Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

Raising Kittens · Jul 5, 2018

veekie said:
Its a sonic AOE, I assume we had it boosting our audio

The text even says that it's music was joined to ours, but no mention of it being defeated in a domain-off occurred.

Erebeal said:
Because its purpose is to buff us

It also applies a stacking rebuff to spiritual defenses on hit and, at three stacks, the target starts losing 2 Qi per stack if the target fails a 5 success resolve test once per turn.

On the other hand, we probably never got close enough for this effect to kick in, as it's only got a 15 meter radius.

adaer · Jul 5, 2018

...You know, Han Fang would be a pretty likely first round fight for us. He was a part of Gan's loss, and isn't really important or powerful enough to warrant getting into the inner sect. Putting us against him makes a fair amount of sense, I think. He's probably our ideal Ro16 opponent, because it leaves Kang as a likely Ro8 after that, followed by Ji Rong for an Ro4. If we want to get as far as possible, seeing Fang show up for the first round would be a very good sign.

edit: I did a dumb, since if we fought Ji Rong in the Ro4 one of the big three would have been displaced already, which isn't happening.

PrimalShadow · Jul 5, 2018

DeAnno said:
So the pool of 16 has 3 monsters, 7 other Greens or partial Greens, and 6 Yellows. It's pretty indefensible to make 2 Yellows fight in the r16, so that suggests there will be two matches within the pool-of-7, taking up four of them, and the other matches will be likely blowouts.

The pool of 7, to refresh memories, is:

Ling Qi

Kang Zihao

Ji Rong

Chu Song

Gu Xiulan

Wen Ai

Shen Hu

(the other 9 are the 3 monsters, Han Jian, Han Fang, and 4 peak yellow NPCs)

Due to reasons of being a commoner and also narratives, I think it's likely we're in one of these fights. It won't be against Shen Hu since we just showed everyone a good fight with him. I doubt it'll be with Wen Ai as that'd be a brutal beatdown. Probably won't be Gu Xiulan, as making friends fight like that would be fairly insulting given the diplomatic connection we made pre-tourney. Also, the other three are connected to Sun Liling, who wants to show us up. So probably Chu Song, Ji Rong, or Kang Zihao. And I think everyone knows there is way too much risk of us beating Kang, so probably not him. Chu Song's ties to Sun are flimsy at best. My money is on Ji Rong.

Han Jian should have a 3rd-realm Spirit Beast, so I don't think we should count him among the Yellows.

The Sandman · Jul 5, 2018

[X] ...Seek out Shen Hu, he gave you quite a runaround, it can't hurt to make nice with a peer like him

Why not? It would be nice to have a friendly post-match chat with an actual opponent rather than a bitter enemy or a friend we're sparring with.

Theunderbolt · Jul 5, 2018

yrsillar said:
It was of course, at that moment that he heard the faint notes of that damnable song, echoing across the snowy field that they had gathered in. His gaze snapped upward, to the black cliffs that loomed above, and there he saw it. A titanic wave of mist, flowing down the slopes. He heard the others cry out in alarm, reorienting their formation toward the enemy. He felt his mouth grow dry as it sped toward them, flowing with the speed and fury of a spring flooding. Since when had she been able to summon so much mist? When had she been so fast?

On this day Zeqing's heart grew 1 degree warmer.

Alectai · Jul 5, 2018

PrimalShadow said:
Han Jian should have a 3rd-realm Spirit Beast, so I don't think we should count him among the Yellows.

I seriously doubt Heijin is third realm.

Or he wouldn't be so tired after a match where everything was second realm.

Timewinders · Jul 5, 2018

[X] Speak with Meizhen, see how she's holding up with her family here

George · Jul 5, 2018

DeAnno said:
So the pool of 16 has 3 monsters, 7 other Greens or partial Greens, and 6 Yellows. It's pretty indefensible to make 2 Yellows fight in the r16, so that suggests there will be two matches within the pool-of-7, taking up four of them, and the other matches will be likely blowouts.

The pool of 7, to refresh memories, is:

Ling Qi

Kang Zihao

Ji Rong

Chu Song

Gu Xiulan

Wen Ai

Shen Hu

(the other 9 are the 3 monsters, Han Jian, Han Fang, and 4 peak yellow NPCs)

Due to reasons of being a commoner and also narratives, I think it's likely we're in one of these fights. It won't be against Shen Hu since we just showed everyone a good fight with him. I doubt it'll be with Wen Ai as that'd be a brutal beatdown. Probably won't be Gu Xiulan, as making friends fight like that would be fairly insulting given the diplomatic connection we made pre-tourney. Also, the other three are connected to Sun Liling, who wants to show us up. So probably Chu Song, Ji Rong, or Kang Zihao. And I think everyone knows there is way too much risk of us beating Kang, so probably not him. Chu Song's ties to Sun are flimsy at best. My money is on Ji Rong.

Personally I really hope it's not manipulated at as fine a level as you expect. Especially considering the insane mental abilities of Violet and Prism tier cultivators, in the methodology you assume here they would just be choosing who enters, which they could have done in the first place. We've been told there's some manipulation, but if there's as much as you assume here then the tournament is a farce in my view.
Maybe I'm misinterpreting your statements, though; do you think Ji Rong is more than 50% likely to be our opponent? More than 30%?

Alectai said:
I seriously doubt Heijin is third realm.

Or he wouldn't be so tired after a match where everything was second realm.

Didn't we hear in story that he expected to be third realm before the tournament?

Horium · Jul 5, 2018

It was not an optimal outcome, but it was a good one.

In truth, Ling Qi likely proved herself to be the strongest disciple after the monsters, as Shen Hu was obviously on the worse end of that fight, and he's both an older and more advanced cultivator at that.

Having that in mind, I actually expect either Han Fang or another peak yellow to face Ling Qi in Ro16.

Shen Hu on the other hand, will have to prove himself further, elder Ying favored or not.
His showing was just on the edge of good enough, and it is the least that is expected of an appraisal green.

I predict a tough(er) fight awaiting him, in the form of a fellow green cultivator.

Nerran · Jul 5, 2018

Thinking about the elimination stage, I'm wondering how much weight the preliminaries have in the arrangement of the brackets. Both Ling Qi and Ji Rong had excellent showings, with Ji Rong defeating Gan Guangli pretty decisively, and Ling Qi crushing all the yellows effortlessly while also taking the upper hand against Shen Hu without suffering any real damage.

Given that they are both very talented, gave strong showings already, and are in good positions to be high ranking followers of Ducal heirs, I could see the sect putting them both into the quarter bracket that doesn't have a monster, feeding them a pretty easy win in the round of 16 (justifiable, considering they've already shown their stuff against a peer), and then having them fight in a round of 8 match for the drama.

This is all speculation of course. But if I were the sect I would be more interested in Ji Rong and Ling Qi than, say, Wen Ai, Chu Song, or Han Fang (sorry friend), and more likely to try to rig things in their favor.

Horium · Jul 5, 2018

Alectai said:
I seriously doubt Heijin is third realm.

Or he wouldn't be so tired after a match where everything was second realm.

Heijin is a third realm, check out Jian's interlude.

Camellia · Jul 5, 2018

yrsillar said:
Heijin was at the peak of second realm, and would likely break through in time for the tournament. Luckily, his families Dust King Meditations allowed one to hold a spirit in the third realm, if at inflated costs. It was making him arrogant again though.

It says he might get to be third realm in time. He could have rolled badly and fallen just short.

Yeangst · Jul 5, 2018

yrsillar said:
Yeah I will point out thinking that Sun Liling who was able to actually influence the brackets is overestimating her. That kind of thing doesn't come from the disciple level.

Ok, I was thinking that she convinced her family to pull some strings while Cai's mother just laughed.

But instead there are two explanations:

1. The draw wasn't rigged. Cai just got unlucky.
2. Somebody tried to screw Cai over some small amount.

If it's 2, then I doubt that it was an Elder in the Sect, since I don't think we've been given any indication that they have a preference. That doesn't mean they can't be bribed*, but that would mean the briber, rather than the bribee is the culprit. I would expect that it's either Cai Shenhua who's doing it just to test her daughter/see her squirm, or Cai Shenhua's lover/minister, who hates Cai Renxiang.

If 2 is the case, then that somebody probably also tipped Sun Liling off as to what the matchups would be.

If 1 is the case, then Sun Liling probably got the news through her own machinations, which raises the question why CRX didn't manage as well.

* bribed doesn't necessarily mean a monetary qui-quo-pro. Could be a political favor, simply guangxi.

Yun · Jul 5, 2018

Alectai said:
I seriously doubt Heijin is third realm.

Or he wouldn't be so tired after a match where everything was second realm.

No he was noted to be on track for reaching the third realm by the tournament.

"Hmph, shameful was correct, you have given up," Heijin replied coldly, and Han Jian felt the tigers displeasure as a churning in his dantian. He grimaced at the discomfort. Heijin was at the peak of second realm, and would likely break through in time for the tournament. Luckily, his families Dust King Meditations allowed one to hold a spirit in the third realm, if at inflated costs. It was making him arrogant again though.

TotallyNotEvil · Jul 5, 2018

Han Fang was already sort of expecting to be running things in the Outer Sect next year anyway,

He got pretty damn far as it is.

Aranfan · Jul 5, 2018

Heijin got through, and his human Han Jian came with.

Ordis · Jul 5, 2018

The fight was really fun to read and I liked seeing Ling Qi from the other yellow's perspective.

"Oh, I was just thinking, it's such a lovely night for a stroll, you know?" the spirit replied playfully.

Ling Qi glanced up at the silver sliver grinning down from the snowy sky. "I guess it is," she mused, reaching the cliff's edge. "Nothing like a nice moonlit walk," she added absently as her body dissolved into darkness and flowed over the stony edge like dark water, taking the roiling bank of cloying mist with her.

Sixiang and this bit is great.

Ayashi · Jul 5, 2018

yrsillar said:
"Oh, I was just thinking, it's such a lovely night for a stroll, you know?" the spirit replied playfully.

Ling Qi glanced up at the silver sliver grinning down from the snowy sky. "I guess it is," she mused, reaching the cliff's edge. "Nothing like a nice moonlit walk," she added absently as her body dissolved into darkness and flowed over the stony edge like dark water, taking the roiling bank of cloying mist with her.

For some reason i'm reminded of Alucard (Hellsing TSF Abridged version, of course) going for a walk...

Axel Fones said:
Oh hey, this means a lot of people were watching our match, at least the tail end of it. All in all it was a pretty cool fight. Not a decisive win, but we definitely showed off pretty well. Revealed how strong our mist currently is as well as our qi draining. I think we used TRF but we didn't get hit so that's presumably still in our back pocket with no one the wiser.

Lets not forget how the fight was pretty much a first year Green disciples hunting down a Green 2 disciple from, at least, the previous year. And apparently dealing significant damage too.
The fact that Ling Qi is geared towards support and stealth but achieved that result in a strait fight makes it even more impressive. Not "Monster Tier" impressive, but still remarkable.

yrsillar said:
Shen Hu
Physical Offense: 30-45
Spiritual Offense: 29-35
Physical Defense: 38-48
Spiritual Defense: 36-45
Dispels: 22 dice

Seems to me that Shen Hu got some pretty bullshit defense rolls. I mean aren't we hitting up to 50 dice ?

[X] Seek out Li Suyin, she should be getting out of her own equivalent to the prelims after all
Info on the crafter's "tournament" would be the most useful in knowing how next year is going to be.
Meizhen and mom option don't really give anything other than fluff, it's not like there's any danger of them not being around next year...
Shen Hu option is ... probably not the best option just after what is basically a humiliation ?

Thor's Twin · Jul 5, 2018

Sixiang has really been pulling their weight. First with the social encounters, and now with stopping Shen Hu from lulling us to sleep. Really glad we voted to bind her.

DeAnno · Jul 5, 2018

George said:
Maybe I'm misinterpreting your statements, though; do you think Ji Rong is more than 50% likely to be our opponent? More than 30%?

It's hard to judge because it depends on how much weight is put to Sun Liling's desires, how much to narratives and appeasement, and how much to getting good Inners. I'll put it this way: I think there is a >90% chance we either fight Ji Rong (more fixings), or are fed a Yellow, possibly Han Fang, to obliterate (more fair.) I think most of the residual % are Chu Song (sort of appropriate but kind of wtf, not as cool as Ji Rong for anyone) and Sun Liling (massive Sun fixing)

TehChron · Jul 5, 2018

Asael said:
You know, reading it again....

I think Zou Chen might have been the guy we stabbed and threw down the well way back at the beginning. Then he signed up with kang and got stomped during the meizhen ambush. Then he signed up with Yan Renshu and got stomped and threatened.

If so, then we've pretty much driven a truck over this guy a few times now. He has the Worst Luck Ever.

So what you're saying is that we had Ji Rong as the true Xianxia protag wrong the whole time, when really this was a deconstructionist Isekai story starring Zou Chen?

yrsillar · Jul 5, 2018

Yeangst said:
Ok, I was thinking that she convinced her family to pull some strings while Cai's mother just laughed.

But instead there are two explanations:

1. The draw wasn't rigged. Cai just got unlucky.
2. Somebody tried to screw Cai over some small amount.

If it's 2, then I doubt that it was an Elder in the Sect, since I don't think we've been given any indication that they have a preference. That doesn't mean they can't be bribed*, but that would mean the briber, rather than the bribee is the culprit. I would expect that it's either Cai Shenhua who's doing it just to test her daughter/see her squirm, or Cai Shenhua's lover/minister, who hates Cai Renxiang.

If 2 is the case, then that somebody probably also tipped Sun Liling off as to what the matchups would be.

If 1 is the case, then Sun Liling probably got the news through her own machinations, which raises the question why CRX didn't manage as well.

* bribed doesn't necessarily mean a monetary qui-quo-pro. Could be a political favor, simply guangxi.

Ah it seems I was too obtuse there, I was attemping to imply that Sun Liling wasn't personally doing manipulation. I think it's pretty obvious that her family is up to some fuckery here.

Deadly Snark · Jul 5, 2018

yrsillar said:
Ah it seems I was too obtuse there, I was attemping to imply that Sun Liling wasn't personally doing manipulation. I think it's pretty obvious that her family is up to some fuckery here.

Where as Duchess Cai just doesnt give a fuck.

To be fair, given the political situation, the Sun Family really need their Heir to excel, she doesnt have to care.

Damian45 · Jul 5, 2018

[X] ...Seek out Shen Hu, he gave you quite a runaround, it can't hurt to make nice with a peer like him

jacobk · Jul 5, 2018

Ayashi said:
Seems to me that Shen Hu got some pretty bullshit defense rolls. I mean aren't we hitting up to 50 dice ?

From the post fight discussion it sounded like he had a very action economical method that let him slip out of the fog even after it stuck. Once Ling Qi shifted over to a straight beatdown strategy she started to wear him down. All of his ablative spirit armor was gone and some decent amount of his own qi as well before he was able to finish the "enemy gate is down" maneuver and pick off the last of the yellows.

If only we'd had Han Fang in our pod...

Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

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