality itself though.
Huh. Cool idea. I'm ruling +5% from Competent Truth - from knowing your own thoughts more clearly, plus being able to trigger half-forgotten memories in e.g. Mr. Tavish - and no bonus (yet) from Lie (though naturally that should buff Empty Veil).

If you had, say, Transcendent Truth, you could e.g. "try to say a sentence and if you find yourself choking halfway through you're pretty sure it's false." If you had, say, Transcendent Lies, you could lie so well you convince Reality (more or less Reality Warping). Negacion the two... yeah, you'd have a flat-out no-holds-barred Conceptual power at that point.

But, then again, any Transcendent Negacion is pretty much a Conceptual power. That's the point where most of the quest rules / rules of Magic / etc. just decide to politely excuse themselves.

So, it was the answers to four different questions.

I don't exactly remember all the questions, but I think it was approximately as follows:

1. What was that weird pulse we just detected? Answer: TIMEWAVE
2. Why did you ask us to help Sara? Answer: INNOC/POSSIBHERO
3. What is your favorite fruit? Answer: STRAWBERBLUEBER&PINEAPP
4. What's the next threat to us? Answer: CORRUPTION

I'm least sure about question 4. If anyone can find the original question exactly, that would be great.

In any case, Answer 1 is straightforward, but raises additional questions. We keep detecting the Timewave on a very regular, not exactly 24-hour cycle.

Answer 2 suggests that Sara was an innocent in danger, which is a good reason to help her in itself, and also that she's got some possible heroic tendencies or future.

Answer 3 means that of the three elves on the Last Star, one likes strawberries, one likes blueberries, and one likes pineapple best.

Answer 4 means we should be careful about corruption of some kind. Possibly one of the trees has gone dirty on us, and is taking bribes to sell us out to our enemies. Far be it from me to throw around wild accusations, although one tree HAS been researching magic to let it lie effectively. Remember, everyone, constant vigilance. If you see something, telepathically say something.
Those are about the best guesses the Forest could make.

I will confirm the fruit guess as 100% accurate.

No player/player-Tree has, to my (GM) knowledge, actively or passively plotted against the Forest, for whatever that's worth.

Well, Veritas would be good against any corruption that requires deception.
It sure should be, yes.

Y'see, memory manipulation of that level could lead to someone "remembering" something that never actually happened. In other words, they're mind-controlling innocents into becoming their patsies by implanting false memories. (Not to say that at least some of their spies aren't legit traitors, but their spy-net is too pervasive for it to be just that.)
Whoever enchanted the Talanburg operatives seems to have lacked the capacity to implant false memories, as best as you can tell. On the flipside, over half the operatives have several memories buried in their heads permanently out-of-reach - for example, "we tried recruiting you seven times and only figured out how to psychologically break you into truly/permanently agreeing on the seventh try."

You doubt all of those affected would flip to your side, if you revealed the memories in full, but at least two almost certainly would.

...I've never done a Priority vote before. Is that just putting numbers instead of the X, or what?
See the Speaker Vote: TreeQuest: Magitech (Riot Quest)

Basically, put all options you'd even consider, with a number after each. 1 is the best, ∞ as the worst.

Huh. So I'm assuming that why discussion post and the like basically gave me a bunch of boosts for getting started on Lie Magic and most likely lowered the threshold for the Truth/Lie Negacion?
I don't remember the details - but I do remember that your literal attempt was nearly impossible (Negacion without a component part), but you rolled great so you got the next step-and-a-bit on that path, and I already had a background event (bonus) that I'd and wanted to throw in at some point.

[X][Action] Continue with incorporating Fire Magic into our Laser Beams, but this time collaborate with anyone studying Monster Energy in order to make our Laser Flare™ more effective against Monsters and things of Malice.
Oh, I like that. Lasers getting an extra bonus vs. Malice... Yeah, that'll come in handy.

Of course, so would any Sky-Light Magic variant.

I noticed the Sunflower and Clovers options added to the incorporated plants list. Here's a few things I found a while back, but never got the chance to post until now.
Will add to list. (Some are probably not available on your continent.)

@Robinton, here's a short omake about my Tree.
Nice!

Bonus added to this turn's Action (unless you tell me otherwise). Should be basically an auto-success, but a poor enough roll will give you a very small bonus that can be increased to normal values via a (small) project. Or maybe "this works but only if this Tree is micromanaging it," which comes down to the same thing except you can pay an Action to activate it fully before researching it (useful next turn).
 
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I'm not sure if [Advanced Movement] will work towards the unlock
You've already got Competent Movement Magic, so I don't think that would count.
Keep in mind also, for all the numbers, that the stated bonuses typically stack additively with your basic Research bonus.

I would suggest we limit the animal's involvement to the squirrels, corvids and maybe the Lesser Wraith if we can disguise its presence; the use of the larger animals would suggest the elimination against Woohoo's immediately visible patsies. I think that would be a mistake, and that we should focus on finding and quietly subverting the actual agents, which they would have to have somewhere nearby to 'recruit' and manage the patsies.
Wolves are pretty good at advising the Forest on the thoughts of a Pack, so they could (remotely) assist.
But, generally, you have a good point.

... Wait, so Direbat didn't help me study Sound last turn?
It was directed to Watch Talanburg, and did so.

That said, its general-purpose expertise was useful, and will be more-so as the Forest works on the project in question.

On another note, how many actions did I have again as a starting tree? XD
You have 1 action, as does everyone else.
True, as far as the voting is concerned. And almost completely true, period.

The single solitary caveat: Any Tree with a sufficiently absurd level of Write-In bonus eventually starts getting extra Actions - or, more accurately, being able to do write-ins with two parts, each with full attention (or double-down on a single part for 2x progress). Right now, there's literally one such Tree - the Unpredictable Tree.

also how do i evolve again? i would love to do so
See TreeQuest: Magitech (Riot Quest).

At a high-level, your Tree starts out with 2 dice in everything, and can pick 3 upgrades. You have to pick upgrades that you are eligible for, of course. Your votes so far, summarized: 16 Special; 5 Research; 5 Growth; 1 Communication.
Player of interest: Svn0One
[X] Focus on trying to grow different types of nuts for the squirrels
[X] Focus on trying to grow different types of nuts for the squirrels
[X] Research Clever Trees
[X] Research Thorns
[X] Research Thorns
[X] Grow Clever Tree
[X] Reach Out to Minds (Psychic)
[X] Grow Wise Tree
[X] Stress-Test Throwing Spikes (Growth)
[X] Special
[X] Try to figure out how to make exploding seeds
[X] Try to figure out how to make exploding seeds
[X] Grow Lens Tree
[X] Try to figure out how to make nuts that can release certain types of magic
[X] Try to figure out how to make nuts that can release certain types of magic
[X] Try to figure out how to make nuts that can release the magical equivalents to love and kindness
[X] Grow more nuts
[X] Research Growth Magic
[X] Research Vine Shield-Piercing (Magic Research)
[X] try to see if it is possible to create nuts connected via sympathetic magic
[X] Grow Sensing Tree
[X] Work on Communication Nuts
[X] Work on Communication Nuts
[X] Store various kinds of Nuts for future needs
[X] Growth Incorporated
[X] Store various kinds of Nuts for future needs
[X] Store various kinds of Nuts for future needs
You can also count "your vote on the upcoming turn" into any proposed Upgrade...

@Robinton , how many successes would be needed to make the equivalent of a GAU-8 Avenger?
A broken-but-comprehensible example and close to a thousand effective successes, plus the effort of getting all the raw materials for manufacture.

A knockoff, that requires extra maintenance and is partially held together by Magic, though - would be probably a factor of four cheaper. So call it 250 successes.

Of course, there's also the "TreeQuest has Wards/defensive-Magic that IRL doesn't, so we need to figure out how to enchant the bullets for best effect" project. That's entirely separate - probably another 100 successes or so, though that depends tremendously on how impressive/effective you want the result to be.

Welcome!
 
I think that building more Defender Ents or upgrading the one we have is sufficient so armor is better and strenghtening allied two-legs and our Creatures should be done anyway.

I might rephrase a bit; I'm asking if I should look into an economic, I.E. non-combatant Ent.

Like a Gardener Ent that just persistently Grows the Forest, or an Ambassador Ent that just tries to Connect to new animal types.
They'd probably still be capable of fighting just due to being able to punch things, I'm just noticing a lack in our overall economy growth.
 
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