Quest to Become a Hero

[X] Wedge it behind a shelf where nobody would see it.

Is the previous vote still ongoing or closed?

Its still ongoing, will be for about fourteen hours.

adwarf said:

Forbidden Scholar - You are more likely to notice lore and knowledge regarding those topics considered forbidden to the general populace. Of course, your affinity for these subjects does not create that knowledge where none exists.

Connection with Beyond - You find yourself strangely connected to whatever realm belongs to those Gods, Deities, and Greater Beings. You are more likely to detect traces of the Divine or Transcendant.

Dominate Writing (Level One) - You've obtained a new power derived from your blessing from the God of War. It grants you the ability to draw stength from the written word though... You are utterly uncertain what that actually means.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I'd go for two of these three in particular. Drawing strength from writing sounds like it'd have FUN synergy with discovering Forbidden texts, though with how it sounds like we only avoided a "mark for death" curse just for reading an already redacted scroll thanks to our newly granted blessing from the God of War, that'd probably be risky as hell.

[X] Forbidden Scholar.
[X] Dominate Writing.

Use the power in forbidden knowledge!

[X] Write-in.
-[X] Hide it within the folds of your backpack. You can remove the danger away from the innocent, as a hero should.

[x] Connection with Beyond
[x] Dominate Writing

Old vote, for the tally's sake:
[X] Wedge it behind a shelf where nobody would see it.

[X] Connection with Beyond
[X] Dominate Writing

@adwarf with we get to cast "spells" using books or is it more a passive bonus thing?

[X] Forbidden Scholar.
[X] Dominate Writing.

[X] Connection with Beyond
[X] Dominate Writing

[X] Wedge it behind a shelf where nobody would see it.

Uhtread said:

@adwarf with we get to cast "spells" using books or is it more a passive bonus thing?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

You'd need to take Dominate Writing and experiment with it to find out it's effect. A fairly core idea I wanted to go with for this quest is gradual discovery and exploration. Without trying you'll likely never know.

adwarf said:

Word from the Great Bastions has come again, but this time it is absolutely wonderful news. During the eight years we've spent changing this wasteland into a supporting pillar of the Kingdom the God of Knowledge has succeeded in completing the work our God envisioned, with the support of thousands of mages and the last Rocksmiths of the Dwarven race. Where once the Bastions were fortresses built spread out on open plains facing the hellscape of the Demon lands there now stands a vast mountain range, the fortresses integrated into them to form an impenetrable barricade against our greatest foes.

Magic, and Divine Will perfectly combined to flow endlessly through them, causing the chaotic Mana of the Kingdom to slowly settle and reinforcing the defensive line so that even the Demon lords and our God himself cannot destroy them. With this there is yet hope for a revival of the Last Races rather than a slow, glorious death...

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Huh, looks like humanity was besieged by infernal forces and pushed to the brink of extinction, guess we've now got acceptable targets for EXP grinding and all those dominate spells/traits

adwarf said:

I write this with a great sense of sadness despite knowing that this day would come, the first of our Three Saviors has departed from this world and to his Divine Domain after fighting for so long to... *a damaged portion ends the sentence early* It seems the time remaining for our God and even He Who Denied Death is limited, before they depart for their Divine Domains we must make ready the Church. Our purpose is War, never forget that brothers and sisters, for only in battling the great enemy and casting aside the myriad darkness that attempt to consume the kingdom do we live according to His Will. I will soon depart myself for the Bastion Mountain Range, I can feel the end of my life drawing near, His power was not meant...

*A damaged portion seems to cover the remainder of this scroll, oddly at the end of it you find a seal of a flaming sword beside which is written "Author - Archbishop Julian Vandamule, Classified Record of the Church, sealed by order of the Cult of the Burning Sword.*

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

So, three Gods were mentioned, the God of War/Battle, the God of Knowledge, and the God Who Denied Death. Based on the process of elimination, the God of Knowledge was the one who died first.

Looks like the God of Knowledge was trying to accomplish a secret goal/fight against a secret enemy before he Passed. Also, it might be that the three "Gods" were actually three extremely strong adventurers, based on the fact that they seemingly had a lifespan.

Also, looks like something that the priests are doing runs counter to the God of Wars purpose/powers/domains. It might be remaining idle or living in peace, given that the Priest mentions going to the Megaforts to fight the demonic horde right before he says "His power was not meant for...". Or it could be that the God of War wants his followers to put all the blessings that they receive towards battle, but the priests are doing something to lengthen/preserve their lives.

Anyway, here's my actual votes:

[X] Write-in.
-[X] Hide it within the folds of your backpack. You can remove the danger away from the innocent, as a hero should.

Voting to keep the scroll just in case we need exact wording later or something. It's kinda of risky, given that this is big, bold HERESY, but there might be a secret code or something hidden on there, given it was super redacted by the Inquisition.

[X] Forbidden Scholar
[X] Connection with Beyond

I'm going for the two of these because I feel like they combo really well. Forbidden Scholar gives us a general boost at finding forbidden knowledge, while the Connection with Beyond lets us detect if there's any metaphysical weight/presence behind the forbidden knowledge. And given just how much EXP we managed to gather in such a short time thanks to this stuff, I want to go further into it.

[X] Aspire to Sagehood - You've come to find yourself a seeker of all forms of knowledge and find it easy to learn those skills a scholar finds most useful. Perhaps with enough work you may achieve acknowledgement as a Sage, a master of countless fields of knowledge. Increased skill gains for scholar related skills.
[x] Dominate Writing

[X] Wedge it behind a shelf where nobody would see it.

[X] Forbidden Scholar
[X] Connection with Beyond

[X] Write-in.
-[X] Hide it within the folds of your backpack. You can remove the danger away from the innocent, as a hero should.

[x] Connection with Beyond
[x] Dominate Writing

[X] Wedge it behind a shelf where nobody would see it.

[X] Forbidden Scholar.
[X] Dominate Writing.

Edited my previous vote.

[X] Write-in.
-[X] Hide it within the folds of your backpack. You can remove the danger away from the innocent, as a hero should.

[X] Aspire to Sagehood - You've come to find yourself a seeker of all forms of knowledge and find it easy to learn those skills a scholar finds most useful. Perhaps with enough work you may achieve acknowledgement as a Sage, a master of countless fields of knowledge. Increased skill gains for scholar related skills.

[X] Speed Copy (Level One) - Given available materials you are able to copy documents of a smaller size (no novels or treatises) within ten minutes. Usable twice a day.

I think the synergy of this will help us gain XP faster, for the moment, which means we can get more of the cooler things easier (without needing to go knock heads just yet).

[X] Aspire to Sagehood - You've come to find yourself a seeker of all forms of knowledge and find it easy to learn those skills a scholar finds most useful. Perhaps with enough work you may achieve acknowledgement as a Sage, a master of countless fields of knowledge. Increased skill gains for scholar related skills.

[X] Speed Copy (Level One) - Given available materials you are able to copy documents of a smaller size (no novels or treatises) within ten minutes. Usable twice a day.

[X] Wedge it behind a shelf where nobody would see it.

That actually makes sense. Get an XP hack deployed

[X] Forbidden Scholar
[X] Aspire to Sagehood

[X] Write-in.
-[X] Hide it within the folds of your backpack. You can remove the danger away from the innocent, as a hero should.

Pandemonious Ivy said:

I think the synergy of this will help us gain XP faster, for the moment, which means we can get more of the cooler things easier (without needing to go knock heads just yet).

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I understand how Aspire to Sagehood benefits Speed Copy since the latter's a scholar skill, but how exactly is Speed Copy supposed to get us EXP faster? Most of the EXP we got for this level up was from discovering new knowledge, we didn't actually get any from copying any of it down. The only other thing it would help level up that I can see is the Copying Writing skill. If we want more EXP, then traits that increase the chance of us finding or learning new lore and knowledge would be what you want, like Forbidden Scholar and Connection With Beyond.

Speed Copy just seems so much more niche than everything else available, only useful if we want to copy a small document in a rush, and the limited uses per day makes it even worse. It's the kind of ability that you want to save the limited uses for when you actually need it, like if we want to copy a forbidden text and don't want to risk someone catching us, or if we found a valuable mural in a dangerous dungeon that we don't want to spend too long in to record it. However, the only way to train it is to use it, preferably using all the charges for the day, so you're left with a Catch 22 on if or when you should use your limited charges for the day.

I believe he's referencing the experience gain from learning skills and advancing their rank. Also I will say the key behind Aspire to Sagehood is 'Scholar related skills' not writing.

EDIT: And I will tell you that it's far, far easier to access those skills than forbidden knowledge. You guys were incredibly lucky in both what got left in the record room and what you noticed.

I'm also going for the Forbidden Knowledge and Connection with Beyond because i feel like those are the hardest to proc again, while we can probably count on Dominate Writing or Sagehood to pop up again.

Like, they only showed up because we rolled a 99, but the Dominate thing is because of a blessing we have, so it'll definitely stay until it's picked, and we seem locked in on the sage route anyway, so that'll also probably stay. But I want to get the Forbidden Knowledge and Connection with Beyond because I don't know if they'll stay for the next level up, while the others definitely will.

@adwarf Are the traits and skills unique to each level up or do they stay there until we select them?