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A Simple Transaction I

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Rihaku said:
Would you prefer to turn him, for fewer (or no picks), or defeat him in battle for far more picks, however? That is a salient question if you are skilled and lucky enough to win.
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We aren't that lucky. Us facing him to begin with proves that.

And I'm surprised. I would expecting turning him, aka winning social combat, would still have significant value. He is one hell of a foe, after all. And one this determined? To change his course is remarkable. Clearly it is the easier task by far, but 2 picks is worth more than dying.

Of course we would be changing his course by digging a new path for his determination to flow down.
 
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BrainInAJar said:
If he can just leave and become a duke immediately; why hasn't he done so? Clearly he thinks there is danger to him going outside. Especially since his family came here to flee the war, most likely. What if his enemies are still in power? Hell, what if they want to kill him just so he doesn't get a claim to an Armament?
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Because he personally has never been out there, and he lacks the backing we would be able to provide.

It's true we aren't too much yet, but I suspect he will know the truth of it, if we were to tell him the rate at which we grow. What use is the Inner temple - temporary safety at best - compared to the aid of another noble house and a cursebearer?
 
With the sensible choice so far in the lead, I'm curious about how Rihaku is going to argue for the less sensible losing options! Take your bets folks, will it be A) Shinies, B) "You can't afford to waste a day of Apocryphal-free time running away and getting no reward", C) "Do the Impossible, See the Invisible, Row Row Fight the Powa," or D) "Winning against him isn't actually that unlikely with good tactics!

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Rihaku said:
Would you prefer to turn him, for fewer (or no picks), or defeat him in battle for far more picks, however? That is a salient question if you are skilled and lucky enough to win.

I'm surprised that Close of Day is so far behind. His state there would render him more vulnerable to the Fell-Handed Stroke than at start, and his exhaustion means his supernatural powers would be tapped much more frequently...
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Looks like it's a mix of A and D so far!
 
Edit to clarify: Rihaku's advocacy for Close of Day has been fairly consistent

Rihaku said:
I'm surprised that Close of Day is so far behind. His state there would render him more vulnerable to the Fell-Handed Stroke than at start, and his exhaustion means his supernatural powers would be tapped much more frequently...
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Rihaku said:
Effectiveness is higher, but Vanreir is also stronger, so it's possible that Close of Day may offer better odds overall... much depends on what tactics you decide to go with.
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SO WHAT IS THE TRUTH

Rihaku said:
You underestimate the power of Amarlt at your own peril...
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Rihaku said:
True, but having accrued so much inertia may make him vulnerable to tactics of a different sort... an attack which moves only in one direction may be difficult to withstand, but is easier to deflect!
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spam filter compels me to provide further analysis on top of clear evidence of GM devil's advocacy:

I think that one rewarding part of this quest, for me, is when Rihaku expresses surprise based on some feature of the situation that we couldn't have access to. The conversation with the GM provides additional exposition. But, in this case, we could theoretically have deduced that Fatigue for Amarlt would act similarly to Exhaustion for Hunger. The bigger question marks are what "inertia" means for Amarlt and whether Hunger has any kind of Inertia that we should've been optimizing. Does Withdrawal reduce our inertia? Or increase it?[/spoiler]
 
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[X] R-Type #1
[X] Preparation: Withdrawal
[X] Preparation: Resolve

His power comes from purity of thought, so best to strike early when his will isn't at its strongest.
Withdrawal b/c +20% chance of survival is pretty good. We rolled poorly here, it's best to be able to fall back and try again later.
Resolve to help ensure Rage, removing the threat that we die without it.

Dialogue is a decent pick too. I don't expect to turn him, but I do expect that talking to him would damage his determination. If we manage to get enough arete to insure no debt then I'll consider it, but until then I think ensuring our rage works is more important.
 
Going all bendy curvy on the straight line guy seems like a good idea in combat, but when talking to him seems like the wrong approach. We should approach the guy whose all about shortening distance with a pitch where we offer to shorten the distance between himself and his goals more than his current path of actions.

"The last person I fought offered terms only after he was stripped of all means of resistance and held at swordpoint. I would offer terms to you before either of us is forced into a position of weakness."
"You believe that you can kill me, even if it costs you further serious and crippling injury on top of what you have already sustained. I believe that I can defeat you, even if it costs me much the same."
"In exchange for temporary passage I am willing to heal you of your injuries, as well as discuss empowering either yourself or those you care about in a myriad of ways."
"Further, if such does not interest you then I would be willing to listen to political or social aims you wish to achieve that may be in my purview to accelerate immensely, due to my own specialties."
 
Rihaku said:
Would you prefer to turn him, for fewer (or no picks), or defeat him in battle for far more picks, however? That is a salient question if you are skilled and lucky enough to win.

I'm surprised that Close of Day is so far behind. His state there would render him more vulnerable to the Fell-Handed Stroke than at start, and his exhaustion means his supernatural powers would be tapped much more frequently...
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If we could choose between successes, I would choose to kill him. In reality, I'm firmly in camp Don't Die for this scenario. If we can get out of here with a Moderate Complication and no gains whatsoever, except information, I will count it as victory.
 
Perhaps Rihaku isn't referring to physical inertia, in this fatigued kind of way, but rather this ontological inertia you acquire the deeper you draw from your Compounded Soul Evocation... it is his father that is the blade after all, and perhaps we can take advantage of the fact that he is slowly losing himself.
 
Honestly, the idea of doing a big climactic battle is really tempting. The potential rewards are great as well. But we lack any information at all as to what our odds are! Does going all out with Resolve and Focus get us a 20% chance of dying? 40%? 60%? Without clear information, I have to assume the worst case scenario, that the odds are extremely long even if we have amazing tactics and go with Resolve/Focus! That's not a risk that myself or many people in the thread are willing to take.

We're guessing here, and when you're guessing with this dangerous of a situation it's better to play it safe. No matter how much fun YOLOing would be.
 
[X] Preparation: Focus
[X] Preparation: Resolve

To the death! Finally, a worthy opponent. Maybe we'll actually be able to use Form of Rage in this fight. We'll probably need to use it to survive.

This feels like a prime opportunity to commit, just think of how awesome the Advancement we would derive from defeating this guy.
 
Enohthree said:
Going all bendy curvy on the straight line guy seems like a good idea in combat, but when talking to him seems like the wrong approach. We should approach the guy whose all about shortening distance with a pitch where we offer to shorten the distance between himself and his goals more than his current path of actions.

"The last person I fought offered terms only after he was stripped of all means of resistance and held at swordpoint. I would offer terms to you before either of us is forced into a position of weakness."
"You believe that you can kill me, even if it costs you further serious and crippling injury on top of what you have already sustained. I believe that I can defeat you, even if it costs me much the same."
"In exchange for temporary passage I am willing to heal you of your injuries, as well as discuss empowering either yourself or those you care about in a myriad of ways."
"Further, if such does not interest you then I would be willing to listen to political or social aims you wish to achieve that may be in my purview to accelerate immensely, due to my own specialties."
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I like this/support this plan.
 
Rihaku said:
Close of Day would certainly help if your primary combat tactic is based on exchanging blows with him! A relatively fresh Hunger versus a badly wounded Vanreir who's not quite running on fumes would definitely be to your advantage in a straight fight...
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[X] Close of Day
[X] Preparation: Focus
[X] Preparation: Resolve
 
Close of the Day: ALPHA STRIKE ALPHA STRIKE

Let him believe that a single cut can end it all. Don't intentionally shift body states - Let him ultimate onto our fleshy body and provoke a change to the spiritual, then to form of rage. Every time he ultimates onto us he's weaker and vulnerable to more thousand cuts hits. Take a blow to strike another in turn.

[X] Close of Day
[X] Preparation: Focus
[X] Preparation: Resolve

If we push him into exhausted we've won.
 
So I'm going to adjust the diplomacy plan a bit:

He wishes to restore his fallen House. And we can offer to aid him in doing so in truth. Not this doomed shadow of a place in the Voyaging realm - Fairbright was young. They will know she fell. More will come. The temple in its entirety is doomed.

But we can offer him a connection to where it all began. It may not be a member of his House, but we are escorting a noble from his civilization, one who would likely be quite happy to help Amarlt rise again. And we just-so-happen to have conquering that place on our to-do list. An offer to restore his house at a rate he could never have dreamed of, to restore his health and perhaps even restore his father? We power over Blood, and his soul is present... How difficult would it to make one body into two?
 
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