Remove ads

A Simple Transaction I

Reader mode
Sharkey_smt said:
Magus means a member of the priestly caste of ancient Persia. I hope this is what Zampano meant, otherwise there would be vengeance.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The Sword Chads' seminal work in the field of getting EFBs laid the groundwork for contemporary advancements in Evening Sky EFB Technology. We owe a lot to those who follow the old faith of emulating the Forebear.

I'll happily honor you with the title of Maeg the next time we work together to learn some Praxis spells!
 
Zampano said:
I'll happily honor you with the title of Maeg the next time we work together to learn some Praxis spells!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

don't worry, i'm sure the next time we have a shot at more empyrean signs, you guys will be best buds

Rihaku said:
[ ] His Shroud Was Down
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Hmm. I wonder if we could do something with Shadowcord to improve our shot at a successful ambush/alpha-strike. Perhaps a container of Edeldross so we can supersaturate ourselves with the by putting it into a hyperdense sphere? We'd be spending some time sitting around while charging Nightmare Flight anyway. And speaking of Edeldross, this is an ideal time to use our advanced Edeldross enhancement, which should improve our stat value bonuses to 90%. It's time limited so it probably won't last for the full fight but that extra 30% across the board could really make a difference. Maybe we could also have Gisena pump us full of Findross and see if that might also provide some marginal improvements to our abilities.
 
[X] Seize The Day
[X] His Shroud Was Down
[X] Foe-Defeating Stance

I don't know why any of y'all crazies would go for the "Delete character development" button. Do you not care about the story? Do you just want to win so badly? What sense does it make to build a character for so long, and then just erase all of it?
 
Gabriel97 said:
Do you just want to win so badly?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Rihaku said:
Catherine with hair of gold had thrown herself before the Tyrant's blade. He remembered the cornflower blue of her eyes, bright with unshed tears, her smile of forgiveness and absolute conviction, spill of her hair like a saintess' halo. He remembered his body moving automatically, exploiting the rare opening the Tyrant had presented him, culmination of ten thousand drills and desperate fighting retreats.

"Win." She'd whispered as he passed her by, her final words on this earth. "Win. That's all that matters."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Bruh, the whole character of Hunger is win, no matter the cost
 
As an addendum to the Edeldross buffs, could we also provide Aeira with that advanced Edeldross enhancement? The magnitude of her Shadowcord bonuses scale with both the target and the caster's power, so any marginal bonuses might provide just a little bit more performance there. Any buffs the mages of Nilfel could provide would also be good for this, along with applying them to Hunger.

For more prosaic tactics, could we have Nilfel launch some kind of widespread assault on the Armament's followers and support crew? If its spreads its Pressure out to defend them, that might make it easier for our initial assault to land. Ideal would be if we could bait its Pressure out ahead of it, so we could pull a nothing personel kid by teleporting behind it and then doing the RoQ speed stabbings. Might be possible if we put our prisoners out ahead of the Walls. While they'd probably be wary of it, I don't think they'd expect an RKO outta nowhere with a guy who can fight Armaments on foot.

While I'm assuming we'll already by hyperaccelerating our heartbeat in order to maximise the speed of the Deathly Star. Maybe Gisena could give him a smooch ahead of time? That'll really get his blood pumping.
 
Could we... could we do the gigabrain Second Stage ambush strat here? Probably not due to Rank.

But man, if that actually got us the win...
 
Last edited:
Shard said:
25 Arete Final Form Purchase?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Oh man, how fucking hype would that be, Hunger falling in battle twice over and just as all hope it lost, he stands up and says "This is my FINAL FORM!" before casting aside his pitiful physical body form one of Praxis blue and then kicking the shit out of the Armament. Now that would be so cash.
 
Last edited:
Here are some predictions, we'll see how they go.
-Hunger will lose.
-The defense wish is defensive only; if it gets used Hunger will not get any picks or super special rewards. Losers who need to be bailed out don't get rewarded.
-The Republic does not commit genocides and Letrizia's after-action reports are all fake Empire propaganda. Seriously, kidnapping a million mages? The Republic struggles to extract a single mage, the idea that they'd kidnap a million people is laughable. And don't even get me started on how they'd control a million+ superhumans who loathe them.



Rihaku said:
This was Procyon, one of two Armaments forged by humanity on Old Terra, long eons after the disappearance of the Foremost.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Some thoughts on how this impacts my potential timeline:

-The Forebear came from Earth and could never return due to the Procession.
-The Human Sphere is a universe like our own with planets like Old Terra and Realm(s) like Voyaging Realm. The text has never mentioned humans migrating here from another universe or anything like that so Old Terra is in the Human Sphere.
-The Forebear was in the Human Sphere/Voyaging realm/Old Terra. We know this because his descendants lived at the Temple. There are other clues as well, like the Foremost having a similar name as him, and the fact that the Ring Hunger from the Voyaging Realm ended up being worn by the Tyrant.
-If the Forebear visited then Old Terra was not Earth, since the Forebear couldn't go home. And if he visited it must be part of the Procession.
-Old Terra/Voyaging Realm/Human Sphere are/were not hellworlds, so they must have been created wholesale by the Forebear. The Forebear was so homesick he re-created the Earth, now called Old Terra, and duplicated it even down to books like The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

There are other possibilities but they're all a real stretch.

Basically he made a copy of the Earth of his childhood, but since he made it in a universe with huge amounts of magic things diverged from our world pretty quickly. He seems to have kept a low profile and probably spent most of his time sleeping. In between naps he created/taught the Foremost, and fathered a dynasty. Eventually he snagged the Ring Hunger and then went on to the next world in the Procession.

Rihaku said:
Armaments would arise in their own time and for their own purpose, and neither physical reality nor astral could deny that immanence.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Maybe the Armamant Fish was birthing itself for Hunger after all.

But the voters killed it.
 
Last edited:
Valkhir said:
[X] Follow Through
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
>sees this
>looks at the rest of the thread
>sees more than one person voting for "Follow Through."

The grandiose immensity of my disappointment for this entire situation is so purulently, wickedly monumental that a quantum supercomputer built on Mars by a precursor mega-civilization calculating for twice the universe's expected lifetime would not be able to approach the sheer totality of This Needs To Stop that I am feeling right now.

I'm not sure whether to be disappointed, disgusted, or scared. No. Just no.

You have apparently reached such a true apex of insanity that straightforward "killing yourself" isn't even sufficient. Instead of ordinary, garden-variety recklessness, some of the people in this thread have ventured bravely forth into supernal realms of insanity normally reserved for villainous mad scientists in children's cartoons.

Not only did you select the option where our chances of death are the highest - and in doing so, expended Aab's Defensive Wish against his will - but you're also voting for the option that's basically labeled, "Oh, also, please: Delete our character development just as we reached its pinnacle!" like it's some pleasant junket. And this is what our 41 Arete is going to be spent for? To recover from intense memory loss, rather than buying an EFB and saving for another so we can become a demigod? This is what I worked for? This is what everyone worked for? We spent days in the Arete Mines so we could kill ourselves a little better?

It's like Zang Kong came into this thread, and being the monster of reason, decided to consume your rationality and leave you devoid of it for his own benefit.

No. There has been enough. I'm not letting the madness continue. You want Arete to save Hunger? Well, you're not fucking getting it. Until this entire vote is resolved, I am withdrawing all omake production in order to incentivize an increase in decisions that aren't completely foolish.

You should feel ashamed. I know I am - through proximity and laxity; to let this happen, and to be in here when it happens - I feel as if I had failed every moral principle and value I ever swore to uphold.

[X] Seize The Day
[X] His Shroud Was Down
[X] Foe-Defeating Stance
 
Last edited:
Adhoc vote count started by runeblue360 on Nov 12, 2020 at 4:33 AM, finished with 88 posts and 37 votes.
Click to expand...
 
Alright, time to explain you guys why you should vote for Follow Through. Sadly, we didn't get 6th Sign through, making this harder, but it is what it is!
  • While Follow Through does come with horrendous up front cost, it's also the must likely to succeed and, thus, least likely to fail. If you want to live long and grow strong, taking temporary setback is clearly better than having Procyon party-wipe us!
  • The above can't be stressed hard enough. Other options are very risky "meh, we can take it" that have higher chance of Procyon falling and everyone dying. If you are confident in our chances then by all means take it, but if, like me, you see this as ultimate fight of this quest in more way than one, do consider tanking the loss for victory. One of benefits of being Progression Cursebearer is that we can bounce back with mere investment of time, after all
  • Of course, the big consideration of Follow Through is cost - in terms of Arete, Advancements, Rank, our blade and Hunger himself
  • Arete is big one, of course. With ability to retain everything else with Arete expenditure, pouring as much as we can is the thing to do, although burning our hard earned resource on virtually nothing hurts. Still, it is what it is, and Follow Through does offer a Haeliel Favor point, which refunds 25 Arete we spend on this choice, subsiding cost by a half. As such, spending 50 Arete on preserving Hunger is more like spending 25 Arete - still painful, but it hurts less, for sure
  • While Hunger's memories and personality will take a hit, combination of good Arete investiture and our friends being there for us will help us bounce back this a lot. I'm bringing this up because there's a big ass group of people whining about muh suicide(while, ironically, voting for options that have bigger % to actually kill us!) when, in fact, we can recover
  • Now, Advancements are actually why I wrote this post. While on surface losing ~50% of everything we did so far hurts, in practice we actually have a lot of wiggle room here. We have a lot of Echos and Blood Advancements to burn if number of picks is the thing we let go, and if we need to lose pure value, we can tank losing Signs, Silver of Evening, Crimson Flare and so on. You can think of it as trimming the fat(except the fat is gold in this case). As long as we retain OaFs, Pillars and Cut Through it's fine
  • We would lose a lot(and I do mean a lot of value), but we'd streamline our build a lot, and we'd also get a ton of value between Procyon picks, Heroic Progression and Favor. We'd still be in net loss, but the point is that the loss is not as total as you might think!
  • Rank loss is sad(as is why i told you guys to get the 6th Sign) but we can get it back. More importantly, this entire sequence would change the focus of our build away from Rank anyway

Of course, while these points contextualize the price and explain why it's not as bad as your kneejerk reaction might make you believe, they also admit that the cost is quite high! Still, we knew what we were signing up where we choose to Hold The Line, so we should be ready to tank losses and make good choices.

I understand being confident in our chances against Procyon and desire to win it all, but not voting Follow Through is very dangerous. It's a course of action that might very well end up with Hunger's death. As such, please consider being prudent and voting Follow Through!

[X] Follow Through
 
Last edited:
Wolfy said:
If you are confident in our chances then by all means take it, but if, like me, you see this as ultimate fight of this quest in more way than one, do consider tanking the loss for victory.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Counterpoint: OHKOing the Armament is a pretty lame fight scene.
 
Last edited:
Birdsie said:
No. There has been enough. I'm not letting the madness continue. You want Arete to save Hunger? Well, you're not fucking getting it. Until this entire vote is resolved, I am withdrawing all omake production in order to incentivize an increase in decisions that aren't completely foolish.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I will drop 6k omake and sell my vote to the Follow Through gang. Thank you for your inaction, for the only thing necessary for the triumph of Death Gang is for good voters to do nothing.
 
Last edited:
Wolfy said:
Alright, time to explain you guys why you should vote for Follow Through.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
No. You cannot explain why mega-suicide > suicide through logic or cold reason. What you're doing is putting incoherent madness into some weird semblance of words and I will disassemble your mind-dissolving anti-arguments before they can properly damage and infect the unshielded minds of the innocent people in this thread.

Wolfy said:
While Follow Through does come with horrendous up front cost, it's also the must likely to succeed and, thus, least likely to fail. If you want to live long and grow strong, taking temporary setback is clearly better than having Procyon party-wipe us!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Do you think the Apocryphal Curse is going to go lighter on us after this? Do you think 50% memory loss will get it to scratch its head and declare it'll be more merciful from now on.

Just be glad we have the Defensive Wish that you already so magnanimously spent on another person's behalf, and the Arete that I and the others spent painstakingly mining.

Wolfy said:
The above can't be stressed hard enough.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It can be. It's pure insanity. We have Defensive Wish and you already committed to the suicide option. You want more than this? You want to ruin us?

Wolfy said:
While Hunger's memories and personality will take a hit [...]
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Some things aren't worth it. I'm not referring to mechanical costs, but to ontological costs.

Wolfy said:
As such, please consider being prudent and voting Follow Through!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You're not just insane, are you? You're more than that, aren't you? You've gained some measure of Insanity on the ISH for this to happen. You're declaring an option that says it gives us more mechanical Recklessness as "prudent."

Sharkey_smt said:
I will drop 20k omake and sell my vote to the Follow Through gang. Thank you for your inaction, for the only thing necessary for the triumph of Death Gang is for good voters to do nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'm not sure if that's supposed to be funny, in which case it actually isn't; or if it's supposed to be literal, in which case direct yourself to the paragraphs attached to my vote. In case it wasn't clear enough, I'm actually appalled by this thread's contents right now.

@Rihaku
If at all possible, I'd like to ask if I can write omake without converting the efforts into Arete, and instead receive only the voting power that comes with it.
 
Last edited:
Gabriel97 said:
I like how you include "Prudency" in the sentence when Follow Through is literally defined as "+Recklessness."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
In Character and Out Of Character considerations are different things, obviously. Still, Follow Through is the likeliest one to let us survive, and thus the most prudent one as far as the thread is concerned, even if it's the most reckless action for Hunger himself.
Birdsie said:
snip
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You should consider taking a break. Right now you are just kneejerking and acting on an impulse.

And, as we know, mere emotion can't help but to yield to the cold of Reason!
 
Birdsie said:
I'm not sure if that's supposed to be funny, in which case it actually isn't; or if it's supposed to be literal, in which case direct yourself to the paragraphs attached to my vote.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It is more of a joke. An Arete miner does not stop when his choice was not picked. He grinds away and away. Of course the omake production is yours so do whatever you want. Good thing is that most Death Gang members have exhausted their votes markers (good thing they took the bait). I will continue to create omakes shitpost newspapers, no matter how despicable or stupid I find some of the decisions that the thread voted for.

At the moment I see your post as nothing more taking the ball home/stopped playing because you did not get your way.
 
Wolfy said:
In Character and Out Of Character considerations are different things, obviously. Still, Follow Through is the likeliest one to let us survive, and thus the most prudent one as far as the thread is concerned, even if it's the most reckless action for Hunger himself.

You should consider taking a break. Right now you are just kneejerking and acting on an impulse.

And, as we know, mere emotion can't help but to yield to the cold of Reason!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Your "cold hard reasoning" is facing some technical difficulties, man, if you actually think going for 'Follow Through' is in any way intelligent. I come from a background of a very particular kind of Questing/Storytelling that has led me to gain a keen eye on what is a smart choice or not. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM.

EDIT: For those curious; making mistakes is the best learning tool, especially if you're a lone person. Here, you have the collective brainpower of dozens of people that can gather and think and discuss stuff instead of mindlessly voting for stupid options. Do the sensible thing and vote for [X] His Shroud Was Down, [X] Seize The Day, [X] Foe-Defeating Stance. Why? Because it's not Follow Through, which is, as Birdsie described it, MEGA EGO-SUICIDE.
 
Last edited:
Wolfy said:
You should consider taking a break. Right now you are just kneejerking and acting on an impulse.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You mistake sheer existential horror for impulse, Wolfy. I am well-aware of what my reaction contains, but I react with sincerity: I am terrified of anyone who votes for Follow Through, and how they can reason this is worth it at all.

Hunger already sacrificed himself once to kill the Tyrant. Instead of transcending that fate, you'd throw him back down into it? How many times would that take?

No, it's clear that you don't have "prudence" or "reason" in mind. You've stated numerous times you're doing this to extract the most "epic boss battle" possible; that's why you voted Hold the Line and advocated it, even when Call On or Fall Back would have been far more prudent. You took the emotional side, and right now, you're trying to argument the new choice as being "prudent," and "rational." That's because you're not voting for either.

No. I think you're voting for the tragic option for tragedy's sake: because it's the most visceral choice you can access. Because you want Hunger and everything he strove for to die in a blaze of glory or a massive explosion.

I'm not sure if this is actually your motivation, and if it's not, forgive the unjust accusation, but this is what I can perceive, Wolfy. This is what my eyes see, and what my eyes see makes my heart sickened to the core.

Sharkey_smt said:
At the moment I see your post as nothing more taking the ball home/stopped playing because you did not get your way.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's not that. Every Arete you add to the pool is another percent of Hunger's mind that can be salvaged if people vote Follow Through. Mining Arete right now in any form is giving them further incentive to do so - and I refuse to partake.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top