A Simple Transaction I

OctarineShrike · May 25, 2020

skaro said:
The gamer fic told me that you need to spend point to gain more point .

Doesn't mean we can't disregard the fact we have 4 Arete and just get one 2 point option.

Shard · May 25, 2020

Rihaku said:
It's decent, you're getting some Might and Agility, it's just not amazing since you're only getting + of each. Comparable to King of Thieves + Fell-Handed Stroke but less greedy in exchange for less utility.

If we go Echo of the Forebear x2, would selecting the suboption Undying Echo result in twice the +++ constitution?

Bilbo Baggins · May 25, 2020

[X] Hunger - Sleep of the Just

This way we don't have to worry nearly so much about being deprived of our sleep time and the requisite benefits.

Thomasfoolery · May 25, 2020

[ ] Forebear's Blade - Echo of the Forebear - Cloud-shadow of the Forebear's might. Legendary strength and speed, and the resilience to exert them. Can be taken multiple times. [+Might, +Agility]
-[ ] 2 Arete: Undying Echo - The Forebear could withstand unbelievable punishment, only to rise again. [+++Constitution]

[ ] 2 Arete: Sword That Was Stolen - King of Thieves - It is the prerogative of the hero true to take the implements of his enemy and turn them against him. For what righteous weapon could deny the verity of his cause, or the valor with which he pursued it?

[++Agility, +Stealth, +Theft], and combat experience now yields some degree of thieving skills. Increases ease and power of the Abduction Forbidden Art.

[ ] Hunger - Sleep of the Just - While sleeping, the character is massively more difficult to harm or forcibly move, and may choose to deny interruptions to his slumber, allowing his body to be used as a potent shield.
-[ ] 2 Arete: Slumber of Aeons - Increases well-rested threshold to 10 hours per day, but hours of sleep can now be banked up to a month in advance. Dramatically increases strength gained with age.

So if we wanted to spend all our 4 points it would have to be a mixture of these three options.

Personally I think taking thieves and Sleep together is too longterm so one of the options should be definitely be Echo. For the second choice Sleep does have some immediate benefit due to increasing our sleep flexibility but it's mainly longterm, while Thieves has some large immediate battle gains in addition to an additional scaling metric added. On the other hand we chose one of the safest travel options so some amount of investment is likely desirable. So if spending all 4 I think Sleep and Echo is the better combo.

In terms of saving 2 points I've come around to the Dodge tank+Reliable burst combo of Thieves and Fell-handed. So the question for me is how much to spend....

Rihaku · May 25, 2020

Don't forget Quelling!

Orm Embar · May 25, 2020

Rihaku said:
Times and Tides

Conspiring to fuck us over, courtesy of the Apocryphal Curse. It was a well-planned ambush, if it makes sense to ascribe 'plans' to the Curse. Kind of terrifying, since it means enemies that'd never break bread with each other can wind up cooperating accidentally. "Water sleeps, but enemy never rests," to steal a saying from the Black Company.

Rihaku said:
They traveled by means of the Armament, himself and Gisena either riding in the cockpit or perched somewhere atop its towering shoulders. The going was slow, the way uncertain, and Letrizia frequently had to adjust their route to account for distortions of space. There was no science in Verschlengorge's perusal of the Voyaging Realm, only instinct, which its pilot could only vaguely feel. And yet it was a pleasant enough journey, when they were not beset by monsters from outside realms. They rarely encountered ill weather, and could shelter under Verschlengorge until rain or oppressive shine had passed.

Huh, so with our compatibility with the Armament we could potentially navigate better than Letrizia and get access to untapped resources in the Realm? If top-tier instincts can utilize spatial distortions productively there are huge gains in travel time to be made. And for someone with the Decimator's Affliction, time is not only money but lives.

Rihaku said:
One meandering day, they forded a river, titanic machine wading through the glimmering murk of the rapids that raged and frothed about its shins. Gisena sat on the Armament's shoulder, bare feet dangling merrily off the side, exulting in the occasional dash or spray of water that reached them at this height.

Verschlengorge is nearly thirty storeys tall, which puts it on the verge of skyscraper territory. This is a solid mental image that reminds readers of its scale, fantastical and idyllic at the same time.

Rihaku said:
Legs folded meditatively, he scanned the horizon, alert to threats. Here, their mobility was impaired until they crossed the river. Unstable footing would give any enemy a superb opportunity to attack-

Yeah, Verschlengorge might not be able to find its feet if pinned down in the rapids. Letrizia's got to have inertial stabilizers or something in the cockpit to account for the stresses of sudden movement during combat, otherwise a baseline would be pulped at the levels intact/high tier mechs must move, if they're a trump card of interstellar civilizations.

Rihaku said:
Deftly his hand reached out, catching Gisena's thrown slipper before it struck him. It was a flimsy thing of lace the color of her hair; likely a fortune to find dyes of that color. Could he ransom it?

...nah, I'm not going to say anything here.

Rihaku said:
"Come join me!" She called, waving him over. "Live a little!"

Hunger's presence is the bane of worlds, the Curse's appetite a bottomless thirst for vitality where any satiation is but a temporary stopgap. Depending on your perspective, we either live not at all or a lot. Living 'a little' was never in the cards.

Rihaku said:
He walked over, bearing casual to mask vengeful intent: set on extracting his pound of flesh, or at least on depriving her of any further ammunition.

Vengeful even in interpersonal matters, eh? A nice morsel of characterization. Hunger should be warned that 'depriving her of ammunition' by going for her other shoe is itself giving her ammunition. Learn from Seram's example; the winning move in interpersonal conflict with Gisena is not to play.

Rihaku said:
As he approached, she made to pull him alongside her with a light gesture, but exerted unusual intensity, her eyes alert.

He leaned forward on one knee, bringing him level with her.

"You sensed something?" He whispered, keeping an aggrieved scowl on his face.

Neat trick, sensing Astral Rifts before their appearance with her Nullity. How far can that stretch? A generalized magic sense would be useful.

Rihaku said:
"Mhm!" She responded cheerfully, eyes flickering for a moment to a point on the horizon. "Thanks ever so much for bringing my shoe back, hun! I'd be absolutely beside myself if I lost it!"

You mean to say we didn't convince her to discard the nickname? I suppose it was optimistic to assume the Allrian Affliction could be mitigated so easily.

Rihaku said:
"How many of these do you even have?" he asked.

"Right now? Just the one."

The subtext in this exchange is nice. It'd be concerning if they were somehow being surveilled, but paranoia's not a bad habit if they're actually out to get you.

Rihaku said:
"Hmph."

He dropped the slipper and drew the Forebear's Blade, dashing up and across the Armament's enormous shoulders to reach its one o'clock position, where an Astral Rift was halfway through the process of opening. It looked exactly as he'd imagined, a jagged tear in the fabric of reality exposing void beyond. Within that darkness fluxed seams of color like starlight, lacing up and around each other, busily spirited as if embroidering the edges of the world.

He cut down the first creature that emerged, a ghastly thing of needles and claws, and behind him was a surge of Gisena's power as she unleashed a Tide of Nullity in the opposite direction, reknitting the smaller apertures in reality's weave, preventing them from being flanked.

So this is the first time Hunger's seen one up close. But not the last, hopefully, I want to jump into one of these things when we're strong enough that it isn't suicide. It's also a nifty visual, you can get a lot of mileage our of the reality-as-cloth metaphor.

Rihaku said:
The next creature was a shelled variant, his blade deflecting off its armor, but a quick strike with the pommel pulverized its guard, its torso cratered as he kicked it off the side. Verschlengorge's leftmost head snapped languidly in its direction, and the creature perished with a gruesome crunch.

Slashing, stabbing, and crushing. The bread and butter of melee combat, with a side of ruin. A succinct but viscerally satisfying series of blows.

Rihaku said:
"My lord, Miss Gisena, we've got incoming!" Letrizia announced, voice tinged with urgency. They felt the Armament shift beneath them, adopting a lower, heavier stance.

Letrizia's still not fully at ease with us, if she's using the title. But that's fine, too much familiarity can breed contempt and/or attempted homicide to save her home from the Affliction.

Rihaku said:
"We're handling it," He shouted back, but she merely pointed forward with the giant's hand, showing a galleon moored on the far bank. There was a ballista mounted atop its prow, bolts gleaming like the noontime sun. As they watched, the ship unmoored and advanced towards them, unfurling a flag of blackest pitch. Its oars moved ceaselessly through the churning rapids, steady as if impervious to the tide.

Interesting, behaves like I imagine a vessel benefiting from Accretion might. Indefatigable, indifferent to nature's vicissitudes, practical considerations overridden by its legend. On that note, how famous are these folks? They're bold, flying a literal black flag (representing the Evening Sky, presumably), well-equipped. Could be a bounty for them, could be nemeses looking to avenge them. Likely can't collect on the former, the Voyager's Realm being what it is; the latter may find us, with a little help from our friendly neighborhood Curse.

Rihaku said:
As Verschlengorge had adopted a hunched position, the emerging Astral beasts now rained down on them from above.

If it eats enough of these, gorges itself on monsters from outside reality, can Verschlengorge heal? We still don't know what wounded it in the first place. It's Foremost tech, going by stock Forerunner tropes it's difficult or impossible to repair, but there's no way Letrizia would've been deployed solo with it in this condition. The whole premise of the payout's that protecting her on the trip back's a valuable service. Most of the damage has to be recent. Come to think of it, was the Duchess sent out alone? Seems odd. And there was that ellipsis with the... dragon.

Rihaku said:
"Perfect timing," he groaned, flipping his sword around. But this was not really a surprise. May you live in interesting times.

Pirates. And awfully confident, to approach as obviously large and well-protected a target as this. He and Gisena combined could address either of the threats easily, but their strength apart was not so great. The ship was obviously magical, but its crew might not be, so Nullity's power would be better served against the Astral beasts, who her bolts would at least stun.

You know, Gisena's powers would fit Morgiana's personality a lot better and justify her contempt for the Implicate Duty to boot. Someone else Graced with Nullity might resent not being able to set people on fire by glaring or turn a gown into an implement of mass murder, especially when unable to do more than stun attacking monsters. She just turned to technology, which as coping mechanisms go isn't bad.

Rihaku said:
"Gisena! Focus on the beasts and the Rift! I'll deal with the pirates."

As he spoke, the ship continued to approach, gaining with impetuous speed. A set of powerfully launched grappling hooks shot out from the shadowy figures on its deck, latching onto pits, gouges, and crevices in Verschlengorge's armor. As presumptive boarders began making their way up the ropes, he ran down, severing one on his way, and tucked the Forebear's Blade between his teeth as he grabbed another. With his open hand he rode the rope down, the friction sting of passage burning through his gauntlet, and leapt to land heavily on the deck, ruinous force splintering the site of impact. The ship unbalanced, heaving as if roiled.

Yeah, Verschlengorge is in a bad way. Under better circumstances they'd just be meat for the machine, lambs offering themselves up for the slaughter. A badass maneuver from Hunger here, Accretion showing its worth by enabling our impromptu swashbuckling. What did the boarders think they'd do afterward, though? Hack through the armor and into the cockpit? Stop, drop, and roll works on pesky pirates as well as fire. It'd leave the mech as an immobile target for the ballista, though, and there's no way to drop aggro on the Astral monsters.

Rihaku said:
No time for games. He released the Blade from his mouth and caught it with his now-free hand, then turned and sent an arc of blade-wind through the grappling ropes, severing them at once. Pirates rushed at him, men in hauberks of dark plate wreathed in shadow, but he launched a second cleaving strike down into the ship itself, carving a great abscess in the hull to impede their movement.

We've got to get ourselves a replacement limb, Accretion Rank can only do so much to compensate for dismemberment. That could be part of the payment, if they've got good prosthetics? 'We gave Duchess Letrizia a hand, so you may extend us the same courtesy.'

Rihaku said:
Ignoring them, he turned to the ballista and began to saw away at the string of its bow. It was curiously resilient, thread the color of gold that bounced sprightily away from the edge of his sword, but he pinned it in place with a foot and it yielded swiftly enough.

Should be sprightly.

Rihaku said:
By the time he had carved his way through, a number of pirates had crossed the gap. He grabbed a group of ballista bolts and hurled them, catching two in the stomach; they groaned piteously when skewered, golden lightning discharging through their forms. His work done, he kicked the remaining bolts overboard and dropped down the side of the ship, breaking his fall by jamming his blade into its hull, and made his way over to the earlier cut. A few dozen blows and he could split the ship in twain; such was the power of ruin embedded within the Forebear's Blade.

Interesting, gold thread and lightning, I smell loot. There's some common element there, an enchantment or material that can be used to empower things. We could give a bolt to Gisena and see what her senses make of it? The string's possibly valuable too, even if severing it disrupted the effect that's additional information about it. Or it could be trivia, and I'm just grasping at threads.

Rihaku said:
He spared a glance for Gisena. Armed with Letrizia's sidearm she was holding her own against the nullified beasts, and Verschlengorge did its best to sweep the largest creatures aside. But focused on immediate battle she couldn't spare the attention to close the largest Rift, and they could well be overwhelmed in time.

Grace-enhanced attributes make her the better marksman, even with minimal training. Maybe that wouldn't be true if Ceathlynn were here, but she's not. In the medium to long term, though, Gisena shouldn't have to serve this role. She needs a Witch-Slayer cohort or something analagous to defend her while she leverages her actual strengths, as-is a bit of bad luck could kill her. Not to undersell someone who fought on after Seram took her arm off, but this ride's only going to speed up as it gets underway.

Rihaku said:
He hoisted himself back up to ship's deck, snatching a grappling hook from the corpse of a crewman, when he was intercepted by a foreboding figure armored in black. This was no hauberk but full plate, heavy enough to leave impressions in the wood where it tread. Darkness billowed in vast, eerie plumes from that armor, spilling upwards in streamers: the night sky's incursion against sun and blue.

Ah, one of the old 'Why do I hear boss music?' moments. What a cool vibe this guy's got, if we Abducted the Evening Sky we could become the dying of the light in truth! My first impression was that wearing heavy armor on the water was a bold strategy, the kind of thing that's a sign of supreme insanity or mastery, like the proverbial naked person on Avernus. Turns out it just has comprehensive defense functionality.

Rihaku said:
In its left hand was a shield, in its right a great curving blade, alive with dark-violet flame.

Is it too late to dub him the Dark Flame Master? But seriously, I'm curious about this guy's name and story if it wouldn't spoil anything.

Rihaku said:
As the Tyrant's had been, the day he became a widower.

Interesting times indeed. He felt his gorge begin to rise. With an effort of will he held himself back, but the instant he loosed the world would narrow into a single, inescapable dot of red.

That's one hell of a coincidence. The Apocryphal Curse shouldn't be able to conjure adversaries from simple nothingness, right? It's Murphy's Law given the narrative high ground, the literal incarnation of the reason we can't have nice things, but not full-blown reality warping. Just the Seasons setting aside the celestial cocaine to give us their A-game. So, it scanned the Voyager's Realm and beyond for the person most likely to rustle our jimmies who could be nudged here, whatever insidious algorithm that governs it weighing danger against credibility expended. The river had to help, a pirate with a magical vessel's got a huge probability spread. That... doesn't fill me with optimism about what's waiting for us at the spaceport.

Rihaku said:
The figure spoke, confident but wary. "Halt, friend. A... misunderstanding. Clearly we mistook you for something else! Parlay?"

This should be parley. With a subscription to Orm's Typo Corrections you wouldn't need to concern yourself with such things!

Anyway, it was a nice try, friend. Sadly, Lord Hunger is not accepting applications for the 'mercy' position at this time. Remember, genuine genuflection can help pad a lacking resume or smooth over any attempted murders. I do wonder how truthful his diplomatic efforts were, Evening Sky's charisma buffs gave him an edge in bluffing, probably why Prudence shared a hex code with it. It's difficult to judge with the Apocryphal Curse in play, but opening fire on visibly human targets isn't a good look. There are versions of this situation where he could be justified, but they're a definite minority.

1358 words. The index has been updated, as per usual please let me know if you think something should be there but isn't.

Unelemental · May 25, 2020

Not sure I can convince myself not to take Conclusion if we have the requisite Arete. Culling is more nebulous, but Conclusion means simply shutting up our Decimation Curse for 2 years, saving countless lives in the process. I mean, refusal is not completely unimaginable, I just find it hard to completely disassociate myself from the decision.

George · May 25, 2020

Unelemental said:
Not sure I can convince myself not to take Conclusion if we have the requisite Arete. Culling is more nebulous, but Conclusion means simply shutting up our Decimation Curse for 2 years, saving countless lives in the process. I mean, refusal is not completely unimaginable, I just find it hard to completely disassociate myself from the decision.

with psychological closure and the ability to spend time in space it's a respectable option even in terms of self interest
we would need to carefully capitalize on it, though, to make up for the opportunity cost in power.

OctarineShrike · May 25, 2020

George said:
with psychological closure and the ability to spend time in space it's a respectable option even in terms of self interest

There's also the Mystery box!

George · May 25, 2020

Conjured Blade said:
There's also the Mystery box!

yeah but I'm worried it's negative so I put a low ev on it

Byzantine · May 25, 2020

[X] Hunger - Sleep of the Just
-[X] 2 Arete: Slumber of Aeons
[X] Forebear's Blade - Echo of the Forebear
-[X] 2 Arete: Undying Echo

I'm going to switch to this for the moment. I'll probably change again later.

I think we may be underestimating King of Thieves. The agility boost would be significant - our biggest issue in the last fight was not quite beingbfast enough to finish the job.

Thomasfoolery · May 25, 2020

Rihaku said:
Don't forget Quelling!

Oh yeah... Show's where that was at in my priority list. Looking at it, 50% for 6 months (Plus Mystery) for 2 arete is kind of an awkward middle ground. It's hard to get too excited about it, partially probably because the way Decimator works is kind of abstract to begin with, you don't see that visceral reaction of having Gisena wasting away before our eyes as an example. So even though there's a big impact in drain rate it doesn't feel all that significant.

Externalities just aren't that sexy.

Orm Embar · May 25, 2020

Hm, King of Thieves is a one-off so if we're going to blow through our Arete on getting two-thirds of Undying/King/Slumber we should grab the one that we won't be able to get later, especially since it's essentially free multiclassing that scales as we level. We can get Undying down the road, Fell-Handed and KoT's agility alone is a significant upgrade to our combat power.

Byzantine · May 25, 2020

Orm Embar said:
Hm, King of Thieves is a one-off so if we're going to blow through our Arete on getting two-thirds of Undying/King/Slumber, it makes sense to grab the one that we won't be able to get later, especially since it's essentially free multiclassing that scales as we level.

Thats a good point. I was already on the edge so I don't see why we shouldn't take the unique options while we have a chance. We'll probably need to be more conservative about fights till we heal, but nothing for it.

So then how about I update to this

[X] Hunger - Sleep of the Just
-[X] 2 Arete: Slumber of Aeons
[X] Forebear's Blade - Echo of the Forebear
[X] 2 Arete: Sword That Was Stolen - King of Thieves

Unelemental · May 25, 2020

Thomasfoolery said:
Oh yeah... Show's where that was at in my priority list. Looking at it, 50% for 6 months (Plus Mystery) for 2 arete is kind of an awkward middle ground. It's hard to get too excited about it, partially probably because the way Decimator works is kind of abstract to begin with, you don't see that visceral reaction of having Gisena wasting away before our eyes as an example. So even though there's a big impact in drain rate it doesn't feel all that significant.

Externalities just aren't that sexy.

Excluding individuals from the Decimator shouldn't be too complex a means of Mitigation, - it seems to mainly be about wide-area destruction - so even that image of Gisena doesn't have that much of an impact. She should know about the Curse, since it's even less subtle than the Doom of the Tyrant, yet she doesn't seem to be worried.

Byzantine · May 25, 2020

Unelemental said:
She should know about the Curse, since it's even less subtle than the Doom of the Tyrant, yet she doesn't seem to be worried.

I suspect she can use nullity to make herself invisible to the curse, so it doesn't affect her. This is because we know she has paths to mitigation, and most likely things she can help us with she can use on herself to be protected.

On the other hand we are very bad for the environment, and our task is a bit of a bitch for the decimator's curse, given conquering an area is a bit annoying when you also drain anywhere you stay.

Thomasfoolery · May 25, 2020

[X] Forebear's Blade - Fell-Handed Stroke
[X] 2 Arete: Sword That Was Stolen - King of Thieves

I'll go for this for now, a solid boost now and some long term progression gains. Might also help us steal the mech if we go for that.

Thinking about how we're going to manage to accomplish our task though, I think while getting to know Letz we should subtly try to get her to consider defecting. This will be hard but it would be an excellent boost if possible, and alone in the wilderness with us is a great time to try to flip her. The fact she joined an international task organization might be an opening, is humanity really best served by these divided three nations? Wouldn't it be better if they were united under one purpose? Perhaps if you have the courage you can help me do so...

Wolfy · May 25, 2020

Byzantine said:
I suspect she can use nullity to make herself invisible to the curse, so it doesn't affect her. This is because we know she has paths to mitigation, and most likely things she can help us with she can use on herself to be protected.

On the other hand we are very bad for the environment, and our task is a bit of a bitch for the decimator's curse, given conquering an area is a bit annoying when you also drain anywhere you stay.

It shouldn't be that much of an issue. Right now, our drain is only about continental in scale, while our empire will cover thousands of planets.

Not being able to go to space due to lack of shit to drain is more annoying though.

DkArthas · May 25, 2020

[X] Forebear's Blade - Fell-Handed Stroke
[X] 2 Arete: Sword That Was Stolen - King of Thieves

Unelemental · May 25, 2020

Byzantine said:
I suspect she can use nullity to make herself invisible to the curse, so it doesn't affect her. This is because we know she has paths to mitigation, and most likely things she can help us with she can use on herself to be protected.

On the other hand we are very bad for the environment, and our task is a bit of a bitch for the decimator's curse, given conquering an area is a bit annoying when you also drain anywhere you stay.

Yes, quite annoying in many ways. But in some ways it's quite convenient! Assuming we're strong enough, we can just tell them to surrender if they don't want us to stay!

Byzantine · May 25, 2020

Unelemental said:
Yes, quite annoying in many ways. But in some ways it's quite convenient! Assuming we're strong enough, we can just tell them to surrender if they don't want us to stay!

By that level of strength they already lack the means to stop us. It might speed things up some, though.

Unelemental · May 25, 2020

Byzantine said:
By that level of strength they already lack the means to stop us. It might speed things up some, though.

We don't need to be strong enough to overpower them, just strong enough to survive their assassination attempts and run away!

I wasn't serious, by the way. The joke suggestion has too many problems to adequately implement it.

Lealope · May 25, 2020

[X] Forebear's Blade - Fell-Handed Stroke
[X] 2 Arete: Sword That Was Stolen - King of Thieves

While multiclassing is meh, gestalt is strong. The easiest way for us to interact with civilization will likely be through stealth improved to supernal levels through the power of Progression since the Doom makes social interaction non-viable. This is only somewhat greedier than taking Undying Echo while having better synergy and long term potential. The hero's always been more inclined to the heterodox than the orthodox, why stop now?

OctarineShrike · May 25, 2020

Having reviewed Word of Rihaku and finding Decimator's Mitigation to actually be multiplicative, I'm going to try reworking the math here.

Description for reference:

[ ] The Decimator's Affliction - You will naturally absorb the total fundamental life force of the realm you currently inhabit at a rate of 10% per year. Area affected is exceptionally large and scales with your own power; a weak Progression-type might only affect half a continent, while a Combat-type would affect an entire solar system. In the absence of sufficient life force, you will begin to bleed essence, losing components of your powers, skills, identity, memories, and ontological veracity at a proportional rate. Though there are many paths of mitigation available, none of them are pleasant or easy.

Unmitigated, it's the equivalent of multiplying somebody's life force by 0.9 each year. x^12 = 0.9, when I ask google for the 12th root of 0.9 I get 0.99125838904, so on a monthly basis people's lifeforce gets multiplied by 0.99125838904

Baseline mitigation assuming somebody with 100 lifeforce points for how much they have in 6 months.
Month 1: 100
Month 2: 100*0.99125838904 = 99.125838904
Month 3: 99.125838904*0.99125838904 = 98.2593193842
Month 4: 98.2593193842*0.99125838904 = 97.4003746409
Month 5: 97.4003746409 *0.99125838904 = 96.5489384584
Month 6: 96.5489384584*0.99125838904 = 95.7049451998

Quelling Mitigation assuming somebody with 100 life force points for how much they have in 6 months(50 percent mitigation is like multiplying somebody's lifeforce by 0.95 so let's get the 12th root of that which is 0.99573468122 according to google.

Month 1: 100*0.99573468122 = 99.573468122
Month 2: 99.573468122*0.99573468122 = 99.1487555384
Month 3: 99.1487555384 *0.99573468122 = 98.7258544894
Month 4: 98.7258544894*0.99573468122 = 98.3047572482
Month 5: 98.3047572482*0.99573468122 = 97.8854561209
Month 6: 97.8854561209*0.99573468122 = 97.4679434466

Now stack this with Gisena Mitigation and/or whatever we may or may not be able to get out of the Devourer, and the mystery box. Rihaku mentioned us having access to an artifact made by a progression type cursebearer right now. Assuming it's the mech and the Progression type Cursebearer is interested in paying things forward, the probability of it providing mitigation is high. Especially if we end up with the opportunity to turn some kind of Third-Impact esque scenario to our benefit.

Rihaku · May 25, 2020

Thomasfoolery said:
Oh yeah... Show's where that was at in my priority list. Looking at it, 50% for 6 months (Plus Mystery) for 2 arete is kind of an awkward middle ground. It's hard to get too excited about it, partially probably because the way Decimator works is kind of abstract to begin with, you don't see that visceral reaction of having Gisena wasting away before our eyes as an example. So even though there's a big impact in drain rate it doesn't feel all that significant.

Externalities just aren't that sexy.

Indeed, the fact of the matter is that the Decimator's Affliction is doing more damage to both environment and inhabitants than almost any ecological disaster or resource-extracting megacorp... and yet the response is to do the bare minimum from the majority! Interesing how priorities go, of course one can make the argument that your survival will instigate a greater good but who doesn't say that?

runeblue360 said:
[X] Forebear's Blade - Fell-Handed Stroke
[X] 2 Arete: Sword That Was Stolen - King of Thieves

While multiclassing is meh, gestalt is strong. The easiest way for us to interact with civilization will likely be through stealth improved to supernal levels through the power of Progression since the Doom makes social interaction non-viable. This is only somewhat greedier than taking Undying Echo while having better synergy and long term potential. The hero's always been more inclined to the heterodox than the orthodox, why stop now?

Well, perhaps it's best to have a balance of both sides! The conventional path is often the most convenient with the fewest ill side-effects!

Conjured Blade said:
Rihaku mentioned us having access to an artifact made by a progression type cursebearer right now.

That's the Evening Sky in the sense that Hunger himself would be 'making' it - or rather extracting it and subordinating it to his purpose!

A Simple Transaction I

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