Adhoc vote count started by DangerKitty on Jun 7, 2020 at 11:46 PM, finished with 6 posts and 5 votes.
[X]Wolfpack+Arland
-[X] summon 3 medium summons (9 mana) to act as a wolfpack to open up enemies for Arland (taking low risk for the summons and Arland to get the most out of this)
--[X] support with spells from behind
--[X] summon a bat as a small summon (1 mana) to warn you when enemies are closing in
---[X]Summon more if really needed
---[X]Sip on magically conjured tea as you have your summons fight as long as the situation isn't too dangerous (hydration is important)
[X]Let Arland take the lead.
--[X]If he gets overwhelmed make sure to save his butt through use of overwhelming firepower.
----[X]If you do, make sure to never let him forget about it.
[X] Sip tea and watch, while cheering and proving 'moral support'
--[X] Make sure to have a wall of summoned meatshields between you and any potential threats at all times.
----[X] They can also provide emotional support to Arland.
You believe it likely to by goblins led by stronger monster. You share your concern with Arland, whom points out that it's your turn to take the lead, but he will defer to you.
[]Wolfpack+Arland
-[] summon 3 medium summons (9 mana) to act as a wolfpack to open up enemies for Arland (taking low risk for the summons and Arland to get the most out of this)
--[] support with spells from behind
--[] summon a bat as a small summon (1 mana) to warn you when enemies are closing in
---[]Summon more if really needed
---[]Sip on magically conjured tea as you have your summons fight as long as the situation isn't too dangerous (hydration is important)
You do not expect much trouble. The goblins obviously have some semblance of tactics but their general power should not be enough to truly press you.
"I think rather than me taking them on alone, we should see how well we work together. You take point and my summons will support you." You inform him as you summon 3 Spectral Wolves into existence.
They trot up to Arland, who gives them a wary eye," After yesterday and today I'm liable to run out of mana at this pace. How likely are your abominations to turn on us if you lose concentration?" he asks.
You smile, it is a fair question after all. The infamous issue with summons is that many a caster have died when they inevitably lose concentration while controlling them. That's not an issue for you however," They won't, in fact I don't need to concentrate at all to maintain them." You say haughtily, at his look you continue," We can talk about it later, if you are curious. For now just focus on fighting and do not use your magic. Save it for later. Let me Strut my stuff." You laugh. Arland just nods in response. Spoilsport, you think as you summon a spectral bat to watch your back.
You all continue through the dungeon as you conjure a magical tea for you to drink. It has no nutritious value, but you do find it soothing. Then one of your dogs lets out a bark right before something gets thrown at your party. It is quickly followed by whistling arrows. Projectiles you were expecting, a smoke bomb you were not. Your eyebrows raise as you duck an arrow that whistles at your head. Unfortunately your bat isn't as lucky as a bolt rips through its body and splatters little bits of ectoplasm on you. Another arrow whistles right into your ches— and is deflected away by your teacup, which shatters. After the volley ends you see that Arland has easily deflected his portion of the volley and that one of your wolves has an arrow sticking out of its ectoplasmic haunch.
Then a small horde of goblins and young wargs burst through the smoke and clash with your frontline. However they prove to be far too weak to even dream of contesting with the combined might of your party, despite the fact they carry gear. Arland even without his magic is still a force to be reckoned with; his shield and mace wielded with complete and utter precision. The few gaps in his defenses left by his lack of magic are more than made up for by your summons. You instruct them to help and fight with Arland, and that they do. Two of the wolves block off the wargs and goblins from surrounding them in the relatively narrow hallway. The third softens targets up for Arland or provides relief. You see it tear a shield right out of the hands of a particularly stout goblin as Arland slams the Edge of his shield right into the goblins face even as his mace splinters the skull of another.
You concern yourself with first dispersing the smoke with a powerful gust of wind. It does little to disturb the battle that your frontline is engaged in, however it opens up your sight to the two goblins whom you see are already nocking their bows yet again. Before they can loose their arrows you speak a few arcane words of power and spear them both with a single earthen spear. That done you summon another bat to replace the one you lost as you watch the battle with the goblins play out. There are only a few left and the battle is swiftly coming to a close. As your spell finishes you hardly have a second to regret expending mana to get your bat back into play into a completed battle when it lets out a sharp cry. You whirl around and see a huge lumbering hobgoblin with a club and three adult battle-scarred wargs coming around the corner your party came from.
You shoot out a fan of flames to keep the wargs away as they begin to run at you and shout a warning to Arland and call back two of your wolves to your aid. Then you are set upon by fang and claw. However you would not have lived this long if you were utterly helpless in melee combat. You twist and weave through their fangs and deflect the hobgoblins club with a large shard of compact ice you have summoned to you hand. However just because your aren't helpless does not mean you are proficient, by the time your two wolves reach you and join the fray you have a gash in your side where a warg managed to bite you, though you took its life in return with your makeshift dagger.
Now that you have a bit more space to breathe as your wolves take your place on the frontline you begin to cast spells again. However the wargs prove too nimble to be caught by your earth spikes and the hobgoblin smashes them with his club as they rise from the earth. Irate you return to a magic that is more favored by you, though more mana intensive, lightning bolts. Your first bolt flings a warg down the narrow hall and into the hob goblin who catches it. However, the there is a significant imbalance between your wolves and the enemy. It is too much and the hobgoblin too strong, the warg you kill had just finished tearing apart one of your summons and the hobgoblin uses it to turn your other wolf into an ectoplasmic stain on the dull stone floor.
You have lasted long enough however, and Arland has arrived to the battle with your other wounded wolf in tow. From there the battle progresses much more smoothly. Arland and your wolf kill the hobgoblin as your kill the final warg with another bolt of magical lightning. As the last monster dies, you breathe a sigh of relief as you sit against the wall and inspect your wound. Its not as bad as you thought but it could be much worse.
Relationship check Arland: 0. Coworkers. Pass! Hp restored.
Arland comes over and insists on inspecting your wound. You offer some polite resistance but accept his help as he mutters a divine spell and heals your wound. You begin to speak but Arland tells you to save it for later. Afterwards you both look around a bit to make sure the area is clear and find that the entrance to the next floor is close by. As Arland begins setting up the camp you realize you have some time before the two of you settle in for the night. You could dissect one of the creatures around you, or perhaps find out where they came from and investigate their camp. This was a very unusual encounter for a first floor fight, and you want answers. However, you also need to prepare for the second floor tomorrow. To which extent you could regain your mana, or perhaps create some spell scrolls for use tomorrow.
Surprise attack Roll: Dc 13-3 for knowing an attack is coming. New Dc10: Roll(s). 7. Moderate failure.
First Skirmish Roll: DC13-2 for arland with no magic, -3 one per wolf, -2 for your backup. New DC6: Roll(s). Your party rolls 19. Crushing success. -1Mana. 14/25 mana.
Do you notice the other party sneaking up behind you? Rolls. bat summon autosuccess. -1 mana. 13/25 mana
Close combat Roll: Dc:15-3 enemy caught by surprise-2Per wolf +2 for close combat. New DC: 12. Roll: 5. Major Failure. -1 mana (Reduced by one for efficient Caster.). 12/25 mana. -2 hp, 13/15.
Second Skirmish Roll: DC:15-2 for arland -1 for your wolf. -4 for your backup. New Dc: 8. 18. Crushing success. -2mana (Reduced by two for Efficient Caster). 10/25 mana.
Ending total mana: 25-14= 10 mana.
Votes: You have 4 actions. Plan format please.
[] investigate the corpses of the goblins.
-[]Dissect them? (allows you to summon selected creature. Also may provide certain insights.)
--[] What creature? (Small creatures available. goblin, young wargs. Medium creatures available, Adult wargs. Large Creatures available, Hobgoblin.)
[] Investigate and find their home base. They came out to fight you in force, so there is likely nearly no one there anymore and you may find some clues as to why this party was so strong. May also find treasure.
[] meditate: accelerates mana regeneration. Mana +5 (You will restore 10 mana by sleeping)
[] prepare some spell scrolls for the dungeon tomorrow (1 action per scroll) (Note, you will get a chance to do some of this later.)
-[] What spell? You may imbue them with a summon, an elemental attack of some kind (a supercharged lightning bolt. A flame wall, a poisonous fog, ect) , or pehaps just raw mana to give yourself an on the go recharge? Do note that creating scrolls does cost mana.
[X] Plan Harvesting The Gains
-[X] investigate the corpses of the goblins.
--[X]Dissect them? (allows you to summon selected creature. Also may provide certain insights.)
---[X] Hobgoblin
-[X] investigate the corpses of the goblins.
--[X]Dissect them? (allows you to summon selected creature. Also may provide certain insights.)
---[X] Adult Wargs
-[X] meditate: accelerates mana regeneration. Mana +5 (You will restore 10 mana by sleeping)
-[X] Investigate and find their home base. They came out to fight you in force, so there is likely nearly no one there anymore and you may find some clues as to why this party was so strong. May also find treasure.
You see it tear a shield right out [of] the hands of a particularly stout goblin as Arland slams the Edge of his shield right into the goblins face even as his mace splinters the skull of another.
If you wish to then i would reccomend specifying that in the plan.
Also how was my action scene writing. After sleeping on it, theres some stuff i think i could have done better but im open to reviews and critiques. Trying to improve and all that.
If you wish to then i would reccomend specifying that in the plan.
Also how was my action scene writing. After sleeping on it, theres some stuff i think i could have done better but im open to reviews and critiques. Trying to imprpve akd all that.
aight ima call the vote closed for now since there is no discussion atm. next update will probably come either tomorrow or friday. cus tomorrow's my birthday so my family prob gonna be taking up a lot of my time.
Apologies for the delay, my family and work is taking up a lot of my time rhe last few days. Ive already started the update, but i dont think ill have time to finish it till sunday. I dont think ive got any more life events until the 4th of july after my birthday party tommorrow. So im hoping updates will become more regular soon. Apologies.
[] Plan Harvesting The Gains
-[] investigate the corpses of the goblins.
--[]Dissect them? (allows you to summon selected creature. Also may provide certain insights.)
---[] Hobgoblin
-[] investigate the corpses of the goblins.
--[]Dissect them? (allows you to summon selected creature. Also may provide certain insights.)
---[] Adult Wargs
-[] meditate: accelerates mana regeneration. Mana +5 (You will restore 10 mana by sleeping)
-[] Investigate and find their home base. They came out to fight you in force, so there is likely nearly no one there anymore and you may find some clues as to why this party was so strong. May also find treasure.
Well you have much and more that you want to do before you settle in for the night, so you had best make sure your mana is ready for any nasty surprises. That fight had drained much more out of you than you were expecting, because you hadn't prepared properly. You would not let that happen again. But for now you have work to do.
You sit down cross legged and begin to meditate and reach out with your senses, the dungeon is absolutely filled with mana of many elements. It is thick and fairly earthy, slowly you begin to draw it into yourself as you feel the mana flow through your surroundings. You can feel the divine mana from the alarm wards Arland is placing down, the earth from the walls and the air mana drifting in the air. The mana bends to your will and soon you have had as much as you can take, it is dangerous to draw in too much ambient mana in one sitting. You could take a small break and continue, but you have things that need to be done. With a grunt, you get up and head to the corpses from the fight you had earlier.
You look over the assorted mess of monsters and pick one of the adult wargs and drag them to a bit of a cleaner spot. It didn't seem to be the strongest, but it is in the best condition as it is the one you speared in the skull with a chunk of ice. Silently you pick up a rock and morph it into a scalpel. You wouldn't use something like this on a live patient, but it's just fine for a dead monster. Slowly you open it up and take a look inside. As you are going through its guts you quickly get a grasp of its body makeup, as it is quite similar to other canines though a bit more muscular than the majority of them. In addition you find something interesting. There seems to be an organ that is more magical in nature. It appears to make them more servile to their masters as well as enhance communication between them. Your summons are completely loyal to you so the former is useless, but the latter...
Summon gained: Warg (Medium Summon: A mutated wolf monster. Similar in strength to wolves, but due tend to work better as a pack due to their slightly magical nature. +1 to group strength when fighting in a pack of three or more.)
"I see the rumors are true." You hear Arland speak with dissatisfaction. You look behind you and see him leaning against the wall," Is there a particular reason you are doing that?" he continues.
"I'm seeing whether this creature was born in the dungeon or not. Also it allows me to summon the creature." You explain to him as you turn back to your task.
Arland keeps staring at you," I don't see why the former matters or how the second relates to your summoning. I know from the rumors it is, but I would like to hear the true reason from you." He states.
"Well I'm glad you are at least open to conversation. That is more than I can say for most of your kind," You say in appreciation," But let us start from the beginning."
You move on to the hobgoblin and begin dissecting it to Arlands dismay. You hear him muttering something like he should have waited longer. You ignore him as you continue," I am trying to see if these creatures were born in the dungeon because if they were not then that means that this floor was not supposed to be this strong and we can continue since the future floors should be much easier. If they are dungeon born then we should leave because the future floors should become exponentially more difficult."
Arland nods," yeah, if the dungeon started out this hard then we would be in for a rough time. I'm sure we could handle it if we played our cards right though. So what did you find out?"
"Well, they seem to not be born in the dungeon. So good news there. As for your other question, first allow me one of my own. How does your magic work."
He takes a second to think about it," Well I just make a prayer to my god thinking of what I want him to do, he demands an offering of my mana and then it just happens."
That's about what you expected him to say, at least he is not dodging your questions," And when you make your prayer you just think something along the lines of "heal this person" or "restore his wounds" right?," When he nods you take that as a que to continue," Well first off the basic difference between your divine magic and my mortal magic is that your god handles the spell casting required to grant your wish, whereas I cannot do something if I do not know the spell or formula that will give me the effect I want. While that does mean that your divine magic is capable of miracles, because no mortal could ever match the spell knowledge of the gods; it does mean that someone who practices divine magic does not tend to understand how complex of a spell they are asking their god for and thus tends to ending up asking for a more complex spell than what they actually need for the situation." As you drone on you notice Arland get more intrigued but also a bit confused.
"And what does that have to do with you dissecting corpses?"
"Well everything really. For example, when you healed the gash in my side, do you understand what was involved in that? You restored fat and flesh. You mended broken bone and split skin. Yet I find it unlikely you thought at all about how complex what you were doing actually was. That is why healing magic is often associated with divine magic. It is extraordinarily complex and the magical formula would likely be unique to every injury and every person as well. When I was traveling with the hero he showed me how complex healing actually is and I experimented with Minthia, the priest of the party. We found that and understanding of what you were asking for and being more specific in your prayer to your god of what you wanted him to do actually made those divine spells much more mana efficient and effective as well." You are about to continue talking about those experiments when you notice that Arland seems to have gone deathly still.
"Are you saying that Minthia actually participated in this desecration of the dead on actual people?" He says in a tone far more serious than you have ever heard from him before.
You have a feeling that maybe you shouldn't have mentioned your work with her, "She watched and learned, but she did not actually touch the corpses."
Arland closes his eyes and quietly mutters," So I suppose you took these lessons and applied it to summoning magic. Studying creature's bodies to make the summons more powerful, mana efficient and closer to the real thing?" He asks. You are surprised he was able to grasp where you were going with it so quickly.
"Yes. I also gave such a long winded explanation to try and get you to think about how you cast your magic." You say as you finish inspecting the body. It was also not a creature made by the dungeon.
Summon gained: Hobgoblin (Large Summon: One of the possible evolutions for a goblin. Big and strong, hobgoblins tend to be hunter-warriors for their groups and are unexpectedly good at sneak attacks despite their large size. +1 to strength when fighting a surprised enemy.)
As you get up and wipe your hands clean you hear him say," You indeed have given me much to think about. Excuse me." You hear him say softly. You are coming to recognize that he talks quitter when he is angry.
You know that you are pushing him. This will likely end up with him developing a strong opinion about you one way or another. You believe it for the best however, your decades of experience with the church have taught you that when you let church members formulate an opinion without your influence it tends to be negative. Sometimes extremely so. You will follow up with him later, but you have things you need to do and it would be best to let him chew on that for a little bit before you continue.
You need to get to the bottom of the mystery behind the goblin group and the next place for you to look would be their camp. You have yet to find it but you don't think it will take long. You follow the tracks that the goblins left in their wake. You follow their traces through winding passageways until the passage way turns more cave-like. The small uniform stone hallways slowly turn to rough paths of dirty and rock. You are a decent ways away when you finally happen upon their lair.
It is a wide gash in the stone that looks like it opens up to a decent sized cavern. You see a single goblin with a spear sleepily keeping guard. Using magic to allow you to see in the dark you see that the cavern beyond is quite empty. You see little besides a pair of old goblins with fat yet frail bodies talking worriedly. You suppose that the hunting party has been gone for too long. After watching for a bit you determine that it seems that there are two to three warrior goblins in the camp, including the one keeping a very poor watch on the entrance and a few goblins that are either infirm or seem to be some sort of crafters. You see what seems to be one goblin shaman who is acting as the leader. He seems agitated and is assembling an scouting party out of what few weaklings he has left.
Vote: How do you attack the camp? Plan vote. Thank you for reading. Advice and critiques are welcome.
I have not imposed a hard limit on summons however as you are aware, your mana is limited and you will only gain 10 mana from sleeping tonight. As well as storing spells will cost mana (though the cost will be reduced). Do remember that summons are not your only option though if you are at a loss. You have a lot of spells at your finger tips. Get creative, if something is beyond your abilities i will tell you. Also dont forget you arent helpless in a hand to hand fight as proven last update.
providing a notice. I think i'm going to axe this quest. There are a good amount of reasons for this but i feel like a big portion of it comes down to me doing things a bit wrong. i feel like this is more of a choose your own adventure book and i have failed to enable player agency well enough. this is partly shown by how beyond the first character building vote, there has been no discussion or split in the votes since then really and since that vote participating members have dwindled off. i believe this to have happened for a variety of issues such as my lack of skill as a writer, but i also think it is because of that player agency issue. there are more issues, but in essence i'm axing this because i believe i have failed to create an actual quest or at the very least a properly engaging one.
i think i might make this a game first instead of a quest first. So im not giving up on the story that this was going to be, but rather im going to make it in a form that i believe would fit it more naturally. to that extent i have a question:
From what you have seen of this story so far, what do you think it should be?
[]An RPG
[]A visual novel
[]A text based adventure game
[]something other (Platformer? dating sim? what?)
i'm not giving up on writing though. I started this to practice my writing skill and i still intend to do that. I have just chosen to do so in a way that i think would make for a better quest. i think i'm going to make either a xianxia quest or a fantasy monster POV quest. perhaps even an monster POV quest in an xianxia world. Mostly because i have been into these a lot lately and i enjoy participating in them. So i want to try my hand at doing them especially since they lend themselves much better to player agency. i understand if you are disappointed and are not interested in these. i understand, they are fairly "in" right now so you might have all you can stomach of those genres you want. so i'm offering a seperate vote for those who are interested in sticking with me and my shoddy writing.
What would you prefer to see?
[]A Standard Xianxia (I would have my own twist on it of course)
[]A Standard Monster POV quest
[]A Xianxia Monster POV quest
[]Suggest something else
My idea for the xianxia novel was have it be a world where most people are spirit blooded. And that "pure" humans are a rarity.The idea is that the reason being that cultivating angers the heavens and in this universe sacred beasts and tribulations are super lethal if you dont have a way to subvert their power cultivating is something of a death wish. And pure humans are inherently more apart from heavem than most other living creatures. So they face more extreme tribulations and attract heavenly beasts. So humans started mating with intellegent spirit beasts. As spirit beasts contain more heavenly dao in this universe ajd thus face lesser tribulations. They also get a boost to cultivating their animal element. So it was just the best way for humans to survive. So as a result there arent many pure humans, and evem less pure human cultivators.
This idea stemmed from the fact that in other threads those with spirit human traits were shunned, so i just thought about how the inverse could make it interesting.
The xianxia monster quest, players would decide on their starting xianxia monster as a first stage baby. Players would control and guide their monster and help them grow up. They could become Friendly, stand offish, hostile, amusing. Whatever the players want.
Im interested in both and plan to do both eventually, however i am leaning towards the xianxia monster POV cus i havent seen anyone do that b4 and it could be fun. In addition itll probably be a bit shorter than the other so i can do both in due time.
Sorry for spelling mistakes and rhe like, i typed this out on my phone.