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Knight of Dandriss: Stone and Steel

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Lailoken said:
It's a trap!

I just realized that this choice is being presented when any natural birth is going to mean gestating the fetus with the nightmare cube on. @Academia Nut you sneaky bastard.

We really should have pursued our most promising ally sooner.
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This came up in chat within two minutes of the nightmare cube being stuck in the "on" setting, according to my timestamps.

...I should be more diligent about pasting chat bits into here after AcademiaNut actually talks. There's nothing too exciting, though.

[2016-05-19 12:31:57] <E3> oh, Hey AcademiaNut
[2016-05-19 12:32:12] <E3> At least only a few people voted Flesh
[2016-05-19 12:32:17] <AcademiaNut> 'allo 'allo
[2016-05-19 12:32:18] <E3> so you don't have to MASSIVELY SELF-CENSOR
[2016-05-19 12:32:34] <AcademiaNut> This update is going to be considerably weirder
[2016-05-19 12:32:37] <E3> Well
[2016-05-19 12:32:43] <E3> we did roll two botches in a row on Nightmare Cube
[2016-05-19 12:32:58] <E3> we got out of the consequences of the first through partying hard
[2016-05-19 12:33:06] <E3> And yoyoing in and out of this state can't possibly be good for us
[2016-05-19 12:34:53] <AcademiaNut> Some people are probably going to be mad at one of the traits picked up, but this is basically a double botch
[2016-05-19 12:35:07] <E3> If it's insanity I'm going to be -happy-
[2016-05-19 12:35:08] <E3> :3
[2016-05-19 12:35:40] <AcademiaNut> No, but its going to get certain people who were opposed to the Nightmare Cube really angry
[2016-05-19 12:36:08] <E3> Ah, easy come easy go
[2016-05-19 12:36:14] <E3> >KEEP USING NIGHTMARE CUBE
[2016-05-19 12:40:17] <Ironybot> [x] Nightmare cube forever
[2016-05-19 12:40:29] <Ironybot> -[x] When willpower is high enough, graft psyker brain tissue into ourselves
[2016-05-19 12:41:28] <E3> Seems like a totally reasonable solution
[2016-05-19 12:41:33] <AcademiaNut> Hehehehe
[2016-05-19 12:41:41] <AcademiaNut> Update up, and guess what?
[2016-05-19 12:42:02] <E3> Oh man
[2016-05-19 12:42:09] <E3> We actually CAN'T turn it off. That's gonna b efun
[2016-05-19 12:42:13] <E3> Well hey
[2016-05-19 12:42:19] <E3> What's the worst that could happen?
[2016-05-19 12:42:38] <Ironybot> Our children are born insane because the nightmare cube affected them during pregnancy?
[2016-05-19 12:42:46] <E3> I mean it's not gonna be that hard to make sand
[2016-05-19 12:42:54] <E3> the UAMs can turn out silicates and stuff easy peasy
[2016-05-19 12:44:28] <AcademiaNut> Oh yeah, making sand is easy, but you're going to have to pursue a project to find release
[2016-05-19 12:44:46] <AcademiaNut> Also, I was writing cosmic horror of a human in a human shopping mall
[2016-05-19 12:44:50] <AcademiaNut> Not easy
[2016-05-19 12:45:11] <E3> George Ramero sends his sympathies.
[2016-05-19 12:45:19] <E3> Romero*
[2016-05-19 12:46:02] <AcademiaNut> It's admittedly also showing off the alienness of the people of Dandriss
[2016-05-19 12:46:06] <E3> hehe
[2016-05-19 12:46:15] <E3> Eclipse Phase themes incoming.
[2016-05-19 12:46:35] <E3> But man, this definitely isn't just some kind of neurological stimulation
[2016-05-19 12:46:49] <AcademiaNut> Nope
[2016-05-19 12:47:07] <AcademiaNut> Two botches in a row make that pretty damn clear
[2016-05-19 12:47:10] <E3> Anna, what did you put in our head :(
[2016-05-19 12:47:28] <E3> If we botch a few more times we're probably going to see Mirande early.
[2016-05-19 12:47:38] <AcademiaNut> Nah
[2016-05-19 12:47:42] <E3> No?
[2016-05-19 12:47:46] <E3> I always assumed she'd be the warning flag
[2016-05-19 12:47:49] <E3> that shit has completely hit the fan
[2016-05-19 12:48:02] <E3> If she shows up, you know you're in waaaay over your head.
[2016-05-19 12:48:10] <E3> I guess that means she's not living in the Spook Zone.
[2016-05-19 12:48:16] <E3> Data Mining successful.
[2016-05-19 12:48:17] <E3> Muahaha
[2016-05-19 12:48:18] <AcademiaNut> I'm objecting to a specific clause of what you said
[2016-05-19 12:48:27] <E3> oh god not another mathematician's answer
[2016-05-19 12:48:39] <E3> "Is the glass half empty or half full?"
[2016-05-19 12:48:40] <Ironybot> Seeing Mirande instead of dying quietly to the horrors you're facing seems like critfail->critsuccess material, not critfail->critfail.
[2016-05-19 12:48:40] <E3> "No."
[2016-05-19 12:48:46] <E3> XD
[2016-05-19 12:48:55] <E3> I'm still assuming she's Draigo-ing it up somewhere nearby
[2016-05-19 12:49:04] <E3> and if you witness her you've DUG TOO DEEP
[2016-05-19 12:49:59] <E3> but seriously, lol at "NO TREES!"
[2016-05-19 12:50:13] <E3> from OOC that's just a little bit hilarious
[2016-05-19 12:52:52] <Ironybot> It's a little weird that Dandriss doesn't have sand, or sand analogues, to me. Things breaking down into particulate matter seems like something that would be more likely to happen rather than less in its hostile environment... unless, I guess, anytime something breaks down into particulates the firestorms naturally fuse them together/onto other objects?
[2016-05-19 12:53:51] <AcademiaNut> There's all sorts of particulate matter but its all mixed together with biological stuff. The closest thing to sand they have is leaf debris, which is of course made of razor sharp shards of glass and diamond and metal
[2016-05-19 12:54:29] <AcademiaNut> Also, yes, I was deliberately pastiching some of the sillier aspects of Lovecraft with the "No trees!" thing
[2016-05-19 12:54:51] <Ironybot> So basically the reason they have no sand is because there are no surface-level rocks?
[2016-05-19 12:55:13] <AcademiaNut> No, the trees ate them all millions of years ago
[2016-05-19 12:55:23] <AcademiaNut> The entire planet down to the mantle is trees
[2016-05-19 12:55:44] <AcademiaNut> The trees also tap the mantle for energy
[2016-05-19 12:56:21] <AcademiaNut> Someone from a more terrestrial world would probably have a similar freak out if abruptly exposed to the ecosystem of Dandriss
[2016-05-19 12:56:30] <E3> Well yeah
[2016-05-19 12:56:38] <E3> To be fair though the humanity on Dandriss isn't THAT inhuman.
[2016-05-19 12:56:42] <E3> ... Just give it a few centuries.
[2016-05-19 12:56:52] <Ironybot> Well, people have been known to freak out when exposed to drastically different environments on Earth, so.
[2016-05-19 12:57:03] <E3> Man people can't even handle big cities for the first time sometimes
[2016-05-19 12:57:37] <AcademiaNut> Open sky can unnerve people in planes on Dandriss since they basically grow up surrounded by nothing but skyscrapers
[2016-05-19 12:58:34] <Ironybot> That will become less an issue as we get more advanced muses with VR, I suppose.
[2016-05-19 13:00:04] <Ironybot> Even false exposure to drastically different environments can help a lot and there's incentive to ensure it happens given that no one likes a twitchy military. Anna is probably already dreaming of invading space, and that would be even worse.
[2016-05-19 13:00:10] <AcademiaNut> Yeah. Still, everyone lives in what amounts of nuclear bunkers their whole lives
[2016-05-19 13:00:40] <AcademiaNut> At least with space you have somewhat similar stringency in terms of environmental seals and the dangers of the outside universe
[2016-05-19 13:01:43] <Ironybot> Sure, but it's different triggers. Ella had both "open space" and "everything is fragile and broken" hitting her in the dream; space doesn't have the latter but it doubles down pretty heavily on the former.
[2016-05-19 13:02:20] <AcademiaNut> Yeah
[2016-05-19 13:02:57] <AcademiaNut> Part of it is of course the abrupt and unexpected exposure
[2016-05-19 13:03:25] <AcademiaNut> Especially in a planetary context. Ella's first thought wasn't exactly "No trees" but "What the fuck could *do* this to the trees?"
[2016-05-19 13:07:02] <Ironybot> Yeah, the shortlist of things she has that could wipe out trees out to line of sight distance such that there would be no visible surface-level evidence of them pretty much consists of... planetary heavy bombardment.
[2016-05-19 13:07:39] <Ironybot> And she was in a super-fragile building which obviously hadn't suffered that.
[2016-05-19 13:10:52] <AcademiaNut> Basically her common sense was telling her that this image was violently impossible and could not be
[2016-05-19 13:19:05] |<-- AcademiaNut has left quakenet (Quit: Page closed)
[2016-05-19 17:44:27] <George> mirande early thing could've been 'wizards are never either early or late'
[2016-05-19 18:11:17] <veekieislurking> Gained Trait: Obsessive Stressor (cannot lose Stressed trait or turn off Nightmare Cube until obsession fulfilled)
[2016-05-19 18:11:18] <veekieislurking> whups
[2016-05-19 18:11:27] <George> yeah, can't really be planned around
[2016-05-19 18:11:41] <George> 1% tops; 10 or less on 2 rolls in a row
[2016-05-19 18:11:44] <veekieislurking> so who was saying we couldn't really be hurt by this :p
[2016-05-19 18:11:53] <George> Powerofmind
[2016-05-19 18:11:57] <George> it's powerofmind's fault
[2016-05-19 18:12:12] <George> coulda had the pedagogy implant :p
[2016-05-19 18:22:20] <veekieislurking> as if we can ever turn down...
[2016-05-19 18:22:23] <veekieislurking> the power of mind
[2016-05-19 18:22:24] <veekieislurking> :p
 
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Multiple routine posters were aware of this, and nobody mentioned it. Shenanigans! I call shenanigans!

I am also growing less and less pleased with important information being moved out of the thread and into perishable format.
 
Lailoken said:
It's okay. As far as we've been told, the important thing is that Ella selects a candidate. The Baron wants to be selected for the sake of his own aspirations. The child just seals the deal, and beyond that is superfluous. If Ella makes it known that she conceived and perhaps birthed the child, but then something unfortunate happened before the child had a chance to tear a screaming rent into the fabric of reality, well, everybody already has what they want and knew going in that natural conception had a higher risk of complications.

We should first name her after grandma, of course.
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I'd say great grandma, personally.
 
Lailoken said:
Well, of course. We're just going to get rid of the kid after we have what we want instead of pouring our extremely limited number of personal actions into raising the twisted little monster into an existential liability, right?

...right?
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Ha.

Ha.

Ha.



Our future.
 
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Since I expect AN to throw a curveball at us in some way, and he said we won't see Mirande early.

With that in mind, I think Mirande is dead/dying.

Of course, being Mirande, she's probably also The Avatar and going to be reborn at some point.
 
"Mommy, where do babies come from?"

"Well, sometimes, when a woman is the terrorized thrall of her wicked grandmother's eldritch artifact and a man wants a nuclear airbase very much..."​
 
SuperSonicSound said:
Nomadic roving state is basically a failure state. It's better than being wiped out completely but it's straight up worse than fixed infrastructure.
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That's not necessarily the case when all resources are evenly spread around the planet, there's interesting biodiversity if you go out deep into the woods, and traditional trade is difficult/dangerous. (Not to mention if the threat of Orbital Bombardment is still there. Being able to hide/take canopy cover is a big plus).
 
Ekans Ekans Ekans said:
That's not necessarily the case when all resources are evenly spread around the planet, there's interesting biodiversity if you go out deep into the woods, and traditional trade is difficult/dangerous. (Not to mention if the threat of Orbital Bombardment is still there. Being able to hide/take canopy cover is a big plus).
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Let's say it is a failure state until the tech has progressed far enough that living location does not really matter anymore.
Not something reachable in decades, probably not even in centuries.
 
tenchifew said:
Let's say it is a failure state until the tech has progressed far enough that living location does not really matter anymore.
Not something reachable in decades, probably not even in centuries.
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It's probably reachable within this century. We already have pretty good mech designs. AN said in IRC before the game started that it'd be a functional model, though we might catch some heat for siphoning resources into it until the project was fully up and running.
 
Lailoken said:
Multiple routine posters were aware of this, and nobody mentioned it. Shenanigans! I call shenanigans!

I am also growing less and less pleased with important information being moved out of the thread and into perishable format.
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It was a single comment that no one replied to. I'd seen those from IRC and I still had to read through the logs twice to notice it since AN didn't say anything about it, so I really wouldn't say many people were 'aware' of it. Ironybot could've brought it up sooner, though I don't actually know who that is on the forums.
Yeah I'd be happier if AN answered questions here instead of there but he doesn't seem to want to. Even with my going on IRC I think I'd prefer not having the questions answered to them only being answered there.
Lailoken said:
Well, of course. We're just going to get rid of the kid after we have what we want instead of pouring our extremely limited number of personal actions into raising the twisted little monster into an existential liability, right?

...right?
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I can get behind that if we're actually told about a problem. There is still a little hope we'll resolve the stressor and turn off the cube before gestation is really underway.
 
Next Up on: What The Fuck Is Wrong With Dandriss
  • Preemptive infanticide! Of your own children!
  • Everything wants to kill you.
  • Obsessive supernatural masochism!
  • Everything wants to kill you. Twice.
  • Nuking trees into orbit!
  • Everything still wants to kill you.
  • Torturing infants with sensory deprivation... while slowly killing them with brain cancer!
  • Everything is still in the process of trying to murderize you.
  • And you thought heroin withdrawal was bad!
  • Be thankful most of the things that want you dead aren't intelligent enough to fantasize.
  • Dragons! Made out of your brain!
  • If you're unlucky, you might hold on to sanity long enough to scream.
 
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7.3
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    • [X] Natural conception and gestation (Mech squadron topped off to full, Military influence expended refunded, increased chance of fulfilling baron's ambitions later, chance of annoying the baron's wife, chance of failing to conceive this year, chance of complications)
    [X] Have the ex-nomads focus on working with the trading post to bring in more exotic goods (+1 Science Influence, retroactive)

    Pregnancy Checks (41, 66 -> 61)
    Success (1d1-> 1-> Male)
    Annoyance Check (Cha+Intr) 25 + 26 - 5 Needed extra time = 46
    Acceptance
    Rail Patrol (97)
    Checkpoint (21)
    Diamond Dome (99)
    Belters (24)
    Intrigue Sweep (Int+Intr) 95 + 23 = 118
    DD Diplomacy (Cha+Intr) 86 + 26 = 112

    Taking some time to think things over and consult with others, Ella agreed to the reproduction contract. In the time it would take her system to switch over from the contraceptives to the fertility treatments, she would meet with Malcolm and his wife and get everything sorted out. The extra clauses in the contract soon enough had Malcolm's wife Ava having monitoring rights, which was weird and awkward but Ella wasn't exactly a prude to get completely shut down by such an arrangement.

    As this negotiation was being done, Ella was also paying attention to the diplomatic goings on of the world. It soon enough came back that one of the less populated hub cities already within the Belter's general sphere of influence would be made their new home for their few surviving civilians. There were also cooperation treaties being hammered out. The biggest news for Ella and Razorleaf Meadows was however what was being done with Diamond Dome. While a cure was incoming within the year, with an artificial alternative proven to be able to at least stave off withdrawal even if it had some obnoxious side effects, the people of the region were at least free of that scourge, but Anna simply did not have the resources to do the economic redevelopment she had originally planned. The region was not going to be entirely abandoned - soldiers would be stationed over the hub city to man AAA if nothing else - but it was going to more or less be left to rot on the vine.

    However, if any local groups with the resources to develop it were to do so even under war time constraints, well, Anna would look rather favourably upon them for consideration as to who got command of the region. Although a noble that bankrupted themselves and couldn't really contribute to any fighting would be a bit lower down on the list than a more involved person.

    Minimum:
    Garrison (0/4 infantry units)
    Economic ties (0/1 trade caravans to Diamond Dome)
    Rebel/raider groups pacified (0/3)

    Bonus:
    Local groups supportive (PARTIALLY)
    Foundry built (0/1)
    0 Military Influence contributed to greater polity

    Reward: Gain Landed Title (County of Diamond Dome)
    Failure Penalty: None
    Time to Check: End of Year 12

    The implication was clear: unlike last year, Anna was now willing to consider giving Ella Diamond Dome if she could prove that she could do something with it - although part of that was because she was now too distracted to do anything with it herself. The projections of what would be needed were clear, but also would be punitive to prove that Ella could actually do it. She wasn't sure if she was up to the challenge, but she could probably ensure that she was actually in the running for the job, but just barely.

    Fortunately that also meant that her outreach to the other communities on the ring came at an opportune time. While it was obvious that the majority of Green Owl forces were going to be withdrawing from the region and thus those who might want to take advantage of the situation had a freer hand, the big demand from all of the communities was clear: they wanted weaponry they could use to defend themselves from the Mantis. The treaties being drawn up would allow sales of such things as AAA, but if any of the groups in the region decided to turn those guns against each other or Green Owl, it would get ugly quickly. Of course Ella couldn't really deny them access to the markets, but she had to figure out how to leverage the funds being raised and loans being taken out for heavy weaponry purchases.

    Ella would leverage this via...
    [] Generating Economic Influence
    [] Generating Military Influence
    [] Securing Loyalties

    As she was working on how to best work the situation, she received an urgent communication from her security forces. They had a major lead on the mayor having a serious cache of Reaver artifacts within the settlement, but something was spooking them about the whole thing, but they couldn't really explain what beyond an uneasy feeling that they had somehow missed something important. They wanted authorization to go either hard or fast on making the bust.

    Ella would authorize...
    [] Go hard (Additional forces called up to maximize force and containment)
    [] Go fast (Surprise maximized)
    [] Follow protocol (Assuming no critical unknowns, least chance of catastrophic screw up)

    AN: Weirdly uninspired, but the next update will contain more weight and should hopefully be within the next 20 hours
     
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