The index has been updated again, kudos to Hirorubie for pointing out a reaction that was missing. Anyway, was in the mood for magic, so as extremely belated thanks for inventing the 666 Sigils:

{ } Sarandipity - It begins simply, with kindness shown to a stranger. A warm meal, shelter from the storm, aid given without the expectation of repayment. The chaos of modernity may have blotted out older traditions, but there's wisdom in ideas like theoxenia, grains of truth concealed within legends. Charity received will be returned tenfold, when the guest gestures and the scales fall from their host's eyes. With a handful of final words, the visitor vanishes.

From a fateful encounter comes the ability to manipulate fate. To a student of the Auspicious Art, there are no coincidences. The secret causes and hidden meanings lurking behind the façade of mundanity are revealed to her. Avoiding misfortune becomes trivial, but perception is easier than manipulation. No school offers instruction in Sarandipity; she who would take up the mantle of the Moirai must construct her own loom, but innovation and diligent practice awards power as subtle as it is unquestionable.

Blessing and curses are easily cast, though weaving both with poetic sensibilities yields the best results. Rewarding the virtuous and punishing the wicked comes naturally. Longevity can be granted by lengthening the threads of friends; enemies can be struck dead by severing theirs with an act of will. Mastery allows for Sarandipitous alteration of the course of international politics, placing the fate of the world in the practitioner's hands, though the reciprocal ethos of the Auspicious Art remains a common thread.

*Ridiculously powerful, but lacking in obviously magical effects.
*A blank canvas is at the mercy of the artist. Sarandipity grants absolute influence over the fate of any child whose birth you are present for.
*Unraveling an individual's preexisting karma to craft a new destiny is difficult but possible.
*Eventually become the mysterious stranger yourself!

{ } The Vermilion Legion - To claim the powers of the Vermilion Legion answer only to a single mind betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of it. When the brutal calculus of war reduces men to faceless statistics, when a soldier falls alone and unmourned in the course of doing their duty, their life leaking away in slow trickles, each heartbeat weaker than the last... then comes the Vermilion Legion, to induct its latest recruit.

The fallen is invariably offered a chance to refuse, to pass on into the proverbial undiscovered country instead. If they accept, they're welcomed into a fellowship of the forgotten. Individuality is a tricky topic for the Legion's members. The line between deathless camaraderie and a collective consciousness is thin; memories and skills blend together, inevitably distancing an inductee from their former life. If slain a second time, they return to this shared noetic space until the Legion recreates their body.

In this way, every Legionary is effectively immortal and has access to the skills of their compatriots. At need, each can become a master marksman, pilot, guerrilla, engineer, chef, or a hundred other things. Their arsenal is likewise varied: tanks and helicopters alongside bipedal war machines and the biological nightmares of its alien members. Though their arms and armor are always the red of freshly-spilled blood, Legionaries pass unnoticed with ease when they wish to, forgotten in death as they were in life.

*The Vermilion Legion fights to create a multiverse in which none qualify to receive its offer.
*A bizarre array of potent conceptual powers, the foremost of which is immortality.
*Always have an answer to the question of "You and what army?"
*You will never be alone or abandoned again. Your brothers and sisters will stand beside you until the stars themselves die.
 
I think Larissa with no Stances is fine with me, really. Preserves flexibility, I guess. It's a different matter if we can only buy now though, so I'd at least would like to know that.
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Adhoc vote count started by DkArthas on Jul 4, 2020 at 6:34 PM, finished with 318 posts and 59 votes.
 
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If you buy now you'll have the Stances available for the entire fight. Flash-buying means you may not benefit from the Stance during the crucial opening movements of the battle.
 
Wow, definitely recommend Weapon-Defeating Stance then! 15 points worth of stats has a lot of value, and most of our enemies seem to carry weapons, so the Protection bonus would be good too! I think this is the best stance for our situation with Fierce Quickening so ahead. We really want as many advantages as possible when fighting Immortals people.
 
2173 words.

Yet another simple transaction: Part 4

---

Silently, Edwin departed, the moon illuminating his path. He had thought long and hard about when to do what he was going to do. He was now 14 years of age, having spent 7 long years in the farm training. He had pondered when he should leave for a long, long time.

The truth was, he didn't want to leave his family. As much as he sometimes felt annoying at them, his parents, his siblings, especially his littler sister, he loved them, but…it was because he loved them that he had to leave.

He wondered how much his love for his family impacted how long he stayed. It was better to not think too much about the subject.

He stopped and stared at the farm that he had spent two lives in, he was…stalling. He didn't want to leave. He wanted to act like his dreams about the coming future were just that, dreams, that The Conquering King was just a childhood fantasy.

He couldn't.

So, turning one last time, he steppe-

"Bro?"

He blinked and turned, staring at Agnes, her head poking from the farm's entrance. Her long dark hair, freckled face having become familiar, and so did her blue eyes full of worry.

"What…are you doing?"

His words were caught in his throat. The first time he lived in this world, he didn't have a particularly close relationship with his siblings, but this time…he made sure to take care of them, and maybe spoiled them a little bit too much.

"Just a night walk, couldn't sleep" It was his usual excuse, it wasn't even a lie, really. He didn't feel a hint of sleep, in good part due to his body. And he was know for his lack of sleep, his visions of his previous life sometimes being too much to burden.

And on top of that, his entire family at this point was aware of his immense power, there was almost nothing in the kingdom that was an actual threat to him, so his night walking was without much opposition.

Yet, her eyes still stared at him full of worry, he wondered if she could know he was lying this time, even though he was sure it wasn't possible, lying was a skill under the Exalted Sun after all.

"Why are you awake?"

"You're way too loud when you wake up" She grumbled. "Just…promise you will come back, all right?"

Someone of pure heart asking for help. After years under the Doom of the Martyr, he was quite used to that. Yet, due to that, he had also learned to utilize of their loopholes. He gave a sad smile.

"I promise, now go to sleep, please?"

She gave a shaky nod; it was rather obvious that she was rather tired. He felt guilty, but felt a resolve burning inside his heart. He would defeat the Conquering King, then, he would come back to his family, no matter how long it takes.

He walked a bit, then jumped, his first destination was Feuer: The capital of The Steigen Kingdom, the kingdom he was a part of.

---

The journey was easy, his body was far beyond the reach of mortals, and his skill in Walking and Travelling was great. Each step took him the equivalent of ten, and he had inhuman intuition of where he should be going. A journey of weeks took less than a day, he quickly arriving in the city.

The place was large, much larger than any city that he had ever seen, much to his surprise. When he fought The Conquering King, it was likely that most cities were only fractions of what they once were, destroyed as collateral in the great war. Not only that, the place was impressive, great stone towers were spread over the city, their purpose unknown, but he could feel a sense of power coming from them.

Still, he had a objective, he was annoyingly ignorant of everything, and he would need to correct that.

He entered the city, making sure to not make his Skill to obvious, mostly to not drawn unwanted attention, then, he set himself to gather information.

It went poorly.

He was just a fourteen-year-old kid after all. He was powerful, but he was unsure of how to demonstrate that without making a mess. Not helped by his underwhelming interpersonal skill, mostly underdeveloped due to him not spending as much time as he perhaps should have in the village nearby his home. The result was that most people treated him like, well, a kid, not giving him much time of the day, and these that did, were unable to give him much useful information.

He already knew the name of his kingdom, he learned the name of the king, queen, princess, about bigshot criminals in the city, people complaining about quite a lot of stuff, but no information that he could use to actually help him become stronger.

He never had that problem in the past. He had demonstrated his prowess form day one, he had always someone to inform him where to go, and all the remaining time was spent training to become stronger. It functionated well in the middle of a war, not so much now.

He briefly pondered if he should demonstrate him powers somehow, when he heard it, while he walked in what seemed like the poorer side of the city, a cry for help from an innocent.

He didn't need the Doom of the Martyr to act.

He minimized the strength in his steps as to not cause much collateral damage, and quickly arrived in a scene of thugs mugging a young man. He moved quickly, delivering a singular punch in their solar plexus in the span of a second, making sure to not cause any lethal damage as he did so. The thugs flew a couple meters backwards, and the youth looked at him with widened eyes.

"Hey." Edwin waved.

The man gaped at him for a few seconds, before managing to recompose himself. "T-thank you, kid." He looked from him to the muggers, still not believing what happened in front of him.

He frowned at being called a kid, even if it wasn't entirely accurate.

"Actually, I could use your help for something…" Edwin said. The man tensed again, but Edwin was quickly to alleviate his fear. "Not money, I'm just looking for information. I'm new here."

The man slowed nodded. "All right, I would be glad to help, least I could do after saving me like that…"

The man said, then started to walk away, making a gesture for him to follow him. "Shouldn't we…do something about the thugs?"

"Not worth the effort, and would grab too much attention. No, better to just act like nothing happened and hope that they don't remember our…well, my face, really. Doubt they would be much of a threat to you."

He wasn't wrong. Edwin followed after him, even as he felt incredibly confused with the whole situation. "Isn't there someone to help with this kind of stuff?"

"If I actually had any money to make sure that the guards weren't simply bribed, then yes. Otherwise, it would just make it more likely that their boss would make a lesson out of me."

For the first time in a long time, Edwin felt genuine rage towards something.

---

He followed after the man for a couple of minutes, he introducing himself, he was Called Robert, his family had a shop of magical trinkets that had been open for generations. He had been transporting one back when he had been mugged, Edwin noted, in broad daylight.

They arrived at the shop, and Edwin explained his situation, he was looking for information about the world in general. While Robert admitted that he wouldn't be of much help with that, he knew a few ways for him to get it.

While he went around to do that, Robert offered him to sleep in the store, which would be quite convenient, considering he didn't have a single gold coin with him, with his Curse and great ears, he would very quickly lose all of his money, as he had learned the few times his parents had sent him to the village to buy something.

Robert would only need him to do a few odd jobs in compensation, due to the fact that he doesn't have a lot of money currently.

---

The winning options were {X} True Majesty: The Sun Laid Bare. (2 Majesty) –,{ X} Only what is obvious – , {X} Body of titans –, {X} 14 Years of age. –

During the last couple of years, Edwin has trained hard, his body is far beyond the reaches of humanity. On top of that, with Body Of Titans, he has a great conceptual power backing him.

Pick 5, you can pick one option as many times as you want: (it should be kept in mind that with the exception of his mind, all of his attributes are already impressive, this merely dictates his focus.)

{ }Might – (Strength and Constitution+++) - Inhuman strength and endurance, with the control to wield both.

*Each pick has exponential increase, with 5 picks giving him strength enough to destroy hills, and to ignore nuclear bombs.

{ }Speed – (Agility and Wits ++) - Inhuman velocity, and the reaction to match, as his speed increases, not only can he move, react, and think faster.

*Due to Body Of Titans he would be capable of somewhat stretching time to think.

*Even without picks, he is capable of acting, and reacting at Mach 2. Each pick roughly doubles his overall speed.

{ }Mind – (Intelligence, wisdom, wits and will +) - Inhuman mind, while extremely difficult, is possible to make with Body Of Titans. The effects are immense, Edwin being capable of simply absorbing, learning, and utilizing knowledge at truly impressive rates. Minimal combat utility by itself.

*Improves speed of mastery of secret skills, but does not help with Body Of Titans.

{ } True Might (2 picks, needs at least 2 picks of Might) – Edwin infuses his body with Might itself, giving his blows the power to contest exoteric effects trough power alone.

* Unlocks secret skill: Blows of Might.

{ } Grace (2 picks, needs 1 pick in Might, Speed and Mind.) – Edwin infuses his body with Grace itself, giving him even greater inhuman parameters, including inhuman beauty, and the ability of being simply Better.

*Unlocks secret skill: Grace itself.

{ } Determination(2 picks, needs 2 picks in Mind) – Edwin infuses his mind with Determination, allowing him to utilize of his Will to improve his body, and allowing him to accomplish otherwise impossible deeds.

*Gives ++ will on top of other benefits.

*Edwin has a Determination that is already high.

*Still leaves him weaker overall than other specialized options, however, improves rate of growth.

*Unlocks Secret Skill: Determination Manifest.

---

Edwin has done a poor job of gathering information; however, he has seen quite a few possible avenues. Pick one of them.

{ }(1 majesty, doesn't cost a pick) Sun ring – Edwin finds a seemingly worthless ring in the back of Robert's store. He is unsure of what it does, but feels a connection with it.

*Edwin is sure it's useful for…something.

*Due to Martyr, might have to give it away.

{ } The Library – Edwin does not know how to read, however, he has progression, which would allow him to quickly learn how to do so. The grand library of Feuer, according to Robert, is in a bad state, but it still can give him some secrets.

*Even without Mind picks, Edwin can learn quite a lot from it.

*The true secrets only have a chance to be learned with at the very least one, however, with 3 guaranteeing to learn all of them.

*Secrets might be incredibly useful, or worthless for Edwin's current situation.

{ } The palace(+0.5 Majesty) – Instead, Edwin will temporarily offer his services for the crown, giving him access to a somewhat useful avenue of growth in the short-term, and access to a wealth of information.

*Edwin's power allows him to raise to the top in a matter of weeks.

*Quickly learn how to read and write from the best tutors.

*Access to sealed and secret information.

*Might have to go in a quest.

{ } The Underworld(+1 Majesty) – Edwin will wage a war against the criminal syndicates of the city destroy them. Both to gain access to a wealth of information, and to deal with the heavy crime problem in the city.

*Might attract some attention.

*Even without a build specked for combat, it's unlikely to face an equal opponent.

*Gives some access to forbidden information and the black market, which can lead to some sources of power.

*Very variable how long it will take. If it takes more than a month, there will be another vote on if it's worth continuing.
 
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Wow, definitely recommend Weapon-Defeating Stance then! 15 points worth of stats has a lot of value, and most of our enemies seem to carry weapons, so the Protection bonus would be good too! I think this is the best stance for our situation with Fierce Quickening so ahead. We really want as many advantages as possible when fighting Immortals people.

With Larissa getting farther ahead, and thus minimal picks available, Hero-Defeating Stance may be the better / safer option... 7.2 Rank Blood buffs, Rank difference halved + outnumbering penalties halved... all highly relevant in attacking the Immortals in their place of greatest strength, to say nothing of the highly respectable stat buffs from the Stance itself!
 
With Larissa getting farther ahead, and thus minimal picks available, Hero-Defeating Stance may be the better / safer option... 7.2 Rank Blood buffs, Rank difference halved + outnumbering penalties halved... all highly relevant in attacking the Immortals in their place of greatest strength, to say nothing of the highly respectable stat buffs from the Stance itself!
After shilling so hard for stats before, isn't it a bit hypocritical to say we need Rank protection now?

But anyway; We-DS still gives us 15 raw stats plus a very relevant Protection buff while still contributing towards A-DS. We already have a counter available to enemies who rely on their magic in the form of Gisena; so countering people like Avecarn better seems like a more relevant investment. Plus, I still want The King Stands Alone; a bit of increased risk is fine if it is for the Praxis!
 
{0} Mind
{0} Mind x 2
{0} Determination
{0} Speed
{0} Sun Ring

Ideally with the increased mind we'll have the knowledge of how not to give up our ring.

[X] Larissa of House Alynne
[X] Fierce Quickening
[X] Weapon-Defeating Stance
 
Hero-Defeating does best address the danger of a hidden final guardian with a power gap

I'm kind of inclined to keep half an eye on our long term build still, however, absent real evidence there's a substantial difference in immediate term safety.

Couldn't the gap as easily be a fancy magic sword as it could be something with very high Rank?
 
Hero-Defeating does best address the danger of a hidden final guardian with a power gap

I'm kind of inclined to keep half an eye on our long term build still, however, absent real evidence there's a substantial difference in immediate term safety.

Couldn't the gap as easily be a fancy magic sword as it could be something with very high Rank?

It could be Plerion changing the physics of the area too to nullify our magic with a dimensional vortex. If that's the case we'll need World Defeating Stance.
 
Hero-Defeating does best address the danger of a hidden final guardian with a power gap

I'm kind of inclined to keep half an eye on our long term build still, however, absent real evidence there's a substantial difference in immediate term safety.

Couldn't the gap as easily be a fancy magic sword as it could be something with very high Rank?
It depends if that guardian is Rank based or not though; if it isn't, M-DS or even Wo-DS might be better.

But Weapon is still quite strong against the Immortals while not "Wasting" Arete so I much prefer it, it strikes agood balance;
 
Weapon-defeating stance is generally more useful against mooks, which decreases complication chance for us and our allies, which I think is pretty relevant. The less time and risk spent on losers, the more resources we have to take down the big bads.
 
{Ed} Mind
{Ed} Mind x2
{Ed} Mind x3
{Ed} Determination(2 picks, needs 2 picks in Mind)
{Ed} The Underworld(+1 Majesty)

{X}(1 majesty, doesn't cost a pick) Sun ring

The power of D E T E R M I N A T I O N. With our currently shocking level of strength (equal or greater than some of the mightiest knights in the kingdom), our main real concern is in the strategic and logistical aspect of our war on organized crime. Both of those are likely to be improved through the power of our mind as we obtain the inhuman perspicacity and intelligence necessary to understand their means of concealment and communication. More importantly, I'm hoping Determination might lead to techniques that allows us to build a memetic hazard suite like TIM's, which would do a lot to mitigate our Curse.

As for the Sun Ring, the Doom of the Martyr only requires us to answer specific requests from the pure of heart. Given that it seems monetarily worthless, simply leaving it at home would likely be more than sufficient to prevent us from giving it away in a fit of maddened charity. Keep it secret, keep it safe.
 
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