[X] The Scenic Route
[X] Risky
- You + Gisena in the Temple, Letrizia in Verschlengorge by Herself

Taking the actual scenic route means Letrizia will be healed when we arrive and better able to fend for herself if left outside the Temple. There's absolutely no need to shoulder additional risks, when the option we're undertaking is dangerous enough as it is. Leaving her behind is unfortunate, but without Vanguard there's no chance she'd be useful as a combatant or off-tank within, we'd just be further constrained by having to protect her. Inside the Temple is not necessarily safer than the outside, after all. We can cover camouflage Verschlengorge and set up traps to protect his position/rig some missiles as proximity mines/see if Gisena can do something to suppress his Astral signature. Plus, he's not drawing as many monsters in his current state.
 
Hmm, on the one hand, nothing says we can't slowly explore the Temple once we find it. On the other hand, both the 'safe' and the 'super scenic' route take up a longer time. Could something be brewing in the Temple of the False Moon, and the danger is going to increase the longer we take?

Edit: I think I'll vote in the morning.
 
Hmm, on the one hand, nothing says we can't slowly explore the Temple once we find it. On the other hand, both the 'safe' and the 'super scenic' route take up a longer time. Could something be brewing in the Temple of the False Moon, and the danger is going to increase the longer we take?

Edit: I think I'll vote in the morning.

You'd be wasting time while Ber is scaling up!

[X] The Scenic Route
[X] Risky
- You + Gisena in the Temple, Letrizia in Verschlengorge by Herself

Taking the actual scenic route means Letrizia will be healed when we arrive and better able to fend for herself if left outside the Temple. There's absolutely no need to shoulder additional risks, when the option we're undertaking is dangerous enough as it is. Leaving her behind is unfortunate, but without Vanguard there's no chance she'd be useful as a combatant or off-tank within, we'd just be further constrained by having to protect her. Inside the Temple is not necessarily safer than the outside, after all. We can cover camouflage Verschlengorge and set up traps to protect his position/rig some missiles as proximity mines/see if Gisena can do something to suppress his Astral signature. Plus, he's not drawing as many monsters in his current state.

One additional consideration - Gisena herself is not that tanky compared to you, she's got no defensive Graces against nonmagical effects and only moderately superhuman CON. Whereas you can improve yourself with picks and Arete along the way...
 
[X] The Quickest Route
[X] Risky

We did choose the extra pick. So let's choose the option that gives the the most benefit with that that doesn't have a chance to kill us. The extra competence boost essentially offsets Chill of the Grave and the less time we take to get to the temple is less time for Ber to outscale us.
 
[X] The Quickest Route
[X] Risky

We did choose the extra pick. So let's choose the option that gives the the most benefit with that that doesn't have a chance to kill us. The extra competence boost essentially offsets Chill of the Grave and the less time we take to get to the temple is less time for Ber to outscale us.

The Quickest Route can still easily kill you, it'll just be in battle instead of death with no possible resistance!
 
One additional consideration - Gisena herself is not that tanky compared to you, she's got no defensive Graces against nonmagical effects and only moderately superhuman CON. Whereas you can improve yourself with picks and Arete along the way...
Depending on what we acquire our second choice might change? Vanguard would make Gisena and Letrizia viable tanks if it's offered, Form of Rage's third stage is a cushion that might make Conservative less suicidal if it works that way, etc.
 
So, the map is disintegrating, will presumably last 9 days because Scenic Route, the Quickest Route takes 1-2 days, we are horribly in over our heads, and we get stronger by fighting monsters, such as the ones on the Quickest Route.

Plan: Go to the Temple, come back, go to the Temple, come back, go to the Temple. We could call this plan... Hunt. :p
 
So, the map is disintegrating, will presumably last 9 days because Scenic Route, the Quickest Route takes 1-2 days, we are horribly in over our heads, and we get stronger by fighting monsters, such as the ones on the Quickest Route.

Plan: Go to the Temple, come back, go to the Temple, come back, go to the Temple. We could call this plan... Hunt. :p

Oh, thanks for reminding me. The map will actually dissolve in about 7 days! But by then you'd be close enough to the Temple that navigating manually towards it shouldn't take more than 1-3 days.
 
We will not be using the forum roller for this.

Dread Rihaku Exercises Mercy

We're not the only one with the suicidal habits, I see.

Well, she is a genius at everything! Hard to imagine that this tops the suicidal masterpiece that was "tearing a hole out of your universe into the Void".

As far as the vote goes, the combination is hard. Letrizia is likely to die inside the temple, leaving the Armament outside alone strikes me as a bad idea, and we're more likely to fail to make the trip worthwhile without the utility of Gisena's power. The easy route gets us there but doesn't prepare us as sufficiently, the quick route exposes us to enough danger for profit, but not enough danger that it might make the trip pointless, and the ultra-dangerous Way comes with really tasty extra rewards, but a pretty high chance of something seriously bad happening to us.

Intuitively, I feel like taking the moderate-danger route and leaving Letrizia outside are the better decisions. But they have anti-synergy due to leaving her unhealed! Think I'll wait and read arguments before actually voting.
 
[X] The Quickest Route
[X] Risky
I dont love a 10% chance of death... but it does seem like we'll need as many picks as possible to survive the temple, and one must play to one's outs.

That said, to speculate on the temple: Moons, in general, have an association with hidden things and illusions, which would suggest an indirect method of attack. This theme goes particularly well with the "false" moon.
However, the Moon seems to have very different connotations: Luna Conqueror, for example, was a direct combat focused growth build. Could it be the map is suggesting the "scenic" route because, in a meta-sense, the Temple of the False Moon is all about inspiring lunacy w.r.t. risk in the voter base? We already know that the temple offers extreme growth with commensurate risk -- what if everything about the temple is an iterated game of trading off risk against gain (with smart & lucky risks necessary in earlier rounds to progress).
 
[X] The Scenic Route
[X] Risky
- You + Gisena in the Temple, Letrizia in Verschlengorge by Hersel
 
What kind of shitty temple is this if a Cursebearer can't even take their skyscraper sized Mecha companion inside?!?

Clearly whoever created this establissement isn't going to pass a Forebear building code inspection.

1/5 Stars, would not recommend.

I'd suggest asking for our money's back. You know, assuming we actually have to pay anything.
 
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[X] The Quickest Route
[X] Risky
Yeah, I can't countenance "Scenic" considering it's 5% chance of outright death, 20% chance of extremely likely death, 25% chance of fairly likely death, and 50% of a tough fight.
Either Quickest or Scenic is fine, though. As for strategy, I think we need Gisena, but Letrizia will not really be as useful, especially with Quickest, and thus should stay outside.
 
[X] The Quickest Route
[X] Conservative

Quickest route gives us the best chance at power leveling without getting ourselves killed, which means we're in the best state to delve the dungeon solo. That seems to be the one that leads to us being least likely to die in the Temple itself, if risky in the route there.
 
Onwards, to the shining tomorrow.
When I read this, I immediately thought it was yet more evidence that the Accursed was Odyssial but, after looking, it's not exactly the same formulation:
And one day, a far day from today, the world will be a better place than it was the day before. And the next day, better again. And the next, and the next, and the next, and then one day, we'll turn around and we'll see that this world, it's not so bad as it used to be, it's not so cruel to be born here. One day at a time, into the golden forever.
They seem to be expressing the same fundamental sentiment, but golden forever has a measure of permanence that shining tomorrow lacks. Maybe it's putting more focus on making the world better every day? Or it's just using tomorrow in a general sense of the future and the difference in wording doesn't have any profound meaning? Or maybe I'm seeing a connection where there is none!

Concerning the vote that's going on, let's stop hammering that maximum risk button, ok? I also don't think Letrizia would really be safer with us in the temple, given how dangerous it's supposed to be, and she would be one more squishy target we'd have to protect in that eventuality.

[X] The Scenic Route
[X] Risky
- You + Gisena in the Temple, Letrizia in Verschlengorge by Herself
 
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[X] The Scenic Route
[X] Risky
- You + Gisena in the Temple, Letrizia in Verschlengorge by Herself

The incredibly hazardous option in the previous vote was picked, meaning we'll need to be at our best going into things. The scenic route is the most optimal for that purpose, since we're guaranteed to arrive hale and high-spirited with a couple improvements, and the low-percentage possibilities are purely beneficial opportunities to be even better off going into the Temple. We're probably guaranteed to encounter highly and/or extremely dangerous opponents within the temple itself, so there's no need to risk facing even more of them outside it when we're less prepared to face them.

As for the party composition, the scenic route has the benefit of healing Letrizia to the point of being able to successfully pilot Vershlengorge (given he's pretty wrecked, that's a useful advantage), and bringing Gisena will give us anti-magic, which will probably be very relevant in a place with a Moon theme; it's frequently associated with sorcery, mystery, and illusion, so an on-tap source to recognize and neutralize some of that will be highly valuable.
 
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