- Location
- Brazil
I'm starting to become convinced that the self-defeating stance has transcended being a joke and is inflicting it's power in the voter-base.
It would... explain a lot, really.
A Simple Transaction I
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
- Original
It would... explain a lot, really.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
They do not. We currently have no picks.
Not the Vermilion Legion? For shame. Anyway, I guess the title refers to blood advancements, perhaps even the name of our future army? That'd make Letrizia the first soldier, which is a bit strange. Hopefully the rug hasn't been pulled out from under House Artriez back in the Empire. Gisena's comment about not having run into retrieval teams reads as prophetic. Charitably, that can be chalked up to issues navigating the Voyaging Realm; realistically, the world is out to get us. Anyway, the title makes me regret not taking Ennobling, but presumably that's not a one-off since the ability to uplift baseline humans into Númenóreans was called out as a benefit of the Ring.
Gracefully's an amusing adjective, once Gisena's transformation is permament it'll apply to everything she does in one sense. Anyway, what ludicrous luxury, it's clear why this place cost us eighty percent of our cash. I like how the Kaguya's owners come from a technological civilization but choose to heat the room with Elixir-steam, really sells the impression of absurd indulgence.
What clientele do they even cater to? Exiled Imperial nobles who hitched a ride with the Sovereignty for whatever reason? If Surgecrafters are appropriately compensated for their services they ought to be able to afford this, but in their shoes I might not want to whet the kids' appetite for hedonism. That's how you go from the Elixir Sovereignty to the Shadowcord Shogunate.
Because he plucked it himself? Interesting, is this a metaphysical effect of the Ring, food literally tasting better because of the effort invested in its acquisition? That'd be within the Ring's initial themes and help explain the King Fish's deliciousness.
Good question! In this case the money was just burning a hole in
Poe's Law in action, I can't tell if Hunger's doubling down on the joke or totally serious! The charisma's been a good investment, though contemplating the numbers is an unpleasant reminder that we're sitting at -15% mental & -20% social attributes for month from Punctured Soul, unless the duration's halved as well. We came here to ditch the debuffs, not exchange them for a new one!
Huh, did we just win a round of social combat with Gisena? 'Moving on' isn't quite an admission of defeat, but she seems uncomfortable. I've noticed this tendency before, the way she just breezes past any barbs that draw blood and changes the subject. Similar to her approach to life, come to think of it...
Solid literature (as though Letrizia'd read any other kind!) requires studies, which require systematic experimentation, which trips the Voyaging Realm's protections. I get the sense that if you're trying to poke at the parameters of this thing, you're doing it wrong and should stop before it stops you. But on an individual level, it's not going to object to awakening magic or leaving with your loot.
I know, right? You'd need someone with a doctorate in eschatology or something! Apocalypse was tricky to play given his broad capabilities (one reason I favored the focused and fluffy Accretion approach), it'd be fun to run into him again at some point... though the Doom might doom us to being on opposite sides.
You don't need to be as sharp as our companions to see that Hunger's growth curve is more like a growth cliff. The value of his services has steadily increased too; how do you put a price on magic? But that's not Letrizia's concern, she's happy enough as long the Empire's footing the bill. We've had a few hints that House Artriez isn't that much more solvent than Hunger. Other troubles as well, if the Emperor thought he could wrest control of an Armament from them to set a precedent. It'll be interesting to see how that situation has evolved when we finally hit Spherical space.
I'm a little sceptical of this argument, in the Sovereignty's shoes I'd be worried about Letrizia reminding the Empire they exist. The Sovereignty's Prototypes are falling apart, their civilization's besieged, their very survival is at stake. All it would take is greed outweighing good sense in one person in charge. Letrizia's isolated, her Armament's weakened... if there are no surviving witnesses, who's to say what actually happened? She may be putting too much faith in her station. Political power's nice, but personal power's the only kind that can truly be relied upon. Hunger's backstory has taught him as much.
If Gisena corroborates her assessment, then I guess it's fine. Not everybody can be willing to assume as much risk as Hunger. Anyway, if you squint, Edeldross is the reified privilege of nobility! Hunger's Surge was determined by his relationships and all three of the people listed are nobles. Even death provides no escape from the aristocrats.
Is this what passes for 'trying to be less controlled' or are Hunger's increased attributes and greater familiarity with Gisena's foibles letting him cut through the façade? Part of me wonders if this is manipulation, but mistrusting Gisena at this juncture's foolish, and it's so slight a lapse it's almost certainly genuine. It does make me like her more, to see that she's not as untouched by her circumstances as she pretends. Gisena's got a justifiable grievance with the Maiden.
If we unlock the now-discounted True Quintessence, maybe we can remove whatever restrictions she imposed? The Foremost used findross, so that advancement doesn't lack synergy with our current world. Just think of the possibilities! Creating our version of the Duty to help with conquest, qualitative intellectual augmentation from Mental Apex, etc.
It's pretty straightforward, could easily be the result of chance. On the other hand, proximity to the Temple and an awakening process that's amplified by the phases of the moon makes me suspicious. I can see how a society built around Surgecraft might incorporate the procedure into religious rituals, some combination of baptism and bar mitzvah where teenagers are immersed in the Elixir beneath the light of a full moon. Probably with ceremonial chanting, because why not?
Has she been slowly nullifying our resistance to the nickname? It doesn't even bug me as much anymore, I have to reach for the irritation. Incident Nullification, what an insidious power. Not even the fourth wall guarantees protection.
D'aww, another headpat. Not required, but it does freeze Letrizia like a deer in the headlights. Who knows, maybe causing the capillaries to widen and bring blood closer to the surface helps with the procedure? That's my headcanon and I'm sticking to it.
I wonder how many currency-units per second this is draining? Eh, the Kaguya's ritzy (missed pun opportunity there) enough that they're probably turning a profit anyway. The aquatic antics call to mind another possible pun: with Edeldross, can we literally tell people to drown in our ideals and die? Likely not... but only because it's non-lethal.
Oh good, Hunger's staying on target and not taking the blatant bait by exercising his imagination.
This would be the bonus kicking in, ensuring she gets a 7 Arete Element. Ganbatte, Letrizia, it'll all be over soon! We should see about taking samples from the Elixir Springs, just in case we can replicate the effect later to create a renewable source of Surgecrafters for the eponymous Scarlet Legion. Hopefully Gisena's squirreled some away.
As far as prices to pay for magic go, a long, hot bath is nothing. Just think of the gauntlet of misery Arthur ran (or was forced through) to make him Conjoin with the Strategist!
It's not like just anyone can create Surgecrafters given access to Elixir water, so they shouldn't jump straight from high consumption to us stealing state secrets.
With Edeldross we can just render them unconscious, which is handy. Indirect Tyrant mitigation's always useful, though honestly I'd rather have had Inksky. This is an interesting insight into the chain of logic underpinning the Doom, though. Hunger values agreements highly and if he perceives the proprietors as trying to renege on theirs, he won't go along with it. That in and of itself doesn't necessitate violence, he can just refuse to stop with all his considerable charisma. A lot of people would write it off as not worth the trouble, when confronted with a line in the sand. Calling security's where things get hairy. Caveat venditor, in a reversal of the usual saying.
And so we continue our unbroken streak of seeing absolutely no trouble from the Doom of the Tyrant. Yay? It's going to hurt when this breaks.
What, the wholesale incineration of value in the form of wasting so much water isn't appealing? Nameless' Extrusion would've enjoyed such a bath!
What a useful Grace, Gisena could make a mint optimizing the awakening process. The information about the phases of the moon would be valuable (though coming from the Temple, it makes me squint suspiciously) and the springs peaking in five years lets the Sovereignty plan ahead. They probably have some data, they're from a tech-based civilization and not strangers to the scientific method, but if we're staying and training anyway Gisena could recoup the cost of our stay at the resort.
If we had Bloodwraith, I bet the procedure would've worked even while incorporeal! With all these relationship pluses we're racking up, Hunger can afford to do a little casting from familiarity.
Not even a synergistic boost to her powers of nullification? You'd think it would increase the scale she can operate on at the very least, interstellar nullity'd make her a civilization-ending threat for anyone reliant on magic. If they're going to put the Elixir Sovereignty in the rearview mirror and they're not bottlenecked on spring water, why not awaken her Element anyway? Get their money's worth from this extravagant resort, it's still a scam even if you come up with it after the fact! ...advocating for luxury and deception, someone should check the containment on Nameless, he might be leaking.
Forge an artifact? Is that... something Hunger can do? Abduction's the art of stealing pieces of another's panoply; the existence of the opposite practice is only logical. Could call it Contribution or something similar, the Evening Gown might've been a partial example.
Taking Bloodmight and buffing her right after she expressed concerns about scaling may have given Gisena an inflated opinion of Hunger's ability to pull powerups out of his ass. As far as working extra hard, I'll note that Sublime Attainment hasn't kicked in yet, so presumably she'll clear whatever bar he sets.
This, right here, is the best possible argument for Sleep of the Just. If you've read Mother of Learning, you know just how much the ability to deny interruptions to one's sleep could save on sanity in the long run. Poor Zorian, suffering through Kirielle's antics at the start of every loop. But the power of Progression is greater any imouto or surrogate daughter! Sleep through it, Cursebearer. Even if it cannot be slept through.
More seriously, I'm interested in that skill tree. We've spent more time out of character than in so far, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Part and parcel of tackling tricky challenges is the need for a high-granularity playstyle, but eventually we're going to hit timeskips and months or years'll start slipping by. That's where things like Slumber of Aeons and Stranglethorn would really show their value as pick-independent passive scaling mechanisms.
We haven't had Might's Repose long enough to see much benefit yet, but the followup enables strategies like entering Fellsleep in enemy territory to weaponize Decimation while saving up our waking hours. It'd be amusing to park our nigh-invulnerable form in some critical location, doubly so if that counts as 'staking out' a position for Stranglethorn purposes. But sleep-banking's useful regardless. How much more would we have gotten done in this Apocryphal-free fortnight with the Praetor buff and no need of rest?
Letrizia's enthusiasm is endearing, no doubt about it. Unlocking Surgecraft's a more empowering experience than conjuring up Vertices, though a practitioner of the latter art'll never want for reading lights again. Wonder how she squares the circle of Hunger not counting as a mage when her Imaginary Element manipulates Pressure?
2046 words for the war chest, hopefully the first breeze of the omakestorm.
...Then can we put a write-in underneath Maximum Greed to flash buy one of these plans if the fight does start to go against us?
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
And Orm begins the gauntlet.
Okay folks, 2k words from everyone! Come on, if you have 30 minutes free to argue here you can get out at least 1k! More if you are wordy!
- Location
- Earth
[X] Fine
[X] Maximum Safety
I'm supposed to be taking a break, but I'll see what I can do about Arete generation. I'll put this vote in for now, and if we're realistically able to tomorrow I'll consider voting to snap-buy Flare.
that said, I am kind of regretting allowing myself to be convinced to switch away from Selune+Silver a bit, it's seeming like it was the true SAVE option now
Edit: also, since non-vote discussion/writing = Arete, would anyone like to tackle a magic system for me if one hasn't been written already? No real preferences, write whatever you actually think I'd have, but I'll always enjoy funny ones!
[X] Maximum Safety
I'm supposed to be taking a break, but I'll see what I can do about Arete generation. I'll put this vote in for now, and if we're realistically able to tomorrow I'll consider voting to snap-buy Flare.
that said, I am kind of regretting allowing myself to be convinced to switch away from Selune+Silver a bit, it's seeming like it was the true SAVE option now
Edit: also, since non-vote discussion/writing = Arete, would anyone like to tackle a magic system for me if one hasn't been written already? No real preferences, write whatever you actually think I'd have, but I'll always enjoy funny ones!
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Rihaku
The Internet
Current vote count?
You can, but it would be unwise. Someone with this much Rank advantage can flatten you in an instant if things go poorly. This is like trying to fight Legolas as a generic orc in terms of relative plot armor.
Don't end up as just another statistic in his contest with Gimli!
You can, but it would be unwise. Someone with this much Rank advantage can flatten you in an instant if things go poorly. This is like trying to fight Legolas as a generic orc in terms of relative plot armor.
Don't end up as just another statistic in his contest with Gimli!
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Having failed to use our Arete to build weapons factories, we must now buy weapons from Rihaku.inc at what one may call... a premium..
- Location
- Brazil
Alright, we got into this mess, and at this point I feel like we need to take a unfortunate path to leave it.
Let's grab the sword trio advancement. More than mage-gang, I'm not-dying-gang, and since Crimson flare is less than ideal even in this fight, I would rather take the advancement trio that has the least amount of odds of us dying horribly.
Let's grab the sword trio advancement. More than mage-gang, I'm not-dying-gang, and since Crimson flare is less than ideal even in this fight, I would rather take the advancement trio that has the least amount of odds of us dying horribly.
- Location
- Pindorama
Maximal safety builds towards two different EFBs though, so It doesn't really bring us closer to three Blade EFbs and Somewhat safe seems to have about equal odds to Flare of winning*. If you want to build towards an EFB we might as well get Flare.
*
Implying it is at least comparable to Somewhat safe.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
It's also notable he has not said it has a death chance. He said:
Which leads me to believe Maximal safety we probably win basically every time. Crimson Flame we might lose, but due to the Blood buffs/Debuff rank we always end up escaping because it outranks him so fucks with his speed sufficiently we can run.
Re: maximal safety,
So that's 7 Arete wasted, from an EFB-seeking perspective. On the other hand, it does let us put off deciding whether we want All- or Foe-Defeating Stance until later.
So that's 7 Arete wasted, from an EFB-seeking perspective. On the other hand, it does let us put off deciding whether we want All- or Foe-Defeating Stance until later.
Rihaku
The Internet
Her Armament isn't in much state to do them any good, however! It's weaker than their top end Armor Prototypes, even...
And he's a noble himself, though minimally willing! And yet if he's to complete his Geas task he will have to elevate himself much further than that, effectively... the titles may change but the powers stay the same.
Well, he did pay the equivalent of two full years of salary for two days, but the spring water is at an extreme premium... it's possible they may have lost money on the exchange considering Letrizia ran the baths for 5 hours and Hunger did the same! Plus all the stuff they ate... what pigs...
It'd be interesting for area denial, though the Apocryphal Curse would make prolonged inactivity unwise, and with stellar tech enemies could just move away!
All-Defeating Stance isn't too far off if you take Somewhat Safe, and it is a pure power type EFB! Could definitely be worth considering in conjunction with something like Once and Future. It may not be pleasant but it'll help you live, and that's almost all Hunger needs in order to grow strong...
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
Can I convince you to reject shadowcord? The small arete bounty is sufficient we can probably get Crimson Flare during the encounter, which is in line with what we want to do anyway, and gives us a good chance in the encounter.
Also, Rihaku, I find it amusing you aren't pushing Once and Future here if we get to 24 arete. It would let us win 100% of the time, would it not? It drags our battle rank up to 6.3, and a .2 difference is nothing at this level with our significantly higher stats.
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- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
sure, honestly I'm a little tired and skimmed past the reward without noticing it
[X] Unacceptable
[X] Maximal Greed
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
[X] Unacceptable
[X] Maximum Safety
Minimalism* (less companions = better) and safety.
How big is SAVEgang anyway?
*Also avoidance of harem syndrome.
[X] Maximum Safety
Minimalism* (less companions = better) and safety.
How big is SAVEgang anyway?
*Also avoidance of harem syndrome.
And that's why I went for Kaguya! Don't hurt the cheaper establishments!
Rihaku
The Internet
Note that even Maximal safety says it minimizes death%.
Is this considered a premium already?!
Is this considered a premium already?!
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
[X] Unacceptable
I am convinced; was leaning this way anyhow.
At least, because I think we need the Arete.
I am convinced; was leaning this way anyhow.
At least, because I think we need the Arete.
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Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Considering that Fairbright was considered a premium at 2 Arete... yes? I think I like more (synergistic) 7 Arete options than 25 Arete options though.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
Well, as I just said that seems to be slightly untrue. Absolutely maximum safety would be reaching 24 arete and buying Once and Future, which would render our current opponent kinda... not a threat? I mean, .2 rank advantage to him with large stat advantages to us... Not much of a fight in the mid levels.
- Location
- Pindorama
Once and Future requires a pick, so we can't do that actually. It's Flare or bust in terms of EFBs.
Rihaku
The Internet
Think what about Once and Future costs and you'll realize why you can't buy it.
You guys may have considered that a premium, that doesn't mean it was accurate in the context of the marketplace!
You guys may have considered that a premium, that doesn't mean it was accurate in the context of the marketplace!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
which isn't the Maximal Safety option, though..