Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

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[X]Get in close, keep the creatures attention focused wholly on you,
-[X] It's threat comes from the ability to summon forth the pull of the Earth through it's shrill cry, but you know that it is mere sound. Quickly secure Li Suyin and descend into the pit above the beast's gaping maw while flying and raising your own defenses, then use the Spring's End Aria to freeze and mutilate the organ and as much of the earth around you as you can reach. Whether it can scream through frozen and shattered tongue and vocal chords or not, its a stationary target and thus an all-too-perfect victim. Ensure that it stays that way, using Hoarfrost Caress and Winter's End Cadenza to further stop it from being able to fight back or escape.
 
Our adventure with Suyin is off to a good start. Looking forward to seeing what else is down here.

[x]Get in close, keep the creatures attention focused wholly on you,
-[x] Reinforce Suyin and yourself with Vital Qi and attempt to free her movements as you close in and make yourself the main target. Try to stay close and incite it to focus on physical attacks instead of its gravitational fields in order to reduce the risk of cave-in, dancing around it as an annoying shadow. Avoid the use of flight. Offensively, simply attempt to destroy it quickly with our Frozen Seranade, though be prepared to unleash Winter's End if necessary to manage smaller beasts.

Going with this option since it tries to reduce the odds of a cave in.
 
[X]Get in close, keep the creatures attention focused wholly on you,
-[X] It's threat comes from the ability to summon forth the pull of the Earth through it's shrill cry, but you know that it is mere sound. Quickly secure Li Suyin and descend into the pit above the beast's gaping maw while flying and raising your own defenses, then use the Spring's End Aria to freeze and mutilate the organ and as much of the earth around you as you can reach. Whether it can scream through frozen and shattered tongue and vocal chords or not, its a stationary target and thus an all-too-perfect victim. Ensure that it stays that way, using Hoarfrost Caress and Winter's End Cadenza to further stop it from being able to fight back or escape.
 
[x]Get in close, keep the creatures attention focused wholly on you,
-[x] Use TRF to free Suyin to move (DWV or TRU?). Attempt to burst down as fast as possible using FSS. Stay on the ground and close to it to try to make it focus on hitting us rather than bringing the cave down with its gravitational field.
 
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Who knows how durable ice is? Won't the ceiling collapse if earth can't support it anymore?

[x]Get in close, keep the creatures attention focused wholly on you,
-[x] Reinforce Suyin and yourself with Vital Qi and attempt to free her movements as you close in and make yourself the main target. Try to stay close and incite it to focus on physical attacks instead of its gravitational fields in order to reduce the risk of cave-in, dancing around it as an annoying shadow. Avoid the use of flight. Offensively, simply attempt to destroy it quickly with our Frozen Seranade, though be prepared to unleash Winter's End if necessary to manage smaller beasts.
 
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[x]Get in close, keep the creatures attention focused wholly on you,
-[x] Reinforce Suyin and yourself with Vital Qi and attempt to free her movements as you close in and make yourself the main target. Try to stay close and incite it to focus on physical attacks instead of its gravitational fields in order to reduce the risk of cave-in, dancing around it as an annoying shadow. Avoid the use of flight. Offensively, simply attempt to destroy it quickly with our Frozen Seranade, though be prepared to unleash Winter's End if necessary to manage smaller beasts.
 
Who knows how durable ice is? Won't the ceiling collapse if earth can't support it anymore?
I'm... not sure what the durability of ice has to do with the ceiling collapsing.

However, yes, the ceiling will collapse if the various means of support are removed, or if the means of support can't account for the additional weight that the Antlion is creating on the ceiling.

As for the durability for ice... it depends on the ice. However, given that we can't generate columns of ice, I'm not sure how relevant it's durability is.
 
Quickly secure Li Suyin and descend into the pit above the beast's gaping maw while flying and raising your own defenses
I feel like this is problematic for a number of reasons?
  • Grabbing Suyin slows us down (despite taking it down quickly before the cave can collapse being important, and its offensive stats actually being decent)
  • Flying over it will probably encourage it to go all in on trying to suck us in (thus increasing the chance of cave-in)
  • It's kind of insulting to Suyin (and social issues aside, harming her self-esteem when she's prepping for breakthrough probably isn't helpful)
  • If we're carrying Suyin then that kind of inhibits our ability to play music...
 
I feel like this is problematic for a number of reasons?
  • Grabbing Suyin slows us down (despite taking it down quickly before the cave can collapse being important, and its offensive stats actually being decent)
  • Flying over it will probably encourage it to go all in on trying to suck us in (thus increasing the chance of cave-in)
  • It's kind of insulting to Suyin (and social issues aside, harming her self-esteem when she's prepping for breakthrough probably isn't helpful)
  • If we're carrying Suyin then that kind of inhibits our ability to play music...
FSS relies on singing, not Woodwinds so its really not an issue for the offense I proposed. And frankly speaking, I don't think that Suyin's ego is fragile enough to be shattered when it comes to being bailed out of not dying from ambush to a third realm AoE specialist. Given how she was after the Chu Song ambush, and honestly speaking if that were ever going to be a risk then we probably already crossed that line when Ling Qi snatched her out of range of the initial ambush to begin with.

As far as encouraging the chance of a cave in, that's a nonsensical concern. Thrashing about or whatever technique it used to reduce a 30-meter area into a collapsing Sandpit is just as likely, if not moreso, to pose a structural risk than spamming its Gravity attacks. At least by floating within close range of the thing it gives the Antlion the illusion that it can rely on it's other tools to kill Ling Qi.
 
Doesn't FSS turn things into ice? Collateral damage and all that.
I mean... kind of? It would only turn things into ice though if there is water present, such as Shen Hu's Spirit's mud field. But that's just a side effect of making things really, really cold.

So it'll turn any water in the ground to ice, but it won't actually turn the dirt into ice.
 
I mean... kind of? It would only turn things into ice though if there is water present, such as Shen Hu's Spirit's mud field. But that's just a side effect of making things really, really cold.

So it'll turn any water in the ground to ice, but it won't actually turn the dirt into ice.
One of the things it'll be turning to Ice will be the blood in the Antlion's maw for example. Also its little eyes.

Consider for a moment, how hilariously vulnerable the stuff in the Red Jungle was to FSS' sheer cold during the fight with Liling, literally just shattered all the trees around it by expanding the moisture within it. Assuming that this Antlion has had no cause to develop Spiritual Armor, let alone Fade, and when FSS's techs hit it in the face its basically going to be screwed.

Then take into account the Qi-affecting and Tech affecting debuffs in play and you can see why I'm not especially concerned about it spamming it's Gravity tech enough times to cause a serious risk of a cave-in. Additionally there's totally moisture in the environment.

What do you think is growing the fungus, lol?
 
FSS relies on singing, not Woodwinds so its really not an issue for the offense I proposed.
That's explicitly not true though? Woodwind is now a completely separate skill that is two ranks higher than our Music (vocals) skill.

If we couldn't use our flute I would absolutely expect yrsillar to treat our attacks as being a rank lower.
 
That's explicitly not true though? Woodwind is now a completely separate skill that is two ranks higher than our Music (vocals) skill.

If we couldn't use our flute I would absolutely expect yrsillar to treat our attacks as being a rank lower.
I mean, this is assuming that treating Suyin like a potato sack is what happens anyway.

I won't deny that it'd be funny, but there's a nonzero chance that Suyin could play Scarf instead and thus leave Ling Qi's hands free :V
 
[x]Get in close, keep the creatures attention focused wholly on you,
-[x] Reinforce Suyin and yourself with Vital Qi and attempt to free her movements as you close in and make yourself the main target. Try to stay close and incite it to focus on physical attacks instead of its gravitational fields in order to reduce the risk of cave-in, dancing around it as an annoying shadow. Avoid the use of flight. Offensively, simply attempt to destroy it quickly with our Frozen Seranade, though be prepared to unleash Winter's End if necessary to manage smaller beasts.
 
And frankly speaking, I don't think that Suyin's ego is fragile enough to be shattered when it comes to being bailed out of not dying from ambush to a third realm AoE specialist.
But there's kind of a difference between "push you away from ambush" and "pick you up and carry you like a baby because aaaaahhhhh the floor is lava and you're so fragile and unable to do anything yourself!"

While, yes, if we were in a sufficiently dangerous situation that merited us grabbing Suyin and flying away I would totally support that, I don't really think that line has been crossed here? Especially if we're drawing aggro? She does, after-all, have her own movement arts and tools, and we have multiple ways to try to address her being dragged in if need be.

Also, we're near the edge of the sinkhole. Why would we carry her closer to the threat?
 
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@TehChron I do have some concerns with the plan you've proposed.
[X]Get in close, keep the creatures attention focused wholly on you,
-[X] It's threat comes from the ability to summon forth the pull of the Earth through it's shrill cry, but you know that it is mere sound. Quickly secure Li Suyin and descend into the pit above the beast's gaping maw while flying and raising your own defenses, then use the Spring's End Aria to freeze and mutilate the organ and as much of the earth around you as you can reach. Whether it can scream through frozen and shattered tongue and vocal chords or not, its a stationary target and thus an all-too-perfect victim. Ensure that it stays that way, using Hoarfrost Caress and Winter's End Cadenza to further stop it from being able to fight back or escape.
Emphasis Added

So, my concern is the language regarding "secur[ing] Li Suyin" and what that actually means. Given the discussion, it seems like you are under the impression that we will be carrying Li Suyin, or having her attached to us somehow while we descend into the pit above the beast's gaping maw. This seems completely antithetical to the premise of the plan which is "get in close, keep the creature's attention focused wholly on you."

How can we keep the Antlion's attention focused wholly on us when we have Li Suyin attached to us. That means that the antlion will be paying attention to Li Suyin as well. It just doesn't seem possible. Additionally, how will our arts interact with Li Suyin attached to us? As we use Grinning Cresent Dance we will become more ephemeral, but Li Suyin won't. Which means that either we can't use Grinning Cresent Dance or we will leave Li Suyin vulnerable and in range of the Antlion's attacks.

The language "secure Li Suyin" is vague though, and I was originally under the impression that we would use DWV to give her a shield and dispell the Antlion's gravity effect on her, enabling her greater range of movement as well as giving her free range to direct and support her constructs.

In conclusion, how do you rationalize the original premise of keeping the Antlion's attention focused wholly on Ling Qi with carrying Li Suyin around with us as we get close to the Antlion, and even if that was able to be rationalized, how would getting Li Suyin closer to the active danger of the Antlion help in protecting Li Suyin from attacks by the Antlion?
 
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