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Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

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TheBiggerFish said:
[X] Join the group assaulting the caldera
I think we'd be better at it than tarpitting escapees. Because we can't be everywhere on the perimeter, but the caldera is a chokepoint.
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Considering our speed and flight, we're kind of especially effective over our peers on tarpitting escapees for exactly this reason.

Downside is allies being more spread out means fewer eye witnesses to our awesomeness.
 
Daio Gen continued, managing in that way good speakers had to seem like he was looking at everyone at once. "I would firstly thank all who volunteered for this duty today. Your contributions to the Sect will not be forgotten. The matter today is one which the Sect leadership has debated," he said gravely. "For there is every possibility that it is intended as a trap."

There was only a little noise. Ling Qi shared a look with Cai Renxiang. They had in the intervening days, spoken further on the matter and the possibility had come up.

"Divination within the Sect remains troubled and inconclusive," Diao Gen said, shaking his head sorrowfully. "However such sources as we have indicate both the potential for great fortune as well as great danger, and so it was decided that we must strike. However we are not foolish, Elder Yongrui will ensure that we are not overwhelmed by a potential high cultivation foe and if need be, call upon reinforcements. If the barbarians intend to trap us, then they will find themselves trapped in turn."
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Hm. Why do I get the feeling Jiao was opposed to this mission, and the Argent Sect is getting a little to used to victory.

Although there is a pretty good chance there is some seriously useful information at the ritual site, but I suspect we're going to be seeing a bunch of Cloud Nomad tribes working together, which is going to suck as it comes in the form of boatloads of air calvary meaning they likely can turn the inside of the volcano into a killzone using archers.
"The target is thus," Diao Gen continued gesturing at the empty stone between the expeditions three leaders. The flat ground rippled like water, and shapes arose, mountain peaks, valleys and hills, rendered in miniature. The detail of the 'sculpture' was exquisite, tiny trees and plants rendered in darker stone and rivers glittering in crystal. Diao Gen's extended hand pointed to a peak in the center as it finished. It was shorter than the others, as if someone had come along and scooped the top half of the peak away, leaving a cavernous pit. "Earthwound Peak is believed to be a dormant volcano, although it has never erupted in the history of the Empire."
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So the things that immediately come to mind is whether, or not they have reinforcements waiting in the wing.

Without them
A: The crater might be a sacrificial ritual that calls down lightning if the ritual LQ saw in Dark Dreams was an attempt to replicate this except this is the sacred place where it was originally done.
B: This is part of a larger ritual to do something, and everyone involved are volunteers.
C: A combination of the two.

Now with the enemy planning around having reinforcements in the wings it becomes much more nasty for a couple of reasons.
1) The ritual site seems like it would make for an excellent kill zone as green is still the point where you're unable to fly meaning for the assault force to get out they need to get up the hill, which is an issue if you've got loads of yellow nomads raining arrows down onto you.
2) The ritual is likely something that buffs the Cloud Nomads, and/or debuffs our side. My suspicion is something that supercharges their mobility for a short period of time allowing them to rapidly encircle the assault force using reinforcements.
3) Although considering that massive ritual they had in dark dreams some kinda "Summon lightning bolt through gathering a bunch of cloud nomads around a target" would work on their end.
"The obvious implication is incorrect however," Guan Zhi said crisply. "To awaken the mountain would be beyond the abilities of any Cloud tribesman yet recorded. There is some possibility of cooperation with their allies, but we do not believe that to be the purpose of the meeting taking place."
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Well if one of their legendary figures silenced a volcano using lightning waking it up wouldn't be out of the question, and well if you've got multiple tribes cooperating by pooling knowledge who wouldn't normally be doing so.

[X] Join the southern perimeter group

Because for a perimeter designed to catch those bailing will have highly mobile cultivators meaning in the event of "suddenly enemy reinforcements punch through your perimeter" they can finish off the small groups CRX brings down blunting the enemy encirclement, and LQ harrying others can slow them down elements of their reinforcements as their primary goal will almost certainly be the elimination of the assault group to the cultivator for internal propaganda purposes.

Meanwhile Zhengui can serve as a mobile hardpoint to rally the perimeter forces around, and once that is done punch a hole through the encirclement allowing the assault force to "Get on the Xuanwu if you want to live!".
 
Glau said:
[X] Join the group assaulting the caldera



I might be making a leap, but from the interludes I thought there was a legend of a fallen star, that we'd kinda tied to the corrupted mountain we fought. There was also the cloud barbarian Khans meeting where the implication was that there daughter of a powerful, evil spirit to the south was being brought in.

Personally, I think we are about to crash a wedding and have the bride spank us on the way out.
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no the southern spirit is an Ice Baba-Yaga-sorta-spirit. The Fallen Star is the radiation the uh "color out of space" sort of effect we saw on the mountain. We believe it to be more related to the Cloud Tribe than the Shishigui, but it could be a 4th faction.

shishigui, cloud tribe, ice ladies, and Fallen Star would be the 4 factions of big danger. in that case
 
[X] Join the southern perimeter group

Set Zhengui up on the high ground and use flight plus field effects to stop people who run into our range. Besides:
yrsillar said:
Ling Qi huffed. "Fine, between the two of us, it is highly unlikely for any barbarians in our assigned zone to escape. We will be more of an asset in such an operation."
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LQ said to CRX that she thought that was what the two of them would be good at. Let's play to our strengths.
 
[X] Join the southern perimeter group

This just seems to be the option that makes best use of our comparative advantages. Even if Zhengui performs worse here, I think that we would contribute more here than at the caldera overall. I'm expecting the situations in both locations to go sideways based on narrative clues, so I'm fine with not getting a close look at what's going on at the ritual site. There should be lots of entertainment regardless.
 
[X] Join the southern perimeter group

Yeah, I'm convinced by the point that LQ's in-character assessment is unlikely to be wrong, as much as I want to see Zhengui doing Volcano Stuff.
 
[X] Join the group assaulting the caldera

its unlikely barbarians would get away from us and thats where the leadership will be.
 
Honestly, mostly I'm worried the assault has too much stuff going on, too fast, too close together. There's Ling Qi/spirits/Cai Renxiang teamwork to showcase. Plus all our sect allies fighting right next to us. There's the site and ritual stuff going on. Cloud Nomad reactions to track and keep track of. It's a lot of stuff all happening at once, and that just seems like a huge headache to write for.

As for Zhengui, if nothing else, I think him acting as mobile jail for captured Nomads is plenty useful. Frees up us and nearby allies to run around again faster if we don't have to babysit the defeated. Another aspect to consider is whether the relative isolation of a spread out perimeter posting gives Ling Qi more space to... have a conversation with a captured Cloud Nomad, or something. Pretty sure if we fight at the caldera, Ling Qi will leave that to others entirely.
 
[X] Join the group assaulting the caldera

Cai Renxiang's main contribution to this mission is probably her buff clear and denial capabilities, preventing the mutual speed buff network that stymied Ling Qi's efforts during the Cloud Tribe attack earlier in the year. By taking out those speed/dodge/avoid buffs, CRX negates one of the main advantages the Cloud Tribespeople has in escaping the Sect's net.

Between Ling Qi's and her spirits' tar-pitting capabilities, I think attacking the caldera and the main bulk of the Cloud Tribespeople is the best use of Cai Renxiang's and Ling Qi's efforts. Hanyi's taunt, alongside Ling Qi's Lunatic Whirl, has plenty of synergy to ensure the Sect captures lots of Cloud Tribespeople.
 
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