Fair enough.

[x]Studying the Blade
[x]Relaxing at the Hot Springs
[x]Vertex

Basically, Surgecraft just isn't that useful for us without being willing to spend a lot of Arete. It's better to spend the upfront cost to be able to use Vertex and benefit from it in the short-term.
 
As far as exploitation of magical system and wise spending on our arete and especially effort/time goes, the effort that Vertex needs to be viable is probably better to be spent on making Sword Praxis absolutely monstrous, tbh.

Verteices have a lower viability threshold than Surgecraft in many ways! Surges that only offer combat utility are outclassed by the SORD, whereas you only need to be initiated into Vertex into order to benefit from purchased passive buffs! It's free real estate!
 
We could and probably will get another shot at Irisdescence or some other upgrade to take care of this at some point after we get Cut Through. Plus, Accretion is a Combat Leaning magic system, and Sword Praxis is likely to take a while to get any effects with utility applications
I worry how much we can protect things on us from Nullity even if Evening Sky can be made to resist it. It's likely to be pick and arete expensive to make things which are resistent in that same way, which isn't viable in the short-term.
 
A 2-Arete element is unlikely to get what you in particular want from a magic system, i.e. noncombat utility, unless it's very narrow or not very powerful. Vertices, on the other hand, grant healing, shielding, and alternate damage types / damage vectors off the bat, and also offer buffs and more complex enchantments!

Alright you've convinced me. Vertices is more mage-like and I'm going for it unless the thread can get a 7-Arete element for Surgecraft.

[X] Relaxing at the Hot Springs
[X] Studying the Blade
[X] Vertex

Valid point have been made about the value of Bloodwraith and Market Day, but with us effectively being at 0 Arete right now (because no way is the thread not going to get Cut Through after the last 24 hours), spending Arete on actions means we won't have it for magic systems. I'd like to get Vertex access right away or a 7-Arete Surgecraft element.
 
Verteices have a lower viability threshold than Surgecraft in many ways! Surges that only offer combat utility are outclassed by the SORD, whereas you only need to be initiated into Vertex into order to benefit from purchased passive buffs! It's free real estate!
But what are the odds we end up blowing away those passive buffs our first day back in the Temple because Gisena had to use Tide in our general direction?

Vertex is not a good pair with Nullity, unfortunately.
 
Harming daughteru for gain is a big no no, it never had a chance.

In my view one of the best reasons to have previously built up a good relationship is so it can afford to take a hit when there's sufficient need. Relationship minuses are more generally voters kryptonite though. So there's not too much point spending a lot of time advocating for it.

Looking at the magi systems Vertex would give Letrizia something to do while we're in the temple so it's pretty nice. Surge doesn't seem that great overall unless we spend to make a useful element, which doesn't seem appealing to me in comparison to other Arete sinks. It would be somewhat decent for Letrizia outside her armament but otherwise doesn't seem too useful to her either.

[X] Bloodwraith [2 Arete]
[X] Studying the Blade


This looks like the best combination to get us ready for the temple. I'm assuming Cut Through doesn't need a pick since the text says it merely costs the difference between its price and Thousand Cuts.

[X] Vertex

Use our mercenary pay to buy some useful gadgets.
 
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And now for something completely different.

If we generate 7 arete now, we can just heal up Versch to rank 10 by buying Pillars and using it to generate Armament-healing serums. Pillars explicitly excels at that sort of thing.

That should solve our immediate concerns, I thonk.
 
Welp, I've caught up, and now will make the first part of the vote than instantly appealed to me.

[X] Relaxing at the Hot Springs
[X] Bloodwraith [2 Arete]

This was never in doubt, Rihaku's advocation did nothing to affect my decision. My only reason to even hesitate on taking Bloodwraith would be the possibility that we won't recover the two Arete in time to purchase Cut Through, and that is so unlikely as to be irrelevant. No, the point I'm hesitating on is the Magic System, for a single question. @Rihaku, do we have to determine our element with Surgecraft immediately? Because if not, I'm totally willing to wait until we can afford to get a 7 point option without compromising our goals to pick it up, and a high Arete element in Surgecraft sounds far better than Vertex. If we do, we go for Vertex, which is clearly better than the cheap elements, and we are not spending enough Arete to get a good one now.
 
Studying the Blade - While they ranted about the shackles of Imperial representation, he studied the Blade. While she participated in frivolous antics, he studied the Blade. And now that the rot spawn are at the gates, they turn to him for help?

Well, fine. But it'll cost 'em.
Top tier meme by the way.

*Doom of the Tyrant: Hunger will extract large quantities of Verschlengorge's blood for his experiments without even thinking to ask Letrizia, weakening its Astral Rank to 4. After all, he's its bonded Cursebearer, a position both he and Verschlengorge know is above that of its pilot!
*--Letrizia, -1 future pick
It's nice having a GM who clearly lays out the downsides of an option rather than just baiting a trap and yelling gotcha when voters fall for it.
 
[X] Relaxing at the Hot Springs
[X] Studying the Blade
[X] Vertex

That is indeed a good point. We're covered with offensive power through Swording because of Cut Through, so we'd probably want utility out of this system pick.
 
Indeed, you guys should not forget about the Temple just because your recent updates have been in a safe-ish area! Hunger certainly hasn't forgotten.
 
Verteices have a lower viability threshold than Surgecraft in many ways! Surges that only offer combat utility are outclassed by the SORD, whereas you only need to be initiated into Vertex into order to benefit from purchased passive buffs! It's free real estate!

Perhaps this may be true, but also consider that advancing in Vertex will be considerably more time-consuming than Surgecraft! Battle utility and battle effects are literally the most important thing for us, since all our goals from short-term to long-term involve heavy combat! Besides that, there's immense utility to just fucking flooding the field with a thing, and none of our effects really do that! Imagine a widescale Tide of Nullity immediately followed up by bathing everything in line of sight with our suitably cool Imaginary Element!
 
Whew boy, the unbelievable omake and art storm has passed. Or perhaps, this is only the first gale of an even more monstrous hurricane of fanworks?!

Truly, Rihaku was most correct in estimating the power of Cut Through's sick blurb, capable of generating such insane fervor in the thread and placing us under its sway as to potentially grab it within the next 1 ~ 2 updates.

Per Studying the Blade's text, we should probably target Elite Rotspawn to trigger that 35% chance of 2 picks without complications, so here's hoping that dedicated thread discussion and omakes improves our roll chances. Even though this might seem to be the majority opinion, I just kind of like the idea of Surgecraft more, seems like a pretty focused magical art though it might not have the versatility of a true magic system - I prefer its overall synergy with Hunger's character and pure power more anyway. For versatility, I feel that the Ruling Ring's reality warping or the supreme utility of the Pillars of Creation may benefits us more in that regard so I don't think we should commit too much to our first magical systems, particularly if there are more compelling options available in the Voyaging Realm.

[X] Surgecraft
 
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[X] Studying the Blade
[X] Bloodwraith [2 Arete]
[X] Vertex

Sorry Letrizia but needs must.

Not voting for the hotsprings because I don't think we'll ever be able to afford pillars of creation. Or at least, not any time soon.

Vertex vs Surgecraft, hard to say which one is better. While I do think Surgecrafts would be somewhat more useful against the Temple, I think sufficient simple power is already supplied by our sword skills, and will quickly become irrelevant against the foes we face. Vertex's buffing abilities are better, and also give us something to do during downtime.
 
I should note: If this does not count as a major update then we are still accumulating Arete at an absurd rate.

@Rihaku: Was this a major update, since Hunger hasn't actually done anything and we just got clarifying picks?

Cause if not the arete curve is still at just shy of 50k omake-words.
 
Verteices have a lower viability threshold than Surgecraft in many ways! Surges that only offer combat utility are outclassed by the SORD, whereas you only need to be initiated into Vertex into order to benefit from purchased passive buffs! It's free real estate!
[X] Relaxing at the Hot Springs
[X] Pursuing Technological Solutions

[X] Vertex

That's good to know. I liked the theme of Surgecraft better but since we can only get the cool elements for tons of arete and the more straightforward elements are just outclassed by sword I'll vote for Vertex instead.
 
Perhaps this may be true, but also consider that advancing in Vertex will be considerably more time-consuming than Surgecraft! Battle utility and battle effects are literally the most important thing for us, since all our goals from short-term to long-term involve heavy combat! Besides that, there's immense utility to just fucking flooding the field with a thing, and none of our effects really do that! Imagine a widescale Tide of Nullity immediately followed up by bathing everything in line of sight with our suitably cool Imaginary Element!

If you're taking an action to use a Surge instead of hitting them with your sword, the opportunity cost is pretty high... you'd need an incredibly powerful Surge to make that even remotely worthwhile!
 
Also, if this *wasn't* a major update for arete-generation reasons we can near-certainly afford a 7 arete pick from Surgecraft. because we're kinda high on the curve.
 
Tight race between Surge and Vertex. The actions to take are... much more definitive at the moment.
 
Surgecraft has inspired me. I don't know why, but the image of Hunger embodying a Tide unto himself, rendering the battlefield insenate... it calls to me. I might be justifying my arguments post-hoc, but this is such a good aesthetic what the hell

brb making fanwork
 
Surgecraft has inspired me. I don't know why, but the image of Hunger embodying a Tide unto himself, rendering the battlefield insenate... it calls to me. I might be justifying my arguments post-hoc, but this is such a good aesthetic what the hell

brb making fanwork
And now you've inspired me.

Shame my stories never get much longer than 500 words, but that seems to be the limit of my coherence.
 
Huh, did my NTR comment actually make the option more popular!? You all certainly have interesting tastes. Remember that if Cut Through takes a pick you are possibly screwing yourselves out of it given an average roll.

The problem is we already have to worry about Nullity friendly-fire as is, I don't want to have to worry about dispelling buffs on us as is.

Though the point that Letrizia can spend her time outside making Vertices for us is a good point. And if they share Evening Sky's dispell Resistance while stored in it it could be a reason to invest in it more...

I'm certainly more torn than I was before; but I think the Praxis can sufficiently cover for utility and Surgecraft is a more interesting aesthetic anyway. I'm fine with it for now.
 
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