Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

[X] Take the matter of Yan Renshu to Cai Renxiang.

Vassal gotta vassal. Best to use the Outer Sect for its truest purpose and learn her position on these matters now.
 
Violation of Rule 4 - Spaghetti-posting
Because your entire argument rests upon a nothingburger that no one was discussing until you threw it out there
If nobody were ever the first to bring up an argument, there would be complte silence in this forum. I fail to see the relevance of this point.

and for the most part you remain the only person citing that justification.
If I keep talking about it is because you keep dismissing it for reasons I consider invalid.

I hold no doubts that someone will say they were totally thinking it just to prove me wrong for the sake of base spite, but there's no evidence to justify your intuitive leaps.
I feel rather justifiably offended by your blanket assertion that no human could possibly think the way I do.
Is defending one's humanity called base spite now?

You yourself have claimed that the only way your concern is valid is if Ling Qi expresses a train of thought that she has not yet, to date, expressed.
But she expressed that same train of thought in the past, through our decision of consulting Han Jiang, as I already mentioned.

Where she exists in some kind of nebulous space where she's too knowledgable to immediately leap to the obvious conclusion, and too ignorant realize the hilariously obvious flaw to your own reasoning.
Which flaw? Your own assumption that Yan Renshu could under no circumstance be ever covered by the peace treaty?

Your argument banks on Ling Qi being ignorant.
Not being correct.
But she IS ignorant of this matters. Blatantly so, that is one of her character's defining traits. Her MORTAL MOTHER had to point out that not having servants would damage her prestige as a noble, just last episode.

Therefore it's a character argument. As Characterization is a subjective thing, that in turn makes it reliant upon less than rational actors and arguments to bolster the directions we choose to take with it.
This is a Role-Playing quest... Are you seriously claiming that CHARACTERIZATION doesn't MATTER?!? Our choices affect Ling Qi's character, but they should also be informed by her past too.

The arugment you are pushing is one which is reliant on the fear of the unknown, the off-chance that "Ling Qi might not know for sure tho".
I think I made it very clear why I believe that she is very unlikely to know for sure.

Thus presenting not going to Cai as having some kind of intrinsic risk that we wouldn't know the odds or potential consequences of to corral support for your argument.
Of course there is risk, every choice always carry risk. Not going after Yans Renshu carries the risk that he will be able to attack us later. Consulting Cai carries the risk that we won't be able to act and prevent a problem later. Going after him carries the risk that he is expecting it and that this time he put a bigger bomb in his lair. You could think of hundreds of risks for everything if you want. But that is not the point.

You use fear of the unknown to buttress your position. Fear of consequences to attract support.
You are, by almost literal definition, fearmongering.
I have simply been explaining why I think that Ling Qi could be wary of acting unilaterally.
But, since you seem to despise any character motivation for choices, I leave you this:
We accepted to become Cai's vassal, and have been her representative here in the sect. We are no longer a free agent, our actions reflect on her. And this is not a mere challenge to a spar, it is an anhihilation strike with possibly murder if Meizhen gets her hands on the real Yan Renshu. Do you really think that Cai doesn't have the right to be warned ahead when her left hand is going to do something like this?

This is my last post on this subject by the way, because this is starting to escalate beyond civility.
 
This is a Role-Playing quest... Are you seriously claiming that CHARACTERIZATION doesn't MATTER?!? Our choices affect Ling Qi's character, but they should also be informed by her past too.
...No? Because I never said that? Strawmanning me serves no purpose, you know.

I have simply been explaining why I think that Ling Qi could be wary of acting unilaterally.
But, since you seem to despise any character motivation for choices, I leave you this:
We accepted to become Cai's vassal, and have been her representative here in the sect. We are no longer a free agent, our actions reflect on her. And this is not a mere challenge to a spar, it is an anhihilation strike with possibly murder if Meizhen gets her hands on the real Yan Renshu. Do you really think that Cai doesn't have the right to be warned ahead when her left hand is going to do something like this?
You're speculating, strawmanning, and now citing an actual argument.

I never said that going to Cai was a bad move. It's not my preferred one, to be sure. But I think we're all best served by keeping the arguments specifically in the realms of good faith.
 
[X] It's time to finish this, one way or the other, infiltrate Yan Renshu's base and break the back of his operation for good.
-[X] Invite Meizhen along

I just want to fuck this guy up.
 
This argument, and the false dichotomy it is based on, is failing to actually solve anything.

There is no reason why we can't kick the door in with Meizhen and check in with Cai about things first.

I suggest that what we actually want is this:

[X] It's time to finish this, one way or the other, infiltrate Yan Renshu's base and break the back of his operation for good.
-[X] Invite Meizhen along
-[x] but first inform Cai about our plans. While we do not necessarily need any help from her, she should be kept aware of significant actions like this. If she has any wishes on the matter, we can adjust our plans if needed.
 
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[X] It's time to finish this, one way or the other, infiltrate Yan Renshu's base and break the back of his operation for good.
-[X] Invite Meizhen along
 
What do people actually want here? Because as far as I can tell, one side wants to kick ass with Meizhen, and the other wants to make sure we give our boss a heads up first.

There is no reason for these votes to be in conflict. We can do both of these things.

Take the third option. Do them both. Then we can all be happy.
 
Ling Qi let herself laugh, recalling when she had come by earlier in the week and taken the task of watching her younger sister. Only to be bored silly watching the little girl intently searching through the garden, refusing help as she attempted to hunt down and catch one of the little frogs which lived in the central pond.
Biyu a cute.
Also if she takes too much after Ling Qi she'd probably going to find some kind of rare spirit frog down there at some point :p

"You know," Ling Qi began carefully. "If you need something to occupy your time, you could always attempt to cultivate, at least a little."

Ling Qingge frowned, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes deepening. "I was given to understand that I am too old for such things," and not talented enough to be selected to begin with, was left unsaid.

"I've been doing a little studying on that," Ling Qi replied. "In your situation, it shouldn't be completely impossible," highly unlikely maybe, and a struggle to even awaken, given the dearth of medicines that an adult mortal could safely handle, and the reduction in quality of the medicinal energies from all their impurities, she had come across oblique mention of a few options. "It might take a very long time… but even a little cultivation would…" she trailed off, not quite able to put it into words. It would let her Mother live a little longer, and healthier.
Its a big quality of life boost, and after all, the cost is trivial for us for her to keep trying for months if need be now.

She won't go far, but Red is a major improvement.
Especially for our Spirit friends who'd become comprehensible.
Things didn't all go well though. Ling Qi had taken to checking on Xiulan every other day or so to see if she had emerged from seclusion, and what she found one morning turned her stomach a bit. Her friend had succeeded in breaking through… but reaching the Green Soul stage had only exacerbated her wounds. Flames now openly burned on the girls arm, snapping and crackling loudly and carrying the scent of burnt flesh, from a limb that was now nearly skeletal.

It was clear her friend could still feel every inch of the ruined limb though, because in helping her friend from the meditation room to her bedroom, she had actually been able to see the tears of pain in the corners of her friends eyes. Thankfully, the resistance to heat granted by her connection to Zhengui was enough to let her safely help Xiulan rewrap the limb in the flame retardant linen bandages, which she had been covering it with.
Ouch. I suspect this is going to burn into her domain itself, even when she reaches Cyan. She'd be finding it hard to remember NOT being eternally in pain by then.

Also Xiulan might want to go Physical before Spiritual next time I think.

Zhengui was growing again, visibly so, as his cultivation rose in potency. When She sparred with Meizhen, further mastering the art Zeqing had given her, she couldn't help but notice the increasingly definition and independence of her friends shadow, and Cui once again vanishing to wherever it was that she went when she was growing and shedding.
The vale seems to be doing good for the spirits. Still wondering if there's any chance for Zhengui to breakthrough before tournament without sleeping past it, but that's a big enough deal I imagine we'd be informed if it'd take too long.
Sixiang wanted to attend a human party. Because apparently that was a thing on the Outer Mountain. Among the older years, there was a little bi-weekly gathering of various semi important disciples. This was the group that she and Fu XIang had helped Lady Cai pacify, in a time that now seemed very long ago indeed. Sixiang had attempted to attend previously, but had been rebuffed at the door.

...Much to her regret, getting an invitation was as simple as speaking with Cai Renxiang. Unsurprisingly, she was on the invite list, but had been too busy to attend for the most part. She strongly suspected that her liege was a little too pleased to pass off the invitation to her.
Hmm, Cai avoiding a social engagement? Wonder why.
"Just a bit of good fortune," Ling Qi replied lightly. "I am afraid I might find myself in a little trouble if I was more exact," she replied, lying through her teeth.

"Of course," Wen Ai replied, seeming to accept her answer. "We all must keep our little secrets," there was definitely an edge there, she wasn;t just imagining it.
The awkward part where she's pretty sure who went through her stuff and stole her secrets but nobody's going to say it so it didn't happen.

Ling Qi murmured an agreement as they were allowed to get out of the entranceway and proceed into the banquet hall. "Why isn't anyone dancing?" Sixiang asked, nonplussed.

"I do not believe it is that kind of party," Ling Qi replied quietly, tweaking the flows of air around them so that their words remained audible only to them.

"How can you have a party without dancing?" Sixiang asked, sounding scandalized.
The politics are a little bit like dancing! But thats a Reflective Moon thing, not a Dreaming Moon thing, so I can see why she's not getting it.

This party is not meant to be enjoyed.

"We stand around and talk while pretending we like each other."

She then flushed a bit as a young man nearby shot her an amused look over his cup. Even if people couldn't hear her, they could probably read her lips, or even hear through more esoteric means. Thankfully, he waved off her budding apology with a gesture of his hand. It seemed like she had been lucky there. No one else seemed to be paying attention.
Cai: "Ling Qi, see me for remedial lessons after this."

"I'm sure you'll learn," Ling Qi replied. "Well… I don't know how things will be, after you… dissolve?" She wasn't sure of the correct terminology.

"I think I might like a human binder, at least for a time," Sixiang mused. "Of course, I wouldn't really be all that useful, so who knows.

"What do you mean?" Ling Qi asked, Sixiang had the highest cultivation she had seen among disciples and their spirits.

"I am only just third realm myself, the rest was grandmother making sure I could handle trouble on my vacation," Sixiang replied. "Plus, you know, I am a muse. I don't like fighting much."
S/he's in the market for a binder! And we aren't specifically looking for a combatant anyways, beyond someone taking advantage of our buffs, debuffs and stuff.

As for art upgrades, anyone doing a difference checker?
 
[X] It's time to finish this, one way or the other, infiltrate Yan Renshu's base and break the back of his operation for good.
-[X] Invite Meizhen along

We should let Lady Cai know what we're doing like a good flunky, but not go as far as asking for her help, which would be what "Take the matter of Yan Renshu to Cai Renxiang." means.

I'm all for Sixiang binding, but we already kind of gave our word to Zeqing that we'd take Hanyi into the world. How many spirits can we bind at once currently? If I understood correctly, it depends on our cultivation art rather than our level.
 
If we go to Cai with this, the OOC expectation is that she will present a different option from a raid, which would be why the options conflict.
If that is the case, then I'd rather like to actually know what the option is rather than than avoiding talking to her because she might suggest something we haven't thought of.

Our decisions should be informed ones.
 
I'm all for Sixiang binding, but we already kind of gave our word to Zeqing that we'd take Hanyi into the world. How many spirits can we bind at once currently? If I understood correctly, it depends on our cultivation art rather than our level.
I don't think there's a limitation other than qi usage. If we nab Sixiang we'll be able to put a full adventuring party together by picking up Hanyi and Heizui once they come available.
 
As for art upgrades, anyone doing a difference checker?

Here:
FVM six, everyone. I don't have time to deconstruct the diffs point by point, but this should make them visible enough to be seen easily.
I'll edit in the changes to FVM later, but for now here is FSS.

It looks like adding a new meridian and hitting Green moved the art forward quite a bit. Lets start with the passives.
  • Cold effects now pierce twice as much armor, and at a base of 4AP, our cold effects are going to be quite difficult to stop.
  • Conversely, we now have a total of FIVE armor against cold, which means that someone trying to hit us with cold effects in particular is going to have a hard time. Unlike AE (which works great against AE), FSS doesn't seem like the best way to attack other FSS users.
  • We get a second point of bonus damage on all "Basic unarmed and music attacks". Not sure what counts as "basic". Does this mean that anything with a tech doesn't work? If so, it is going to be kinda useless...
  • +1 dice to expression on offensive clashes.
Springs End Aria got a much more modest increase.
  • Enemies take an extra dice of penalty from this effect.
  • Qi-less enemies now take damage instead of Qi drain. This isn't too relevant against "tapped out" cultivators since they probably aren't much of a threat without Qi, but it could be helpful against constructs or the like.
Hoarfrost Caress similarly got a modest increase: the effect now has +1 damage and +2 DV, thereby boosting the effect of our attacks by 1-3 damage (depending whether we rolled well enough to hit the DV cap). Of course, all of that is doubled thanks to the echo effect on HC, making it much more potent.




Finally, we have a new tech. Winter Eternal Cadenza is a group attack tech that also grants Qi drain, much like AE's Black Earth Voraciousness. To compare the effect to Hoarfrost Caress:
  • WEC costs 8 qi to HC's 6.
  • HC's attack is DV6 + 1 bonus damage + 2 AP, at +5 dice. WEC's is weaker; merely DV6 + 2 dice.
  • WEC requires SEA to be up, unlike HC.
  • WEC's attacks hit all enemies within 50m (the same range as SEA). HC is of course a single-target attack.
  • On Hit, HC's attack causes an echo effect; the same damage is applied against next turn. On Hit, WEC's a penalty of -5 speed, -5 initiative, and -2 to all clashes.
  • Finally, WEC recovers 1 point of Qi per damage dealt to anyone with a cultivation level. Presumably, mortals don't count, though it is unclear whether constructs or the like would.
 
The party scene was kinda painful to read. It's like Qi came in with the mindset to be as miserable as possible and just find an isolated corner to freeze over and sulk in until enough time passed.

Take the hostess. Wen Ai's obligated to welcome & talk to Qi, so she tries her best to get a bit of smalltalk going. Qi doesn't even try to engage, giving the bare minimum responses and effectively a «No comment.» All she's treating the conversation as is a way to stock up more fuel for her insecurities by staring down Wen Ai.

Then of course you have Sixiang not helping by making like a haughty elf with the typical humans don't do anything right etc. etc. and Qi using her powers to specifically isolate them from everyone else's conversations in a private air bubble and badmouth the whole thing. I don't know how she can describe this as even pretending to like the other people present. She's supposed to have some sort of superhuman empathy at this point, but it really doesn't come off that way. Even ignoring everyone else the non superpowered way and concentrating on the banquet would be less rude.

Also, woah! Xiulan is way hardcore, her arm is a skeletal mess all on fire but she can still grit her teeth and go about the day with full feeling of the pain mostly presenting herself as if nothing was wrong. That's a will of steel if I ever saw one.
 
I don't especially expect something different than a raid, but there might be clarification on when we should/shouldn't do that and there might be some specific rules of engagement she has for us, such as how strong a force to bring. It may be that for reputation purposes we should bring peer force or overwhelming force and it may be that there are political moves she would like to take in preparation in cases like this.
Generally, though, I just want to show respect for the relationship we've established. Our actions no longer only reflect on us and it's best to gain a good understanding of the bounds of that by checking in more than we would think we need to, so that we don't have to take up her time with such learning when it really counts and likewise don't misstep later. In the end, I don't consider YR all that important, so I'm focused on this in the capacity of a teachable moment.
 
What do people actually want here? Because as far as I can tell, one side wants to kick ass with Meizhen, and the other wants to make sure we give our boss a heads up first.

There is no reason for these votes to be in conflict. We can do both of these things.

Take the third option. Do them both. Then we can all be happy.
More cooks in the kitchen spoils the broth?

Also with more hands in this particular pot, the proceeds get divvied up more ways when taking Renshu's lunch money is a relevant motivation for many of us.
 
"Maybe so," Ling Qi replied in an amused tone, letting the deflection and change of subject lie. "You know," Ling Qi began carefully. "If you need something to occupy your time, you could always attempt to cultivate, at least a little."

Ling Qingge frowned, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes deepening. "I was given to understand that I am too old for such things," and not talented enough to be selected to begin with, was left unsaid.

"I've been doing a little studying on that," Ling Qi replied. "In your situation, it shouldn't be completely impossible," highly unlikely maybe, and a struggle to even awaken, given the dearth of medicines that an adult mortal could safely handle, and the reduction in quality of the medicinal energies from all their impurities, she had come across oblique mention of a few options. "It might take a very long time… but even a little cultivation would…" she trailed off, not quite able to put it into words. It would let her Mother live a little longer, and healthier.

Mother met her eyes for a moment before looking away, expression wistful. "If you believe it possible, it would be rude of me to refuse," she said, looking back over the garden. "What would I need to do?"

"Well, I can show you a couple of breathing exercises to begin with," Ling Qi replied, a hint of excitement entering her voice. "Firstly you should close your eyes, and focus on the feel of the air entering your lungs…"

There was no progress that night of course, but Ling Qi couldn;t quite bring herself to care.

Very glad to see this. Nice. I fully expect Ling Qi to shove Red Spirit Stones at her mother by the fistful and miss the moment her mother reacts to how she treats these invaluable cultivator resources like popcorn.


Things didn't all go well though. Ling Qi had taken to checking on Xiulan every other day or so to see if she had emerged from seclusion, and what she found one morning turned her stomach a bit. Her friend had succeeded in breaking through… but reaching the Green Soul stage had only exacerbated her wounds. Flames now openly burned on the girls arm, snapping and crackling loudly and carrying the scent of burnt flesh, from a limb that was now nearly skeletal.

It was clear her friend could still feel every inch of the ruined limb though, because in helping her friend from the meditation room to her bedroom, she had actually been able to see the tears of pain in the corners of her friends eyes. Thankfully, the resistance to heat granted by her connection to Zhengui was enough to let her safely help Xiulan rewrap the limb in the flame retardant linen bandages, which she had been covering it with.

She knew her friend though, and so she didn't express a word of pity, only congratulations for her accomplishment. She strongly suspected that the proud girl was thankful for it.

She wondered if it was a good thing that she could now so easily hide her disquiet to have a cheerful little celebration in Xiulan's dining room, having just witnessed what she had. Then again, her composure was hardly something to be considered, compared to Xiulan, who was back to her usual self in barely any time at all.

I thought she was focusing on reaching Bronze? That her condition was getting slightly more bearable because she focused on improving her physique. This seems odd. Poor Lan-lan. Hope she evens out soon.


Ling Qi murmured an agreement as they were allowed to get out of the entranceway and proceed into the banquet hall. "Why isn't anyone dancing?" Sixiang asked, nonplussed.

"I do not believe it is that kind of party," Ling Qi replied quietly, tweaking the flows of air around them so that their words remained audible only to them.

"How can you have a party without dancing?" Sixiang asked, sounding scandalized.

"You did say that you wanted to see a human party," Ling Qi shot back, amused. At least she wouldn't suffer alone. "This is how human's do it," she said lightly. "We stand around and talk while pretending we like each other."

She then flushed a bit as a young man nearby shot her an amused look over his cup. Even if people couldn't hear her, they could probably read her lips, or even hear through more esoteric means. Thankfully, he waved off her budding apology with a gesture of his hand. It seemed like she had been lucky there. No one else seemed to be paying attention.

*fistpump* We've reached the vaunted height of hiding our conversations! Sort of! We are officially a real cultivator now, and can leave the Sect happy knowing we have learned their most important secret.
 
I mostly don't want to tell Cai because the option seems like we're going to be deferring the action to her. Renshu has been our and Bai's thing; I hate it when a friend invites one of their friends to a thing that we're already doing without at least asking for my input. If it was just "Hey boss, going to go beat a guy with a stick. See you later," then that's fine. If it's more "Hey boss, I want to beat a guy with a stick. How should we do it?" then that feels like we're pulling other people into one of the only things we're still doing with Bai that isn't training.
 
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