Force of Nature Reaction Post (#2629 Words)
They convened at an Elementalist training grounds the next day, Letrizia alongside her ostensible classmates and Hunger with Gisena. The grounds themselves were no more than a rectangle of densely packed dirt, but there was an almost celebratory air to the proceedings - the high schoolers gawked at the two of them, turning to bombard Letrizia with questions, while Gisena set up a one-person cheer section.
Man, imagine being these kids. You're just living your normal life with magical powers, and suddenly a Duchess from the distant mighty empire shows up, she's about your age, and she's brought her bodyguards, the supernaturally beautiful sorceress and the infamous legendary warrior against whom the Rotspawn are cut down like chaff. And then you get challenged to a tournament involving them. From the perspective of these kids,
we are the anime.
Letrizia temporized, deflecting the interrogation with a mysterious flip of her hair, then began to explain the rules of engagement. There would be one warm-up and one serious match per challenger. At stake was, on part of Hunger, both a considerable sum of money and a substantial amount of time; on the part of the students, a massively smaller sum.
Letrizia is really playing up the "Mysterious foreign noble" huh. Well we know her social is actually pretty good, just not good enough to beat Hunger and Gisena, so she can probably steer the kids pretty easily. It's kinda funny.
Also, those lop-sided bets. Hunger is really trying to get that Actual Stakes bonus to kick in. It turns out to not be enough though.
All involved understood that the main objective was to familiarize Hunger and Letrizia with their Elements; to facilitate this, a bonus payment would be made at the end, amount depending on Hunger and Letrizia's own assessments as to how they performed. Letrizia had assured the children that Hunger would score them generously.
Hm, I wonder why she did that? To make The Reckoner seem less intimidating, or does she assume Hunger is a good person and will pay out generously? That's kinda cute if it's the latter. "Yeah he looks scary but The Reckoner is actually a big softy. Just don't try to tell him what to do."
"Alright, guess I'm up first! Nice to meetya, mister! Heard you killed a lot of Rotspawn yesterday." The first contender was a loud-mouthed redhead by the name of Aobaru, whose Element of Vigorflame could increase the strength of an person or object up to a set point, after which it caused them to explode. He was notable for his iron control over the Element, capable of inducing explosions seemingly without the intermediate step of strengthening his foes.
That's a fun element. With proper control it does both buffing and nuking - very versatile. Is this a 2-Arete equivalent element perhaps?
It's kinda crazy how good Sharpbright and Edeldross are by comparison to the more standard elements. Edeldross does buffing, force projection, and can develop Graces, which can do an absolutely huge variety of things. Sharpbright buffs everything and can be used to permanently increase one's own power. Compare "Physical stat buffs and explosions," and it's clear what the better thing is. I wonder if Fullmight, Shadowcord, and Roilweft are the only 7-Arete equivalent elements the Elixir crew has...
Hunger carefully set aside the Forebear's Blade and walked to the center of their makeshift arena. Aobaru offered him a fist bump which he neglected to return, but gave the boy a nod of acknowledgement.
"Er... okay! Well, you've got a buffing-type Element like me, right? I've got some tips and tricks I could show ya."
"That's right."
"Hm... okay, so if yours is anything like mine, it helps anyone that touches it, which is the main problem. You've got enemies in melee that would love to steal your buffs and equalize."
"Exactly."
"I've got a couple ways around that... but telling you would be boring. Best if I just show ya."
Hunger smirked. "Be my guest."
Ignoring the fist bump Hunger? Do you think you're too cool for fist bumps now?
...He does, doesn't he. I mean, he's not exactly wrong, but that's still rude. Ah, is it the Doom of the Tyrant in action? Hunger has no desire to follow the plebian custom of fist bumps, and will reject the social rules that say they should not be left hanging.
But while he can't stand a fist bump, he's eager to face battle. I think we may have screwed up this character a bit guys, he's too much of a Blood Knight! Which is very appropriate to his non-Evening Sky artifacts now that I think about it...
They retreated to opposite sides of the arena, and the first spar began. Aobaru immediately launched a pillar of Vigorflame at the ground, which bounced up and struck his body: the quantity of Element summoned was no less, but by focusing it into a vertical emission, enemies outside touch range would fail to benefit. Clever.
One of the things I like about this quest is the characters, both Hunger and others, are aware of their capabilities and figure out ways to use them beyond the obvious. Hunger deflecting Vanreir's thrust with the ring, abusing Wraith Form is various ways, and now some minor character who's around for one update is demonstrating clever ways to use an unwieldly force.
Hunger immediately tried the same, even as Aobaru rushed him. The boy was a surprisingly capable warrior but no match for Hunger's speed. He dodged the child's strikes, blasts, and grapple attempts easily as he tried to figure out how to make the pillar technique work. His first attempt had merely sent Edeldross into the ground, hurling himself skyward. Subsequent attempts spilled out into an explosive dome, nothing like the precisely controlled column of energy that Aobaru had manifested.
He frowned. Perhaps the warm-up spars were a mistake. The stakes were so low his Ring was unsatisfied. No power to be gained from such conflicts.
And the downside of the ring Hunger rears its ugly head. Can't get Progression unless there's some kind of danger or potential for loss.
I do wonder what Accretion would be like without this restriction. Could we have "training arcs" where we get picks without getting into a serious fight? That would be interesting to see. Somewhat asynergistic with the Apocryphal Curse throwing interruptions our way all the time - the ring Hunger and Apocryphal Curse really do have some level of synergy. Still, the idea of getting access to power without needing to put ourselves in danger is fascinating.
He fell to a hundredth of his normal speed and finally the boy caught up. They briefly exchanged blows and Hunger allowed the boy to prevail, hopeful it would entice more tricks out of him when they fought the second time.
"Well done. I concede."
Not much point to the fight if he's not getting Progression out of it. I do wonder how he intentionally restricts his speed, it seems like that'd be difficult to manage. I'm not sure how I'd go about trying to move one one-hundreth as fast as I normally do. That sounds really weird.
The boy looked shocked for a moment before an overjoyed expression came across his features. "Holy shit, I won! I beat the Reckoner!"
"The Reckoner?"
"Yeah, the Reckoner of Rotspawn! It's what we've been calling you, Lord Hunger."
With mental reflexes capable of tracing a bullet in mid-flight, Hunger stopped himself from cringing. This... was a good thing. Notoriety could only improve his Astral Rank when he accomplished substantial feats, though he suspected his fight against the lesser Rotspawn did not qualify. "I see. An interesting name."
You literally named yourself Hunger, you have no room to complain! Reckoner is not that much worse! Also this poor kid thinks he won instead of Hunger giving up ahahaha.
"Wo-hoo! Go Lord Reckoner!" Gisena called from the sidelines. From somewhere she'd produced white cloths that she and Letrizia had tied as headbands. His name was written on them in bold red ink. "Good match, have a drink?"
He rolled his eyes and took the proffered water. "It was a tough match, but I'm confident I can come back in the second round."
Aobaru was walking boastfully among his compatriots, fielding them questions with indifferent aplomb. "No big deal, I'm sure he was holding back like, massively..."
Classic Gisena. She's a treat. And "I'm sure he was holding back massively" is such an understatement it's ridiculous.
Things Hunger was not using: 99% of his speed, the Forebears Blade (Including the ROYAL PRAXIS), his pressure, blood manipulation, ect.
"Why'd you throw the match?" Letrizia pouted. "I had good money riding on you, Lord Reckoner!"
"Oh yeah? Is it for the warm-up or the fight itself?'
"Both!" She grumbled.
"I see. Then, if you don't want to lose the rest, I suggest you drop both parts of that title when addressing me in the future."
"H-hmph! Whatever you want. 'S not like I think it's cool or anything..."
"Good." He smiled, took another sip of water and returned to the field.
Letrizia is a cute. I bet she wishes she had a cool title. And Hunger just finds the whole thing embarrassing, which is hilarious.
Before Aobaru returned, Hunger spent a long moment in contemplation. The Ring would disqualify any contest that was insufficiently challenging or lacked real stakes. In that event, he couldn't use his full power, or even one-tenth: the greater his chance of actually losing, the more quickly he would learn. One-fiftieth power ought to give him an edge while still retaining that essential element of risk. If he miscalibrated, so be it. Even this method would likely fail if he repeated it too many times against a given opponent. Luckily there was quite a variety here.
It's hard to make sparring matches worthwhile. I guess that's the benefit of Pillars of Creation if we get it, access to a wide variety of enemies at various levels of power. It's a strange quest when "We need better enemies!" is an actual legitimate concern...
Aobaru walked back from the stands, his cocksure swagger replaced by serious determination. "Alright, let's do this. I've got a month's worth of part-time wages on the line, so don't expect me to go as easy as I did previous."
Hunger nodded, taking a low stance. As Letrizia's arm fell to indicate the match's beginning, Hunger immediately sprang forwards, catching his foe in a grapple before he could fire anything. He then emitted a thunderous blast of edeldross, saturating them both; with his speed and strength much the superior of his enemy's, the absolute difference in parameters merely grew. If Aobaru attempted to summon any of his own Element, Hunger could defeat him with a submission lock fairly trivially. His Ring flared slightly, a steady trickle of power which he fed into his mantle, willing it to increase his proficiency with Edeldross.
Disgusting muscle wizard tactics. I am ashamed. ASHAMED I TELL YOU.
And hey, Hunger can control where the gathered power goes... Interesting. And nice that Evening Sky finally got some love... Hm, Edeldross Adept was a Conjunctional advancement between the ring and Evening Sky, this is how it plays out - using the ring to feed power into the mantle, with the deliberate intent to improve his Edeldross abilities... Well, it succeeded. And now after this he can start acting like a proper mage instead of this muscle wizard BS.
Before Aobaru could tap out, Hunger released him and withdrew to the edge of the arena. That had worked well, but it was a tactic to be kept in pocket against a physically inferior opponent. For general use he needed to master the pillar technique.
"That... was fast..." Aobaru said shakily. "Hm, guess you could beat me at any time, so my only chance is to get a great bonus. Alright, well, I think I see the problem in your technique."
"Oh?" Hunger waited patiently.
"Yeah. Looks like you have a force-based Element. Usually those can be solidified into a semi-inert state. While inert, they'll lose most of their unique properties and act as a generic solid. What you really want to do is form a lip of solidified Element at the bottom and sides of your blast. That way it'll bounce off the earth and hit you instead of seeping in or spreading everywhere. Why don't you give it a shot?"
Trying to visualize how this would work, it's a little tough. You create a solid edge at the bottom and sides, and... Oh! It's like a cylinder without a top! The Element follows the path of least resistance and blows out the top, meaning it's not spreading to the sides! That's how they get the pillar/column of element thing. How does Aobaru get it though, his element can't be made solid. Maybe he's drawing on the conceptual strengthening aspect of his element to strengthen the sides of the manifestation, which causes the path of least resistance to be upwards? Or maybe he's strengthening the air to the sides, which could accomplish the same thing? Magic is fun.
"This isn't fair, you're getting all the instruction bonuses yourself!" Another boy heckled from the sidelines.
Aobaru made what appeared to be a rude gesture in response.
You wouldn't have been able to teach anything anyway unnamed kid, we only have the wordcount for one minor character and Aobaru got it! We need to minimize the number of unnecessary people being introduced!
"I learn best under pressure. Take me out while I'm attempting it."
"Are you sure? I mean, that's-"
"Yes, and don't hold back. Otherwise it won't work as well."
Aobaru leapt forward, streams of fire launching him at radically higher speed. Hunger barely ducked out of the way, forming a frantic shield of edeldross that deflected the boy. Ah. The solidified edeldross that he used to make shields. That was what the kid was talking about. If he produced a thin amount to contain the pure Edeldross, the "pillar" technique was much simpler.
He fired downwards again and was gratified to feel a nearly-vertical column of his Element surrounding him.
Now you're acting more magelike! Deflect that boy, we don't need none of that "melee combat" stuff in here! Also finally progress on buffing self and not others, woot.
Also fun to see the ring learning in action. He didn't understand how to do the technique until after he barely deflected his opponent. It's kind of scary, actually. Imagine not being able to learn things unless it's a high-stakes situation, and then suddenly everything snaps into clarity... I'd prefer a constant Progression thank you very much. Learning faster at some times then others sounds freaky, I like learning things and messing with the rate like that... Yeek. Creepy.
"You've got it. Sheesh, that was fast," Aobaru panted, 'spent' after going all-out. Hunger raised an eyebrow. The kid was a good actor, but had a whiles to go before he could fool Hunger. "Alright, the next level is density control. The pillar technique's good if you want to fire off a blast to buff one of your companions, but for solo buffing you really need to master density. Almost all buffing Elements have greater effects at higher density, so if you can compress an orb of it and hold it in your chest, you should see some noticeably improved effects. The boost will be strongest wherever you hold the orb, but should radiate out to the rest of your body."
Hah this kid trying to out-social Hunger. Letrizia can't do that, and Gisena has to put in effort. Ya never stood a chance.
Now, compression strengthening things... Is this where we get the 45% stat gain technique? Hmm, but Edeldross Adept allows us to get 100% uptime on the normal buffs, how does that play out? Do we just get better at maintaining it?
"How do I compress it in the first place?" He frowned.
"Well, the best way is to just summon it compressed. Takes a few tries but that's the safest to avoid enemy-buffing. You have to summon lots of Element at one time, right?" He called forth a torrent of flame. "But there's nothing saying you can't summon a lot of Element in one space, as long as your fundamental control's good enough."
Aobaru gestured with his open palm, summoned an orb of searing brilliance. "Like this!"
He swiftly launched the orb at Hunger, following up with a spirited charge. Hunger ducked the orb but felt a line of boils form along the exposed side, the flesh bubbling up as if on the verge of eruption. Terrifying.
Ah, now that's clever. One of the weaknesses of Surgecraft is it always comes in large quantities. But there's nothing saying those large quantities have to take up a large amount of space! You can just make it very dense!
Also that hyper-dense Vigorflame sphere is enough to impress Hunger, and actually damage him through his immense constitution. Guess we need more protection at some point, huh? If we had Silver of Evening, we could get huge amounts of protection by paring it with Vigor Incarnate... Too bad about that.
I'm assuming Hunger can't hold back his durability like he can his strength and speed, so that flame sphere was actually hitting 30 Con Hunger for damage. Absolutely insane. Surgecraft does specialize in overwhelming power though...
Hm, it occurs to me that Surgecraft would make a very good starting remittance for a Progression-class Cursebearer. It gets them a lot of raw power and quickly, and the power of Progression can make up for Surgecraft's downsides pretty easily, especially with To Shatter Heaven breaking conceptual limits and vastly accelerating acquisition of control skills.
He attempted to do as his opponent had done, summoning an orb of concentrated edeldross. Though his sphere was much larger than his enemy's palm-sized orb, still it ended up considerably smaller than the tank-sized blasts he normally produced. Tucking it into his body, it melted seamlessly into his chest; a steady, glowing warmth that vivified and exalted every fiber of his being.
So, is this the upgrading of the Edeldross buff from 20% to 30%, or is this the 45% super-mode? It's a little unclear, especially because it doesn't feel like we saw all of the Edeldross Adept bonuses in this update.
Firing wide columns of Edeldross to deflect his opponent's attacks, Hunger charged in again, only to be forced back as Aobaru finally stopped holding back. The boy produced a broad, deep wall of livid fire, crackling golden tongues stretching full to sky. Aobaru emerged from the wall similarly coated in flame, a set of densely focused orbs whirling about his head. One by one they flew at Hunger, who was forced to endure two blows to the leg and one to the torso, flesh rupturing raggedly as it exploded.
Now
this is a mage duel. Pillars of force crashing against bursts of fire, huge walls of explosions, hyper-destructive orbs being fired out... And Hunger just tanks it and moves in for punching. Eh, it's OK, but it lacks the... Style of taking down your opponent with a huge beam or explosion or by crushing their will and dominating their mind.
If this was animated I'd probably find the sword and punching bits cooler, but in text I think more estoric forms of attack are just more evocative and brilliant. Sometimes like in the Vanrier duel we get really cool sword moments, but other times it's just kinda meh. Maybe sword Praxis will eventually offer some more interesting methods of fighting in melee.
Shocked at the gruesome display, Aobaru faltered a moment, and Hunger sent him to earth with a quick chop to the back of the neck. He placed his palm gently but menacingly upon the boy's head. "Do you yield?"
"Uh, yeah, I yield. Holy crap that was hardcore. Do you just like, not feel pain?"
With the spar over, his other magics were unsealed. Hunger quickly repaired his wounds. "I do, but you learn to ignore that in combat. Perhaps my sense of pain has dulled over time."
"Jeez. As expected of the Reckoner, I guess. You're pretty cool for an old guy!"
"..."
"His other magics were unsealed." That's interesting, I was wondering earlier how Hunger was limiting himself for these matches. I guess he literally sealed away those capabilities? But how? I don't recall any sort of sealing ability we have, but maybe it's just a thing the Ring Hunger can do to make things more challenging? If we can partially seal away our powers, could we do the sealing thing and then let the Armament attract Astral Beasts we'd normally curbstomp, and then get picks out of them for a harder fight? That sounds amazing! I wonder if Rihaku would actually let us do that though...
Also Hunger's response (or lack thereof) to "You're pretty cool for an old guy" is great. Taking Might's Repose doesn't sound so good now huh Hunger? Everyone is think of you as an old guy, you're acting like one, and you're only in your late 20s!
Also, Hunger doesn't react much to such things as having a whole punched through his torso, being shredded by four different blades, and literally dying. I doubt some exploded flesh is going to phase him.
Aobaru got up. "Anyway, there's one stage of enhancement beyond even density, but I haven't mastered it yet. We call it suffusion. You create a highly-dense construct of your Element in the exact shape of your body, and move it exactly as your body moves. That gives the heaviest augmentation of all, even better than just saturating yourself with a pillar of highly-dense Element, but it's really hard and requires continuous maintenance. The orb method is a lot stabler."
Interesting. So the first stage is the standard explosion, then the pillar, which isn't stronger but is more controlled, then a highly dense orb, then a highly dense pillar, and then Suffusion. I guess Orb is the upgrade that gets us from 20% to 30% buff, the highly dense pillar is the 45% super mode, and then Suffusion is the stage after that? We've been told the stages of buffing get exponentially harder after a certain point, Suffusion already requires incredibly control and precise constant adjustments, the stage after that must be supremely difficult...
Interesting. He wondered why that was. Intuitively, a 'highly-dense pillar' ought to offer the greatest exposure possible to one's Element. Perhaps it was psychokinetic in nature, some aspect of the concentration itself focusing the Element's effect? "Good to know. Thanks."
"Hey, don't thank me. Just pay me well! I gotta make up for this lost lunch money." Aobaru grinned cheekily and handed over a pitiful sum.
Wow these kids. I hope we did pay them well, they're kind of adorably pathetic.
"YEAH!!" Letrizia cheered wildly. She fired off a column of Pressure into the air. "I'm the best! I love gambling!!"
...And then there's Letrizia. Being excited about fleecing kids for their lunch money. And randomly firing Pressure around. She's happy about being a mage isn't she? Well, of course she is, it's magic. However valid her actions are though, we need to make fun of her for them.
After that came a succession of considerably less impressive 'High' Elementalists, though Hunger's self-imposed restrictions nearly caught him out from time to time. Nonetheless by the end of the day he had gained an impressive competence in Edeldross manipulation without having lost a single (real) bout. Happily he paid out the students' bonuses, and was just about to leave when one final student arrived at the grounds.
All and all, the teenagers were actually surprisingly helpful. Two picks is nothing to be sneezed at, there are entire teams of professional mage-knights in the temple that couldn't accomplish that much against Hunger as he is now. The tournament arc payed off pretty well.
She was a girl of about Letrizia's age, pretty and slender but not as tall as the Armament pilot, with eyes of dark violet in a similarly dark outfit. In her left hand she carried a slightly curved sword in a scabbard of polished wood. Her dark hair was drawn up in a ponytail spill of ink, stark contrast to her unhealthily pale skin. Her stance was light, alert; a fighter of professional skill, despite her nervous demeanor.
From the description, it's obvious she can handle herself in a fight, but she kinda stinks at social. That would be an interesting person to add to the party... It would make Letrizia not the socially weakest member.
"Hope... I am not... too late," the girl said shakily, as Letrizia came over to greet the newcomer.
"Aeira!" Letrizia said happily. "I didn't think you'd be able to make it. Did your parents give you permission?"
"Ah, yes." Aeira replied. "It took much of the night, and today as well, but they have finally agreed to allow me to become a mercenary!"
She bowed deeply to Hunger, and then to Gisena. "Lord Hunger and Lady Allria, please permit me to travel alongside you! Letrizia has informed me of your mission and I would bring much in the way of novel capabilities. My Element, Shadowcord, dims light and deflects attention, allowing me to cloak you from detection even against automated systems. I am also a capable fighter with the sword, and can defeat most Sovereignty Armors in direct combat."
Oh no she's cute. I kinda want her in the party now, but we need Arete... And if she can beat a Sovereignty Armor... Aren't those things like rank 4-5? That's some pretty serious skill. She won't solve our High Marshal problem, but I really doubt she'll be dead weight.
"Fascinating," Gisena remarked. "The information-theoretic implications of that attention-deflecting ability..."
"Aeira's really strong!" Letrizia gushed. "Maybe not as powerful as you, Hunger, but we could really use her stealth capabilities, and we've got plenty of money left over to pay her! Her family could really use it, and she can definitely take care of herself!"
Hm, if we bring her along it might unlock advancements for Gisena or ourselves... Also Letrizia could use a friend. Eh. But we need Arete...
The winners were [X] Ring of Power: Crimson Flare and [X] High Marshall.
Selune would have been so much safer, and Silver of Evening so synergistic... Ah well, we work with what we have. I might not have written this react if we weren't panic-generating Arete.
[ ] Fine - She can guard Letrizia while you're away, and the outrageous output of every experienced Elementalist means she can even cloak Verschlengorge from detection. Perhaps it'll even work on Astral Beasts? If necessary, she may also be able to take the field against some weaker foes, or support Hunger from a distance with supplemental stealth. [7 Currency units / month]
It would be nice to have her along, but the alternative...
[ ] Unacceptable - Proficient as she might be, it's nowhere near safe for her to adventure with the likes of you. Hunger is a Progression-type Cursebearer, Gisena is a (soon to be) High Sorceress with an extremely powerful and broad anti-supernatural defense, and Letrizia is a superweapon pilot. There's no room for an ordinary High Elementalist among your ranks, no matter how talented. [+.8 Arete, +1 pick to upcoming Experience]
We're about to spend tons of Arete either way, we could use it. And +1 pick is nothing to sneeze at either. It feels bad to say there's no room for an ordinary High Elementalist though. Surgecraft has innate scaling, and if we got some party-buffing stuff with our Progression she'd be sure to be able to keep up. Philosopher's Wreath or Undying Vanguard, or even Ennobling would do a lot, and having a stealth specialist would be nice.
The problem is, we're currently in a panic situation, and good things are often left behind in those. Especially since I've seen a lot of "Crimson Flare or nothing" votes, and if that wins we'd better have the Arete for Crimson Flare or we're screwed.
As you will likely be facing the High Marshall soon, you may wish to pre-buy Stances, ensuring availability for the entire encounter. He outranks you significantly and has a powerful Soul Evocation. An abundance of caution would not be remiss here; Rank gaps of such size are dangerous to contest directly.
Tactics can also help, of course, but his Rank makes him difficult to deceive. You have 18.7 Arete with 1 put towards Crimson Flare.
OK, so we can't directly oppose or deceive him unless we have stances. With Crimson Flare we'll be in a slightly better position thanks to the +0.7 Rank, and if we could find a way to leverage Blood Domain in the social encounter then we have a good chance of winning. How would we leverage Blood in a social encounter though?
[ ] Maximum Safety - Buy Hero-Defeating Stance and Guile-Defeating Stance (below).
*Combines high Charisma with a Rank nullification effect, vastly reducing the effectiveness of his greater Rank upon yours. Safest social option.
*Hero-Defeating Stance feeds into Foe-Defeating Stance, whereas Guile-Defeating Stance feeds into All-Defeating Stance. Not very synergistic in the long run.
*Expensive, but minimizes death %.
The best survival chance... And you know what, I've never been one of those people who insists we must buy EFBs. I could see myself supporting this, especially since it splits progress between two different EFB stances. Making sure we don't get the triple Forebear EFBs is important to me, and this at least ensures that both stance EFBs are 21 Arete away, meaning that they're only slightly more viable then a normal EFB. That makes it easier to argue against further stances.
[ ] Somewhat Safe - Buy Guile-Defeating Stance and World-Defeating Stance (below)
*Both feed into All-Defeating Stance, so this is considerably more efficient than the above at the cost of reduced safety.
*You can only have two Stances active, so it won't make sense to buy Magic-Defeating Stance with this arrangement until you can afford All-Defeating Stance or have 6 Rank...
*Still expensive.
This one, on the other hand, I super don't like. It puts us too close to another Forebear EFB. And it still spends 14 Arete. Just no.
[ ] Kinda Safe - Buy Hero-Defeating Stance.
*It's not really that safe, but way better than Maximal Greed.
*Hero-Defeating Stance is almost always pretty good.
If this was viable I'd like it, but it seems to not be very viable. The time to SAVE was when we weren't facing down an opponent that vastly outclasses us. Darn I wish that Selune had won, we could have had nice comfy social encounters instead of this mess.
[ ] Maximal Greed - Don't buy anything.
*You will probably get rekt. He's 2.2 Ranks higher than you, literally everything you do will experience massive pushback from the universe itself.
*However, getting rekt does not mean you will necessarily die. You might still be able to retreat and limp away.
The option that seems to be leading so far, with the idea that we can flashbuy Crimson Flare. Honestly I like that better then stances, but it's a little less safe... Still way better then either Kinda Safe or Maximal Greed with no Crimson Flare.
Guile-Defeating Stance - 7 Arete
A martial stance of the Forebear. Where comes the craven, who by shadowy pacts, scheming and circumstance seeks to undermine the wielder's unquestionable authority, they will find that age and treachery have already usurped that domain, and were lying in wait all the while. There can be no power behind the throne but he that sits the throne itself, if that sovereign is wise enough to adopt this stance of the Forebear. A pre-requisite for All-Defeating Stance.
++Wits, ++Wisdom, ++Charisma.
+2 Rank, ++++++++Manipulation for purposes of detecting, subverting, and overcoming hidden schemes, illusions, and deceptions. Apply the Power of Ruin against such efforts if hostile to the wielder. Be it a rapier feint or the meticulously calculated plot of eons, all forms of mistruth are laid bare before the Forebear's gaze.
While having Wisdom would be nice, I actually don't see how this helps us much in the upcoming social encounter? We're the ones trying to deceive, not the ones trying to detect deception. The only things from this stance that help us in the next encounter are the ++Wisdom and Charisma. Now that I realize that I'm liking Kinda Safe more.
World-Defeating Stance - 7 Arete
A martial stance of the Forebear. Forces natural and premeditated; forces unnatural and obscene - it matters not to the cause of the Forebear, whose march is steady and inevitable, carrying all before it. A billion realms brought to heel and countless more razed to ash, systems of the world in kaleidoscopic arrangement and all bent to his will. Meaningless as escape may be, more futile still is dissent: an enemy is just a future subject, and though they may forget the face of their fathers, the Forebear's visage is burned indelibly into their spirits.
If the user possesses all of the other [Type]-Defeating Stances, upgrades into All-Defeating Stance.
+.2 Rank, ++Luck, ++Intelligence, ++Protection
++++++Protection further against environmental harms, including from incompatible or hostile physics and metaphysics.
*Shelters wielder's powers from suppression or negation, even that resulting from a lack of magic or magical structures within the world.
*5x Power of Ruin against non-supernatural foes or phenomena beyond an human's ability to defeat.
Luck and Intelligence are really nice... This also gets comprehensive environmental protection, which I don't think we need right now? It's good, but it's only slightly helpful in our current situation...
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And that reaction post is done! It's the longest I've ever written. Yay.
I'm kinda torn on what action to take now. Do we gamble just a little on the massively more preferable Crimson Flare rush, or take Maximally Safe and just hold our noses about the 14 Arete going into stances? It's not that stances are bad, but I don't want to give the 3x Forebear EFB rush any ground at all.
