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A Simple Transaction I

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DarkSideBard said:
Here's a link to the Interactive A Simple Transaction I CYOA!
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And here's a build without using any of Power of Love / The Lovers / Blank Card, maintaining the previous rule on non-canon Curses or Remittances:

Player (Myself)
Break Containment (Combat-Class) (-16, -1, +3)
Curses (Major): The Geas of Indenture, The Sign of the Crab, The Affliction of Slumber, The Geas of the Sanctum, The Doom of the Tyrant, The Plenary Brand (+18)
Curses (Lesser): The Doom of the Sailor, The Doom of the Addict (+2)
Remaining Remittance Value: +23 - 17 = (+6 RV)

Primary Remittance: Wands (The Flow, Redolence)
The Flow: Freedom (Quality), Quality, Expertise (Quality) - Maximize the Cursebearer's inherent strength of essence, though can also be used on its own to improve the quality of the character's actions/tools or reduce that of his enemies. By my reading it should be able to be used both to augment the potency of essence increase (via the World), and diminish the profundity of essence decrease (from Expenditure). This is an incredibly useful power, basically Amplitude (Metaphysical) so long as you're targeting something with a rate of change.
Redolence: Expend, Paper - Utilize that strength of essence for incredible power. Hopefully The Flow has invigorated the Cursebearer's essence to the degree that ruinous losses for others are merely serious for him. Expend greedily, but not recklessly, to permanently acquire broad, highly effective superpowers relevant to the Cursebearer's situation.

Lesser Remittances:

Item: Justice - Halves the cost of Expenditure on top of being a potent status bludgeon. Also grants a warning system if the character would perform an Expenditure that's over the line, as that is a major decision the Accursed would disapprove of.

Item: The World - Naturally restores / augments the wielder's essence, as well as possessing immense synergy with The Flow (Quality)

Refinement: Temperance - Reduces the negative consequences of Expenditure so long as the character makes a forthright and energetic effort to mitigate their Curses

Refinement: The Tower - Guarantees that the character will fully recover from any given Expenditure over time

Companion: The High Priestess - Synergizes highly with The Flow (Quality) and The World, massively enhancing the productive magical output of her society and providing a civilization with which the Cursebearer can more or less safely interact.

Companion: The Emperor - Maybe he can produce essence-boosting foods? The Flow (Quality) applied to his other buffing foods should render them extremely potent regardless. An army of thousands augmented by a Flow-boosted World, fed on Flow-boosted Emperor foods, and wielding Flow-boosted artifacts should prove a decent deterrent to attacking the slumbering Cursebearer.
 
It's not much compared to what others in this thread have managed, but I felt I should do what I can to support my favored option as well.

The chamber is empty, white stone stretching for miles.

It is, of course, just one of very, very many.

There is a squirming in her chest, a grip about her heart that she can't place.

She starts walking, bare feet on rough stone adding a layer of sound over the beat of her heart.

It is cool in the chamber, a brisk chill against her skin, enough to raise the hair along her arms. With her right hand she brushes along her left forearm, feels the flush warmth of her palm.

A smile steals across her face, the squirming in her chest unfurls in a moment of airy light. A winter morning sunbeam falling in through her tower window.

"Ah-" there's an urge to sing, to breath out her joy into the world. She breathes in, let's the air of the chamber fall into her lungs.

Her light stains it, a drop of color in the ocean, but one that spreads, that multiplies and makes more of itself.

She casts a word with her lips, a sign she's seen wrought with iron and blood. Then she sings, breathes out that colored joy and feels it flow into the mold of her lips.

For a moment the world hangs in the balance, her step caught mid air, hand still warm against her forearm, the pressure of her soul spread across the realm in an embrace so long denied.

Between her lips, for an instant, her sister's name is written on the wind with undiminished foremost tongue.

She sings, tells the story of a sister who wrote her letters every week and never dared to visit. Of kind fathers with shadowed eyes and foreign mothers with vibrant blood.

The song ends as she reaches the door.

She stops, licks a trickle of iron warmth from the corner of her lips and slips into her comfy slippers. Woven of gossamer and glass they wrap her aching soles like bands of silk.

The door cracks open at her touch and she skips out past meters of purest adamant. It whispers closed behind her, speaks in sighs of empty halls and shining platinum.

Her steps don't falter, not when her sister's name still sears her tongue. The heat drives her forward, fuels the fires of her empathy and guides the force of her pressure.

She'll support her nation as best she can, with red words, stained breath and gentle hands.

But first, a new book for Miss Gisena, as a thank you for helping her translate. She'd mentioned the Wells of Myth a time or two, so perhaps her mother's stock would add depth where the Royal Libraries were lacking.

[X] The Seraph of Heroism, Haeliel [Basic, 50 Arete]
 
Another one:

Player(Myself)

Crowning Curse: The Apocryphal Curse
Major Curses: Geas of Indenture (Forced), Brand of the Champion, Brand of the Wretched, Doom of the Tyrant, Sign of the Crab, The Decimator's Affliction

Remittance: Twice Great (Ordinalism)
Lesser Remittances: To Shatter Heaven (Ordinalism), Intensify (Ordinalism)

Well, I'm sure my superior decision-making will make up for the shortfall. Plenary is avoided not let all my enemies know all my weaknesses. Similarly, Doom of Ineptitude is avoided when screwing up = Dying. Rihaku mentioned Binary System being priced at 7 LRs being too much, so here's a 'no more curses than needed' build. Not sure what Intensify (Ordinalism) does, but if it stacks with Ordinal Purist, and certainly stacks with TSH, so I might just be able to advance fast enough to not die (TM) to The Apocryphal Curse.
 
Adhoc vote count started by ReaderOfFate on Oct 13, 2020 at 12:57 PM, finished with 226 posts and 42 votes.
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Zampano said:
For people who are worried that taking Daylian will increase our total number of risky fights, remember that he is also a Progression type Cursebearer. He will grow in power proportionally to the risks that we allow him to take, just like Hunger. While I'm not an expert in Pick Science, I think that two Progression types gaining experience from each battle is likely to yield a dramatic increase in power compared to just one Progression type. (I hold this position even after considering that an ally might reduce our total number of picks per fight.)
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One of my main concerns is that Hunger himself votes for unnecessary but really cool risk with 30-40% of the voting base. We now know for sure that Tower of Earth was a trap, but he wouldn't just pick it while accepting it was a trap but one that's reward was worth the risk like Hunger would have. He'd pick it while fully expecting to suffer no negative consequences and a battle plan based on that belief. Getting RW was great but as Gisena points out in the update it happened they should have been able to win without it. Needing a 28 Arete advancement to pop out of nowhere to save Hunger was explicitly the result of overconfidence.

If we can manage him then it'll be fine, but we're talking about 'risks we allow him to take' when he's the kind of person who fully believes that he could stab the Shard of Acarnist to death without issue right then.

Zampano said:
His primary remittance is called "Admin Privileges" which might act as a hard override to the prohibition on taking mages out of the Voyaging Realm. We know that he has interdimensional travel capabilities, because he is offering to pack up in his home universe and move to the VR/Human Sphere.
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If he can move across universes, it might not be a stretch to assume he could bring other people as well.
And in that case, he could bring people along with us to follow in Geas tasks! We could spend Indenture mitigation on stuff that isn't just 'bring along a companion' as a result.
 
Dark Lord Bob said:
Siri Keaton: "After all...I recovered him from a slowly drifting coffin in interplanetary space for you."
Umm... I haven't read Blindsight or Echopraxia in ages, but isn't this kind of a problem? Not a problem which Cursebearer couldn't handle, but wasn't what was in that coffin no longer Siri?
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I don't remember this, but it has been a few years since I read the book! I don't think that it's a problem anyways, as none of the Progression Remittance Companions are canon versions of themselves but instead versions of them that ended up in places that the Accursed could make use of them.
 
Conjured Blade said:
If we get Synthesis picks(I seriously hope we do) picking Wolber or Daylian lets us get whatever 7 or 25 Arete options may show up.
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Daylian certainly makes Synthesis picks more likely. Wolber does too, though to a far lesser extent (he's a scientist not a magus).

There's also the Realm of Evening to consider: emptying our Arete wallet right before exploring an area designed explicitly for rejuvenation and permanent buffs would be a shame.

However, the Realm of Evening will return month after month. The chance to get a safety net from a High Cursebearer for only 50 Arete is absolutely a one-off. If we can afford it, I think it'd be a shame not to buy Haeliel, even at the expense of getting Daylian as a Friend for Hunger or Wolber as an advisor.
 
Zampano said:
Daylian certainly makes Synthesis picks more likely. Wolber does too, though to a far lesser extent (he's a scientist not a magus).

There's also the Realm of Evening to consider: emptying our Arete wallet right before exploring an area designed explicitly for rejuvenation and permanent buffs would be a shame.

However, the Realm of Evening will return month after month. The chance to get a safety net from a High Cursebearer for only 50 Arete is absolutely a one-off. If we can afford it, I think it'd be a shame not to buy Haeliel, even at the expense of getting Daylian as a Friend for Hunger or Wolber as an advisor.
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Technically Wolber's both given how he spends a sizable chunk of his free time training the Imperial Praxis. The question is the applicability of Imperial Praxis Utility effects/good science skills vs a guy who generate immortal myth rock.

Edit: @Zampano I forgot to mention the Brand of the Wretched makes it harder for us to take Wolbers advice as a relevant factor in this weighting.
 
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DarkSideBard said:
Here's a link to the Interactive A Simple Transaction I CYOA!
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Player(myself)
Edda(progression)
Curses: The Geas of Indenture, The Apocryphal Curse, Brand of the Champion

I doubt I have the potential to become a curse bearer without a crowning curse and apocryphal and jester are the only ones that don't compromise my mental state. I'd rather my very existence not become a cosmic joke so I'll go with apocryphal. Indenture is a no brainer and I'm not too concerned on losing out on societal benefits so champion seems like a good choice.

Primary Remittance: Twice-Great(Power of Love- Surgecraft: Voidchain)
Talace said:
[ ] Voidchain - What lurks between the depths of stars? An abyssal expanse so tremendous and full of nothing that it beggars belief. And yet, it is here. Your Imaginary Element takes the form of chains made of nothing. An invisible heatshimmer that wraps and restrains, transfixes with the reflection of all those that look too closely. These chains are flimsy, yet for that exact reason they are impervious. Rapidly regenerating, resistant to dispellation, and endless in number. The chains are weak alone, but they are never alone. Clamp on to a foe, and don't let go.

You will never run out. All the Void is and will ever be is the ball and chain on reality.

*Voidchain is an element built to bind and control. Beings restrained by your chains will slowly lose the will to resist, eventually ceding to total domination.
*+50% to the value of Will+s. It takes a strong heart to carry the chains.
*This element can be used in versatile ways, from shooting chains at rapid velocity to spear a foe to acting as a grappling hook to carry you over steep ravines.
*Effective nonlethal means of acquiring an army! The persistent nature of your Element means that your foes will have to fend of millions of independent and autonomous assaults from will-draining enemies.
*With severe exertion, use your chains to rip open a hole into a Void. Dragging an enemy here can be considered an instant kill, as their ontological weight withers under the fervent nothingness of the eternal abyss!
*The Void asks nothing and takes nothing for calling on its power. Simply be aware that when you scream into the Void, something may answer.
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I have my own personal element and it's totally awesome. Seems a shame to not make use of it.

Lesser Remmitances: Intensify(Surgecraft), To Shatter Heaven(surgecraft), Relinquishment

I don't have the diligence to practice and combine multiple magic systems and Voidchain is already very versatile. I'll go all in on it. Besides with apocryphal constantly hounding me I'll need as many progression modifiers as possible to stay ahead especially seeing as how my only real killing move has some bad drawbacks. Relinquishment is so that I have less of a chance of going crazy from the constant grind of a progression type.

Edit: Oh yeah this too.

[X] DarkSideBard

I'm putting my faith in the miners.
 
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Enohthree said:
He'd pick it while fully expecting to suffer no negative consequences and a battle plan based on that belief. Getting RW was great but as Gisena points out in the update it happened they should have been able to win without it. Needing a 28 Arete advancement to pop out of nowhere to save Hunger was explicitly the result of overconfidence.
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The idea of Hubris applying an effectiveness debuff by way of making stupid plans is a neat idea that I hadn't considered.

The reason I'm optimistic about Daylian is that it lets Hunger take dangerous fights for +Progression without cementing his characterization of being a risk taker. I guess you have to decide whether the fights with Hubris are more likely to cause a Quest End than being involved in Apocryphal procs scaled to a Combat Type's power level.

I will concede the point that our voter base has often been overconfident. But there are equally 30-40% of voters who fought really hard for the fishing contest and other safer plot options. Daylian seems like one way to find a compromise between the NOT DYING Gang and people who want fights that are exciting (dangerous).

Hunger's own risk tolerance is likely to be tapered down over time, as is desired by people who are concerned about surviving the epilogue. Coping with Daylian's hubris procs means that this process can proceed without pivoting to hypercautious play or bleeding tension (excitement) out of the plot.
 
[X] The Seraph of Heroism, Haeliel [Basic, 50 Arete]

Upon reflection, Haliel would allow us to have our very own Seraph Says segments at the end of each update, and I now want that more than anything. All other considerations are secondary.
 
Microwave MKII said:
"Side-character" is technically correct because of the choices we made, but it's probably worth mentioning to those who have not read Terrascape that she was also secretly/not-so-secretly the actual protagonist/Heroine of that setting.
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To reinforce this statement: she was not just the protagonist in the sense of 'a character who Rihaku had a lot planned for', but rather, objectively the protagonist, a person who possessed greater ontological importance than everyone else in the setting.
 
Conjured Blade said:
She was like Aobaru. Or Jotarun from AST Original.
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This is uncomfirmed. It's possible that there are few different 'kinds' of hero, and that Caroline, Aobaru, and Jotarun were all different sorts. Aobaru, for example, I don't think inherently more important than anyone else, his Chose One status is more of a burden than a boon.
 
[X] The Seraph of Heroism, Haeliel [Basic, 50 Arete]
DarkSideBard said:
Here's a link to the Interactive A Simple Transaction I CYOA!
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Here's my build.

Player
- Data Extraction

Curses - The Geas of Indenture, The Affliction of Vigor, Doom of the Saint, The Explosive Affliction, Sign of the Crab, Doom of the Coward, The Curse of Despair (2 Curses), Curse of the Jester (2 Curses), Doom of the Addict, Affliction of the Weary, Sign of the Twins, Curse of Plagiarization^2, Major Curse (Doom of the Martyr), Major Curse (Doom of Lunacy), Lesser Curse (Doom of Rivalry),

Remittances - Lost In Transaction, If You've Seen One Transaction…(Admin Privileges), Aradia Megido (Homestuck), Moondrop, Saltbrume, Candle, Grace, Retinue, Quantified World, Immortal Sheath, Rebuilt, Relinquishment, Binary System,

Locations - Endless IKEA
 
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