Better than average recovery, so far!
Many thanks to everyone who wished me well!!!
Page 211 and 212-so-far replies:
Buuuut we haven't even done Magic Theory 1, let alone 2.
I think Magic Theory 1 is what let us learn magic at all and 2 is the project we are trying to unlock.
...For some reason I thought I'd answered this. But I was thinking "[X] Basics of Magic (Magic Research)".
It was fun reading this document btw. Really cool stuff!
Thank you so much!
Not to mention we can probably figure out a way to deal with this nonsense so it can't/doesn't happen again.
That way is probably to not connect to the elves until we are ready to deal with what they are hiding us from.
There are also potential obfuscation paths to research that might buy you a few questions, sooner.
I will also note OOC, at this point, that "Last Star is wary of answering too much lest you be attacked" is both a Watsonian and Doylist decision.
Doylist, obviously, because they could otherwise let you cheat your way through several thousand points of Magic Research in a few turns. Plus all the "massive archive of detailed and uncorrupted historical documents" and "one of the best Seers active in the world today" things. Which are large aspects of what
make them (one of) the Big Good(s) of the setting, but would absolutely upset anything resembling Game Balance.
Watsonian: ...
Why didn't someone else have this idea before? Sure, most groups can't learn as much as fast as well or apply everything as broadly as the Forest. But: WHY? Why didn't someone just, you know, contact The Last Star? Or try to translate if
they initiated communications?
They did. It's happened. Frequently. It's just extremely dangerous for anyone ground-side. Because what Vampires there
are, limited
as they are, still consider "the idea of the entire planet efficiently hunting them all down to (more or less) the last" to be a (also more-or-less) worst-case scenario. For obvious reasons.
(In principle, some sort of limited detente
might be arranged. But neither side is exactly looking for that as a
first solution right now. And that's
with Idrial still being (yet again more-or-less) the same person who has, on one or two truly memorable occasions, managed to use Starlight to
Heal a Vampire. Which is still, may I note, generally considered quasi-impossible. But that's a story for... Honestly, I don't think I've even started to plan for the relevant Interlude yet.)
Anyway. Back on topic. So The Last Star are hesitant to initiate comms with anyone, with a bunch of cases that make it obviously a hilariously bad idea, and a bunch of other cases that mean they might tentatively reach out if they see a particularly good moment.
So from a player perspective waht does "(The Froggy Ninja's Player Tree has died. That roll was a modest critfail, but in context I interpreted it as a very expensive success. Regrowing said Tree properly, repairing significant mental damage, and fixing all other Trees damaged by the side-effects (particularly everything destroyed to quarantine that infectious pus) costs the Forest 10 Resources.)" actually mean.
Not much beyond -10 Resources.
...If Froggy wanted to specialize in Life, Death, Resurrection, or the like, it might give a modest bonus.
And The Last Star probably knows who/what caused us.
They certainly think they do, yeah. And they've got the best idea of about anyone around, which is definitely a good sign.
Since I'm feeling generous, I'll note (on a sort of tangent) that you've got two more-or-less automatic realizations/discoveries queued behind getting your first Elder Sensing Tree online. (These could eventually be reached other ways, but this is the easiest.) Just in case I forget later, remind me of the following keywords: Genetics, Innate.
IIRC the WoG is summarized as "For a resource cost, we reupload the Player-Tree in question and they may or may not have a turn delay next turn", but I'm
pretty sure it's essentially "can't contribute to any miniturns that might pop up, otherwise just a Resource cost".
As The Resource Storing Tree, yall can thank me at any time for ensuring that we always have enough resources to do mad science and stuff without actual long term consequences
Pretty much. The Monster defense Combat will still be available - there probably won't be a penalty to that just because I don't feel like bothering.
And thank you indeed! I would not be throwing quite so many Resource-costing items at the Forest (that is, the Forest would not be so quick to turn to Resource-eating otherwise-great options) if you were not present. And that would, among other things, reduce Laser Computer efficiency, malus a number of social interactions, this Tree regrowth, etc. etc.
...Well, that was certainly thorough. I'm guessing it was less "no kill like overkill" and more "throw as many elements as possible at it and hope at least one sticks."
*Both is Good.gif*
...Frankly, for all you know,
every attack was from a different Vampire group. It's also
possible some or all weren't from Vampire groups, though "The Vampires were behind most/all of it" is definitely implied.
We need to do some mental repair but We Should use this as a Opportunity to Understand Mind Magic and Learn to Fortify and Regenerate mental damage
Fair point. I'll make sure mental-defenses get a bonus to learning the next stage thanks to the lessons learned from this limited-failure.
@Robinton Theoretically speaking, presuming it's not too late to do so, would the banked success I have stashed away help with or improve the situation at all?
A stored success or two could grant slightly more information from Rachel, by virtue of succeeding the Avoid Detection pseudo-Action slightly longer. Alternatively it could offset the Resource cost, or apply as an arbitrary bonus to the amount of scanning you get at the end (that is, +progress to any Element used to attack the Forest, or +progress to figuring out how to use other styles of Connection to channel/target Magic, or possibly a random roll to see if you can figure out where the attacks are being sourced from).
I would generally consider the first option to be the least replaceable, and the middle option to be the most replaceable.
This offer goes for everyone with stored successes, btw!
And I am now 99% sure that there is an 82% chance that we're dealing with like, an extradimensional Dragon Invasion, ala Discworld but so much worse, which is what The Last Star was talking about in that snippet of the upcoming update.
It may be advisable to choose the Archon Interlude when it is next available so we can check this out and quite possibly get confirmation one way or the other and start working on Anti-Big Thing measures.
Oh, that's an interesting hypothesis!
I can confirm that it's not
exactly correct (it might be entirely incorrect, technically correct from a certain point of view, or close but not entirely correct). I can also confirm that - in case I haven't already said so - Archon
is the most Ancient Things And Great Deeds of the Interludes.
While I'm at it, I'll add that your impression from Rachel was that she could keep things from going out of control for at least a few more years yet, and maybe some decades, though almost certainly not another century.
And, as the GM, I'd also like to state that I have a few
interesting options to bring into play if you unlock Apocalypse Rolls and roll one right off the bat. Well, depending on the Apocalypse - there are a few that the World
is actually ready for, plus another few that the Forest could actually make a difference to. Not many of either, but a few.
whatever Ice's scale would be @Robinton
I haven't actually designed that yet, but it
does exist.
Also,
scribbles.
