Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

[X] Let Hanyi perform with the current choreography. Make sure this Stream doesn't cause trouble personally. (100% Success, +1 Power Success, ??? consequences. Reduced Clergy Reputation.)

Let Hanyi do her part. We do ours

[X] Let Hanyi perform with the current choreography. Make sure this Stream doesn't cause trouble personally. (100% Success, +1 Power Success, ??? consequences. Reduced Clergy Reputation.)

This, because it might not be the correct choice, but it's the right one. The thing about integrity is that you can't compromise it without losing it altogether. Struggling with whatever external threat involved here? That's fine. Risking potentially undermining the MC's and Hanyi's credibility going forward for a chance to side-step the challenge? It's really not worth it.

Doubly so as it seems that this will at least in part shift the challenge onto the fields of subterfuge and spirit-speaking that Ling Qi excels at.

Let's not make potentially costly and unnecessary sacrifices to shy away from threats we can face.

wrecksalot said:

We've repeated;y run into Ling Qi not trusting her spirits enough, I really don't think that stepping in here is the best choice. We should help Hanyi solve this problem herself, or else get more heart demons due to ignoring the foreshadowing that Ling Qi coddling her spirits is bad for both them and her.

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We haven't. I cannot stress this enough. Despite Zhengui having teenage angst and throwing those kinds of allegations around once or twice, that has literally never been the case. Indeed, our history, and the inciting events that even sparked off his angst, stemmed from us trusting he could do his job without mommy babysitting him.

Yun said:

Except the reason for the "probably" comes down to the fact she has never done an impromptu performance, and will lack the experience to draw upon to be able to say she can do so with confidence.

Since we know from quest mechanics the issue isn't a lack of ability, but rather the fact that she never had the Ling Qi experience of being thrown onto the stage by the Dreaming Moon, and the route Ling Qi chose in life is one where the consequences for failure will only ever get worse as the cultivation level increases.

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It is a lack of ability. It doesn't mean it's literally impossible, but rather that she correctly evaluates that it's quite likely she'll mess it up if she tries.

Which is true.

And we don't go around throwing ourselves into crazy risks in a daredevil fashion. We take very carefully calculated risks. Option 2 is not a carefully calculated risk that favours us. If you're wanting to teach Hanyi a lesson, it's not a very good one to be teaching her.

[X] Let Hanyi perform with the current choreography. Make sure this Stream doesn't cause trouble personally. (100% Success, +1 Power Success, ??? consequences. Reduced Clergy Reputation.)

If failure merely cost us some shinies, a trip to a healer and some discomfort, then i would not mind gambling.
But failure will have negative repercussions, to us, to our politcal goals, and most importantly, to Hanyi and her aspirations.

I am very worried about the ??? consequences, especially because they are probably gonna be pretty negative given that the option otherwise is an auto-success. For example, I could see the river spirit being pretty pissed. Even if we beat them up in the short term, in the long term an angry river spirit who is probably pretty essential to the farming in the valley (I think there was mention of it being flood plains?) can be pretty disastrous.

[X] Encourage Hanyi to take up the missing part and help her with the prep (60% success. Improved relationship with clergy on success. Growth for Hanyi on Success. Negative relations with clergy and Nobles on Failure. Happier Hanyi on success.)

[X] Let Hanyi perform with the current choreography. Make sure this Stream doesn't cause trouble personally. (100% Success, +1 Power Success, ??? consequences. Reduced Clergy Reputation.)

I don't know why I ever vote right after waking up, I always change my mind later.
[X] Let Hanyi perform with the current choreography. Make sure this Stream doesn't cause trouble personally. (100% Success, +1 Power Success, ??? consequences. Reduced Clergy Reputation.)
I imagine this annoys them by ignoring the standard way of doing things in favour of mitigating the potential personal cost, but I'll take the L for now.

glyph said:

I am very worried about the ??? consequences, especially because they are probably gonna be pretty negative given that the option otherwise is an auto-success.

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And what it's giving up there are largely the potential greater gains from succeeding on the riskier options?

Like, I agree we should definitely be thinking about the ??? consequences, but I don't think it's sound to assume they must be terrible. The option already makes clear sacrifices.

[X] Encourage Hanyi to take up the missing part and help her with the prep (60% success. Improved relationship with clergy on success. Growth for Hanyi on Success. Negative relations with clergy and Nobles on Failure. Happier Hanyi on success.)

Belive in the dice

glyph said:

Even if we beat them up in the short term, in the long term an angry river spirit who is probably pretty essential to the farming in the valley (I think there was mention of it being flood plains?) can be pretty disastrous.

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That just means Ling Qi will need to actually reach accord with it after making it heed her words, not merely bully it into submission. Still much less of a problem and easier to accomplish than fixing the consequences of the failure.

[x] Let Hanyi perform with the current choreography. Make sure this Stream doesn't cause trouble personally. (100% Success, +1 Power Success, ??? consequences. Reduced Clergy Reputation.)

Erebeal said:

It is a lack of ability. It doesn't mean it's literally impossible, but rather that she correctly evaluates that it's quite likely she'll mess it up if she tries.

Which is true.

And we don't go around throwing ourselves into crazy risks in a daredevil fashion. We take very carefully calculated risks. Option 2 is not a carefully calculated risk that favours us. If you're wanting to teach Hanyi a lesson, it's not a very good one to be teaching her.

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I suppose we disagree on the odds, and benefits here. Since I consider option 2 a pretty calculated risk as while it is one with not insignificant cost for failure, but the reward for success is liable to involve Hanyi gaining something on her char sheet that involves improvisation alongside making her better able to learn new things on her own initiative, and that would make any future attempts of this nature hard to stick, which is rather useful as the pace Shenhua demands are an unending time sink for raw cultivation needs.

[X] Let Hanyi perform with the current choreography. Make sure this Stream doesn't cause trouble personally. (100% Success, +1 Power Success, ??? consequences. Reduced Clergy Reputation.)

I like this the most. "Make sure it doesn't cause trouble" can mean a lot of things, but knowing Ling Qi's experience with spirits, probably doesn't mean 'beat it up'.

Ling Qi does have good spirit whispering skills and the defenses to just dodge it until its willing to listen

It would be funny if Ling Qi just walked up to the spirit, sat beside it, and spent the evening just bonding over the priests being incompetent and not up to doing proper job at doing the rituals to placate the local spirits.
Some drinks may be involved.

[X] Let Hanyi perform with the current choreography. Make sure this Stream doesn't cause trouble personally. (100% Success, +1 Power Success, ??? consequences. Reduced Clergy Reputation.)

[] Let Hanyi perform with the current choreography. Make sure this Stream doesn't cause trouble personally. (100% Success, +1 Power Success, ??? consequences. Reduced Clergy Reputation.)
I've seen some worry over Power's role in this vote, and thought I'd offer my thoughts. Some caution makes sense considering our heart demon, but I think this is actually a positive development.

In this instance, with the 3rd vote, I think we can see a healthy example of Power interacting with family. Ling Qi is stepping in to personally guarantee the freedom of Hanyi to succeed in her chosen path, without, well, stepping on Hanyi's toes.

As we saw recently, Ling Qi's hangup with the promise she made to Hanyi and Zhengui to let them contribute too wasn't about lacking trust, like we'd thought. She had a hard time because it felt like she was conceding a core responsibility; that a mother big sister should have the Power to guarantee the safety and prosperity of her charges, because that's what that role is. Obviously Ling Qi's idea of it is... misguided in a few ways, and it's lead to mutual unhappiness. Here though, Ling Qi isn't bulldozing over what Hanyi wants. She's complementing, enabling, Hanyi's desires. And she isn't doing anything super self-destructive in the process either.

Option 1 steps on Hanyi's toes. Option 2 risks a huge amount of backlash to our goals, arguably totally out of line with the concrete benefit to Hanyi(and it has the highest chance of outright failure for her). Option 3 has the growth to Power because it succeeds in balancing the safety she wants to offer those she cares for with her need to respect their autonomy and own wishes relating to her wellbeing. Ling Qi is making calculated and measured compromises to safeguard both of their interests to the best of her ability, simultaneously.

At least, that's my take on it with what we know of the heart demon.

glyph said:

I am very worried about the ??? consequences, especially because they are probably gonna be pretty negative given that the option otherwise is an auto-success. For example, I could see the river spirit being pretty pissed. Even if we beat them up in the short term, in the long term an angry river spirit who is probably pretty essential to the farming in the valley (I think there was mention of it being flood plains?) can be pretty disastrous.

[X] Encourage Hanyi to take up the missing part and help her with the prep (60% success. Improved relationship with clergy on success. Growth for Hanyi on Success. Negative relations with clergy and Nobles on Failure. Happier Hanyi on success.)

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I might be able to help clarify the ??? consequences? Was easy to miss on the first read through, but it's specifically tied to a portion of the update.

Chao Yanlin said:

"I cannot stop this from going forward if you choose to do so," the priestess said stonily. "It is too late to stop the ritual festivities. "There will be consequences."

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This is our priestess host, Chao Yanlin, referring to if we move forwards with Hanyi's performance as-is, with only observing 9 out of the 10 spirits. The subtext points at Chao Yanlin pursuing the issue herself in some way. Spiritual consequences don't seem likely, or at least relevant, because those consequences would tend to also impact the nobles, who aren't upset on this path.

My guess is Chao Yanlin either complains to the Chao, or to the Ministry of Spiritual Affairs. If it's the Chao, we have some kind of enemy or grudge inside the Viscount clan that we have to contend with down the line. If it's the Ministry of Spiritual Affairs, she's basically lodging a formal complaint against us, accusing us of being irresponsible with spiritual matters and that we should have less autonomy in directing local spiritual affairs or something.

In any case, reading between the lines with all of the options, this ??? consequence should be something that presents a barrier to us in the future but that is less public than outright messing up with these spirits. Plus, we've got guaranteed grumpy priests on this route, so it's not like it's all smooth sailing. It seems balanced against avoiding the downsides of the other votes.

[X] Let Hanyi perform with the current choreography. Make sure this Stream doesn't cause trouble personally. (100% Success, +1 Power Success, ??? consequences. Reduced Clergy Reputation.)

I slept on it, and ultimately it's the responsible thing to do. While I think the consequences would be an interesting story, I'd rather see Hanyi succeed than our Family deal with failure.
plus I had a dream about blood bowl and all my two die blocks rolled attacker down into injuries. take the ??? consequences and don't let nuffle screw us xP

[X] Let Hanyi perform with the current choreography. Make sure this Stream doesn't cause trouble personally. (100% Success, +1 Power Success, ??? consequences. Reduced Clergy Reputation.)

You will love Hanyi's performance or else!