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The Path Unending (A Cultivation Quest)

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[X] Blacksmith Tools are going missing in the Creator's Garden. Find what is removing them and deal with it. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)

[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)
 
[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)
[X] Blacksmith Tools are going missing in the Creator's Garden. Find what is removing them and deal with it. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)
 
[X] Blacksmith Tools are going missing in the Creator's Garden. Find what is removing them and deal with it. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)
[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)
 
[X] The Archives maintain a map of the most commonly used tunnels in the midlands and highlands. Review it and walk it's paths to ensure they are still accurate. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)

[X] There has been word that the snake population in the midlands has exploded to a dangerous level seemingly overnight. Cull the serpents and, if possible, investigate the cause of their sudden reproduction. (Difficulty: Very Hard. Reward: 15 Sect Points)
-[X] Ask Nokia if she wants to help. Offer most of the snake meat and/or a share of the sect points if she wants.

These two can be done together and will help prepare for the expedition. They also seem like they'll only benefit from the claws.
 
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Adhoc vote count started by Enjou on Oct 20, 2020 at 10:37 AM, finished with 60 posts and 36 votes.
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[X] Blacksmith Tools are going missing in the Creator's Garden. Find what is removing them and deal with it. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)
[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)

I guess we should see if our hammer-bogart is now running around in the sect (You'd think the elders would do something about that? their levels of dont-give-a-shit are really impressive)
And eat food. Maybe it has anam in it, who knows!
 
dingdonghadron said:
I guess we should see if our hammer-bogart is now running around in the sect (You'd think the elders would do something about that? their levels of dont-give-a-shit are really impressive)
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Right now it's only a minor nuisance. Unless it managed to start stealing tools from the higher level disciples or even Tian himself, it's not really worth his notice. Solving little problems like this is also a good way for younger disciples to get experience.
 
[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)
[X] The runes on the lamps within the Archives need to be refreshed. Recarve them using the template provided. (Difficulty: Easy. Reward: 4 Sect Points)

Wonder if this chef will be a rival or a mentor figure for Ming Hui. The difficulty level make me suspect of a chance for poisoning.
In general I prefer low effort-mid award a week before the expedition.
 
dingdonghadron said:
(You'd think the elders would do something about that? their levels of dont-give-a-shit are really impressive)
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They have tenure.

[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)
[X] The runes on the lamps within the Archives need to be refreshed. Recarve them using the template provided. (Difficulty: Easy. Reward: 4 Sect Points
 
[X] Blacksmith Tools are going missing in the Creator's Garden. Find what is removing them and deal with it. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)

[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)

I think we can suceed on the taste testing task, and we should be able to at least figure out what is removing the tools from the Creator's Garden, even if we don't suceed on the removing. As long as we get a partial success on Blacksmith and a full success on taste, we'll have suceeded on our goal of getting at least 11 sect points.
 
I am looking forward to experimenting with utility charms after the Deep Expedition, or rather, after obtaining the Elder Siani's approval.
 
[X] The Archives maintain a map of the most commonly used tunnels in the midlands and highlands. Review it and walk it's paths to ensure they are still accurate. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)
[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)
 
[X] Blacksmith Tools are going missing in the Creator's Garden. Find what is removing them and deal with it. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)
[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)
 
Keep in mind that taste-testing isn't just about the five senses - it's been made pretty clear that a large chunk of cooking skill/quality has to do with the anam that may or may not be there, so Kong Zhi's enhanced anam senses (both from being a Soldier and mastered SEG) and possibly his knowledge of anam types and/or anam interactions may well be even more important to his ability to give useful criticism than whether he can isolate and enhance mundane senses.
 
[X] Blacksmith Tools are going missing in the Creator's Garden. Find what is removing them and deal with it. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)

[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)
 
We should still be on our guard with the little Kukuni we made, though. If I'm reading the notes from our last Lost Armory trip correctly, it's been cycling there.
 
Enjou said:
[X] Blacksmith Tools are going missing in the Creator's Garden. Find what is removing them and deal with it. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)

Okay, so, I'm not decided on the other one, but I want to do this very badly now that I've figured something out.

I think it's a Kukuni. Likely the one from the hammer we put in the Armory. More importantly, this has given me the clue as to the Kukuni's moment.

Remember where we got that blacksmith's hammer from? We got it by stealing it from Jin Yazhu in the Creator's Garden. Kukuni are born from moments of import, and that was an important moment for Kong Zhi, Jin Yazhu, Mei Daiyu, and Mo Hanying. It defined the duel.

So now? Now there's a relatively newborn kukuni, fueled by us placing its vessel in a place rich in Steel anam, dedicated to stealing blacksmith tools from the Creator's Garden. It's freaking hilarious. Finding it and dealing with it should be very much within our abilities.

EDIT:
[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)

Kong Zhi actually has done fairly well in terms of his internal monologues when eating Ming Hui's food. Also, that Appraise skill of his would potentially come into play here.

We can also shut down all of our senses save Taste and Smell using SEG, and enhance them to higher levels. EDIT 2 - actually, we'd need to keep feel on as well, to get texture.
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One minor nitpick with this theory: we stole the hammer weeks ago, and only now are things going missing - right after the moment we decided to yeet an anam-rich smith-hammer into the middle of a partially-reconstructed wonder of unknown purpose and potency.

It's possible the 'moment' wasn't the theft, but the "let's fuck around with the energy of creation itself (in the material form of a smith tool) in ways we don't understand and see what the hell happens" moment that birthed a kukuni - if so, it's going to be a very different sort of Kukuni - one that's probably very interested in screwing around with materials that resemble the smith tool that birted it to see what the hell happens more than it just wants to steal random things.
 
[X] Blacksmith Tools are going missing in the Creator's Garden. Find what is removing them and deal with it. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)
 
dingdonghadron said:
One minor nitpick with this theory: we stole the hammer weeks ago, and only now are things going missing - right after the moment we decided to yeet an anam-rich smith-hammer into the middle of a partially-reconstructed wonder of unknown purpose and potency.

It's possible the 'moment' wasn't the theft, but the "let's fuck around with the energy of creation itself (in the material form of a smith tool) in ways we don't understand and see what the hell happens" moment that birthed a kukuni - if so, it's going to be a very different sort of Kukuni - one that's probably very interested in screwing around with materials that resemble the smith tool that birted it to see what the hell happens more than it just wants to steal random things.
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From Auntie Bi's descriptions of the moments that create kukuni, it's very likely that the vast majority of them never get anywhere for lack of access to the anam needed to get the ball rolling and repeat the events that birthed them. Otherwise you'd likely see campfire kukuni basically freaking everywhere, starting campfires all over the damn place. Kukuni are artists in their own way, and not all will grow, and what's more it will take them time to grow. And by putting the hammer, which the weak and newly born kukuni may have been attached to, to the Lost Armory we did something that gave that kukuni an advantage - we gave it access to a source of anam to fuel its growth.

It's probable that newborn kukuni are like Servants. They can use anam, but they don't really generate enough to use techniques. So they need an external source. By giving the kukuni in the hammer a compatible source of anam, we allowed it to cycle anam and start actually using whatever techniques it was birthed with, which allowed it to start stealing stuff on its own.
 
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dingdonghadron said:
It's possible the 'moment' wasn't the theft, but the "let's fuck around with the energy of creation itself (in the material form of a smith tool) in ways we don't understand and see what the hell happens" moment that birthed a kukuni - if so, it's going to be a very different sort of Kukuni - one that's probably very interested in screwing around with materials that resemble the smith tool that birted it to see what the hell happens more than it just wants to steal random things.
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It's possible, but it's a lot less likely.

For starters, 'Kong Zhi stealing from Jin Yahzu' has a good deal more narrative weight attached to it than 'Kong Zhi experiments with anam' - especially in terms of actual rather than potential ramifications. We don't really know where the line for how important a moment has to be to birth a kukuni, but greater importance probably correlates with greater likelihood.

Secondly, kukuni motives are very direct - if the first sign of a kukuni is that tools are going missing, then 'tools going missing' is probably pretty relevant to a kukuni's core concept/mission. A kukuni born from 'Someone steals a tool and kicks off a bunch of important stuff' moving to actively stealing (with a bunch of parallels to said moment and/or the anam they've cycled) makes much more intuitive sense than a kukuni born from 'lets fuck around with anam to see what happens' moving to taking tools (cycled anam explains why tools rather than other stuff, but it doesn't explain why stealing nearly as well).

You would think that a kukuni born of curiosity would have other activities closer to it's origins than skulking around and stealing tools, whereas a kukuni born of theft going straight to actively thieving is about as direct as you'd expect a kukuni to be.
 
Have a current tally! Vote is still open. Plenty of time remaining if you want to try to divert the river from it's course!
Adhoc vote count started by Vesvius on Oct 20, 2020 at 6:22 PM, finished with 76 posts and 44 votes.
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[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)
[X] The runes on the lamps within the Archives need to be refreshed. Recarve them using the template provided. (Difficulty: Easy. Reward: 4 Sect Points
 
[X] Blacksmith Tools are going missing in the Creator's Garden. Find what is removing them and deal with it. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)
[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)

People gave good points for going with these two. We are ourselves a Crafter and have some knowledge of the layout of the Creator's Garden, so this should be somewhat in our wheelhouse. As for the taste testing, the Enclosed Garden should give us a leg up for that task.
 
[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)
[X] The runes on the lamps within the Archives need to be refreshed. Recarve them using the template provided. (Difficulty: Easy. Reward: 4 Sect Points)
 
[X] Blacksmith Tools are going missing in the Creator's Garden. Find what is removing them and deal with it. (Difficulty: Hard. Reward: 11 Sect Points)
[X] An Eighth Circle Immortal Chef has a dish she wishes feedback on. Payment is contingent upon useful criticism. (Difficulty: Medium. Reward: 7 Sect Points)
 
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