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A Simple Transaction I
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
- Original
Talace
It must be raining somewhere else!
ugh, i spent way too much time making this incoherent buildvote
The winning votes last update were {X} The Throne Room and {X} Merciless.
A crash, a leap, a bleeding skyline in passing. The brass walls of the Timekeeper's Citadel were sheared in twain, magical defenses crumpling before the supernal might of his Incandescence. The Cursebearer moved in with urgency, stepping over the broken pieces of the Hourglass Guard, noting how their once potent armors lost all energy after the core was shattered. Useful information, to be stored for later.
His selection of entrance was auspicious, right through the hallway leading up to the Throne Room. He knew he was near to his final objective, bringing him closer to the crushing pressure of the center. A rumble, from behind him. A burgeoning pressure, approaching without heed.
Instinctively, he knew that if he were to be hit, he would die. His energies depleted, locked into endless regression until nothing was left.
Luckily, it was trivial to dodge. High agility does wonders for one's survival chances. Pivot on the right foot to face the foe. A minimal movement to the right, a duck, and a surging lunge forward. Grab the first Clockwork Knight by the collar, splay fingers like so, extend your elbow like so. Pull, headbutt, punch with offhand. The mental diagram in his head assembling with practiced ease. Chamber, hammer, barrel, bullet. A platoon of Clockwork Knights, at least 13 or 14, behind the first. They would be knocked back by the bowshock of his assault.
He pulled the trigger.
From the Cursebearer's hand bloomed a carbonizing blaze, unremitting and white hot. The union of his magics—Ignition, Corona, Heat, Pyre—formed a basic attack of pure fire. Conceptually unassailable, metaphysically voracious, spiritually unremitting, physically supernal. Runic seals inscribed themselves onto the air behind him, rotating furiously with arcane might. Fire poured out relentlessly from him, igniting the air and fusing the boots of soldiers to the ground.
Blasts of exotic energy came from the knights, filling the air with an emerald light. These were of the same kind as before, dangerous and unforgiving. His autonomic defenses kicked in. A shell of bright white light around his form, his Corona—and leaning into it, his Pyre. They compounded on one another, the restorative nature of the Pyre rendering the shell of his Corona essentially inviolate to the assault of energy.
The energy bolts collided with the shield, and dissipated.
He took the time to examine the armor of these Knights. These ones were different—oddly resilient, none of them dead after the first wave. A royal guard of sorts, perhaps. Fire surged forth to meet the knight still in his hand.
It burned through the first layer of plate armor, the second, the third, all the way through the first cardinality of armor layers. But for some reason, it wasn't enough. There was resistance, some mitigating characteristic that provided supernatural resilience to even his unusual magic.
He closed his physical eyes, and peered at the world through his Heatsight. With a gaze, he transfixed the foe directly before him, and examined closely. Now, he would know why they were special.
--
It appeared that the armor was temporally dispersed, distributed throughout the span of a million million years and regenerating faster than he could burn through it. Burning through that infinite series of layers would only truly destroy the armor for this instant in time, but the moment time moved forward, the damage would be ablated away without so much as a scratch left behind.
This put them three or four tiers of power above even the strongest knight he had faced.
He paused for a millisecond.
The Cursebearer iterated through solutions, leaning into his mental interface with the conceptual quickness his Heat Haze granted. Prune the complications of reality, formulate abstract plans. Discard a thousand ineffective plans, generate a new million based off the findings, repeat. Add complexity, the variables inherent to the material plane. Formulate. Discard. Repeat.
He could burn brighter, and force it to expend its selfhood to preserve ontological integrity-- but it would take too long. Especially with the legion of other Clockwork Knights behind it—by the time he was finished with all of them, his Geas target will have escaped already.
He could spread out his fire throughout the conceptual timeline-- but there was no guarantee that the flames would be strong enough to go through the first layer of armor, let alone the full infinity. It was uncertain, and risked overextension.
He could try and cauterize the metaphysical links between the armor in this instant and the rest of the timeline—his powerset was exceptionally well suited to it, the chance of success was high, and risks were minimal. Okay.
Immediately the internal magical components began arranging themselves to suit his desired outcome.
Rapidfire questions assaulted him in piecewise fashion—Was this possible? Yes. What systems would be needed? All of them. Which parts? The might of the Ignition, the offensive potency of the Heat, the esoteric parameters of the Corona, and the resolve of the Pyre. How best to use them?
The Haze hitched, an imperceptible lapse in the stream of information as it turned its full attention to the generation of a solution at the local maxima of efficiency in its neighborhood of possibility-space.
It answered, generating a list of 28,201 internal steps.
The millisecond ended, and he began casting.
--
In accordance with the 28,199thth step, he bent low and picked up a knight's sword as it fell from nerveless hands. The 28,200th step, releasing a pyroclastic burst from a finger he outstretched 40 steps ago, pointed at another fallen knight crawling away from him. Cauterize, he willed, and the armor was shattered.
The final step—he loomed over the fallen knight menacingly and brought down the sword. A head of bloodstained brown hair separated from the body, turned upwards, lifeless blue eyes staring directly into his.
His palm glowed for a brief moment, Harvesting Pyre collecting power greedily from their fallen bodies. There was a legacy in a few of them… a destiny for something greater. This last one… was the captain, it seemed. A younger brother, memories of an Earth?
Sorry kid, the Cursebearer thought, and crushed that potential into more power for later Progression. Maybe next time.
Shaking his head free of thoughts, he clambered through the shattered hallway until it opened into the wider throne room.
--
Golden light spilled into the throne room through large, open windows. A complex of engines and machinery lined the walls, a steampunk's dream dappled in the hue of an impressionist's mind. A carpet of royal velvet stretching out from the hallway to a large, brass throne. There, framed in filigreed steel pillars and beneath the slow, laborious rotation of a pendulum sat the Clockwork King.
The edict of his Geas rung in his mind, seared by Accursed design.
Eliminate the Clockwork King beyond all possibility of recovery within 200 years.
A lance of fire formed in his hand, fingers gripping the shape-half formed.
"May I have the name of the man who is to be my executioner?" came the voice, weary and low.
The Cursebearer did not reply, and in that same instant loosed the lance from his hands, a jagged thunderbolt as his scathing rejoinder.
He had seen the litany of atrocities committed at the behest of this king, the countless continents scoured of all resource and energy. This was the kind of man that ought not be given the slightest sliver of a chance.
The king held up a hand, and the pendulum stopped. The lance too, suspended moments before impact, a bullet paralyzed by power. It was as if the climax from a book had been ripped out, and framed for all to see.
"A moment, please."
The Cursebearer, with an enormous exertion of will, flared the presence of his Soul Orb. An entire civilization, souls and sentience and magic, half materializing in this semi-reality. He had prepared for a time-stop move, especially in a place called "The Timekeeper's Citadel."
Just projecting an additional soul drastically increased the upkeep of a single time-deceleration spell, let alone an entire civilizations' worth.
He took no pleasure in watching the mana drain rip out the life of the Clockwork King, and dispelled the fraying fabric of the magic's matrix.
Briskly, he brought forth the sword of the fallen knight captain, and plunged it through the heart of the king. Then with a second thought, incinerated the body too. The Harvesting Pyre would take care of the rest. He waited.
And waited, and waited…
And then he realized, the spell was still ongoing.
--
Magnificent triumph! Gain 8 picks for Advancements. However, it seems like the king got his last laugh after all and has suspended our hero in the same moment of time forever! Luckily, you'll only have to remain within the spell for the remainder of your Geas time (84 years). For the sake of keeping post length within reasonability, I have elided the completed skill trees of Ignition, Ignition Drive I and II, and pruned all the rest.
You currently have 23 Arche.
[ ] Ignition Drive III: Combustion VII (8 picks) – The moment between nothingness and flame. Induce combustion in an object through an exertion of will. Repeatable, but costs 1 more pick each time. Each additional pick exponentially increases the scope, versatility, and strength of this combustion, as well as exponentially decreasing the cost in willpower. Distribute picks equal to the pick-cost of this option to the suboptions below. Current level is Calamitous. (++++++++++++++++ Willpower, ++++++++ Incandescence)
- [ ] Pyrolysis V – The thermal decomposition of all things. By internalizing one's Ignition at a molecular level, massively increase control and versatility of Combustion. (+++++ Incandescence)
- - [ ] Nuclear IV - Go atomic. Sever the bonds beneath and set the world alight. Attain mastery of nuclear fusion and fission.
- - [ ] Exotic I (Conjuctional Advancement with Pyre) – New particles, new powers. Currently, you have discovered a way to generate Color-glass condensate with trivial expenditure and exertion. (++++++++++++ Constitution.)
- - - [/] New Flame, Old Flame (Conjuctional Advancement with Pyre) – Discover how to generate the flames of your Pyre with slight expenditure and exertion. Add to the total bonfire, increase the total pool of power of Pyre by one's Incandescence.
- [ ] Engine VI – Harness the might of the Ignition Drive by channeling its fury into one's body. Replace the outmoded and inefficient mitochondrial matrices of your body with a Combustion Weave of your own, drastically increasing kinetic output and speed. (+++++++++++++++++++ Might, +++++++++++++++++++++++ Agility.)
- - [ ] Exothermic III – Control the amount of energy released into the surroundings, either reining it in for maximum efficiency or amplifying it to deal massive amounts of radiant damage. (+Wits, +Int., +++++++ Incandescence.)
- - [ ] Endothermic III – Control the amount of energy release into the body, increasing combustion density and channeling the full force of one's Ignition behind each movement. Increase the value of all stats from Engine by 30%, and develop an autonomic defense system that scales with one's Incandescence. (+++ Incandescence.)
- - - [/] Ignition Flare (Conjuctional Advancement with Corona) – Conceptually treat your Corona as part of the body, allowing you to levy the full force of your Ignition through the more esoteric axis of the Corona.
- [/] Blazing Bright (Conjunctional Advancement with Heat) – Discover an avenue by which the generation of adequate emotional conditions to use the offensive might of Heat by exploiting a loophole in the Ignition Drive. Massively increases the potency, versatility, and ease-of-use for all Heat-related abilities.
- - [ ] Blaze Force II (Conjunctional Advancement with Heat) – Instead of creating ordinary fire through your Ignition, create True Flames. This drastically decreases the cost of creating True Flames, lowering the exertion of will required by distributing it to the emotional costs of the Heat. (+++++ Incandescence.)
[ ] Ignition: Fuel (3 Arche) – For the sake of power, what are you willing to burn? Increase the energy output of your Ignition by absorbing latent energy in your surroundings. Make things around you slightly chillier. At high levels of absorption, move from Absolute Heat to Absolute Zero within seconds. Care not to overuse this power, lest you draw too deeply. (+++++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Homeward Hearth (Conjunctional Advancement with Pyre) – Pull from the raging bonfire within your Soul Orb, siphoning excess energy and increasing the level of your Combustion by one level. (Currently, upgrade level from Calamitous to Cataclysmic)
[/] Corona: Prominence – This skill tree focuses on techniques around the Theme of Prominence, the star of legendry and the dream of greatness. (+++++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Gaze At The Stars (3 Arche) – Express the full glory of your Corona, leaving minds insensate and hearts ablaze. You are the light that burns above, radiant and aloof. Achieve a supernal, haunting performance, which in conjunction with your Plenary Brand inclines allies to defer to you and enemies to love you. (+++++++++++ Charisma. Scales with Incandescence.)
- [ ] The Comet of Legend (12 Arche) - …what's this?
Attach your full radiance to a meta-diegetic transfinite matrix, and bend causality before the weight of your accumulated legend. Force open a path to Accretion, a magic system based around the integration of shared experience between wielder and object. Start at a Rank of 14. A little low for what's expected of a Cursebearer on their fourth Geas, but that's what you get for focusing on theme over versatility!
[/] Corona: Quiescence – This skill tree focuses on techniques around the Theme of Quiescence, heaven's dormancy, the function of the everyday and the preservation of the prosaic. (+++++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Scorn of the Morning – The effortless effulgence of the dawn star, the callousness to break into the small hours of the world asleep. Negate all enemy bonuses from ambushes, secret weapons, and critical strikes. (++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Scorn of the Evening – The enduring faintness of light's last gasp. The moment before rest, the period of the sun's final brilliance, patience unrelinquished. Negate all enemy bonuses to damage over time effects, attrition effects, and temporal spells. (++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Scorn of Noon – The zenith, the apex of one's ascent. Before this oppressive radiance, there is but one rejoinder: submit. Negate all attempts at mental, spiritual, metaphysical, and ontological subversion. The Noon cannot be swayed. (++ Incandescence.)
[ ] Corona: Transcience: This skill tree focuses on techniques around the Theme of Transcience, and the fleeting nature of a ray of light.
[/] Heat: Haze – Observe. Conjecture. Iterate. Derive. Solve. Offload your analytical and computational functions into the Heat, converting the impulses of neurons into the oscillations of hypercharged particles. Compartmentalized into a separate brainstate, it functions like a supercomputer with your exact interests with your exact interpretation in mind. Add your Incandescence stat to your Wits, Intelligence, and Wisdom stat. (+++++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Identity Blaze – Allow it to develop a separate consciousness, splitting off from the analytical functions and staying instead within a compartment of your consciousness-space. (+???)
- [ ] Casting Privileges – Instead of executing the internal steps of the plans created by your Haze manually, allow it to take over these steps for you, freeing up time for more valuable things. (+???, ++++++++++ Intelligence.)
- [ ] Emotion-Like (Conjunctional Advancement with Pyre.) – Partially mitigate the Brand of the Wretched by 10%. Create a separate portion of your Haze dedicated to absorbing a good amount of the dislike created by the Brand. May have unknown consequences.
- [ ] The Heart of A Poet (3 Arche) – Develop a creative spark within the depths of your Haze, massively improving the quality and effectivity of each solution by 30%. (+???)
[/] Heat: Sight – Sink your eyes into the corpus of your inner Heat, and use it to see for you. Observe the eddies and swirls of ambient magic by projecting your Heat outwards, thermal sense forming a more accurate picture than the often unreliable conduits that are the optic nerves. This sight can see farther, more accurately, more clearly, and in much more fine detail than your old eyes do. Range and quality scale with Incandescence. (+++++ Incandescence, ++++ Wits.)
- [ ] The First Fist is Sight (21 Arche) (Conjunctional Advancement with Corona) – Gain the ability to project your Heat Martial Arts through your Sight, effectively extending the range of your fist to however far you can see. This effectively occurs by conceptualizing [Catching Them In Your Vision] as the first step to the kata, instead of your Ready Stance. Mildly disappoints Sensei Rankyaku, if he ever learns of it. (+++++ Incandescence, ++++++++ Might.)
[ ] Heat Martial Art: Volcano Fist – The only remaining Advanced Stance you haven't learned! Conduct a fiery hot assault by diving into the depths of your passion, and strike with the force of a pyroclastic surge! Scales with Incandescence. (+++ Incandescence.)
[ ] Pyre: Warmth - The flame of comfort and peaceful repose. Accelerate regeneration of yourself and those within your Pyre by 40000%. (This mechanical bonus scales higher the less Pyrelords there are. You may be the last of your Pyre, but it has its spiritual brothers. Kill them and add them to the flame.)
[ ] Pyre: Forge and Homestead – The flame of productivity and civilization. Hasten societal progress and overall labor for those within your Pyre by 40000%. (As with Pyre: Warmth, this mechanical bonus scales higher the less Pyrelords there are. You may be the last of your Pyre, but it has its spiritual brothers. Kill them and add them to the flame.)
[ ] Pyre: Wild Light (3 Arche) – Create a memetic virus of yourself as the Promethean archetype for adequately compatible civilizations you encounter (yes, this includes the civilization in your Soul Orb). Swiftly become the centerpiece of that civilization's pantheon, and enjoy the full benefits of being treated as a god. Attain a mastery of that civilization's current tech level, and a rudimentary understanding of how to uplift them into a global spacefaring civilization. Very rarely, works on advanced civilizations, depending on certain characteristics.
What will our unnamed Cursebearer do while stuck in this moment of time?
[ ] Sleep – Just, sleep. Rest, relax, and dream. Initiates a Dream Sequence, so beware. Removes all wound penalties. No benefits to the civilization within your Soul Orb.
[ ] Light Practice – Train lightly, and generate plans using the Heat Haze. Gain increased mastery over the Pyre, and as such earn 2 more picks for the buildvote above. Ancillary benefits to the civilization within your Soul Orb, as the strengthened Pyre mildly increases their quality of life. Remove all wound penalties, except for the Everdark Frostbite you attained back in the Undercold.
[ ] Heavy Training – Train heavily, exerting every ounce of willpower while inside this frozen moment. Earn 4 more picks for the buildvote above, and massively increase the quality of life for all within your Soul Orb. Wound penalties are unaffected.
[ ] Force A Way Out – You don't know what will happen if you try this. [+???]
A crash, a leap, a bleeding skyline in passing. The brass walls of the Timekeeper's Citadel were sheared in twain, magical defenses crumpling before the supernal might of his Incandescence. The Cursebearer moved in with urgency, stepping over the broken pieces of the Hourglass Guard, noting how their once potent armors lost all energy after the core was shattered. Useful information, to be stored for later.
His selection of entrance was auspicious, right through the hallway leading up to the Throne Room. He knew he was near to his final objective, bringing him closer to the crushing pressure of the center. A rumble, from behind him. A burgeoning pressure, approaching without heed.
Instinctively, he knew that if he were to be hit, he would die. His energies depleted, locked into endless regression until nothing was left.
Luckily, it was trivial to dodge. High agility does wonders for one's survival chances. Pivot on the right foot to face the foe. A minimal movement to the right, a duck, and a surging lunge forward. Grab the first Clockwork Knight by the collar, splay fingers like so, extend your elbow like so. Pull, headbutt, punch with offhand. The mental diagram in his head assembling with practiced ease. Chamber, hammer, barrel, bullet. A platoon of Clockwork Knights, at least 13 or 14, behind the first. They would be knocked back by the bowshock of his assault.
He pulled the trigger.
From the Cursebearer's hand bloomed a carbonizing blaze, unremitting and white hot. The union of his magics—Ignition, Corona, Heat, Pyre—formed a basic attack of pure fire. Conceptually unassailable, metaphysically voracious, spiritually unremitting, physically supernal. Runic seals inscribed themselves onto the air behind him, rotating furiously with arcane might. Fire poured out relentlessly from him, igniting the air and fusing the boots of soldiers to the ground.
Blasts of exotic energy came from the knights, filling the air with an emerald light. These were of the same kind as before, dangerous and unforgiving. His autonomic defenses kicked in. A shell of bright white light around his form, his Corona—and leaning into it, his Pyre. They compounded on one another, the restorative nature of the Pyre rendering the shell of his Corona essentially inviolate to the assault of energy.
The energy bolts collided with the shield, and dissipated.
He took the time to examine the armor of these Knights. These ones were different—oddly resilient, none of them dead after the first wave. A royal guard of sorts, perhaps. Fire surged forth to meet the knight still in his hand.
It burned through the first layer of plate armor, the second, the third, all the way through the first cardinality of armor layers. But for some reason, it wasn't enough. There was resistance, some mitigating characteristic that provided supernatural resilience to even his unusual magic.
He closed his physical eyes, and peered at the world through his Heatsight. With a gaze, he transfixed the foe directly before him, and examined closely. Now, he would know why they were special.
--
It appeared that the armor was temporally dispersed, distributed throughout the span of a million million years and regenerating faster than he could burn through it. Burning through that infinite series of layers would only truly destroy the armor for this instant in time, but the moment time moved forward, the damage would be ablated away without so much as a scratch left behind.
This put them three or four tiers of power above even the strongest knight he had faced.
He paused for a millisecond.
The Cursebearer iterated through solutions, leaning into his mental interface with the conceptual quickness his Heat Haze granted. Prune the complications of reality, formulate abstract plans. Discard a thousand ineffective plans, generate a new million based off the findings, repeat. Add complexity, the variables inherent to the material plane. Formulate. Discard. Repeat.
He could burn brighter, and force it to expend its selfhood to preserve ontological integrity-- but it would take too long. Especially with the legion of other Clockwork Knights behind it—by the time he was finished with all of them, his Geas target will have escaped already.
He could spread out his fire throughout the conceptual timeline-- but there was no guarantee that the flames would be strong enough to go through the first layer of armor, let alone the full infinity. It was uncertain, and risked overextension.
He could try and cauterize the metaphysical links between the armor in this instant and the rest of the timeline—his powerset was exceptionally well suited to it, the chance of success was high, and risks were minimal. Okay.
Immediately the internal magical components began arranging themselves to suit his desired outcome.
Rapidfire questions assaulted him in piecewise fashion—Was this possible? Yes. What systems would be needed? All of them. Which parts? The might of the Ignition, the offensive potency of the Heat, the esoteric parameters of the Corona, and the resolve of the Pyre. How best to use them?
The Haze hitched, an imperceptible lapse in the stream of information as it turned its full attention to the generation of a solution at the local maxima of efficiency in its neighborhood of possibility-space.
It answered, generating a list of 28,201 internal steps.
The millisecond ended, and he began casting.
--
In accordance with the 28,199thth step, he bent low and picked up a knight's sword as it fell from nerveless hands. The 28,200th step, releasing a pyroclastic burst from a finger he outstretched 40 steps ago, pointed at another fallen knight crawling away from him. Cauterize, he willed, and the armor was shattered.
The final step—he loomed over the fallen knight menacingly and brought down the sword. A head of bloodstained brown hair separated from the body, turned upwards, lifeless blue eyes staring directly into his.
His palm glowed for a brief moment, Harvesting Pyre collecting power greedily from their fallen bodies. There was a legacy in a few of them… a destiny for something greater. This last one… was the captain, it seemed. A younger brother, memories of an Earth?
Sorry kid, the Cursebearer thought, and crushed that potential into more power for later Progression. Maybe next time.
Shaking his head free of thoughts, he clambered through the shattered hallway until it opened into the wider throne room.
--
Golden light spilled into the throne room through large, open windows. A complex of engines and machinery lined the walls, a steampunk's dream dappled in the hue of an impressionist's mind. A carpet of royal velvet stretching out from the hallway to a large, brass throne. There, framed in filigreed steel pillars and beneath the slow, laborious rotation of a pendulum sat the Clockwork King.
The edict of his Geas rung in his mind, seared by Accursed design.
Eliminate the Clockwork King beyond all possibility of recovery within 200 years.
A lance of fire formed in his hand, fingers gripping the shape-half formed.
"May I have the name of the man who is to be my executioner?" came the voice, weary and low.
The Cursebearer did not reply, and in that same instant loosed the lance from his hands, a jagged thunderbolt as his scathing rejoinder.
He had seen the litany of atrocities committed at the behest of this king, the countless continents scoured of all resource and energy. This was the kind of man that ought not be given the slightest sliver of a chance.
The king held up a hand, and the pendulum stopped. The lance too, suspended moments before impact, a bullet paralyzed by power. It was as if the climax from a book had been ripped out, and framed for all to see.
"A moment, please."
The Cursebearer, with an enormous exertion of will, flared the presence of his Soul Orb. An entire civilization, souls and sentience and magic, half materializing in this semi-reality. He had prepared for a time-stop move, especially in a place called "The Timekeeper's Citadel."
Just projecting an additional soul drastically increased the upkeep of a single time-deceleration spell, let alone an entire civilizations' worth.
He took no pleasure in watching the mana drain rip out the life of the Clockwork King, and dispelled the fraying fabric of the magic's matrix.
Briskly, he brought forth the sword of the fallen knight captain, and plunged it through the heart of the king. Then with a second thought, incinerated the body too. The Harvesting Pyre would take care of the rest. He waited.
And waited, and waited…
And then he realized, the spell was still ongoing.
--
Magnificent triumph! Gain 8 picks for Advancements. However, it seems like the king got his last laugh after all and has suspended our hero in the same moment of time forever! Luckily, you'll only have to remain within the spell for the remainder of your Geas time (84 years). For the sake of keeping post length within reasonability, I have elided the completed skill trees of Ignition, Ignition Drive I and II, and pruned all the rest.
You currently have 23 Arche.
[ ] Ignition Drive III: Combustion VII (8 picks) – The moment between nothingness and flame. Induce combustion in an object through an exertion of will. Repeatable, but costs 1 more pick each time. Each additional pick exponentially increases the scope, versatility, and strength of this combustion, as well as exponentially decreasing the cost in willpower. Distribute picks equal to the pick-cost of this option to the suboptions below. Current level is Calamitous. (++++++++++++++++ Willpower, ++++++++ Incandescence)
- [ ] Pyrolysis V – The thermal decomposition of all things. By internalizing one's Ignition at a molecular level, massively increase control and versatility of Combustion. (+++++ Incandescence)
- - [ ] Nuclear IV - Go atomic. Sever the bonds beneath and set the world alight. Attain mastery of nuclear fusion and fission.
- - [ ] Exotic I (Conjuctional Advancement with Pyre) – New particles, new powers. Currently, you have discovered a way to generate Color-glass condensate with trivial expenditure and exertion. (++++++++++++ Constitution.)
- - - [/] New Flame, Old Flame (Conjuctional Advancement with Pyre) – Discover how to generate the flames of your Pyre with slight expenditure and exertion. Add to the total bonfire, increase the total pool of power of Pyre by one's Incandescence.
- [ ] Engine VI – Harness the might of the Ignition Drive by channeling its fury into one's body. Replace the outmoded and inefficient mitochondrial matrices of your body with a Combustion Weave of your own, drastically increasing kinetic output and speed. (+++++++++++++++++++ Might, +++++++++++++++++++++++ Agility.)
- - [ ] Exothermic III – Control the amount of energy released into the surroundings, either reining it in for maximum efficiency or amplifying it to deal massive amounts of radiant damage. (+Wits, +Int., +++++++ Incandescence.)
- - [ ] Endothermic III – Control the amount of energy release into the body, increasing combustion density and channeling the full force of one's Ignition behind each movement. Increase the value of all stats from Engine by 30%, and develop an autonomic defense system that scales with one's Incandescence. (+++ Incandescence.)
- - - [/] Ignition Flare (Conjuctional Advancement with Corona) – Conceptually treat your Corona as part of the body, allowing you to levy the full force of your Ignition through the more esoteric axis of the Corona.
- [/] Blazing Bright (Conjunctional Advancement with Heat) – Discover an avenue by which the generation of adequate emotional conditions to use the offensive might of Heat by exploiting a loophole in the Ignition Drive. Massively increases the potency, versatility, and ease-of-use for all Heat-related abilities.
- - [ ] Blaze Force II (Conjunctional Advancement with Heat) – Instead of creating ordinary fire through your Ignition, create True Flames. This drastically decreases the cost of creating True Flames, lowering the exertion of will required by distributing it to the emotional costs of the Heat. (+++++ Incandescence.)
[ ] Ignition: Fuel (3 Arche) – For the sake of power, what are you willing to burn? Increase the energy output of your Ignition by absorbing latent energy in your surroundings. Make things around you slightly chillier. At high levels of absorption, move from Absolute Heat to Absolute Zero within seconds. Care not to overuse this power, lest you draw too deeply. (+++++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Homeward Hearth (Conjunctional Advancement with Pyre) – Pull from the raging bonfire within your Soul Orb, siphoning excess energy and increasing the level of your Combustion by one level. (Currently, upgrade level from Calamitous to Cataclysmic)
[/] Corona: Prominence – This skill tree focuses on techniques around the Theme of Prominence, the star of legendry and the dream of greatness. (+++++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Gaze At The Stars (3 Arche) – Express the full glory of your Corona, leaving minds insensate and hearts ablaze. You are the light that burns above, radiant and aloof. Achieve a supernal, haunting performance, which in conjunction with your Plenary Brand inclines allies to defer to you and enemies to love you. (+++++++++++ Charisma. Scales with Incandescence.)
- [ ] The Comet of Legend (12 Arche) - …what's this?
Attach your full radiance to a meta-diegetic transfinite matrix, and bend causality before the weight of your accumulated legend. Force open a path to Accretion, a magic system based around the integration of shared experience between wielder and object. Start at a Rank of 14. A little low for what's expected of a Cursebearer on their fourth Geas, but that's what you get for focusing on theme over versatility!
[/] Corona: Quiescence – This skill tree focuses on techniques around the Theme of Quiescence, heaven's dormancy, the function of the everyday and the preservation of the prosaic. (+++++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Scorn of the Morning – The effortless effulgence of the dawn star, the callousness to break into the small hours of the world asleep. Negate all enemy bonuses from ambushes, secret weapons, and critical strikes. (++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Scorn of the Evening – The enduring faintness of light's last gasp. The moment before rest, the period of the sun's final brilliance, patience unrelinquished. Negate all enemy bonuses to damage over time effects, attrition effects, and temporal spells. (++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Scorn of Noon – The zenith, the apex of one's ascent. Before this oppressive radiance, there is but one rejoinder: submit. Negate all attempts at mental, spiritual, metaphysical, and ontological subversion. The Noon cannot be swayed. (++ Incandescence.)
[ ] Corona: Transcience: This skill tree focuses on techniques around the Theme of Transcience, and the fleeting nature of a ray of light.
[/] Heat: Haze – Observe. Conjecture. Iterate. Derive. Solve. Offload your analytical and computational functions into the Heat, converting the impulses of neurons into the oscillations of hypercharged particles. Compartmentalized into a separate brainstate, it functions like a supercomputer with your exact interests with your exact interpretation in mind. Add your Incandescence stat to your Wits, Intelligence, and Wisdom stat. (+++++ Incandescence.)
- [ ] Identity Blaze – Allow it to develop a separate consciousness, splitting off from the analytical functions and staying instead within a compartment of your consciousness-space. (+???)
- [ ] Casting Privileges – Instead of executing the internal steps of the plans created by your Haze manually, allow it to take over these steps for you, freeing up time for more valuable things. (+???, ++++++++++ Intelligence.)
- [ ] Emotion-Like (Conjunctional Advancement with Pyre.) – Partially mitigate the Brand of the Wretched by 10%. Create a separate portion of your Haze dedicated to absorbing a good amount of the dislike created by the Brand. May have unknown consequences.
- [ ] The Heart of A Poet (3 Arche) – Develop a creative spark within the depths of your Haze, massively improving the quality and effectivity of each solution by 30%. (+???)
[/] Heat: Sight – Sink your eyes into the corpus of your inner Heat, and use it to see for you. Observe the eddies and swirls of ambient magic by projecting your Heat outwards, thermal sense forming a more accurate picture than the often unreliable conduits that are the optic nerves. This sight can see farther, more accurately, more clearly, and in much more fine detail than your old eyes do. Range and quality scale with Incandescence. (+++++ Incandescence, ++++ Wits.)
- [ ] The First Fist is Sight (21 Arche) (Conjunctional Advancement with Corona) – Gain the ability to project your Heat Martial Arts through your Sight, effectively extending the range of your fist to however far you can see. This effectively occurs by conceptualizing [Catching Them In Your Vision] as the first step to the kata, instead of your Ready Stance. Mildly disappoints Sensei Rankyaku, if he ever learns of it. (+++++ Incandescence, ++++++++ Might.)
[ ] Heat Martial Art: Volcano Fist – The only remaining Advanced Stance you haven't learned! Conduct a fiery hot assault by diving into the depths of your passion, and strike with the force of a pyroclastic surge! Scales with Incandescence. (+++ Incandescence.)
[ ] Pyre: Warmth - The flame of comfort and peaceful repose. Accelerate regeneration of yourself and those within your Pyre by 40000%. (This mechanical bonus scales higher the less Pyrelords there are. You may be the last of your Pyre, but it has its spiritual brothers. Kill them and add them to the flame.)
[ ] Pyre: Forge and Homestead – The flame of productivity and civilization. Hasten societal progress and overall labor for those within your Pyre by 40000%. (As with Pyre: Warmth, this mechanical bonus scales higher the less Pyrelords there are. You may be the last of your Pyre, but it has its spiritual brothers. Kill them and add them to the flame.)
[ ] Pyre: Wild Light (3 Arche) – Create a memetic virus of yourself as the Promethean archetype for adequately compatible civilizations you encounter (yes, this includes the civilization in your Soul Orb). Swiftly become the centerpiece of that civilization's pantheon, and enjoy the full benefits of being treated as a god. Attain a mastery of that civilization's current tech level, and a rudimentary understanding of how to uplift them into a global spacefaring civilization. Very rarely, works on advanced civilizations, depending on certain characteristics.
What will our unnamed Cursebearer do while stuck in this moment of time?
[ ] Sleep – Just, sleep. Rest, relax, and dream. Initiates a Dream Sequence, so beware. Removes all wound penalties. No benefits to the civilization within your Soul Orb.
[ ] Light Practice – Train lightly, and generate plans using the Heat Haze. Gain increased mastery over the Pyre, and as such earn 2 more picks for the buildvote above. Ancillary benefits to the civilization within your Soul Orb, as the strengthened Pyre mildly increases their quality of life. Remove all wound penalties, except for the Everdark Frostbite you attained back in the Undercold.
[ ] Heavy Training – Train heavily, exerting every ounce of willpower while inside this frozen moment. Earn 4 more picks for the buildvote above, and massively increase the quality of life for all within your Soul Orb. Wound penalties are unaffected.
[ ] Force A Way Out – You don't know what will happen if you try this. [+???]
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SAVE GANG, you dissapoint me. For the people that want to vote stealth build, remember the first rule of stealth. No one will notice if there's no one to notice. If Hunger kills everyone, he can hum the mission impossible theme and enter the Inner Temple unseen. Q.E.D
DkArthas
CAPITAL IS TO BLAME
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- They
Once we start interacting with the three big human polities, we will no longer have the power to do whatever we want, or even kill proper targets to sate Decimators Curse without getting potentially fucked over by the Armaments.
That's where Shadowlord comes in, it gives us the ability to do those things without getting the Armaments sent after us. It opens up an lot of options that we otherwise wouldn't have. Like shanking some high ranking enemy we made because of Tyrant's Doom that we couldn't kill openly, getting access to classified information, stealing some artifact etc.
That's where Shadowlord comes in, it gives us the ability to do those things without getting the Armaments sent after us. It opens up an lot of options that we otherwise wouldn't have. Like shanking some high ranking enemy we made because of Tyrant's Doom that we couldn't kill openly, getting access to classified information, stealing some artifact etc.
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OK, if people are set on spending Arete, then I want to get my money's worth. The advancement fits together extremely well with Hunger's other abilities, so while it isn't an EFB, it's a significant enough improvement both in combat capability and in utility for me to accept the cost. Sometimes we won't have the power to overcome our foes directly, and in those cases having stealth capabilities and being better at running away can open up new options or even save Hunger's life.
[X] +1 pick below
[X] Evening Sky: Shadowlord
[X] +1 pick below
[X] Evening Sky: Shadowlord
- Location
- Philippines
[/] Pyre: Warmth
[/] Pyre: Forge and Homestead
[/] Pyre: Wild Light
[/] Force A Way Out
HERE STANDS A MAN BOTH KING AND HERO. Get the ffffffuck outta here with yer uncaring universe. Zang Kong ain't shit in front of Nameless Cursebearer.
Talace
It must be raining somewhere else!
I think a very short fanwork where the reaction to each joke is "haha" and the reaction to each fight scene is "ooo" would be hilarious. I would do it myself, but now that I think about actually doing it, it feels kind of mean, for some reason.
Welp, I suppose I got a little obsessed with posting something and relaxed my standards a bit too far. Let me just take this away for a bit.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
My assumption is he gets ++ them either way, we just don't know about them until the stats are named.
Talace
It must be raining somewhere else!
NO WAIT I WAS BEING HYPERBOLIC I WASNT REFERRING TO YOUR POST AAA
I didn't see it that way! Then again, my recollection on WoR is fuzzy, so I'll just have to comb through Rihaku's posts again for confirmation!
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
At least here I don't believe Rihaku has said either way. His only statement on the matter was ++ stats covers at least *Gives list*. Not that it only covers that list.
Presumably he actually has a complete list of everything himself.
But then why would he only list those specific stats and exclude Stealth and Theft despite them having been mentioned earlier in the game? Plus explicitly noting that we don't get an addition to stats we lack.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
I do not remember this. Quote please?
- Location
- Pindorama
I'm sure Uttermost didn't add anything to Stealth and Theft; the question is whether it would do so now that it's unlocked or the opportunity was missed.
I thought you were talking about this quote since you mentioned a list:
Edit: ninjas everywhere. You know what this means? Hunger needs better stealth!
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
I was. I apparently completely forgot about the second part. Hmmm, that does change the valuation, doesn't it.
[X] +1 pick below
[X] Evening Sky: Shadowlord
...That adjusts it from 55/45 to 45/55 in shadowlord's favor, then.
I would like us to get Pillars within the next IG month, though, if at all possible. I really don't want to face long-term stagnation, and I can think of so many ways to abuse it. Just so many ways.
Still find it hilarious how we could add Cha to Stealth with Shadowlord and Vigor Incarnate.
Talace
It must be raining somewhere else!
It's simple, really.
GUARD: Stop right there!
HUNGER: *face sparkles*
GUARD: Compelling point.
Lealope
Not yet invincible
- Pronouns
- She/Her
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
We get Pillars faster by picking something other then Shadowlord though.
We also have to remember that Shadowlord costs us an Apocryphal-free day, for very little gain. At this point a Prime Rotspawn will only be worth one pick or so, is that an ok thing to get for an entire Apocryphal free day? When we're going into the Inner Temple soon?
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
No, we can't. It only applies Protection from Evening Sky to Vigor Incarnate, and the Cha added to protection wouldn't be from Evening Sky.
If stealth works out we can literally clear the Inner temple in a day, is the thing.
And we only get Pillars faster if people are willing to save to it, which I am currently questioning the likelihood as long as we're stuck in the Temple.
I suspect once we get stuck with having to go entire days without picks people will be much happier to get Pillars of Creation.
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