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The Path Unending (A Cultivation Quest)

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Enjou said:
The fact that we know what the charm does and have SEG would probably work pretty well for defense. I doubt Mo would be dumb enough to use a charm that Zhi made against Zhi himself. That's just begging for him to exploit the weakness in it. Also it would piss him off if she used it against him because he'd know what the charm does and would later recognize it had been used against him.
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Sara said:
People have this weird thing about Mo where they assume the worst possible actions from her even when it doesn't make any sense as a thing for her to do, goes against the personal philsophy of conflict she's espoused to us, and is literally to her sole detriment despite all prior characterization of her.
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Mo's philosophy is to engineer situations so that when she stabs someone they have to publicly thank her for not twisting the knife.

Mo is nice, but I wouldn't call her good. I know that she wouldn't point the charm at us directly for the reasons quoted, but indirectly is another story. She hasn't done near enough to convince me that she's benign or that enabling her to such a degree would really help anyone but her.

Not that it super matters. If we make her a charm it will likely be on commission at a later date and the design will be out of our hands. Mo's next commission will likely be going to whoever wins the tournament so I don't expect anything anytime soon. Plenty of time to see more of her character.
 
Edkose said:
. Changing forms will likely be a weekly action, and I don't see us ever changing back in order to train the limbs up to a decent level after we've integrated our techs.
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Yeah. Like, I'm mostly glad because they got reduced to the point that suggested further training of them could lead to something more interesting. But by the time the thread could be hypothetically wrangled into doing that, said thing would probably be outclassed, and you'd get people saying it clearly would never have been of any use ever.

Sucks, but my curiosity on them has been sated enough, and I don't want to fight the rabid anti-limbs crowd. I just end up getting very, very angry and not really changing anyones minds.
 
flotter said:
Mo's philosophy is to engineer situations so that when she stabs someone they have to publicly thank her for not twisting the knife.

Mo is nice, but I wouldn't call her good. I know that she wouldn't point the charm at us directly for the reasons quoted, but indirectly is another story. She hasn't done near enough to convince me that she's benign or that enabling her to such a degree would really help anyone but her.

Not that it super matters. If we make her a charm it will likely be on commission at a later date and the design will be out of our hands. Mo's next commission will likely be going to whoever wins the tournament so I don't expect anything anytime soon. Plenty of time to see more of her character.
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So, the thing is, while she could hypothetically stab us in the back... why would she? She's been building us up as an ally, and she's not an irrational actor. Sure, she might not be benign, but she's got no reason to be hostile towards us. Frankly, I think she's more likely to turn anything we make against Geng Tu or other rivals, which is fine by me.
 
Vesvius said:
Well, you cannot say you expected anything different. You turn, doing your best to banish thoughts of Jetei from your mind, and make your way into the tunnels. You may not know precisely where you want to go, but you at least have a starting point. According to your report from Kumi and Sun Yijun, the Phantom Point has a section of tunnels that it prefers to haunt. You will begin your search there- after you douse yourself in the Highwayman's Oil, of course. You don't want the Phantom Point to sense you coming.
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This probably ended up being one of our most useful items in the fight. Because of it and the Phantom Point rolling badly it couldn't even sense us before the ambush.

Vesvius said:
Round One: Kong Zhi has Tempo.
Kong Zhi applies Highwayman's Oil and attempts to stealthily approach the Deer.
Zhi rolls 4d10s7(1.1) (Stealth Check). 4 Successes!
Phantom Point rolls 6d10s8 (Perception Check). 0 Successes!
Result: Zhi is able to prepare without being attacked.

Round Two: Kong Zhi has Tempo.
Kong Zhi spends 5 anam to activate the Dance at the Midnight Crossroads!
The Deer grazes peacefully.
Kong Zhi is at 13/18 Anam. The Midnight Rakshasa has 8 rounds remaining.
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The thing managed to roll 0 successes too. Was totally blindsided it.

Vesvius said:
Oh, bother. Mother will be quite displeased with me for doing something so unseemly as fighting.

The thought flickers through your mind like lightning as another Kong Zhi breaks into existence. This one is well dressed in a noble's robes, hair held back in an intricate style with a thousand pins and ornaments. His hands are soft and look as if they haven't performed a single day's labor in their life. His eyes carry the same empty look in his eyes as the last you conured did. But as he blossoms into existence, his uncalloused and pristine hands wrap around around the Phantom Point's hindquarters, holding it's back legs in the air.
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StM continues to be one of my favorite techniques. I don't question how it works. The end result manages to be both amusing and somewhat disturbing though.

Vesvius said:
Natural Wonder Discovered: The Twice-Forged Thicket (Steel/Wood 125)!
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Now all we need it the Regalia and we are set.

Speaking of the Regalia, none of the leading plans seem to have us look for it. Is there a reason for that or just couldn't squeeze it in?
 
Hmm.

For cycling techniques, do our success stay banked if we go over?
I remember something like this with plume but I'm not sure.
 
ShyGuy said:
Now all we need it the Regalia and we are set.

Speaking of the Regalia, none of the leading plans seem to have us look for it. Is there a reason for that or just couldn't squeeze it in?
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We still need a smoke wonder too. And probably just couldn't squeeze regalia search in. DD on fractal has some negative consequences.

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WhiteNights said:
Hmm.

For cycling techniques, do our success stay banked if we go over?
I remember something like this with plume but I'm not sure.
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If we overflow upon finishing a phase of the tech, the extra successes get added to the next phase. So, for instance, if we cycled Royalty anam from Xiong and finished a phase any extra Royalty anam would get applied to the next phase. So if we time things right, and get a little lucky, we can finish the royalty anam requirement for 2 phases at once.
 
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[x] Sparring and Spa

We got a day off, so we better use that to get more healed.

@nothingtoseehere Can we switch out for Xu Yun for Ming Hui? We're already seeing Xu Yun at sparring and we need to tell Ming about the meat before it spoils.
 
Adhoc vote count started by tryrar on May 28, 2021 at 5:20 PM, finished with 224 posts and 58 votes.
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Enjou said:
So, the thing is, while she could hypothetically stab us in the back... why would she? She's been building us up as an ally, and she's not an irrational actor. Sure, she might not be benign, but she's got no reason to be hostile towards us. Frankly, I think she's more likely to turn anything we make against Geng Tu or other rivals, which is fine by me.
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We've also intoduced her to the Fai Twins as political allies, who were also fairly close too. And while I get ppl have convinced themselves she doesn't have a soul, their also the other side of this.

She also not only seems to like us due to not being willing to bullshit her or be a sycophant given that's what gave us relationship pluses with her, while also from mentions in the main story along with canon omakes being fairly close to Nokai, who is basically our best friend at this point. She's basically one of the few people even among Zhi's friends who treats her with much respect. Hell, her and Zhi's mom literally hang out on a regular basis at this point, with her mom paying special intrest in how Zhi is doing according to letters from home, and she's extended plenty of invitations prior to the contest for us to hang out with her.

E: We have as many relationship pluses with her as we do Xu Yun, Mei Deiyu, and Shouxi, I think it's safe to say she considers us a friend on SOME level.
 
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Sara said:
People have this weird thing about Mo where they assume the worst possible actions from her even when it doesn't make any sense as a thing for her to do, goes against the personal philsophy of conflict she's espoused to us, and is literally to her sole detriment despite all prior characterization of her.

Unless we specifically go out of our way to antagonize her in a way she can't look away from without losing face or cause her severe bodily harm via negligence from one of our charms, she is genuinely one of the last people I think we need to be worried about trying to screw with us.

Tbqh, given Geng's grudge against us seeming like it's not going to go away anytime soon, it's pretty directly in our interest to strengthen her position and also increase her opinion of us where we can even aside from the latter being one of the few things our parents have asked of us to do for them.
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I can only speak for myself, but I am just not that enthusiastic anymore about proactively getting on her good side.

The whole Nokai and Geng episode (and her conspicious absence) at least implies that she's too transactional and mercenary for that to pay off.

Honestly, from my perspective, it's on her to at least express interest in taking a step forward in our alliance/bussiness relationship/friendship. Of course, assuming Geng doesn't force our hand.

And while we are at it, though I vastly prefer her to her rivals, her being overwhelmingly the primary mover and shaker of the 8th court might not be an entirely good thing.
 
Earthroot Hooves

-Materials: Still Living Sapling, Cowardly Hooves

-Anam: Wood 33, Life 13

Wood: as a root grows the Wood Anam would reach into the earth around and provide the method by which the user (the tree) can draw upon the vitality of the earth beneath them

Life: connects the user to the vitality of the earth via the pathway of the Wood Anam and allows them to draw upon and make that energy their own

-Form
The Hooves take the form of a pair of boots with the sole being made of the Cowardly Hooves with the Sapling split vertically into two separate pieces. The flat cut will be placed against the shin of the boot with the base being against the ankle, the branches wrapping around the top of the boot along the opening while the roots are layed across the top of the foot and wrapping down the foots sides so that the tips of the roots just barely brush the ground.

-Function
The Hooves are a Charm wrought mimicry of the ability of The Blooming Spear of the Auroch to draw upon the vitality of the earth. Passively the Hooves will provide a boost to the users Anam regeneration so long as they stand upon land. When used in conjunction with the Blooming Spear it enhances the power of the technique in addition to strengthening its ability to summon roots to bind the enemy.
 
Sara said:
E: We have as many relationship pluses with her as we do Xu Yun, Mei Deiyu, and Shouxi, I think it's safe to say she considers us a friend on SOME level.
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Pretty faint praise. How much have we interacted with Shouxi again? Xu Yun we also don't interact with much. And we publicly sided with Mo and humiliated Mei with her own style in a honor duel. The fact that we've gotten this far is a miracle and the product of us spilling spaghetti at the drop of a hat.

Mo isn't soulless, and I don't think anyone thinks that, but I don't see the point in chasing her favor like a dog with a ball. Friends or no, she will prioritize herself and her goals. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something to keep in mind. I don't see why it's unreasonable to be cautious around her.
E:Maybe you're right, and Mo is totally willing to maintain our current relationship with about the same level of commitment. But there is absolutely a level of self-interest to her character, and she's shown to maintain a transactional attitude even when we're in private.
E2: I just want to also say that my autocorrect changed Xu Yun to "cute" twice and I think that's hilarious.
 
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UlseDovThur said:
Earthroot Hooves

-Materials: Still Living Sapling, Cowardly Hooves

-Anam: Wood 33, Life 13

Wood: as a root grows the Wood Anam would reach into the earth around and provide the method by which the user (the tree) can draw upon the vitality of the earth beneath them

Life: connects the user to the vitality of the earth via the pathway of the Wood Anam and allows them to draw upon and make that energy their own

-Form
The Hooves take the form of a pair of boots with the sole being made of the Cowardly Hooves with the Sapling split vertically into two separate pieces. The flat cut will be placed against the shin of the boot with the base being against the ankle, the branches wrapping around the top of the boot along the opening while the roots are layed across the top of the foot and wrapping down the foots sides so that the tips of the roots just barely brush the ground.

-Function
The Hooves are a Charm wrought mimicry of the ability of The Blooming Spear of the Auroch to draw upon the vitality of the earth. Passively the Hooves will provide a boost to the users Anam regeneration so long as they stand upon land. When used in conjunction with the Blooming Spear it enhances the power of the technique in addition to strengthening its ability to summon roots to bind the enemy.
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I like the idea of drawing on the BSA insight, but it may be thinking a bit small/limited. Instead of just powering up BSA, which not a charm that increases our overall strength (not necessarily Strength) by drawing on the earth? Or even makes us physically grow like a tree?
 
Sara said:
E: We have as many relationship pluses with her as we do Xu Yun, Mei Deiyu, and Shouxi, I think it's safe to say she considers us a friend on SOME level.
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Xu Yun is a bro that Zhi frankly almost doesn't deserve. He commissions a charm motivated in big part to help Zhi out, pays the full price, joins him on a deadly dungeon crawl without a second thought and for free, is beside himself when Zhi gets mutated.

Him and Mo can't really be compared, even if they are mechanically the same.

Mei and Zhi are complicated.
 
flotter said:
Pretty faint praise. How much have we interacted with Shouxi again? Xu Yun we also don't interact with much. And we publicly sided with Mo and humiliated Mei with her own style in a honor duel. The fact that we've gotten this far is a miracle and the product of us spilling spaghetti at the drop of a hat.

Mo isn't soulless, and I don't think anyone thinks that, but I don't see the point in chasing her favor like a dog with a ball. Friends or no, she will prioritize herself and her goals. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something to keep in mind. I don't see why it's unreasonable to be cautious around her.
E:Maybe you're right, and Mo is totally willing to maintain our current relationship with about the same level of commitment. But there is absolutely a level of self-interest to her character, and she's shown to maintain a transactional attitude even when we're in private.
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I would recommend befriending Zuan Kun. He has the honourable warrior persona going on. He is possibly a more reliable friend to have than Mo and it also prevents the next Jin Scion from turning another noble against Kong Zhi.
 
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