- Location
- not actually Urk, I just liked the alliteration
[x] Continue distracting the hill beast while your subordinates and Zhengui wall off the remaining exits from its valley, then vanish, and only engage again if it looks to be breaking out.
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
[X] Close in, relying on Sixiang to keep it's toxic aura from affecting you, between your music and your subordinates ritualism, it should be possible to pacify the creature.
Oh, you have to manually save your drafts now. Oops.
I was thinking that we need to get Sixiang a gift for how much we have been working her. Then I felt bad for Zhengui and especially Hanyi. I like the pacify option but it's the only one that doesn't highlight Zhengui. Just food for thought.
Edit:
Liked Karugus' thoughts on Hanyi.
[X] Go in for the kill, and call Zhengui to help. You have underestimated your own killing power before, and the things cultivation is not superior to your own. Hill or not, you can End it.
I was thinking that we need to get Sixiang a gift for how much we have been working her. Then I felt bad for Zhengui and especially Hanyi. I like the pacify option but it's the only one that doesn't highlight Zhengui. Just food for thought.
Edit:
Liked Karugus' thoughts on Hanyi.
[X] Go in for the kill, and call Zhengui to help. You have underestimated your own killing power before, and the things cultivation is not superior to your own. Hill or not, you can End it.
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[X] Go in for the kill, and call Zhengui to help. You have underestimated your own killing power before, and the things cultivation is not superior to your own. Hill or not, you can End it.
- Location
- New York
I don't get it? Where does this confidence come from in regards to the pacify option? People are like "oh this ain't serious" or "we will be fine." Like I don't believe this hill is likely to kill us. But pacify is so fucking risky in a many ways. We could be injured badly. Our minion could get killed. We have no proof we will gain anything out of pacify really. And making it the "moral" choice is so false too. Guys...it's likely that after we pacify this hill it's going to continue to be in a huge amount of pain and suffering. Not just that, it's going to probably taken in to be experimented on. The army isn't going to try to "save" the spirits. And the people talking of the river fish spirit...really? How are those two situations anyway comparable to trying to pacify this spirit? The river fish was said to be easily flattered, and he has years upon years of sect disciples going through his river. He isn't in constant pain. Probably much more rational. I just don't get where all of the confidence in the safety and ability to pull the pacify option comes from. And stop trying to make the End option some causal kill. The text itself makes it clear she isn't looking at it casually. Ending is not killing in the same sense to Qi. Ending to her is something similar to Zheqing, and end to pain and suffering and a change.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
Inserted tally
OK peeps. The last vote we overwhelmingly choose to do the sensible thing and bug out due to lack of skill and a play to do the responsible thing. And the skill in question is of similar core importance to our characterization.
Now with a different core characterization skill that is comparatively weaker, and this one without even art support, we are voting to do something that is decidedly not responsible.
I am amused by this.
Contain is the responsible choice, kill is the reach choice. Pacify is not.
Now with a different core characterization skill that is comparatively weaker, and this one without even art support, we are voting to do something that is decidedly not responsible.
I am amused by this.
Contain is the responsible choice, kill is the reach choice. Pacify is not.
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- Location
- California
We might not necessarily pull this off. However, many of us think the risks are worth it as pacification would continue to deepen the characterization of Ling Qi as someone who deals with spirit conflict through communication. Obtaining additional info on what the hill spirits mentioned is a likely benefit of success as well although, as you say, we have no proof it will actually happen.
There is no evidence that experimentation on spirits is a thing the sect does. If the sect wants to find out what's going on, there are plenty of things that could presumably be done, especially by higher level characters, without having to take the spirit in for experimentation.
The river fish encounter is relevant here because it's a recent example of Ling Qi communicating with spirits to resolve conflict, a pattern that has been established throughout the series. I think the issue here is that you're looking at it from a material cost-benefit analysis, in which case pacification could be the worst option, especially if you don't think it's likely we'll gain any additional info from the spirit. Many of us are looking at it from a different perspective.
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- Location
- Florida
[X] Close in, relying on Sixiang to keep it's toxic aura from affecting you, between your music and your subordinates ritualism, it should be possible to pacify the creature.
I just think killing would be incredibly difficult and destructive to the area. So if containing won't win, I'll switch.
I just think killing would be incredibly difficult and destructive to the area. So if containing won't win, I'll switch.
- Location
- scrabbling
Yrsillar slipping in that interlude made me laugh. Gotta get that ominous foreshadowing somehow, I guess.
I appreciate Liao Zhu's more studied approach to the barbarians compared to LQ's blank ignorance.
[X] Go in for the kill, and call Zhengui to help. You have underestimated your own killing power before, and the things cultivation is not superior to your own. Hill or not, you can End it.
I appreciate Liao Zhu's more studied approach to the barbarians compared to LQ's blank ignorance.
[X] Go in for the kill, and call Zhengui to help. You have underestimated your own killing power before, and the things cultivation is not superior to your own. Hill or not, you can End it.
- Location
- New York
I just used experimentation as an example. Overall just doubt the sect will be kind to this particular spirit. And while yeah, risk and reward is a way to look at it, and I am influenced by that, I think there is still lots of characterization in the End option. It's not killing, it's Ending. Makes it much more thematically and metaphysically important, especially to Qi. Like I said, we have experiences with Ends before but this is the first relating to killing. Others have to do with closing certain chapters, or the biggest one was Zheqing letting us and Hannyi go.
Also the other option I wanted to win in the begging was containment, and would rather that to pacify. It's just I hate having the initiative handed to the enemy like that option does, cause we have no control or idea what this will do by leaving it sealed in the valley. It's very hands off, and I think it's dangerous in that way.
We are in practice gambling our minions life on the hail Mary that we can somehow cobble together a ritual on a hill that does not act like a hill usually does and is infected with two types of corruption. One that made Jiao go "huh that actual exists" and the other that made sempai go "yeah, need to kick this upstairs cause never seen this shit".
Going the route as full pacification with spirits for LQ also begs into question if people actually wants to go there. Like should we stop taking spirit core based medicine, stop hunting for food for Zhengui and Hanyi? Like this is not a world where stuff of that works if we actually want to be someone that matters.
Going the route as full pacification with spirits for LQ also begs into question if people actually wants to go there. Like should we stop taking spirit core based medicine, stop hunting for food for Zhengui and Hanyi? Like this is not a world where stuff of that works if we actually want to be someone that matters.
Our stealth skill was perfectly adequate for the task. People badly misjudged our ability because Ling Qi got caught with her pants down by unexpected observers and had to use an emergency button. She then had a permanent baseline upgrade to her capabilities and the advantage of asymmetrical awareness. It would most likely have been fine.
- Location
- Fabulously Rainbow Ireland
so now you're pulling the "darkness is evil" style argument on us? "Voting for purify will screw us over because we can never ever use cores or drugs again"
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
The biggest difference between taking the responsible choice last vote and the riskier one this time is the relative cultivation levels. Here we face one roughly peer spirit, last vote we faced two superiors plus unknown reinforcements. This is a much more controlled risk- and withdrawal is entirely possible with both pacify and kill options. We can always fall back to containment if luck is bad.
Jensaarai
Sing Victory Everlasting
- Pronouns
- They/Them
No, they're asking where people want to ultimately go with the pacification route as a game-long intention.
Some of the arguments were mentioning how they wanted to work more with the Spirit Ken and negotiation skills, but since LQ just had a small crisis at the realization that she's been killing potentially sapient spirits without a care, how would that intersect with the hunting and acquisition of materials from said spirits? Especially since LQ's gonna have to hunt progressively higher and higher level spirits as time goes on, which will probably be more intelligent in tandem.
Honestly, this isn't complicated shit to work out on your own. @Vanguard_D spells it out pretty clearly. You don't need to jump into hyperbole and derision right out of the gate.
- Location
- Fabulously Rainbow Ireland
....
"like should we stop taking spirit core based medicine, stop hunting for food for Zhengui and Hanyi? Like this is not a world where stuff of that works if we actually want to be someone that matters."
Pretty blatantly implying that pacification can lead to this and tossing in a dose of "this will gimp us in reaching higher cultivation" by the unspoken assumption that us doing something so crazy is an actual possibility
(because leaving Hanyi and Zhengui to starve is totally reasonable consequences to pacifying spirits when possible and treating them as people)
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- Location
- California
Pacifying spirits when possible does not make us completely pacifist. We can still take spirit core based medicines and hunt spirits for food. There is a difference between avoiding violence and avoiding unnecessary violence. Ling Qi's character throughout the series has trended toward the latter, with respect to both human and spirit opponents. She has almost never attacked spirits outside of when it's been necessary. She even played along with Hanyi in her first encounter with her back in FoD despite being in a hurry. Ling Qi also decided not to pursue her conflict with Yan Renshu beyond a certain point. Against both spirit and human opponents however, she still uses violence when necessary as most recently seen in the bandit encounter.
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