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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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[X] Return

We are going to send messengers reporting our findings no matter which choice.

With the smaller barbarian party routed, the scout guy will should try and be able to make it back barring some very unlucky encounter.

Chasing after the assassin would be very much like two invisible men skulking around trying to get the drop on one another by sheer luck. Odds of success are bad, I feel. Better leave it to preception specialists, not a stealth specialist.

Now that we are aware that our base village is gonna be hit even worse than originally expected, it would be very irresponsible not to retake our original post asap.
 
yrsillar said:
It would take Ling Qi the better part of an hour to get there from here in flight mode. Your initial journey to these villages was at a more casual pace
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Damn, we're picking up on shock waves this far out? Things are getting crazy on that mountain.
Nemonowan said:
Chasing after the assassin would be very much like two invisible men skulking around trying to get the drop on one another by sheer luck.
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Doesn't that sound like the coolest thing though?
 
Honestly, I think Investigate is probably less dangerous than we're imagining. Assassins are decided off-footed by people going after then rather than the other way around. They're at their best when they can choose an engagement and not when thrust into a situation where they're being chased by someone who already knows they exist. Worst likely case is their stealth arts are too stronk and they escape.
 
yrsillar said:
The disciple was slumped over his desk. The soldier had if anything undersold the death wound. Only the young man's spine kept his head attached to his shoulders, a ragged gash clove the flesh of his neck in twain, but there was very little blood. The crimson fluid that stained the desk was stained black, and seeped but slowly, heavy and thick with toxic qi. There really was no sign of struggle, a cooling pot of tea still sat undisturbed on the desk and not a single book or scroll on the shelves was out of place. Of the assailant, she could find no sign…
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F A T A L I T Y
 
Inserted tally
Adhoc vote count started by EternalObserver on Oct 28, 2019 at 2:25 AM, finished with 175 posts and 91 votes.
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[X] Rescue

Dude evidently needs some poking to return to action. With both officers out of action, the village is unacceptably vulnerable. We can take the 5-10 minutes to zip out and grab the guy, then install him in the village to act as command and relay. Yeah Ling Qi is having messengers sent, but it's useful to have a trained 3rd realm scout present to oversee ongoing efforts. This is somewhat equivalent to the mountain pass option from our last scout exercise; it prioritizes logistical ease and intel for main-force reinforcement moving into the area. At what should be a fairly minor time cost. I think it's worth it.

Plus, having more dudes think of Ling Qi as their personal hero is fun.
 
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Hmm, looking again at the update, Rescue doesn't seem like it'll actually take that long, and it is important to establish a proper command structure for the village... I think it's worth a little more support for Rescue.

[X] Rescue
 
[X] Return

Either he's alive and can make it back on his own now that the nomads have been driven off, or he's been captured/killed and beyond our practical reach.

And some missed reviewery while I was too busy at work
yrsillar said:
"Worrywort," Sixiang laughed on the wind. "Like any of us are going to get sick from a little baby spirit like that."

"Yeah, auntie is right for once," Hanyi said. "Big Sis worries too much."

"Brat," Sixiang grumbled, though Ling Qi could tell that the spirit was only pretending to be annoyed by the new nickname Hanyi had started to use for them.
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Funny thought is that Sixiang is probably the youngest of the lot.
yrsillar said:
"Yes! I will keep all the bad people and beasts away from the nice humans!" Gui's emphatic declaration caused her to break her staring contest with Hanyi, who herself gave Zhengui an outraged look.

"You weren't asleep at all!" she complained.

"...Not the whole time," Zhen admitted. "But we must pay attention to Big Sister."
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Maybe they can take turns taking naps. If only minimal attention is needed.
yrsillar said:
"...That is the general idea, yes," Ling Qi said, ignoring the whole aside for the moment. "But Zhengui, you will have to be careful. If you don't watch yourself you could damage the farms and then the people won't have food."

"Gui will be careful," her little brother agreed swiftly.
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Zhengui: "They might not have food! Horrifying!"
yrsillar said:
Ling Qi saw where they had fallen unblocked. She saw the ruins of a house it's roof gone and walls blown outward by a blast, and the body of the woman lying facedown in the mud, wooden shrapnel in her back. She saw the blood pooled in muddy craters slowly filling with pooling waters, where the defenders had been too slow. Ling Qi saw, and remembered a nightmare of fur and teeth, of screams and bloody bones, gnawed and cast aside.

She turned her eyes toward the swooping gliders and galloping horses, with their ruddy fur and blood damp manes, and her eyes and heart were cold.

"Ling Qi…" Sixiangs sad whisper was a distant thing, something she had no time to acknowledge.

She raised her flute to her lips, and even as the melancholy melody poured forth, and the world was consumed in dark and hungry mist, she released her iron clad grip on her qi. There was satisfaction in seeing heads turn in her direction, in seeing the alarm in their eyes as the churning mist spread, a vast and terrible wave pouring from the sky. The edges of her form wavered, she felt her feet trail off into black mist and the hem of her cloak dissolve into shadow as dark qi flooded her meridians, her techniques activating one after another. Silvery eyes nestled in the folds of her robe, and for a moment she saw herself. A wraith with eyes of flickering silver and glacier blue, shrouded in mist and night, lines and veins of emerald power pulsed and throbbed in the folds of her gown, like shadows in negative. Where she passed, rain become snow and sleet.
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This is the kind of scene that needs a title banner appearing overhead, along with four health bars.
Its one of the very few times Ling Qi is visibly furious.
yrsillar said:
By the time she landed in front of Shen Hu, her mist was beginning to fade away, mingling and dispersing with the smoke from burning fields. Shen Hu stood upon a patch of bubbling mud some hundred meters outside of the villages gates, his hands clasped flat together. His hans and forearms gleamed with a shell of black diamond, though the talons created were no longer jagged and beastly. Thrumming through the earth, she could sense his qi as well as that of his spirit beast and it suffused even the clay brick wall which surrounded the village proper, flowed through the soldiers who manned the walls and who were withdrawing in wary packs from the fields.

"You've gotten even more scary," Shen Hu commented absently as she sank down toward the earth in front of him. His half closed eyelids fluttered, like a person in the midst of a dream.
"I will take that as a compliment," Ling Qi said with a touch of fatigue. As they neared the ground Ru Nan released his grip on her arm, dropping the last few meters and landing gingerly on one foot. "...It seems your techniques have evolved as well."

"Decided being a duelist wasn't as important, Tournament's over," he replied. He still sounded distant and distracted. She could see why, three great rings of stones orbited the perimeter of the village. Some the size of a man's heads while others were the size of a fist or even mere pebbles. She could sense the anticipative energy in them quivering with the impulse to react and punish attackers.
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Is that Stealth Rock?
yrsillar said:
"...Why aren't we going to check on Zhengui?" Hanyi asked, her voice quiet instead of bold for once.

For a second, Ling Qi didn't answer. "Because he is strong enough. I have to trust to him," though she might not care for anyone in this village personally, some small part of her, the part that sat up and listened when Cai Renxiang spoke of duty, would not be satisfied with leaving them to potential death. Perhaps it was arrogant, but she knew Zhengui's strength, she knew Zhengui's strength. She did not know the strength of the disciples stationed here. Even if she did not speak them aloud, she knew Hanyi could feel the direction of her thoughts.

"I don't care about them though," Hanyi sulked.
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Probably an issue we should work on as well. Gotta have more gradations than close friend/kin and scenery.
yrsillar said:
Minutes later, as she began to approach the village, Ling Qi found her fears and hopes alike unrealized. The village was very much not safe, smoke rose from the fields and homes scattered throughout the valley, and the silhouettes of gliders and horesman circled in the sky raining arrows down upon the defenders. However, the concentration of force was low. She felt only a single third realm here, high in the clouds. She could sense the web of energies resonating between him and his subordinates.

There were so many less though, a little over a score of first realms and a half dozen seconds, scattered around the perimeter of the village, hemming in the soldiers within from aiding the people she could still feel out in the fields, being hounded and harried by barbarian gliders. The soldiers of the sect fought back with discipline, but they were outnumbered, with only two full squads manning the walls and returning fire. She could not feel the qi of her fellow officers anywhere, and that was more than a little worrying.
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Hmm, considering things in full I think the Cloud Nomads are working through some kinks in their teamwork?
I'm guessing the Gnawing Ones took out the messenger we missed and the commanding officer at this village.

They might have tried for Ling Qi's village but Zhengui is actually a pretty good deterrent to an assassin, his AoE moves can pin them and hit them even if he can't see them, as long as he knows they're there(and he has that ground radar trick), and Ling Qi literally never took a break.
For all we know the Gnawing One was waiting in Ling Qi's local office the whole time and missed her because she never stopped flying around.

Likewise, we know Shen Hu has tremorsense, they can't hit him unawares unless they're willing to spend a lot of time topside..

So of Ling Qi and Shen Hu's villages, Ling Qi's village is the closest to the mountain, they probably figured they didn't need to directly assault it heavily, the spirits rampaging would take care of it.

So they sent their big hit squad to take Shen Hu's except some busybody showed up.
yrsillar said:
She charged, and a brief thought had Hanyi laughing with glee as she leaped off of Ling Qi's back on a gust of icy wind and her arms outstretched. Ling Qi had only a moment to see the injured second realm let out a horrified scream as Hanyi embraced him and sang of a warm death in the midst of winter snows. No longer burdened by the spirit, Ling Qi blurred back into shadow just as a bolt of heavenly power lit the clouds, the crackling meter wide bar of actinic light was blinding, but it served only to burn an all too brief gap in the formless shadow that Ling Qi had become mid charge.

For the second time, as she grasped the man's shoulder with her hand, she sang the silence of the End, and watched the watched the man's wild eyes freeze behind his mask. She tried not to wonder at what difference, if any there was from the last time. Letting him fall away, she swooped back, scooping Hanyi from the back of the panicking horse whose rider was no more. She tried very hard not to look at the hollow and mummified features visible behind his half shattered mask as Hanyi dissolved, returning to her dantian.
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Important reminder that for all that we love her, she IS quite literally a maneating creature.
Though conversely I wonder if this might help her growth or not.
yrsillar said:
The disciple was slumped over his desk. The soldier had if anything undersold the death wound. Only the young man's spine kept his head attached to his shoulders, a ragged gash clove the flesh of his neck in twain, but there was very little blood. The crimson fluid that stained the desk was stained black, and seeped but slowly, heavy and thick with toxic qi. There really was no sign of struggle, a cooling pot of tea still sat undisturbed on the desk and not a single book or scroll on the shelves was out of place. Of the assailant, she could find no sign…

No, Ling Qi thought, narrowing her eyes as she traced the room through multiple viewpoints. There was something familiar. It was faint, even with all of her focus, she could only just barely sense the fading remnants. It could best be described as a film, like the skin that formed on curdled milk, a scent of rot and impurity that she had only caught thanks to her previous experience, and time spent in Li Suyin's workshop.

It gave her a bad feeling indeed. She needed to make sure this was reported to the Sect.
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Considering the air topside is toxic to Gnawing Ones, its probably Green equivalent with their own version of Suyin's breathing apparatus. Probably gone to ground long since.
 
Ling Qi's already low enough on Qi that she won't be able to do her best against the tide. Spending X amount of time to rescue the commander, and significant amount of Qi too, might be the breaking point between 'low on Qi' and 'can't use any B techs at all'. As usual, those kind of events come just before key points in Ling Qi's training (RME, A Qi reserves) :(

Rescue might be the 'do things perfectly for full villages defence' choice, but that only work if Ling Qi is tall enough. Sadly, there is no indication she has had a new growth spurt.

[X] Return
 
veekie said:
[X] Return

Either he's alive and can make it back on his own now that the nomads have been driven off, or he's been captured/killed and beyond our practical reach.
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Did you miss the part where Ling Qi scryed him basically seconds ago and identified him as somewhat injured and apparently exhausted, next to a dead barbarian? I can't tell where in the text your dichotomy is supported. We know he's not currently beyond our practical reach, because we just saw his circumstances, but he could be preyed upon by a stray barbarian or spirit in his weakened and seeming insensate state if left out in the wilderness.

Fortunately, third realms are fairly hardy, and if he is recovered and given basic treatment(by others for the latter, we don't have the time), he should be able to contribute decently at the village in our absence. Especially in a command and coordination role.
 
Arkeus said:
Ling Qi's already low enough on Qi that she won't be able to do her best against the tide. Spending X amount of time to rescue the commander, and significant amount of Qi too, might be the breaking point between 'low on Qi' and 'can't use any B techs at all'. As usual, those kind of events come just before key points in Ling Qi's training (RME, A Qi reserves) :(
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Well narratively it sounds like the sort of stress to bump her past a threshold.
AbeoLogos said:
Did you miss the part where Ling Qi scryed him basically seconds ago and identified him as somewhat injured and apparently exhausted, next to a dead barbarian? I can't tell where in the text your dichotomy is supported. We know he's not currently beyond our practical reach, because we just saw his circumstances, but he could be preyed upon by a stray barbarian or spirit in his weakened and seeming insensate state if left out in the wilderness.

Fortunately, third realms are fairly hardy, and if he is recovered and given basic treatment(by others for the latter, we don't have the time), he should be able to contribute decently at the village in our absence. Especially in a command and coordination role.
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Since he's alive, but weakened, the barbarians are in retreat, I believe he'd be fine and not at need for immediate intervention.
 
veekie said:
Well narratively it sounds like the sort of stress to bump her past a threshold.

Since he's alive, but weakened, the barbarians are in retreat, I believe he'd be fine and not at need for immediate intervention.
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Yeah, that's a sensible stance, and it's highlighted in the vote itself as a possibility that makes the option less attractive. I was just confused by the exact binary you presented, which seemed to misstate his known status at the moment.
 
AbeoLogos said:
Yeah, that's a sensible stance, and it's highlighted in the vote itself as a possibility that makes the option less attractive. I was just confused by the exact binary you presented, which seemed to misstate his known status at the moment.
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Bad phrasing on my part.
Trying to clarify it...either he's alive and stable and we can search for him after blunting the attack(or he recovers and returns under his own power) or he's dying, and would not be a lot of help with the defense even if we retrieved him.

Theres a slim margin of space where he's merely out of qi and will be a reasonably functional officer with a qi replenishment pill, but I doubt that. If he had any such pill he could use he would already have used one.
Theres a separate slim margin where he's alive but hostile forces finishes him off while he's weakened but all the local spirits are going to be fleeing the clash rather than hunting opportunistically, and the nomads are sufficiently in rout to be an unlikely threat.
 
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AbeoLogos said:
Did you miss the part where Ling Qi scryed him basically seconds ago and identified him as somewhat injured and apparently exhausted, next to a dead barbarian? I can't tell where in the text your dichotomy is supported. We know he's not currently beyond our practical reach, because we just saw his circumstances, but he could be preyed upon by a stray barbarian or spirit in his weakened and seeming insensate state if left out in the wilderness.
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This wilderness is relatively mild, wild beast encounters seem to be rare (we saw no inkling of them in our travels). The barbarian that was after him is dead and the rest were routed, they are unlikely to be very interested in looking for more enemies in the ground.
If he was assigned as a scout, he should have fast mobility and some ways to recover qi after a fight. Him being exhausted after the fight makes it even more likely that he will make haste back to the village to check the situation and recover
 
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