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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
I wonder how comfortable Qi would be with dance tutoring, could be seen as intimate in a different way to music. Especially since I don't recall her ever showing the type of passion for it that could bypass the initial awkwardness.
 
Well, dancing is probably quite varied, but Celestial Peaks conventional dancing is probably stiff and boring. Not fun like Ling Qi's PLR revelry or SCS mischief.
 
That's why we should go looking for moon spirits. She likes moon spirits.

IIRC, wasn't the last time we interacted with moon spirits that sect mission where a party of Dreaming Moon Spirits was running arround, lewding the general populace and trying to get everybody drunk and refused to leave? IIRC, LQ had to challenge their leader to a rock off challenge.


Dreaming Moon spirits are a bit weird. Let's hope that our request to learn dance doesn't spark off some Project X style escalation party.
 
IIRC, wasn't the last time we interacted with moon spirits that sect mission where a party of Dreaming Moon Spirits was running arround, lewding the general populace and trying to get everybody drunk and refused to leave? IIRC, LQ had to challenge their leader to a rock off challenge.


Dreaming Moon spirits are a bit weird. Let's hope that our request to learn dance doesn't spark off some Project X style escalation party.
*does not compute*
 
I would like Change too except for that dang AM insight that keeps rearing it's ugly head.

AM insight does not conflict with change. All AM insight does is prevent Ling Qi from lying to herself (including social deception arts where you self-target the lie so as to better sell it in a court where there will be people who have better cultivation than you). Change, be it based on change over time, or change over context or setting, does not conflict, unless Ling Qi is lying to herself about said change.

An art or something which goes "With musicians, I am a musician. With warriors, I am a warrior. With friends I am sincere and close to them, with strangers I am mysterious and labyrinthine, with enemies I am cold and distant. All of these are Ling Qi" and doubles down on it would actually jive really well with the AM insight.
 
IIRC, wasn't the last time we interacted with moon spirits that sect mission where a party of Dreaming Moon Spirits was running arround, lewding the general populace and trying to get everybody drunk and refused to leave? IIRC, LQ had to challenge their leader to a rock off challenge.


Dreaming Moon spirits are a bit weird. Let's hope that our request to learn dance doesn't spark off some Project X style escalation party.
That kind of encounter is going to be much MUCH more dangerous in probably a few months. When Ling Qi doesn't have FVM equipped, she doesn't have a counter for pantslessness.
 
SCS has arguably gained offensive utility for Ling Qi in particular since the "physical attack" is now just "attack" and Ling Qi uses primarily spiritual attacks. For the cost reduction on chaining, the wording is ambiguous. "If used defensively, recurring activation of this technique in the same scene have their qi cost reduced to C rank. " implies that the cost reduction lasts for the whole scene, not just consecutive chain-casting of just SCS. If this is the case, it mostly supplants the use of PLR's semi-perfect dodge tech EDD, which would be bad. It should only work on truly consecutive uses, and I'd even argue it should be capped at 3 in a row or something.
Mmmh. @yrsillar, how big were you planning the buff to Wind Thief to be?

Because (currently), we can use a B rank tech around ~10 times, but a C rank around ~40 times (because we are B27, not B0). The buff to SCS perfect dodge means that it turns it into a tech Ling Qi can use as a panic button maybe three times per fight (as she needs to do other things, including offensive B ranks) to something she can use over 20 times. That actually raises the order of magnitude of Ling Qi's defence.

Obviously, this won't mean as much once we get to A Qi, and it can be argued we'll get to A Qi before we get Wind thief. So maybe I am worried for nothing. Just making sure this wasn't meant as a 'minor buff', as even with AQi it will still have a very significant effect, as well as lower the value of any of our other perfect defences.

Also,
Wind Thief: No comment on the passives or initiative being added to the first tech. G damage reduction feels like too much on the first level of a hugely mobility and avoid focused tech, H damage reduction was fine. A cost reduction on immediate re-cast is fine, but D qi cost just seems inappropriate under any circumstances for a B rank technique of this potency that already has a Long duration.
Damage Table
Rank+3 or more: Instant Lethality/Disabling
Rank+2: Crippling Wound ~1
Rank +1: Major Wound ~2
Rank 0: Significant Wound ~3-4
Rank -1: Lesser Wound ~6-8
Rank -2: Minor Wound ~10-12
Rank -3: Flesh Wound ~16-20
Rank -4: Graze ~25-50
Rank -5 or less: Negligible
G rank damage negation will negate 'Negligible' damage @AbeoLogos. Let's not blow this out of proportion.
 
Mmmh. @yrsillar, how big were you planning the buff to Wind Thief to be?

Because (currently), we can use a B rank tech around ~10 times, but a C rank around ~40 times (because we are B27, not B0). The buff to SCS perfect dodge means that it turns it into a tech Ling Qi can use as a panic button maybe three times per fight (as she needs to do other things, including offensive B ranks) to something she can use over 20 times. That actually raises the order of magnitude of Ling Qi's defence.

Obviously, this won't mean as much once we get to A Qi, and it can be argued we'll get to A Qi before we get Wind thief. So maybe I am worried for nothing. Just making sure this wasn't meant as a 'minor buff', as even with AQi it will still have a very significant effect, as well as lower the value of any of our other perfect defences.

Also,

G rank damage negation will negate 'Negligible' damage @AbeoLogos. Let's not blow this out of proportion.
Thinking about it more, it would be less clunky wording and more grounded if SCS reduced the cost of just the next use in a scene. So B/C/B/C/etc. I dunno.

And G rank damage reduction will make us literally invincible, mark my words :cry:
 
I wouldn't mind seeing dance affecting Ling Qi's life outside of combat. So far there wasn't a single time it was mentioned, I think.
 
I rarely participate in this Quest, but I feel the need to bring up some arguments in favour of Coldstar Blade since they dont really seem to come up often in these build discussions even if someone probably already noticed them in all the pages I didnt read.
The parts of the art I want to point your attention towards are the description at the start that describes an arts placement within the world of this story.
A Martial Art originating from the Heavenly Peaks province, the Coldstar Blade Foundations are a simplified version of the core martial techniques of the Frozen Sun Sect, who dwell upon the higher peaks of the province and meditate on the dichotomy of being closer to the sun--and yet colder than those who dwell in less rarefied heights. As a Minor Sect who failed to gain Imperial Patronage, they have found themselves outcompeted by the Great Sects who now monopolize the young and talented of the Celestial Empire, and have distributed these teachings in an attempt to keep their methods alive. Experts in the Coldstar Blade Arts are known for their graceful movements and precision--sequestering the life and vitality of their foes before detonating it in all-powerful finishing strikes.
Firstly, the whole part where people who use this art lineage are known for being especially elegant and dignified is probably pretty useful for a commoner struggling with what other think of her upbringing. Gracefulness will probably just increase as one of the passive benefits of physical cultivation, but I still see some trouble there. Most of Ling Qis arts are pretty stationary, because they are music stuff. The prominent Arts that arent will be the "I am soooo drunk, lets just have a good time" dance and the "I am an eight-year old from before manners were invented" run. Our saving grace Sable Crescent Step turned into a "Why would anyone still use limbs to move!?" technique upon extended contact with Ling Qi.
Maybe Yrsillar will let this opportunity to make us face a fun and flavourful problem pass, but I, if I were in his shoes, would just cackle evilly when hitting the Post Reply button on the update where a concerned Xiulan takes Ling Qi aside to ask her how she managed to somehow become more boorish during the cultivation ascent.

The other thing is that the whole "Endangered Art deliberately spread by its Masters" just opens a whole bunch of story-telling doors. The biggest among them is that Ling Qi will spend her immediate future in a place of learning, meaning most of the adults around us are going to be some flavour of nerd. Currently we havent given them a reason to have an opinion about our protagonist yet, so something like "Aw, how splendid to see a young student keep alive the imperilled fruits of such a storied Sect" is likely to come up just because having Ling Qi only encounter elders who dont give a shit about her in either direction gets a bit monotone to write and read.
Its also worth thinking a bit more about the fact that they are so invested in spreading their legacy that they have already created a simplified version just to make it accessible to people who arent surrounded by what the Art contemplates on. We can probably expect that effort to not end there. I wouldnt be surprised if the follow-ups comes to us with barely any effort from our side once Ling Qi has mastered the basics they have strewn into the winds, just because the Sect the arts are from are in the weird position of desperately wanting to share their secrets.
Then long term we could profit from the fact that Ling Qi wouldnt be the only person to take advantage of this opportunity. She can currently randomly go up to one of the Core Sects strongest to ask him for guidance, and that relationship pretty much started because he was happy to find someone who shared one of his Arts, so there is a precedent for Arts mattering in that way.
A downside of being a commoner is that Ling Qi lacks connections, both positive and negative ones. This can get boring. Learning Coldstar means that she can justifiably encounter other cultivators who are like "Hey, nice to meet a Cold Blade Buddy!" when she has to do stuff in a part of the Empire where none of her established friend has a reason appear.

In conclusion, Coldstar Blade not just being some Art but something rooted in the setting, with an actual history and reputation even, can matter in a lot of fun ways and the fact that most of you just overlook everything but the mathy aspects makes me sad.:V
 
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More specifically, we just need D/C. WoG:
Yrsillar07/06/2019
probably D minimum, with a c preferred for the rank
Well, ranks auto-rescale with Cultivation, so my point exactly :)
AM insight does not conflict with change. All AM insight does is prevent Ling Qi from lying to herself (including social deception arts where you self-target the lie so as to better sell it in a court where there will be people who have better cultivation than you). Change, be it based on change over time, or change over context or setting, does not conflict, unless Ling Qi is lying to herself about said change.

An art or something which goes "With musicians, I am a musician. With warriors, I am a warrior. With friends I am sincere and close to them, with strangers I am mysterious and labyrinthine, with enemies I am cold and distant. All of these are Ling Qi" and doubles down on it would actually jive really well with the AM insight.
Its pretty funny with Ling Qi's high Manipulation, since essentially she's going to be better with manipulating people to be honest and to reveal themselves.

Persona Phantom Thieves go~
 
Heya, lurker for a few weeks finally caught up. Still taking in the more nuanced mechanics, so bare with me, xD. I like the above post about the Coldstar Blade, from CeBrudras. I can see having a more graceful art helping with the growing importance of appearance.
 
Turn 5: Arc 3-1 Growing Pains
Ling Qi peered into the distance at the smoking crater in the ground, the glassy glimmer of the melted dirt and the shattered stone around. Then she shook her head. "Sorry little brother, you still missed."

"Ugh, stupid Zhen," Gui grumbled. The giant tortoise lowered his head and swallowed another massive mouthful of dirt, stones and plant matter from the miniature mountain of 'ammunition' they had prepared.

"Silence, foolish Gui," Zhen hissed as the air around him rippled with heat. "I Zhen, merely need a little more practice!"

Ling Qi watched with a critical eye, flickers of silver marking the use of her arts as she examined the processes of the technique Zhengui was trying to develop. He was not actually very good at taking in earth qi, so for now they were using this crude method, but once he had mastered the more mundane aspects, they would have to work on the internal ones. Perhaps she could ask Xuan Shi? He had much more experience with earth arts.

"You ready with the target Sixiang?" She asked absently, resting her hand on Gui's scaly head as he swallowed the 'fuel'. Dribbling lines of molten glass dripped from the corners of his mouth, it was cute in a way.

"Got ya covered boss," Sixiang said, and in the distance, Ling Qi saw the spinning clay target, a simple unadorned disc, spinning and floating in midair. The wind coiled around the disc, preparing to fling it into the distance. Sixiang was getting better at manipulating the wind, though so far they had not really come up with anything that could be called a technique.

"Alright, fire when ready," Ling Qi said with a grin. Zhen's throat bulged as the missile formed and traveled up toward his mouth gathering fiery qi along the way and the disc flew out, spinning wildly. A moment later, he rose to his full height and spat, and a burning mass of molten earth and ash erupted. The missile was the size roughly a meter across and arced high through the air trailing ash and rippling heat. It arced down a hundred meters distant, and the qi contained within churned. In a flash of fiery light and molten shrapnel it exploded.

"Give the boy a prize!" Sixiang announced cheerfully and Ling Qi grinned as well, the disc was gone, blasted into burnt fragments.

"Ha! It is done!" Zhen crowed proudly.

"Hmph, Zhen should not be so proud, Sixiang is taking it easy." Gui grumbled, even as he eyed the pile of dirt and stones with distaste.

"It's a good first step," Ling Qi soothed as Zhen turned outraged eyes on his other half. "We'll work on consistency, and then we can move onto harder targets."

However, before they could continue, Ling Qi found her attention drawn away. She turned to look to her right as she felt Hanyi's qi approaching. Even from here, she could feel the spirits anger and embarrassment, long before she spotted her trudging up the hill where Zhengui practiced his techniques. Hanyi was soaked to the bone, her dress hung heavy from her shoulders, stiff and covered in frost and ice. Icicles dangled from the hems, clinking musically as she walked, and her hair was muddy and full of water weeds.

Ling Qi was at her side in the blink of an eye, crossing the intervening distance as little more than a blur. "Hanyi, what happened?" Ling Qi asked, crouching down to look at her. Ling Qi could see the fading remains of bruises and scrapes on the young spirit's arms and legs.

"I was just playing and this stupid jerk knocked me off the side of the waterfall, and then this spirit got mad cause I froze his dumb pond," Hanyi sniffled. "Then I had to walk all the way out here cause I can't get into the cave without you.

Ling Qi grimaced. "Sorry about that," she apologized. The locks on the disciples homes were not something she could modify. "But who knocked you off a cliff, and why?"

"I dunno," Hanyi pouted. "I was just playing and singing by the stream and they got mad at me for making noise and kicked me off the cliffside."

Ling Qi frowned, she sensed something a little evasive in Hanyi's tone, but…

"What?! Big Sister, we need to go beat them up!" Zhengui announced, apparently having caught her words as he trundled over. "We can't just let people mess with family."

"Doofus," Hanyi muttered under her breath, looking away briefly. She quickly brightened up though, looking pleadingly up at Ling Qi. "Yeah, you should beat them up Big Sister!"

"Methinks we're missing some context here," Sixiang whispered dryly in her thoughts.

"I still need to know who it was," Ling Qi pointed out.

"Well…" Hanyi began, sounding a little sheepish.

***​

Ling Qi did not know what she had expected, but it was not this. Standing before the perpetrator, she looked into Yu Nuan's eyes and saw stubborn determination mixed with fear. The girl looked much the same as she had when Ling Qi had challenged her last. She had a new set of piercings in her right ear, and some of the others had been changed for studs of other colors, but that was the extent of her physical changes.

"What is this I hear about you knocking my spirit off this cliff?" LIng Qi asked cooly, gesturing to her right, where the clear waters tumbled over the cliffside, churning up the pond below. Chunks of slow melting ice still floated on its weedy surface. Hanyi peered out from behind her, and Ling Qi did not miss the way she pulled a face and stuck out her tongue at the other disciple.

"I lost my temper," Yu Nuan replied defensively. "But that little… your spirit has been bugging me all month, interrupting my practice and trying to challenge me, and when she scared off the spirit I was trying to bind..."

Left unsaid was what Ling Qi read between the lines. Yu Nuan had assumed Ling Qi was trying to mess with her, and was now preparing herself for the consequences of rising to the bait. Ling QI shot a frown at Hanyi, who huffed.

"Like that's a good excuse for attacking me like a big jerk. You knocked me off a cliff!"

Yu Nuan's pierced eyebrow twitched violently. "We're all third realm here," she growled. "Don't pretend you're made of glass." She crossed her arms and looked defiantly at Ling Qi. "I'm not gonna apologize."

Ling Qi frowned, she had her suspicions but… "Hanyi, why have you been following her around and challenging her?"

The young spirit looked briefly furtive, but a hard look from Ling Qi made her darting eyes still. "...I wanted to beat her, everyone says Big Sister crushed her so easily, so I thought I should be able to win too." She scuffed her foot in the dirt. "I kept losing."

There was another violent eye twitch from Yu Nuan, Ling Qi felt bad for the other girl. On the other hand, Hanyi had actually caused the both of them some trouble. If, or rather when it got around that Ling Qi had allowed one of her spirits to get attacked by a lower ranked disciple it would give her detractors even more ammunition if she didn't do anything about it. Ling Qi rubbed her forehead in frustration before she caught herself.

Straightening up, she looked the other girl in the eye, and measured her wary stance. "I will need an apology," she said, causing the other girls shoulders to stiffen. "However, Hanyi you need to stop…"

"No!" Hanyi replied stubbornly, stamping her foot. "I'm gonna beat her. She's a cheater, and she made fun of Momma's song."

"I said you're bad at it you little snot," Yu Nuan shot back. "If you're just copying someone else, of course you're bad."

Hanyi puffed her cheeks out angrily, and Ling Qi grimaced internally.

"You can just make her stop," Sixiang pointed out.

'I could,' Ling Qi thought. 'But it's my fault for not paying attention to what she was doing in the first place. I'm supposed to be her guardian'. It was a weird and unwelcome thought, but not one Ling Qi could avoid having. "Yu Nuan, I will repeat. I will need an apology, but I am willing to give you some recompense for lost time and trouble," she held up a hand to quiet Hanyi. "If you want to challenge someone, ask me and I'll help you arrange it."

"Then I wanna challenge her now, she's a cheater," Hanyi said pointing to Yu Nuan.

"And why should I accept?" The other Disciple replied, crossing her arms. "I've already lost enough time on this."

"...If you win, I'll add on helping you wrangle a spirit," Ling Qi said after a moment. "Since you're having some trouble on that front."

The other girl stared her down, only briefly looking at Hanyi, which seemed to infuriate the young spirit even more. "...I'm guessing the deal is only good if it comes with that apology, huh?" She asked.

"Yes," Ling Qi replied bluntly.

"Fine," Yu Nuan replied. "You got a deal. What's the time frame?"

Ling Qi sighed, the annoying political bits were worked out, but as she watched Hanyi out of the corner of her eye, she knew that there were other things she had been neglecting. She would have her chance she supposed, since she would certainly be helping Hanyi with her composition, since Hanyi admitted later that she had never really made her own piece before.

The piece she helped Hanyi create was…

[] A bombastic and overbearing piece (Damaging, Yang, Presence)
[] A beautiful and alluring piece (Control, Balanced, Manipulation)
[] A quiet and melancholic piece (Defensive, Yin, Composure)
 
Yeah it sounds like Hanyi was pretty much entirely in the wrong, I think she's getting off rather lightly. That was borderline sabotage.

[] A bombastic and overbearing piece (Damaging, Yang, Presence)
[] A beautiful and alluring piece (Control, Balanced, Manipulation)
[] A quiet and melancholic piece (Defensive, Yin, Composure)


I'm thinking Manipulation is definitely what Hanyi should spec towards. Just perch her on top of Zhengui and control enemy movement right where our turtle son can smash them.
 
I am laughing so hard right now. Our spirits, both our sister and our son brother can be such brats. But it is still cute.

Hmm, she got dmg (FSS Hanyi version) and control (LWM Hanyi version) so a defensive art would fit right in... Though she is still hurt in her legs etc so she should, probably, get one of those later anyway. Also specialization is a thing... hmm hard to pick here. Maybe go for what fits Hanyi for a character instead is also an option?
 
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