A Simple Transaction I
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
- Original
Well, that was a good fight Gisena Gang! The Ring won today but perhaps we can come together in our fellow pursuit of the Trinity!
Looking at the post, the X-Type mention is pretty interesting. Feels like that's a reference to the possibility of other Ringbearers coming to seize the Azure Ring? The Council should have planned for that I think. Plus Hunger's Ring triggered its Blood Dominion powers after we took out the Groundskeeper so maybe they detected that.
I'm leaning heavily towards S A V E. We have a strong enough power gain from Crimson Flare that I think we should do fairly in social against Avecarn and saving now puts us closer to either Pillars or Total Eclipse, thus allowing us to finally gain the Advancement blurbs we've been chasing. Of course, Guile-Defeating is excellent as well since we can always grab some of the complementary benefits of ADS without going all-in on Blade by picking it up. I'm not keen on Hero-Defeating though, King Stands Alone was way better and I'm hopeful the Sword Praxis will give effects that obviate the need for Foe-Defeating in the future.
Will probably monitor the discussion before voting.
Looking at the post, the X-Type mention is pretty interesting. Feels like that's a reference to the possibility of other Ringbearers coming to seize the Azure Ring? The Council should have planned for that I think. Plus Hunger's Ring triggered its Blood Dominion powers after we took out the Groundskeeper so maybe they detected that.
I'm leaning heavily towards S A V E. We have a strong enough power gain from Crimson Flare that I think we should do fairly in social against Avecarn and saving now puts us closer to either Pillars or Total Eclipse, thus allowing us to finally gain the Advancement blurbs we've been chasing. Of course, Guile-Defeating is excellent as well since we can always grab some of the complementary benefits of ADS without going all-in on Blade by picking it up. I'm not keen on Hero-Defeating though, King Stands Alone was way better and I'm hopeful the Sword Praxis will give effects that obviate the need for Foe-Defeating in the future.
Will probably monitor the discussion before voting.
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I think Hero-Defeating Stance is better against singularly powerful opponents because it halves enemy rank meaning that it either puts their power below us or its still higher than ours we don't have any business fighting them in the first place and then just reduces the penalty of fighting multiple opponents.
Meanwhile King Stands Alone treats us as if we are in a one on one duel against every enemy like there is one Lord Hunger for every foe whether there number is hundred or a million while its rank reduction just set it to overwhelming above us.
Pick Hero-Defeating Stance for singularly mighty opponents and King Stands Alone for armies of heroes is my reading of the two.
Meanwhile King Stands Alone treats us as if we are in a one on one duel against every enemy like there is one Lord Hunger for every foe whether there number is hundred or a million while its rank reduction just set it to overwhelming above us.
Pick Hero-Defeating Stance for singularly mighty opponents and King Stands Alone for armies of heroes is my reading of the two.
Projectile
Thinking of Rabbits
- Location
- USA
I'm not voting for it anymore, but this is clearly some kind of nonsense, right? Does this pick make her Suizhen-level talented at murder, or does Hunger unleash supertrauma training from hell on her or what? Accretion slots her in as "the assassin in the party?" You don't just hire people that can quickly reach +Progression for 7 Sovereignbucks, that's crazy.
Enohthree
Hypersane
This style of name combined with magic and immortals... Diagram Liches?
Projectile
Thinking of Rabbits
- Location
- USA
I mean, it is the Azure Ring. Was kinda assuming it was a different Azure Ring, but I guess not.
One + of progression is basically 3x more xp iirc. So it's not unfathomable for people to have, even if it's still impressive.
Projectile
Thinking of Rabbits
- Location
- USA
Wait, no, fuck. I overlooked the obvious implication that Liches don't have blood. -_-
The robot thing was a joke...
Rihaku
The Internet
For a fairly modest investment you could get another combatant that's close to Hunger's level! Though it may not have the synergy of directly building on Hunger, it also allows him to get things done 1) in a specialty that's different from his and 2) in places that he's not!
Guile-Defeating Stance is great, but is 7 Arete worth the outcome of a diplomatic improvement alone? Saving is also an option!
X-types
Indeed, it's quite good against wide-ranging exotic foes like Soul Evokers!
Hero-Defeating Stance is quite interesting! It doesn't halve enemy Rank though, it only halves the difference between their Rank and yours if theirs is greater. The alternative would be utterly broken for only 7 Arete! Maybe you could get it for 77 Arete.
7 currency units per month x 3 months per quarter x 4 quarters per year is almost 84 years' wages for a middle-class office worker in the Sovereignty. She's earning the equivalent of two full careers every year. Could she charge more? Possibly. But the market for this kind of work is sparse unless you want to fight Rotspawn, which assassination often isn't the best suited for.
I definitely hope to get Hero-Defeating Stance or Magic-Defeating Stance this vote then the other one later because it seems like the greatest obstacle we will face are champions and their magics.
Or we could make that investment in other places, and let her do what she does well instead.
I would argue that Guile is both present focused and long term focused, as its effects would be incredibly useful when/if we get to the interstellar politics part of Hunger's Geas.
- Location
- Philippines
[X] Stealth
[X] Guile-Defeating Stance
Ayt. A preliminary vote.
Main ideas behind this one is, should the opportunity arise, we might be able to get ShadowLord again or some such equivalent in the future. By upping the relevant factors of Shadowcord's abilities that I like, the resulting ShadowLord option might end up as generally better. It's also to probably reward her a bit since her stealth abilities worked real well for this interlude given it provides us a bit more information on the things that we'll have to kill.
Picking up Guile here is in support of at least scoring a more definitive victory against Gramps without a sword between his ribs, as well as its eventual build up to All Defeating Stance. (salute to you my friend, you fought well) I'm primarily more concerned about the bullshit machinations too right now.
Though, my biggest issue at the moment is how the fuck are we going to deal with the Immortals? In that sense, it might be more useful to get Hero Defeating since we can't be too confident in Arete generation. We might have all gained some experience from the latest foray into the mines, but I highly doubt everyone can still go at it. Reaction Posts are becoming a premium, mostly due to the 2 Storms we've had recently. Which leads to either different types of omakes to fill in the gap, or more art work to consider.
We've gotten Flare, which makes me happy. It'd be important to probably boost the more stabby-relevant powers of the Ring after our talk with Gramps, since I doubt negotiation or diplomacy is on the table for the Immortals. Plus, the stuff is refundable once we liberate the Ring. With the paths open to us though...can't we just steal the ring itself? Bypass the combat, nab the Ring, subordinate it, and then lower the "average enemy level" since a good chunk of their power rests on the strength siphoned from the captive accessory?
Ugh, not enough coffee. But all that shit is going down the drain if Gardener or something of equal YAASSSSS-value appears.
330 words that matter, mostly for trying to find an opened path for us given our current load out.
[X] Guile-Defeating Stance
Ayt. A preliminary vote.
Main ideas behind this one is, should the opportunity arise, we might be able to get ShadowLord again or some such equivalent in the future. By upping the relevant factors of Shadowcord's abilities that I like, the resulting ShadowLord option might end up as generally better. It's also to probably reward her a bit since her stealth abilities worked real well for this interlude given it provides us a bit more information on the things that we'll have to kill.
Picking up Guile here is in support of at least scoring a more definitive victory against Gramps without a sword between his ribs, as well as its eventual build up to All Defeating Stance. (salute to you my friend, you fought well) I'm primarily more concerned about the bullshit machinations too right now.
Though, my biggest issue at the moment is how the fuck are we going to deal with the Immortals? In that sense, it might be more useful to get Hero Defeating since we can't be too confident in Arete generation. We might have all gained some experience from the latest foray into the mines, but I highly doubt everyone can still go at it. Reaction Posts are becoming a premium, mostly due to the 2 Storms we've had recently. Which leads to either different types of omakes to fill in the gap, or more art work to consider.
We've gotten Flare, which makes me happy. It'd be important to probably boost the more stabby-relevant powers of the Ring after our talk with Gramps, since I doubt negotiation or diplomacy is on the table for the Immortals. Plus, the stuff is refundable once we liberate the Ring. With the paths open to us though...can't we just steal the ring itself? Bypass the combat, nab the Ring, subordinate it, and then lower the "average enemy level" since a good chunk of their power rests on the strength siphoned from the captive accessory?
Ugh, not enough coffee. But all that shit is going down the drain if Gardener or something of equal YAASSSSS-value appears.
330 words that matter, mostly for trying to find an opened path for us given our current load out.
I am pretty sure those Immortals will have crazy Soul Evocations due to them being constantly exposed to the Ring. Hero-defeating is good but our magic defense at the moment is 'hope Gisena intercept it'. I don`t think it is advisable to enter the lair of the Soul Evocator bosess without it.
Also if people had forgotten the True Maiming debuff
400% is extreme. We have the option to reduce it by half.
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Live reaction time!
There were some minor spoilers for the nature of the Star-Forge in the patreon stuff, but I still know jack-all. Pretty hyped to learn more.
Promising indeed! I always pictured a more orderly and disciplined military camp, but I suppose a hive of scum and villainy is more appropriate. Powerups confirmed, rev up that remorse for skipping the camp!
world temple. They do sound like they could kick our ass, though. I hope whatever we got can help us solve this problem! (Also I feel bad now for not going with raw dumb power, surprise surprise!)
~1500 words, not quite but I'll be generous to myself and round up. Now to find out what the hell has been going on in the thread and discord in the meantime!
I'm so damn mad this is an interlude! I want to see results! I mean, I haven't even read the damn thing yet so this is pretty knee-jerk. Maybe it does push us forward? Anyway, onward and inward.
There were some minor spoilers for the nature of the Star-Forge in the patreon stuff, but I still know jack-all. Pretty hyped to learn more.
Promising indeed! I always pictured a more orderly and disciplined military camp, but I suppose a hive of scum and villainy is more appropriate. Powerups confirmed, rev up that remorse for skipping the camp!
It's a classic risk/reward dichotomy. They're just waiting for a price that's worth the loss of potential. Information is like that, you can only really sell it once before it's out there for everyone. Unless you're Disney, of course!
Absolutely radical. What a way to establish yourself in the party. I wasn't even considering this angle when we thought about taking her in, I was too monofocused on combat! Stealth and Espionage aren't just tactical assets, they're another vector for solving our problems without invoking the Tyrant! Good shit. Also her pride at her successful mission is precious, I wanna pinch her cheeks and pat her head.
Neat, didn't know how post-imperial these guys were. This kind of standardized classification scheme speaks highly of their civilization. The poor bastards have developed bureaucracy, so really death will come as a mercy.
Very boot stamping on a face, forever. I like Plerion already, real man of the people. The people being Plerion and his select oligarchy of friends, of course!
Moonbeams go in, and don't go out. Gotcha. Sounds pretty and also important. smash for critical damage to infrastructure and all that biz.
I thought the obvious question is what can and can't you do with crystallized possibility, but I guess that's the common knowledge for these fancy inner temple dudes. Star-scarcity as a chief concern sounds kinda insane, most people don't plan for the heat-death. Hell, most people don't plan for tomorrow!
Only millenia!? that's a pretty alarming rate of eating stars! How many knickknacks and gewgaws do these guys need? Presumably, the relationship between their mystical efforts and the actual number of stars in the sky isn't straightforward. I do like the note that their telescopes are just like ours, only recently pointing towards the boring dark spots to find a seeming infinity. It makes me wonder about what kind of development and change is ongoing.
I'm pretty sure a Dimensional Vortex was a rare crafting ingredient in every mmorpg ever made. Sounds like some kind of an isolation chamber maybe? Or perhaps not, it's pretty vague. Calendar Engine seems much more straight forward, and less surprising. If they can alter space, it seems reasonable for time to follow. On that note, maybe that's what Dimensional Vortex means? Looking forward to breaking all this cool shit with our big dumb barbarian ways!
Spicy. Very mageocratic spread of political power they got, but that's not too surprising. We already knew that authority sprang from ass-kicking just based on what Grandpa showed us. Time for the Party-Member-only secrets.
A fake to surpas the real, eh? Seems legit! I love this guy's monomaniacal energy. I hope there's an engine that harvests thunderbolts at the top of this temple, but I suspect they're a bit beyond that, what with the star-slurping and the moon-mining. The anchor of the world itself. Does the temple alter the voyaging realm beyond its border? That might explain some of the danger of our path to reach it.
No but also yes. The vast majority lack the sheer protagonist energy to keep their magic turned up, even if they would still technically hold it. For a good weeaboo comparison, with the fake moon you have a Semblance, complete with bullshit superpower. Without the fake moon you have an Origin, complete with exactly fuck-all benefit unless you're the main character of your particular visual novel.
Yep, only reason. Nothing to do with privilege or the entrenchment of their political power, it's 100% absolutely necessary that these OLD MEN rule the
So there's some nod towards a check and balance system on these old fellows. I don't really buy it. The tone of the place is too controlled, and it's a hard sell to think these immortal superiors would limit themselves in this way, and be content to remain so limited for millennia. Could be as simple as having the great-great-grand-kids vote.
Honestly it sounds mean, but not that bad in the context of the Voyaging Realm. Pretty safe primitive farming life sounds way better than certain death at the hands of whatever crazy bullshit your space-warping world has decided to dump on you today. Still exploitative, but hey, that's society for you!
Nice, the good shit. Time to peel back the curtain and all that jazz. I expect to be unsurprised by their cruelty, impressed by the mechanics by which it is delivered, and find some kind of neat particularity of the Ring.
A recapisode! Have we reached half-way through the first season already!? How exciting. Poor poor Prelairn, just doing his job. Alas, being a simple gardener was not to be. Again Fairbright is called out as a known entity. I look forward to hearing more from this evidently famed line.
Neat! So, it sounds like the Ritual in question was at least partially responsible for silencing the Ring's cries. Good to know. We get two other peer-people for Grandpa, too. I hope Capacitor has some extremely straight forward lightning powers. Wyvernford sounds like he was named after a place. Fingers crossed for dragon-stuff anyway.
What an extremely lichey phrase and name! I'm suddenly far less interested in pissing this guy off. Memo to self - don't leave these guys to rot when we ascend.
In my heart I knew it to be true. O.K. This is pretty damn good! We were down for this option before the EFB-pocalypse took off, so I'm still down for it. Two down, one to go for team Trinity. I'm really hoping we find a pure power option for the Evening Sky.
CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER!
The call-out of nullity resistance makes me pretty sure we'll see that as a feature for another of these, maybe more combat focused? Anyway, this is a strong, and subtle option that provides an easily planned-around asset. I like her as a ninja already, after only one update! Survival rate is also pretty important if she's gonna stick with this group!
Holy shit it's +Progression! Loses the wits, and the Element Magnitude. No mention of Nullity resistance, but no mention of weakness either, I'll assume the later. This is probably the best option to maximize Chunni-appeal, but I don't like our survival rate for ninja students! 2/3 does not make a passing grade. Liver cure sounds pretty swank, too!
'the dismal science' is how I'm going to refer to my own degree for the rest of my life. Thanks! What charming and rare stats as well! Ninja-CEO is a fun aesthetic, and pairs well with our Pilot-Researcher in Letrizia. My concern is that Hunger lacks the fiscal acumen to keep up! The bonus is fantastic for the long-term. I wonder how rare it is to find mitigation for the Voyaging Realm's jealous gaze?
Fantastic job ladies and gentlemen, truly excellent work. An EFB with enough left in the tank for a FB. Beginning to feel the siren call of confidence, I better try and get my own lazy numbers up!
Tempting indeed! The Mantle hungers for Arete! If we can devise tactics which get us in and move us towards a diplomatic, stealth, or combat victory, then I'll be very interested in saving that hard-earned arete to get the Evening Sky up to par.
Pretty solid choice, as before! Hero-Defeating Stance really does add a lot to our build in the absence of its Praxis-adjacent big brother. A pretty S A F E bet!
If we wanna buy more time from the Apocryphal curse, then this is as close as we're likely to get! Also a good hedge against the unknown, and plausibly useful in a contest of primacy. Quite nice.
Conspiracy! I love sneaky spy stuff, and this here would be handy for that sort of thing. I've already speculated about its uses before, and I feel that the opening blurbs in this update strengthen that argument, if only slightly. Useless against idiot muscle-wizards, great in other cases!
I found it pretty worthwhile as a veteran of these quests. If you've got cash to blow and like Rihaku, why not?
What a terrible awful pile of memes! I feel right at home.
~1500 words, not quite but I'll be generous to myself and round up. Now to find out what the hell has been going on in the thread and discord in the meantime!
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
The fact that we'll almost certainly have to fight these so-called Immortals eventually is a great argument for Hero-Defeating and Magic-Defeating. Magic-Defeating ensures we don't have to worry about Soul Evocation shenanigans, while Hero-Defeating is good if they have more rank 6+ combatants and/or send a bunch of their best at us at once.
Magic Defeating being in between greedy and safe does also attract my eye for Balance options...
Magic Defeating being in between greedy and safe does also attract my eye for Balance options...
[X] Guile-Defeating Stance
The fact that our current build gives good sustain does mean that the risk of waiting to flashbuy is less than it might be otherwise, since even if a fight is going badly, getting instantly downed is less likely.
We have Rank 7 healing. It's getting fixed in the not too distant future regardless.
Do you think I should start on reactions? I haven't actually done any yet, though admittedly that is because I have a fair amount that I want to write that this quest is a good excuse for me to get in gear working on. How much time and effort does it typically take to make decent sized reactions?