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A Simple Transaction I

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Talace said:
Rihaku said:
At last they reached the border of Augustine's inner dominion, the simple command tent now elevated atop a foreboding pillar, column of earth upthrust from the swamp around and fissured with seams of azure and gold. The Cloak of Sky writhed and snapped, bristling before the form of its nemesis: stone to its air, depth to its void.

The senses swam before that impossible tower, its fell radiance swarming mind and spirit. Augustine's forces dwelt in the corners of the real, their might sufficient to rend soul and sanity; yet he was the envoy of a greater power still, before which even such terrors as this were less than motes in the breeze. He flared the Ring of Crimson, bright burning Blood which brought mere Passion to heel, and even fear itself could naught but yield before its fury.
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The Cloak of Sky happens to dislike the Tower of Earth. We don't know if this means it would be more willing to eat it, or less. We also know that the Patron this tower represents is of a lower power-tier than Claumngor (who is apparently made up, anyway). What this indicates is that Augustine probably used her magic to tap into the primordial counterpart of the Sky (the Earth) and fashioned it into a deity-spirit for her to use. I suspect that this is a monument to Claumngor, in the same way that the Opalescent Tower was probably a monument to Arulothel.
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When Hunger declares himself "the envoy of a greater power still" I think that is an unambiguous reference to the Accursed. Therefore, it seems like the Tower of Earth doesn't have to be connected to Claumngor at all.

i feel like i'm badly misreading the chapter, or i'm badly misreading your post. maybe you could clarify the Earth -> Claumngor connection for me?
 
Huh, Talace's post made me think that maybe she wants to steal our Cloak. I would normally think this is impossible, but if absorbing the Towers of Earth and Sky gives her enough metaphorical authority due to 'belonging' to her?..
 
The counterpart to Sky Veil could also be Earth Shoes, protecting from the... glory? of the Earth. Unfortunately, we don't have any magical shoes around. Gisena can cobble some together, maybe.
 
Zampano said:
When Hunger declares himself "the envoy of a greater power still" I think that is an unambiguous reference to the Accursed. Therefore, it seems like the Tower of Earth doesn't have to be connected to Claumngor at all.

i feel like i'm badly misreading the chapter, or i'm badly misreading your post. maybe you could clarify the Earth -> Claumngor connection for me?
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I think I bungled my words, there. I meant to say that the Tower's patron was lower tier than our patron. The connection of Earth to Claumngor arises from them both being used by LP. Claumngor already has pretty strong thematic connections to Earth, and while it's possible they're separate powers, I think there's suficient circumstantial evidence to indicate that they're related in some way.
 
Towers are just big pillars, Augustine has (attenuated) Build powers, therefore this is a Pillar of Creation. Only problem is, Pillars is (or at least was) blatantly Evening Sky focused, so I'm not sure how much help that is.

If there is a Realm of Evening, is there a Realm of (subdivison of) Earth this Tower was summoned from? Wouldn't that just be the ground, though?

Wait, rather than layers, you could also go sand/silt/clay. Those Realms don't sound too alien, might be reachable. But that's just soil, not stone. Pokemon rules then, with ground, rock, and metal. Bah.

Moving on, was thinking about how Gisena doesn't have obvious Artifice-able raw materials for this task, but the Earth itself is full of resources. Mine the tower for tower-mining equipment.
 
Honestly, if we do ge the Tower then that's a massive win for the Miner's Guild.

Imagine having more places to mine for Areterite
 
Do you think that if you tempt me with a big enough shiny I will lose all sense of reason? Do you think that my will to absorb every power up in sight is so strong I would blindly enter an obvious trap?

[X] Absorb the Tower of Earth

You're god damn right I will. I say we flip the trap head on and beat her anyway. Way more interesting to me than cut through.
 
Man, that's some bait alright. Even ignoring everything else, gaining two Empyrean Sigils usually costs 2 picks and 19 Arete, so this is basically 2 pick/7 Arete for FREE.

Augustine makes our party feels somewhat inadequate..
 
Rihaku said:
It could also be free with enough research focus / time...
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Sure, but with two Signs more you can spend same research time on Sixth Sign, so say nothing of opportunity value we'd gain for having two high tier powers right now(realistically Signs are comparable to 7-12 Arete Advancements, minus stats and times/resources to cast).

I would likely pick upgrading Enclosure, of course, but free Signs are easy to quantify so we can tell exact value of Absorbing. As it is, it's value appears to be similar to Azure's which we spent entire Temple fighting for.

Man, that's some good fucking bait.
 
@Rihaku Thanks for the chapter tonight! Seems like there's a lot to discuss in a long-form reaction, but I'm almost done making char-gen options for that Intensify+Regalia side-quest, and I was wondering if you could answer a couple character generation questions for me:

1. Doom of the Tyrant warns against taking it alongside any other Brand effects. Is there any particular interaction between Tyrant + Plenary Brand beyond simply being immediately recognized as unreasonable & hard to negotiate with?

2. Do you have any examples of what a "modest but synergistic" superpower from Regalia would look like? My mind is poisoned by Worm, where the powers seem both too-weak & too-absolute for your universe.

3. If you have any notes about how Intensify would combine with Regalia, I'd love to hear them.

Edit: 4. Oh yeah, what's Prolessarch's "primary area of specialization"?

(If you don't tell me the canon details then I'll just have to make things up :V)
 
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[X] Quick but Methodical

[X] Absorb the Tower of Earth

I'm honestly fine with all the choices, except slow and methodical. That seems like it'll fuck us over.

It's worth keeping in mind that if Hunger munches on the Tower he also, implicitly, deals with the majority of its defenses and the like while doing so. In some ways Absobr the Tower and the various methodical methods are analogous.

Example: Hunger going and breaking the various traps and defenses with Methodical still pits him against said defenses. Munching them all down isn't all that different in some ways.

Static - Download
100 Ordinal Credits.
5 Cerulean Obols.
0 Radiant Electrum.
—
[2] - Hegemon: [+2 Cerulean Obols]
—
[ ] A Modest Realm - Twilight
—
Gamble:
[ ] 5: Thinblood - [+75 Ordinal Coins]
—

—
Profess / Preference
[ ] I: Profoundly Tasteful [6 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] II: Preference Ranking [14 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] III: The Professor [43 Ordinal Coins] -
—
Cerulean Obols
[ ] Chosen One [4 Cerulean Obols] -
—
Radiant Electrum
[ ] Perchance to Dream [1 Radiant Electrum] -

Debit: 63/ 4 / 1
Credit: 63 / 4 / 1

Strategy:
Perchance is used to reliably replace health with essence by way of perfect defenses, while Chosen One provides a method of increasing maximum health with some time. It should be possible to use Professor to grind HP even if XP costs become prohibitively expensive. Twilight verse vampires are fast, but only a modest threat to start with.
Doomed and Forbidden - Download
100 Ordinal Credits.
5 Cerulean Obols.
0 Radiant Electrum.
—
[3] - Shards of Infinity: [+4 Cerulean Obols]
—
[ ] A Comparable Realm - Eclipse Phase
—
[ ] 6: Forbidding - [+100 Ordinal Coins]
—
[ ] A Saga. [+1 Radiant Electrum]
—
Melodious / Mask
[ ] I: Gourmet [2 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] II: Ordinal Ordering [20 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] III: Resplendency [60 Ordinal Coins] -

Profess / Preference
[ ] I: Profoundly Tasteful [6 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] II: Preference Ranking [14 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] III: All's Fair [35 Ordinal Coins] -

Ally / Alternate
[ ] I: Attribution Requested [5 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] II: Ally [20 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] III: Armada [70 Ordinal Coins] -

Dream / Double
[ ] I: Twice [3 Ordinal Coins] -
—
Cerulean Obols
[ ] Body Armor [8 Cerulean Obols] -
—
Radiant Electrum
[ ] First Sword [1 Radiant Electrum] -
[ ] The Pocketwatch [1 Radiant Electrum] -

Debit: 215 / 9 / 1
Credit: 63 / 8 / 1

Strategy:
Forbidding, in combination with Shards, is absurdly dangerous. They're almost certainly going qualify for significant support. However, Armada is a small measure of security, since you have a reliable ally roughly as powerful, if not more powerful, than you. In Eclipse Phase knowledge can be dramatically more power than otherwise, which is why this build hopes to send back knowledge to make an alpha strike possible.
qwolfs threw 1 3-faced dice. Reason: Downloaded Nature Roll: Total: 2
2 2
qwolfs threw 1 8-faced dice. Reason: Downloaded Gamble Roll: Total: 5
5 5
qwolfs threw 1 3-faced dice. Reason: Downloaded Nature Roll: Total: 3
3 3
qwolfs threw 1 8-faced dice. Reason: Downloaded Gamble Roll: Total: 6
6 6
 
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Wolfy said:
Sure, but with two Signs more you can spend same research time on Sixth Sign, so say nothing of opportunity value we'd gain for having two high tier powers right now(realistically Signs are comparable to 7-12 Arete Advancements, minus stats and times/resources to cast).

I would likely pick upgrading Enclosure, of course, but free Signs are easy to quantify so we can tell exact value of Absorbing. As it is, it's value appears to be similar to Azure's which we spent entire Temple fighting for.

Man, that's some good fucking bait.
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If Signs have exponential research requirements, the time savings could be relatively meagre! Who knows until you actually have downtime to perform such research...

Zampano said:
@Rihaku Thanks for the chapter tonight! Seems like there's a lot to discuss in a long-form reaction, but I'm almost done making char-gen options for that Intensify+Regalia side-quest, and I was wondering if you could answer a couple character generation questions for me:

1. Doom of the Tyrant warns against taking it alongside any other Brand effects. Is there any particular interaction between Tyrant + Plenary Brand beyond simply being immediately recognized as unreasonable & hard to negotiate with?

2. Do you have any examples of what a "modest but synergistic" superpower from Regalia would look like? My mind is poisoned by Worm, where the powers seem both too-weak & too-absolute for your universe.

3. If you have any notes about how Intensify would combine with Regalia, I'd love to hear them.

Edit: 4. Oh yeah, what's Prolessarch's "primary area of specialization"?

(If you don't tell me the canon details then I'll just have to make things up :V)
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Plenary + Tyrant means that allies will be aware that you have Tyrant, and so will enemies. Smart enemies can fairly easily figure out how to proc Tyrant.

The Reglia powers are worth about 1/4th the level value (in Seram's system) of the King's Scepter power. Amplitude made Seram level 20, so a Regalia power would have added 5 levels to his baseline. 5 levels is worth about 25 points in stats + 1 perk, where 30 points in stats is a peak human. So something like a very weak, slow & expensive but broad magic system (for characters already good at combat), or a narrow & somewhat powerful superpower well-suited to the character's existing strengths (for characters who need power to survive immediately). In terms of pure stats it could take someone from terrible to peak human in one physical attribute, Dexterity typically being the most useful.

For most Progression-types, immediate power, narrow utility, high combat strength, with some defensive applicability is what they get out of Regalia because that's what they most need.
 
Unfortunate that Diplomacy lost, I was looking forward to social combat for a change, and Augustine continues to impress on the strategic scale. It would be nice to have an ally that could take the field beside us, rather than ambulatory vulnerabilities in need of protection; rapid scaling has reduced even Gisena's relevance to Artifice and the Sea. Still, what's done is done, and compromise was always a long shot at this juncture. Now, what kind of options are we looking at?

...you've got to be bloody kidding me. Another Tower! And that's winning? Augustine's domain is earth, her invented deity was a god of the forge! Who knows what havoc she could wreak from within if it was embraced by our Cloak? Likely the Tower empowers her as well, Augustine's not one to waste resources on a gambit with only one purpose, but we know for a fact that her magic of equivalence can use Abduction as leverage. This fight is ours to loose, but we sure seem to be doing our best. My actual preference is probably Quick but Methodical, Augustine's advantage is her ability to stack preparations, without them she's 'just' a protoplasmic mass with mountain-leveling strength. Also, it would allow Adorie to materially contribute to her sister's defeat, possibly unlocking her EFB in the process. But it's necessary to unite against Absorb, so we might as well default to cutting through.

[X] Cut Through

We should be prepared for the Ring to have a diminished effect on her given the nature of her Protector guise, possibly complete immunity; in her position I might have started cranking out golems too, she's seen the Crimson's domain in action enough to intuit limitations.
 
Adhoc vote count started by Orm Embar on Sep 16, 2020 at 6:26 AM, finished with 118 posts and 36 votes.
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[X] Absorb the Tower of Earth

I see one option on the table that still has a chance of getting Augustine to conceivably surrender, it even comes laden with
a M Y S T E R Y effect!

Why Rihaku, you shouldn't go making options on my account!
 
How does Doom of Lunacy interact with Three Wishes? Your power counts as 1/4 when the Accursed grants your wish, or does it ignore such factors?

I was thinking about a Lunacy+Tyrant +3 Wishes Progression build.
 
[X] Cut Through

Trap is gonna fuck us over hard and half the voter base are gonna be somehow surprised, I just know it.
 
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