[ ] 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 Forebear is always watching.
The Echo, so popular and effective once upon a time, now abandoned in the dusty corners of too-bland options. It's all but invisible to our eyes now, its Stealth stat surpassing anything King of Thieves and Shadowlord could give us. But might it see a recurrence once we snap up all the basic Blood options and are only left with Arete-spending stuff? We're almost there, just a few more Quickening and Augmented Domain options, and it seems it's all Arete land from there. Unless we get more pick-heavy blood advancement options if we defeat a more difficult challenge? That's a possibility too.
I'll just console myself by thinking that one day we could take enough Echoes of the Forebear and acquire a Forebear Stand, thus winning everything forever. It's always the quiet ones!
+ costs no Arete
+ it doesn't get any cheaper
+ stats will never betray you
+ has Forebear in its name
- kind of bland?
- we haven't reaped our bounty of blood advancements yet
+/- we're a wizard now, so taking the +muscle option?..
[ ] 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.
The available domains for Hunger are: War
Invest in the Ring, even if it cannot be invested.
This is a solid option for combat and the bonus might even qualify for social Infiltration attempts if the Blood Ring acknowledges the concept of Low War. There had been tons of warnings about the contest of primacy time and again, even after we'd recovered from the panic and decided to make a grab for the Ring again. I don't think Rihaku would do it pointlessly, it sounds more like a real warning to me, and more importantly we know there's at least one other Ring in the Voyaging Realm, - it's why we're in the Temple in the first place! - so the chances of provoking some other Ring aren't that low. Plus Apocrypha is there to ensure that things stay
interesting, and the primacy contest is a ripe field for the Curse's intervention.
Still, some of the basic bonuses aren't bad even without taking Ruling Ring, and it's a possible avenue of advancement if one wants to prepare for future Ruling Ring acquisition.
+ RING
+ RULING
+ probably relevant to our current endeavor
+ Rank is useful in all situations really
- it's not much by itself?
- chances of getting Ruling Ring anytime soon aren't that great
- broad applicability conversely means not being as good in specific situations
[ ] 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.
Speed is life.
Quite literally in this case, as it only applies to our physical body, much like the rest of our blood advancements. But it's not like we're going to die, so who cares? I wonder what kind of advancement this would offer once we complete the Fierce Quickening series. Viger let us add Cha to Protection, so conversely Quickening might add Wits to Luck or Man? Not to any other mental stats, surely, and Willpower would be too strong too, so those sound like the most likely candidates.
Anywa, our main stat is still Agi, our latest purchases haven't changed that. It will also remain such for the foreseeable future because of Cut Through, so it might behoove us to improve our speed. It kind of goes against the previous decision of switch to a social quest for a while, but since when has consistency had any kind of authority here? If decision coherence was a law, we'd be clearly suffering from the Doom of the Tyrant and rebelling against the drab reality of sensible choices with all our might.
(A joke in case it wasn't clear, we're super consistent and everything is A-OK)
It can also become a social option if you squint right? You know that feeling when you're floundering and looking for words and there's just no time
you've gotta answer now whatdoyoudo?! Well, we can now spend more time doing that during a conversation, making our awkward pauses and brooding silences pass by quicker from the outside point of view. We might even become a chatterbox if we take enough Agi and Wits options!
By the way, it costs no Arete. Jus' sayin'.
+
no Arete
+ an EFB is so close you can taste it
+ the essence of
red
+ improves our most important physical stat and one of the most combat-relevant mental stats
- very much not the best fit for what we're doing now
+/- unless we're taking the words 'aggressive diplomacy'
very literally
[ ] 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.
Blood begets blood.
I'm not sure just how many of these will be valuable till we hit diminishing returns, since while the cost of these rises exponentially (getting additional picks is increasingly difficult and dangerous), the Rank increase isn't linear either. Hmm, thinking about it, if we want a kind of power that would let us get high amounts of XP more easily, something that lets us grow in the middle of combat would be neat. So basically Form of Rage, only more reliable? No wonder heroes go for Limit Breaks all the time!
It hasn't been taken even a single time either, so it has the greatest value right now. I suppose it isn't very attractive and always gets passed over because we don't have a real feel for what increased Rank in blood manipulation would do for us, but some of the things that come to mind are Healing Versch more effectively or affecting opponents with superior Rank like that one Prime more easily. If we had had an Augmented Blood Domain back then, maybe it wouldn't have shrugged off our attempts at manipulating its blood so easily.
+ costs no Arete?
+ BLOOD RANK
+ first time is most
memorable cost-effective
- specialized in Blood manipulation, so restricted to specific uses
- not useful for social unless we get very creative?
+/- though since other blood advancements give +Cha, maybe our temporary blood buffs can too?
+/- stay faithful to best domain!
[ ] 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.
A healthy mind in a healthy body.
Reminds me a bit of the Linear Halo, translating physical might into mental acuity. At least thematically, in practice it just gives +s to mental and social, even applying a lesser enhancement to our allies. But further blood advancements in this direction could start giving us more benefits to mental stats depending on our physical capabilities, though something like this would undoubtedly be even more expensive.
By the way, I first read this as a Conjunctional Advancement of Evening Sky and Human!Hunger and wondered what was up with that. Was there perhaps more of a hero left in Hunger than he cared to admit, I thought? Then I realized it's Ring!Hunger, so it's just Evening Sky turning the blood enhancements towards stats that are more relevant to it and smoothing over the edges. It's a pretty positive Artifact overall, for something we stole from a pirate.
-s to Heartlessness are something we haven't seen in any other option either, and we've taken a hit there thanks to Thick as Thieves, so we'll probably want this at some point, especially if we continue pushing the
Greatness Heartlessness button further.
+ holistic enhancements to our whole party that would be relevant soon
+ Heartlessness isn't actually Greatness
- we might need Heartlessness in the Temple
- can't be used in ghost form, not that it's likely to come up
+/- it has Exalted in its name, so maybe we'll get a small fraction of Accursed Favor for this?
[ ] Sublime Transfusion - 2 Arete. The restorative vigor of blood willingly given. The wielder may donate his blood to another in order to heal them. This applies regeneration at a rate triple the wielder's own, and this healing effect is treated as if possessing conceptual potency a full Rank higher than the wielder's baseline, minimum 7. Even organisms of different species can be revitalized through such means.
Time heals all wounds. But blood can help in a pinch!
We'd abandoned the idea of laying siege to the Temple with a healed Versch previously, so I don't think we'll come back to it all of a sudden after deciding on trying a more peaceful solution first. But we might still heal him up to Rank 5 at least with this on the way back, getting us more lore and increasing Letrizia's safety. Remember, we gave her the Imaginary Element most suited to her desires and with the greatest long-term potential, but conversely that means that she doesn't have much combat efficiency on her own right now. Having Totality up and running could be the difference of life and death for her once Bearic gets his shit together and attacks.
Plus it would be another thing we can offer the peeps in the Temple. Surely there are some injured people there, and while we're quite good at healing even without Sublime Transfusion, Verschlengorge had shown us the limits of our ability. Don't know how I feel about restoring some of their more powerful combatants (as what else would require this?), but it might be another way to sow dissension if we find a powerful injured pariah.
+ better healing is always nice
+ poor neglected Versch will surely appreciate your sacrifice
+ doitforletrizia.jpg
- might be a waste in the short term
- needs lots of time and blood for max effectivenes
+/- are we still a swordsman? all these healing and buffing options are throwing me into doubt...
+/- oh right,
paladin
[ ] Vigor Incarnate - 2 picks, 2 Arete. The glory of Blood triumphant. Let those who would stand against him cower, or be undone. A simple but exceptionally powerful option.
Adds [+++Might, ++Charisma] to the bonuses from Quickening, subject to the usual conditions.
Add your Charisma to your Protection.
The secret of vigor is having fun.
It's basically having such a thick face it can deflect attacks! Our shamelessness has reached new heights that even Nameless hadn't achieved in EFB.
We would get something like 7 +s to Protection all of a sudden? And naturally even more Charisma right before a task that would benefit greatly from it. So much synergy, I'm not sure how much of a chance this option stands. Jokes aside, this is probably the best pick if we want to continue with our diplomatic intentions. Blood advancements continue to be as amazing as ever, and even if it now costs 2 Arete, we're more than getting our money's worth here.
This might also give Evening Sky more relevancy, since +Cha is one of its main stats and it will presumably give appropriate picks at some point. It has already started doing that with Exalted Spirit, but maybe it will offer additional stuff if we start needing Cha even more.
+ has +Progression applied to it, so very efficient
+ gives social right before a social challenge; so crazy, right?
+ conflates Cha and Protection, much like Cut Through does for Will and Str/Con/Agi
- the fun police might arrest us
- encourages social, which we might fail at?
+/- maybe we'll one day discover a positive feedback loop that will give us infinite stats!
[ ] Edeldross Adept - 2 picks, 2 Arete. Conjunctional [Ring of Power, Evening Sky] Through a surge of genius, Hunger vastly accelerates the growth of his proficiency with Edeldross.
*Substantially improves the effects of Hunger's Edeldross training session, increasing Magnitude to +30% and imparting significant bonuses to control. He can now consistently form barriers, blasts, and basic shapes (spear, sword, boxing glove) from Edeldross.
*Hunger can now maintain close to 100% uptime on basic self Edeldross enhancement.
*Unlocks advanced Edeldross enhancement, a time-limited technique that increases his effective Magnitude by half again.
*Doubles the rate of psuedo-Grace creation in the future. This benefit is unique to the Advancement.
People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.
No, of course I don't mean you, Gisena, you're just stating facts, not bragging in our face all the time. But if you wanted to see genius? Well, here it is, fresh from the oven and still having the smell of XP and Arete all over it. That's Hunger for you, provoking feelings of inadequacy and power envy in teens throughout the Elixir Springs High School.
Not sure how rare this advancement is. On the one hand, nothing about the advantages it offers seem truly unique, so maybe simply undergoing another Edelross training session would unlock this opportunity. But it does say 'surge of genius', and inspiration isn't something that can be forced or easily repeated, plus we will rarely have an opportunity to train our Imaginary Element so effectively. So I would rate it as semi-rare?
It improves our buffing by a third and promotes it from temporary to more or less permanent. And the temporary buff itself becomes even more impressive, giving nearly 50% stat enhancements overall. That's an insane amount of stats which we would normally have to pay a heavy price for! Hmm, maybe this is the source of the comprehensive stat buff Sourceresses experience as they Coalesce? Just refining the Edeldross bonus further and integrating it into their existence more tightly.
In comparison to that the other options seem almost bland. We get better at shaping raw Edeldross into desired forms and increase Grace development speed, but it's hard to say how much of an improvement it is. We didn't pick Experimentation previously, so who knows when we'll be able to create our first Grace? And it will likely be a physical enhancement where would benefit more greatly from something that increases our Cha even more right now. Still good if negotiations break down, but at that point we'll probably just flash-buy a stance.
+ let me improve your
everything
+ Edeldross is wholesome and nice, not like some blood drugs I won't mention here
+ a bit rare?
+ women appreciate staying power in men
+ amaze the world with a single brilliant feat by pretending to be a weakling at first and then rapidly exceeding all these losers in a school tournament
- don't you feel embarrassed giving your all against schoolchildren?
- the typical disadvantages of a generalist option, doing everything well means not being the best at something
- needing enhancements to perform at your best isn't that good for your reputation
+/- more magic!
+/- be the Green Lantern you've always aspired to become
+/- we'll have to take things over if we want to be part of the Galactic Police?
[ ] Evening Sky: Shadowlord - 2 picks, 7 Arete. It's rare that such conjunctions occur, but the cloak of Evening has unusual affinity for the Elements of shadow. By absorbing the power of an Element willingly offered, some of its attributes may be infused into the wearer.
*+30% AGI, +30% Manipulation
*Gain +++++++Stealth, ++++Theft
*Weave of Silence: Immune to sound- and music-based attacks.
*Attention-Deflecting Shroud: +Protection from the Evening Sky now adds to Stealth.
*Assassin's Grace: 100% Critical Strike chance when performed from ambush.
*In exchange for paying Shadowcord a kingly sum of money, she will agree to let Hunger absorb her Element. This is not a permanent reduction; her ability to summon it will return slowly over the course of two years.
*Needless to say it's far more effective to have such capabilities present in Hunger himself than to rely on relatively-weak external sources
*Consumes one additional day as you farm the money needed.
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie...
What is a Dark Lord without shadow powers? Even that goddamn pirate had shadow powers, how come we missed out on them after grabbing his Artifact? Here's a chance to make up for that travesty! All for the low, low price of 7 Arete. Who needs Arete anyway? Not us, that's for sure. It's just a number anyway, we can't let it rule our lives and make our decisions for us!
...Just looking at the price causes me near physical pain. It's an amazing option that I could almost call a Defining Advancement if it had some downsides and was even more ridiculously powerful. It's a true-blue rare advancement, the stars conspiring to let us train and negotiate with a money-mad Shadowcord at the same time as we set out to infiltrate a dangerous location. I don't think we can expect the reappearance of this option anytime soon, so while I can't bring myself to vote for this Arete-hog, I wouldn't be truly disappointed if it won either.
Shadowlord gives our Evening Sky a whole new dimension by translating its Protection into Stealth, so if we take Vigor Incarnate at a later point, we'll be effectively adding our
Charisma to Stealth. Just how rad is that? We'll be so charismatic people won't want to notice us. The combination isn't Malfean Stealth, but it's up there in terms of ridiculousness.
Had to look up just what a Critical Strike does for us. Apparently it triples the damage and applies half again the power of Ruin? Not sure how this is going to interact with Cut Through, but I won't say no to more damage. Hmm, with Mage-Defeating Stance we quintuple our Ruin against magics, so right now I'm imagining Hunger standing before a defensive ward and going into a crouch to make a critical strike against the defenses.
Immunity to sound and musical magic doesn't sounds a bit too specialized, but it's still blanket
immunity. That isn't something one gets easily. And I get the strange feeling that we'll encounter magics of this sort in the Temple for some reason. Maybe it's the lunar themes and their communication sigils? Who knows, sometimes my gut instinct is wrong.
Last but by far not least is the +30% addition to Agi and Man. It's going to become
very relevant in the Temple, maybe even letting us perform some social sabotage during our stealth run.
+ safest option
+ great stat boost to both main combat stat and social
+ Grand Theft Ring
+ super-rare
+ we can hum Mission Impossible during the mission and be immune to our own charm, what a bargain!
- Shadowcord is removed before she even had a chance to appear
-
7 Arete
- eats up even more time
+/- pivots towards a stealth mission rather than a social one
So to make a long story short, I decided to choose the following:
[X] +.75 Arete
[X] Fierce Quickening
Why? Because Arete, that's why.
2687 Words of analysis. I think I overdid it a tad. But I just had to think of all the Arete we'll likely spend here and my hands moved on their own.
