Fanwork#2241 Words
Reaction: "Arisen Again"
And so the Dark Lord has arisen again and returned to his... campsite? To decompress and recuperate from his battle against the destined hero. Yes, unless the Ring on our finger didn't already make it obvious, we're Sauron now, that's what our life has become. From the point of view of the Temple civilization, we're a Nameless Enemy that has struck down their champions and threatens their way of life. All that's missing is for an insignificant hobbit to stand up against us...
Hmm, speaking of Nameless, maybe we could get something like
Truenaming as our next magical system? We've already dabbled in it when we've Named ourselves Hunger, it looks to me like it would combine pretty well with Accretion's mechanics and themes, and it would just be incredibly cool in general if speaking our name drew our attention. Can't really be a proper Dark Lord without that. The benefits for ruling our future Empire would be almost incidental!
Hunger trudged wearily out of the Temple, kicking up clouds and eddies of dust with his ragged, irregular stride. He had the speed and strength of two hundred men, and the physical resilience to support that power, but the bone-deep exhaustion from his fight with Amarlt left his pace slow and tremulous. The swordsmaster had been by far the mightiest outrider that he'd crossed paths with, and only his last-minute gambit with the Ring had torn victory from the clutches of death.
Hmm, in Ritual Grounds Gisena remarked that we had become five times faster since the first time she saw us, which was ten times the strength and speed of men. We had 10 +s in Agi then, with 20 +s invested in the stat now. The derived exponential formula was ~17.5% then, yet would be ~16% now. The true number going forward is probably around 15%, assuming the growth formula was more additive than multiplicative for the initial +s.
But enough about maths that are probably wrong anyway! We could run at hypersonic speeds of about 7 Mach, swifter than the fastest known manned aircraft, which would be quite uncomfortable with any enhancement that paid physics more than lip service. Combined with our Wits and Intelligence enhancements, we should have already started experiencing the world in slow motion and getting bored while we wait for normal humans to respond. Though I suppose our enhancements are more conceptual in nature and don't affect us unless we want them to, so it's not as much of a concern.
I wonder how we measure up against the other two outrider leaders after our latest upgrade. Uttermost is no joke, letting us pretty much drown them in Ultimates, but they could have more diverse skillsets that could give them an advantage against us. For example, we could be screwed if one of them can produce poison mist or disease clouds and is strong enough to exploit the resulting weakness. Thankfully Gisena has our back again, so it's not quite as bad as it could be.
He'd tangled with a few more outriders on his path of retreat, but they were no more skilled than the goldenrod archer. Refreshingly, they fell quickly to his standard feints and tactics, requiring barely more exertion than the ghostly Knights. Though he'd not fully absorbed the power from the Amarlt's defeat, perhaps it was already paying dividends. Despite the weariness, in some respects his mind and body actually felt sharper.
The Coordinators must be quite panic-stricken if they've followed our growth trajectory. We've barely eked out a win against the archer just the day before, yet next time they heard of us, we're powerful enough to deal with their strongest outrider and have enough left in the tank afterwards to dispatch the likes of the previous day's foes with nigh trivial ease. Would be interesting to see how our chances of Diplomacy against the Knight-Commander have changed now that we outclass him quite decisively. Maybe we can still get an interesting 1- or 2-pick ability out of him?
Even so, he could go no further today. Slowly he made his way to Verschlengorge, catching Letrizia in the middle of a skirmish against a pack of Astral Beasts. Exhausted as he was, still his power eclipsed these rabble utterly. With a brief exertion he appeared before them, linear slice like a sudden horizon bisecting their angular frames. They chittered and fell over, green blood spouting furiously from their bodies as they slowly succumbed.
I hope our Cloak was flapping dramatically at that moment. We're showing off in front of our adopted daughter, we need to give maximum effort even in our current Exhausted state! Thankfully giving our Uttermost in everything we do isn't a problem anymore after our latest purchase. Flap the unflappable, show off even that which can't be shown! The meme is going to follow us throughout the quest from now on, isn't it?
He frowned. Though the Ring had healed his wounds of the body, something about his restored liver felt slightly off. Had Amarlt's first blow struck also at his spirit? In the heat of battle he'd hardly noticed, but the organ seemed somewhat frailer than before. His healed eye appeared to have avoided any complications, but that had been a shallow thrust, while the swordsman's first strike had pierced cleanly through.
Our poor liver, taking the fall for our reckless risk-taking. Oh, why do so many enemies damage our spirit as well as our body! Well, better the liver than our eye, because vision impairment would suck a lot for our build, even if it had led to developing our Bloodsense more. I really hope that we'll deal with this devastating complication as soon as possible.
He would have Gisena take a look when she was finished. He was fortunate not to have taken many true wounds from the battle with Vanreir, despite how taxing it had been. It was a tired cliche that a duel between experts could easily be decided by a single wound, but true nonetheless. In that sense his stroke had cut deeper, though he'd been outclassed both in power and skill. And yet sometimes that was the way of the world. Circumstance was a weapon no less deadly for the fact that it was profoundly unfair.
We might not have hit him more than once, but our presence and threat distracted Vanreir enough for the other R-type robot to make his own devastating strike. Without him we would have been much worse off and the chances of victory would plummet straight into the underworld.
But it's not like we hadn't been outnumbered before, and a fight for our life isn't a duel with strict rules and limits. In the end we won and he lost, even if we had to rely on the Accursed for our final gambit, and we'll be the one continuing our story where his had ended prematurely. As Xiaoling's dad liked to say, it's not what you know, it's who! Too bad we can't Pay to Win...
"You're back early!" Letrizia's cheerful voice boomed over her Armament's speakers. "Also, no stealing my targets! I've got to stay in shape somehow!"
What an unappreciative audience, that was a perfect Dynamic Entry, now with Sword! Couldn't she have at least clapped politely? Kids these days.
"Oh? I thought I was your bodyguard. Going to prevent me from fulfilling my duties?"
"Gotta stay sharp so I can defend myself!" Verschlengorge punched the air energetically. "Else, I'll be paying for bodyguards forever!"
That's the plan, kiddo. Wait, wrong quest!
What must Verschlengorge be thinking right now I wonder. He's probably glad he can get some exercise in during all the boring waiting near the Temple, but the gestures Letrizia makes...
"Ah, they grow up so fast..."
Before we know it she'll try introducing her boyfriend to us and we'll have to hide the body. Maybe we'll even get a free Armament out of it if he's a pilot? Or she, I'm not judging, we're an equal-opportunity guy like that.
"Anyway, how was it today? Did you make good progress?"
Oh did we. We didn't come away from the fight unscathed, but then I don't think they expected anything different after we headed for the Middle Temple. We've finally slotted in a Defining Advancement and it was predictably a Swording one. I don't think we're ready for another fight of this magnitude anytime soon though, we had an insanely good roll for it and lucked out, but that won't happen every time.
But if we're speaking hypotheticals, another Defining Advancement would probably be something related to Rulership to make our conquest of the Human Realm easier - for which the Ring seems quite fitting? And if the Blade and Ring get a Defining Advancement each, it would only be fair that the Mantle gets one as well. Perhaps something for magic? Another aspect of the Mantle we could focus on for the Advancement would be Protection, but it doesn't quite fit together with Uttermost.
"In a sense." He sat, leaning the Forebear's Blade against a boulder. Briefly he allowed his eyes to slip closed. The daytime sun bore down relentlessly, but the pull of slumber was stronger still, soft undertow of thoughtless dreams...
We haven't really leaned into the sleep-related aspects of our Ring for a long time. Probably because we headed straight for the Temple and sleep-related options just aren't as helpful when we need to ramp up quickly. And we didn't get any picks for it anyway lately. Which is kind of strange now that I think about it, as I would expect the Moon to be strongly associated with the night and thus sleep, and its Temple to offer corresponding monsters. It's not the False Moon for nothing I guess?
"Wait, is that... ?" Verschlengorge loomed above, its inquisitive face blocking out sun and sky.
What an image to wake up to, Verschlengorge's inquisitive face - however that works for him. Like, Letrizia, you could give your dear dad nightmares like that!
His eyes opened blearily. "Hm?"
"A-ah! Sorry, never mind! It's not a big deal. I didn't see you were trying to sleep."
"Don't worry about it. More enemies?" He scanned the horizon swiftly, cloak swirling about as he began to rise.
"No, nothing like that. Go back to sleep! Hehe. Today it's my turn to guard both you and Miss Gisena!"
Ah, what a considerate daughter we have, worrying about our health. It's a bit too late for that, as a lack of sleep is the least of our worries, but the sentiment is appreciated.
Apocrypha is offline right now, so enemies that Letrizia can't deal with are unlikely to stumble upon our camping spot. For now at least, as I have no idea just how free the people from the Middle and Inner areas are when it comes to ranging outside the Temple. Hmm, that's one reason to heal up Verschlengorge at least, as we could possibly come back one day to find our camp ravaged and Versch with Letrizia missing or dead.
"Were you looking at my sword?" He raised an eyebrow.
"I-I was just surprised! Did you find a blacksmith or something?"
Heh, you could say that. We didn't get as far as the Inners' Star-forges and had to use more esoteric means in order to restore our sword. And what could be more fitting than feeding it the Unerring Blade?
He called the Forebear's Blade to hand, the bright sharp shard of its silver blade now a full handspan longer than when he'd left. The sword was steadily replenishing itself, feeding ravenously from the energy of his triumph against Amarlt. By the evening he expected the entire weapon to be restored. That was truly a strange feeling. The last time it had been unbroken was when...
In the battle against the Tyrant, when Hunger both gained a victory over his long-standing foe and suffered a final terrible loss at the Tyrant's hands. Fitting that the Blade is the first thing we'll restore, isn't it? Not the limbs nor eye nor lung, not even the vigor of our youth we'd abandoned in favor of Age and Treachery, but the sword of the Forebear that had carried us through that fight to the bitter end.
On a less somber note, maybe we could one day separate him into two blades and become a Violet Swordsman? We're certainly cheaty enough...
He closed his eye. No point in dwelling. "I slew a swordsman of considerable skill. I should have lost. He was better than me, but too straightforward."
An inversion of a typical trope in games that specialization is better than diversification. Vanreir was incredibly good at one thing and could punch above his weight class thanks to that, but in the end our bag of tricks prevailed. I don't think this is conclusive proof that we should abandon specialization and focus on versatility or anything, since the fight was incredibly close, but it does serve as a hint that we should have a fallback in case we get countered somehow.
And not to believe an enemy when they say they want to end it like an honorable duel, but that goes without saying.
"Aha! Your undead chimera powers are growing stronger. Now you've somehow gained the power of... having a full sword!"
"Terrifying, isn't it. A classic vampiric ability. Truthfully, this Blade is much diminished from what it once was. If it's replenished by this evening as I suspect, I'll be able to defend you much more effectively."
We're still far away from accessing our full powers as a Super Juggernaut Undead Chimera, both in Letrizia relationship status and in Arete, but she should know that the best undead are also mechanical abominations, so she can consider our sword a part of that. A true Chimera isn't limited to mere flesh and blood! Just wait till we get some prosthetics.
He remembered now, the heft, the mountainous solidity of the Blade in hand, the terrible crushing momentum of its stroke, the sharp bitter bite of its edge. The shadow of its passing was water made ice; pressed to the flesh, it was ice against marrow. The Forebear had been inevitability made manifest, an overlord so mighty he'd no need of cruelty.
That much we know about him already, he was basically King Arthur Alter, any cruelty entirely incidental to his true purpose. I do ask myself just what could have created such a man. Individuals like the Forebear don't just spring from the aether, they're born in times of great conflict, so he must have had his own share of impressive enemies that he had used as steps for his rise to the top. He also really got around, it seems like, fathering lines in multiple dimensions ranging from this Realm to his own world to Earth... huh.
You know, I never questioned it, but why do we assume that the Forebear originated from the world where Hunger became a Hero? If he was another Earthling that had been summoned there once upon a time, that would explain how he's our ancestor and why he went on to travel to other worlds. If he already had experience with dimensional travel, then it makes sense if he decided against stopping there. I don't know what form those travels would take though. Maybe the history wasn't a complete lie and his body truly died peacefully, with his spirit traveling to the Voyaging Realm and siring the Amarlt line.
No wonder he would be able to tell us more about the Hidden Ones if he had been in our position once upon a time and managed to cut their strings.
He would need to restore his other arm. Two hands were needed to wield it properly.
But I liked the one-arm aesthetic! Ah, the sacrifices we're forced to make for the sake of battle efficiency. And health, but that's near the bottom of our priorities.
"More power, huh? I hope you're not angling for a raise."
If our pay is determined by power, you'll swiftly run out of money and will be forced to go into debt, kiddo. Progression is one hell of a drug.
"Afraid? Does House Artriez lack confidence in the strength of its coffers?"
"A-as if! The Empire's going to pay you, so n-no need to worry about that!"
"Fiscal troubles? I'm planning to work as a mercenary. Help me advertise and I'll give you a cut."
What's the point of the Empire paying us when we're going to conquer it anyway? We could see it as advance taxes, I guess.
"Are you sure? The name of Artriez does not come cheaply."
"I'm more interested in the name of Letrizia, the Armament pilot. Surely that commands value in military circles."
We know Letrizia's weaknesses and aren't afraid to use them.
People like saying that flattery doesn't get one anywhere, but that's because they haven't used enough of it. Flatter even if it can't be flattered, do your utmost to butter her up! Maybe she'll allow more headpats then.
"Oh! Well, in that case... wait, you can't sweet-talk me into a lower rate! I would require at least fifty percent, and that's with docking Miss Gisena's pay. But don't worry, I'll give your promotion my utmost effort. You can count on me!"
How about a loan? We promise great rates and the best security Apocrypha & Co has on offer. All that requires is... a simple transaction.
"Thirty percent, final offer."
"Deal. Hehe, I was only aiming for thirty in the first place!"
"I know." He nodded to Gisena, leaning jauntily against the side of her tent with three fingers raised.
"Miss Gisena! You sold me out?!"
"Sure did, Zea! Now what's this about docking my pay?"
We might be Vendettaboy, but Gisena's vengeance is no less terrible for all its swiftness! Did we rub off on her maybe? Given all the times we've carried her around...
---
The winner was [X] Uttermost with [X] True Maiming. With his Ring's regeneration now active, Hunger can fight through the severe damage from maiming, though only in short bursts for the next three days. What now?
[ ] Visit the Encampment - Once Gisena is finished with her meditations and the Forebear's Blade finishes its regeneration, visit the Encampment, allowing her to take point on social interactions. The potential benefits are vast, but some degree of risk is still present. There's much to do, though the mercenaries present may not offer as much comparative value as they once did.
-[ ] Visit the Official Fishing Contest [+1 Arete, +progress towards next +1 pick option] - Fight hard. Fish harder.
-[ ] Do Not Visit the Fishing Contest - The temptation is too great. Discipline must prevail.
Yeah, we've passed up multiple chances to exploit this option, so by this point the people in there aren't all that useful to us. We're among the highest echelons of the Middle Temple, and the mercenaries wouldn't be bumming out there if they had comparable power, they'd be storming the Temple. They should still have some utility, but it's no surprise the greatest draw here is fishing.
[ ] Slack Off - It feels unnatural, but perhaps the best option is to focus intensely on rest and recuperation. In this as in all things, execution makes the result.
+??
It's probably something really good, but most questers don't really want to see our MCs slack off, we see enough of that in real life.
[ ] Heal Verschlengorge - Though physical activity strains you, once you're rested there's nothing stopping you from using the Ring of Blood. Work with Letrizia in an attempt to restore Verschlengorge's power, at least in part. Perhaps you can pick up some marginal improvements from the stronger monsters it attracts.
We could probably get a 1-pick or even a 2-pick from this if we're lucky, but the main advantage is giving Letrizia better security while we're away and looking into possible Decimator Mitigations that we could learn from Versch. One day...
[ ] Vacation - You don't want to go to the Encampment, but it would be nice to partake in civilization somewhere. Heal Verschlengorge with a focus on its navigational abilities and look for something fun and relatively safe. While you are determined to free the Imprisoned Ring, in your current state there simply isn't much that can be done for it.
*Consumes more time than the other options
*+Gisena, +Letrizia
*Gain +0.5 Arete, inane tasks sidequests
'Relatively safe'
Hunger: A beach episode you say?
Hunger: How can we have a beach episode without mutant sharks and tentacle monsters?!
I'm looking forward to seeing some different scenery. I mean, we'll likely still find things that want to kill us, but at least their chances won't be as high out there.
---
You've received 1 pick from the Outriders slain after Vanreir. Your choice here may influence the result of the action taken above. You have 4.3 Arete.
[ ] 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]
[ ] The Ring of Power - Dominion - 2 Arete
A ring of power does not exert influence casually. It has its own will, its own preferences, and if that will should be inseparable from its owner's, its sway thereby shall be greater for it.
Select a domain of influence. While acting within its domain, [Ring of Power] effects are substantially less taxing and more potent; the effects of this can be abstracted as follows: treat the owner's Rank as if it somewhat* higher for related actions. You may select this advancement multiple times, choosing a different domain each time. If multiple domains apply, their bonuses do not compound.
*+0.5 if Low, +.25 if Mid, +.1 if High.
The available domains for Hunger are: War, Passion
[ ] Fierce Quickening - The absurd violence of Blood unleashed. Let all that falls within its dominion be spilled, if it be in service to the Ringbearer. Adds [++Agility, +Wits] to the bonuses from Quickening, subject to the usual conditions. Can be taken up to 3 times.
[ ] Vigor Itself - The primordial might and glory of Blood resplendent. Let all who witness its form tremble, and be subject. Adds [++Might, +Charisma] to the bonuses from Quickening, subject to the usual conditions. Can be taken up to 3 times.
[ ] Augment Dominion: Blood - The world-wielding will of the Ring.
Treat the wielder's Rank as if it were (.5 Low/.25 Medium/.1 High) higher for purposes of the [Ring of Power] effect applied to the Blood domain, increasing its potency and versatility. Repeatable, but costs 1 more pick each time.
[ ] Evening Sky - Opalescence - The soft light of evening before which all attacks falter.
Improves defensive parameters. [+Protection]
[ ] Evening Sky - Iridescence - 2 Arete - The sharp light of the stars before which all malice is lessened.
+Protection, +Charisma. Expands the range of effects subject to the Evening Sky, allowing it to passively weaken almost all forms of magic. Even Nullity itself can be once withstood before the Sky recedes.
[ ] Exalted Spirit - 2 Arete. Conjunctional [Hunger, Evening Sky]. Mind made vigorous as the body. Gain +Int, +Wits, +Wis, +Cha, -Heartlessness, while in a form with physical blood. Allies under blood enhancement gain +Int, +Cha. Blood enhancement requires physical blood.
[ ] Null Slice - 7 Arete. Conjunctional [Hunger, Gisena]. ++Wits, ++AGI. Severs a conceptual aspect from the target. Resistable. More abstract and difficult concepts are much harder to strike and may induce Tiredness or Exhaustion in the attempt. While this offers minimal power now, it can potentially lead to a wide variety of applications with time and training. Discounts either [Once and Future] or [Cut Through] by 2 Arete.
Hmm, a new addition to the panoply, it makes me wonder if we can get Conjunctional advancements with our other companions. Letrizia's Super Juggernaut Undead Chimera probably counts as one, but what could Verschlengorge possibly have on offer? Inquiring minds want to know!
I think I'll swap out Quickening for Vigor.
[X] Vacation
[X] Vigor Itself
