Animus Ex Nihilo - A God Quest

Azel · Dec 6, 2021

As a side note, if you wish to alter your deal with Harsh Mountain, you can try doing so in a diplomacy action. Say, because you want to start an exodus while taking him along and thus cleansing the Blighted Lands would be a pointless waste of power.

flotter · Dec 6, 2021

Azel said:
It seemed that the reason that you had so little influence on the fish was neither a lack of power, nor of your skill. A fish was a thing of the sea, so when you had blessed it with your power, you had inadvertently tried to make them more sea-like in their nature. You might as well have tried to make water more wet. No wonder the effects were so muted, no matter how much power you crammed into their bodies. The goats though? They were things of the land. The mountains even. So, when the power of the sea acted upon them, they would become more like fish and seals than usual. Would it change the effect if you were more precise with your work? Maybe you could make them breath both air and water if you were careful? A thousand ideas swirled in your mind and you had to try just one more time.

I wonder if we might be able to bless people in such a manner in the future. If we have to leave than evacuating people to our reef might be a good way to do so.

@Azel Would an action to learn more about the Mountain's binding be viable?Also, could we theoretically learn to replicate it and use it to bind the devourer?

Jasten · Dec 6, 2021

Well, glad Proud Waters still has allies. Its time to start storing things away for winter. Put away some extra power, assist in rebuilting a servitor, and do what's possible to grow more powerful until a good shot arrives. Helping the people spread to the island would be good, as is making a secure home in the Reef.

Azel · Dec 6, 2021

flotter said:
@Azel Would an action to learn more about the Mountain's binding be viable?Also, could we theoretically learn to replicate it and use it to bind the devourer?

Your understanding of the world is not sufficient to investigate this. Your only options right now would be to do learn more about the nature of Divine Servants or to hopefully learn something when you aid the Harsh Mountain to make a new servant.

Well. That or picking the general research actions and hoping for a lucky roll.

Duesal · Dec 6, 2021

Azel said:
When you returned to your investigation anew, the signs were hard to miss. The shrines in the forests all showed you dwelling in the sea, while those along the rivers and lakes had you rise from the smaller bodies of water. In their prayers, they spoke not of the final resting of the dead in the deep sea, but of the last journey down the river currents. For them, you were not salt, waves and kelp, but refreshing streams and reeds swaying in the breeze. The power was both familiar and strange at the same time because it began to align itself with the rivers and not the sea. That quieted some of your more paranoid thoughts that had looked for a plot of the Devourer in all of this, but it still left the question if it would be better to embrace this development or to stamp it out.

Oh fuck yes, thank you path to river and lake domains. We should definitely look into this, fingers crossed for Places of Power to take over.

Anyway, we've got several things weighing down on us at once.

1. The Devourer seems secure and content in his superiority that he's basically just going to freeze our people to death.
2. We still have our deal with the Mountain to uphold, now especially once we got his herald slaughtered.
3. Sky Child is missing.

Azel · Dec 6, 2021

Frontpage updated by the way. Harsh Mountain also got himself a proper name by now, namely Segbherg, but it didn't really fit anywhere in the update.

Duesal · Dec 6, 2021

@Azel, a few questions.

Azel said:
[] Give Harsh Mountain power to make a new servant.
Description: You have promised to aid the Harsh Mountain to gain a new servant and since it is unlikely that you can reclaim the body of the Walking Mountain any time soon, your only recourse is to offer your own power to help the effort.
Domains: -
Power: 12 max

I assume aiding in creating a servant has to be done in a single turn rather than offering Power over several turns? Also wow, the Wandering Mountain is quite a bit more complicated than we realized if we'd need to spend 12 power on it.

Azel said:
[] Imbue power into sea life for later use.
Description: You cannot hold onto your power on your own, but you found a way to sidestep that problem by instead storing it in the creatures of the sea.
Area: Shorelands
Domains: Sea
Power: 2 max

Did we not figure out how to improve upon this? Or would that be part of an Investigate the Nature of your Power kind of action?

Azel said:
[] Build a home in the reef.
-[] Write-In Death Power to spend (3 max)
-[] Write-In Sea Power to spend (2 max)
Description: It has now been twice that you became so engrossed in a task that you forgot your surroundings over it. Given that the Devourer is still at large, it was likely not quite safe to do so. The mortals build houses to protect themselves and maybe you should do the same. At the very least it would be a safe place for you to store physical things.
Area: -
Domains: -
Power: special

For this one, is it a one time purchase and that's what we've got forever, or would we be able to spend say 2 power in sea for one turn and 3 in death for the next?

Sir LagsAlot · Dec 6, 2021

[] Plan Prepared Withdrawl
- [] Inspire the boat makers. 2 Power, Herald, Shorelands
- [] Heal the people. 1 Power, Mountains
- [] Bless the river and lake fishers. 1 Power, Shorelands. 1 Power, Mountains.
- [] Bless the dying and the bereaved. 2 Power, Mountains
- [] Compel sacrifices. -4 Power
- [] Imbue power into your shamans. 1 Power
- [] Meet another spirit.
-- [] Harsh Mountain.
-- [] We're planning an exodus from the area, and plan on taking all our peoples with us along with him, and the Sky Child. We'd therefore like to renegotiate the deal we made in the past so that he's no longer required to build the forest road, and we're no longer required to cleanse the blighted land as it would be a waste of power due to neither of us staying in the area for very much longer.
- [] Give Harsh Mountain power to make a new servant. 4 Power, with the promise to dedicate a further 8 for an upgrade later.
- [] Try to learn more about the nature of your power. 1 Power
- [] Try to learn more about the nature of the world. 1 Power
- [] Try to learn more about Divine Servants. 1 Power
- [] Search the Sky Child. 1 Power

The main focus of this plan is to prepare for our withdrawal from the region alongside our allies and peoples as our position is now untenible due to it becoming ever harder to survive here, and power being increasingly siphoned by the Devourer.

I could be convinced to shuffle a bit of power around so that we can get some exploring done.

ManyOne said:
An exodus would be a massive undertaking which would mean abandoning our allies at least, probably only delays the devourer being our opponent, and at worst does not help at all because he may still reach us wherever we end up at. Iirc even the southern people prepared a ritual to worship him, and his homebase is centered in the north.

Uh, did you actually read my entire post or just get to the word exodus before writing your response? Literally, everything I said we should be doing with our power this turn focuses on allowing us to bring our allies and as many of our people as possible with us during the exodus we aren't leaving anyone behind if we aren't forced to.

And, with regards to staying or leaving I'd point out that not leaving is an absolutely horrible idea as our people are already having trouble surviving here after all, and the Devourer is beginning to steal the power we generate here well the transformation still isn't even complete. So, if we stay all we're doing is waiting for all our people to die, and for the mountain to steal literally all the power we generate here so unlike if we left we can't even begin to fight back against him because we'd have no power to facilitate such an act with.

Amilia said:
It will suck leaving the reef behind. Though hopefully leaving will deprive Skerhogis from resource since I imagine we will be taking 90% of the people with us.

I plan on destroying/absorbing it on our way out so that the Devourer can't potentially corrupt it or absorb it for its own ends.

Duesal · Dec 6, 2021

Sir LagsAlot said:
[] Plan Prepared Withdrawl
- [] Inspire the boat makers. 2 Power, Shorelands
- [] Heal the people. 1 Power, Mountains
- [] Bless the river and lake fishers. 1 Power, Mountains. 1 Power, Shorelands
- [] Bless the dying and the bereaved. 1 Power, Mountains
- [] Compel sacrifices. -4 Power
- [] Meet another spirit.
-- [] Harsh Mountain.
-- [] We're planning an exodus from the area, and plan on taking all our peoples with us along with him, and the Sky Child. We'd therefore like to renegotiate the deal we made in the past so that he's no longer required to build the forest road, and we're no longer required to cleanse the blighted land as it would be a waste of power due to neither of us staying in the area for very much longer.
- [] Give Harsh Mountain power to make a new servant. 6 Power
- [] Try to learn more about the nature of your power. 1 Power
- [] Try to learn more about the nature of the world. 1 Power
- [] Try to learn more about Divine Servants. 1 Power
- [] Search the Sky Child. 1 Power

If we're planning an exodus we should really do at least one exploration action in the sea or in the southern island. We need to personally scout that second base. We might get lucky, we might not, but we'll know what we're walking into.

Also what do you want the Herald to do here? Maybe another bless island explorers thing to get it going?

Sir LagsAlot · Dec 6, 2021

Duesal said:
If we're planning an exodus we should really do at least one exploration action in the sea or in the southern island. We need to personally scout that second base. We might get lucky, we might not, but we'll know what we're walking into.

Also what do you want the Herald to do here? Maybe another bless island explorers thing to get it going?

Shit, right I forgot the herald ya I'll have him bless the island explorers and I'll shuffle around some power to do some exploring ourselves although keep in mind the exodus probably won't happen until next turn or the turn after depending on how long it takes to free the Harsh Mountain so we don't need to do all the prep in a single turn.

Azel · Dec 6, 2021

Duesal said:
I assume aiding in creating a servant has to be done in a single turn rather than offering Power over several turns? Also wow, the Wandering Mountain is quite a bit more complicated than we realized if we'd need to spend 12 power on it.

Depends a bit. You can give 4 power now, thus shouldering the full cost for a Tier 0, Rank 1 Mountain domain, and offer to pay up 8 at a later point for the Rank 2 upgrade.
Ultimately, you can spend as much or as little on this as you want, as your offer only specified aid, not how much.

Duesal said:
Did we not figure out how to improve upon this? Or would that be part of an Investigate the Nature of your Power kind of action?

You can't get more power out of storing it than you put in, so I'm not sure what you would want to improve about the mechanic.

Duesal said:
For this one, is it a one time purchase and that's what we've got forever, or would we be able to spend say 2 power in sea for one turn and 3 in death for the next?

You have no idea what will happen when you try to do this, so you can't say. This is an experimental action after all.

Edit: As a side note, triggering an exodus means you will travel significantly further away than the southern island.

Duesal · Dec 6, 2021

Sir LagsAlot said:
Shit, right I forgot the herald ya I'll have him bless the island explorers and I'll shuffle around some power to do some exploring ourselves although keep in mind the exodus probably won't happen until next turn or the turn after depending on how long it takes to free the Harsh Mountain so we don't need to do all the prep in a single turn.

I think we should wait at least two turns to get to a position where we can deepen our Sea Domain before we do this, yeah. But yes, we need to explore. Also, while the people can move, the Deep Reefs cannot, so we should start planning on how to defend them and/or find more Places of Power to make up for potentially losing them.

Azel said:
Depends a bit. You can give 4 power now, thus shouldering the full cost for a Tier 0, Rank 1 Mountain domain, and offer to pay up 8 at a later point for the Rank 2 upgrade.
Ultimately, you can spend as much or as little on this as you want, as your offer only specified aid, not how much.

Okay, this is a relief. I'm glad we're not locked into 12 or nothing here.

Azel said:
You can't get more power out of storing it than you put in, so I'm not sure what you would want to improve about the mechanic.

I was wondering about improving the amount we could store. 2 is a bit miniscule.

Azel said:
You have no idea what will happen when you try to do this, so you can't say. This is an experimental action after all.

We definitely need to look into this. Alas, it doesn't seem like we're going to have the power to spare.

Sir LagsAlot · Dec 6, 2021

Azel said:
Edit: As a side note, triggering an exodus means you will travel significantly further away than the southern island.

Would the normal exploration actions allow us to look for exodus locations?

Duesal · Dec 6, 2021

Azel said:
Edit: As a side note, triggering an exodus means you will travel significantly further away than the southern island.

Should the Exodus get off the ground, would having a colony in the Southern Island help with this or no?

Azel · Dec 6, 2021

Sir LagsAlot said:
Would the normal exploration actions allow us to look for exodus locations?

No. Even if you dumped your entire power into it, your range would be too limited to really get away from Skerhogis.

Duesal said:
Should the Exodus get off the ground, would having a colony in the Southern Island help with this or no?

Not really. You would basically load everything you own into boats and hope for the best while travelling to the horizon. Basically, your civ would become sea nomads for the time being.

Sir LagsAlot · Dec 6, 2021

Duesal said:
I think we should wait at least two turns to get to a position where we can deepen our Sea Domain before we do this, yeah. But yes, we need to explore. Also, while the people can move, the Deep Reefs cannot, so we should start planning on how to defend them and/or find more Places of Power to make up for potentially losing them.

As I mentioned earlier I plan on absorbing or destroying the Deep Reef upon our exit as I don't think it's viable to defend something so far away from our future holdings, and I think leaving it the Devourer is only further feeding our enemy.

Azel said:
No. Even if you dumped your entire power into it, your range would be too limited to really get away from Skerhogis.

So, exploring won't help with the exodus shame.

Duesal · Dec 6, 2021

Azel said:
No. Even if you dumped your entire power into it, your range would be too limited to really get away from Skerhogis.

So the Exodus idea in general is blindly picking a direction and hoping we can get far enough? :/

Sir LagsAlot said:
As I mentioned earlier I plan on absorbing or destroying the Deep Reef upon our exit as I don't think it's viable to defend something so far away from our future holdings, and I think leaving it the Devourer is only further feeding our enemy.

You're going to want several straight turns of learning actions before we can pull that off efficiently. I remember Azel saying we could dismantle our place of power for a one time boost, but if we do this we want to do this right.

Sir LagsAlot · Dec 6, 2021

Duesal said:
You're going to want several straight turns of learning actions before we can pull that off efficiently. I remember Azel saying we could dismantle our place of power for a one time boost, but if we do this we want to do this right.

Do I look like I'm skipping on that? I've maxed out every learning action this turn with the expectation I'll be doing that every turn from now on.

Edit: Well unless spying on the Devourer is a learning action as we might be able to steal its secrets or something.

TheDuke · Dec 6, 2021

I'll be honest...I really don't think exodus is a very viable strategy in any capacity. If it were just US we'd probably be fine, but frankly, I don't think there's anywhere our people could flee to that Skerhogis couldn't find pretty easily. He's a giant flying serpent, they're little land/seabound mammals, the math really doesn't work in our favour here.

Sir LagsAlot · Dec 6, 2021

[X] Plan Prepared Withdrawl
- [X] Inspire the boat makers. 2 Power, Herald, Shorelands
- [X] Heal the people. 1 Power, Mountains
- [X] Bless the river and lake fishers. 1 Power, Shorelands. 1 Power, Mountains.
- [X] Bless the dying and the bereaved. 1 Power, Mountains
- [X] Compel sacrifices. -4 Power
- [X] Imbue power into your shamans. 1 Power
- [X] Meet another spirit.
-- [X] Harsh Mountain.
-- [X] We're planning an exodus from the area, and plan on taking all our peoples with us along with him, and the Sky Child. We'd therefore like to renegotiate the deal we made in the past so that he's no longer required to build the forest road, and we're no longer required to cleanse the blighted land as it would be a waste of power due to neither of us staying in the area for very much longer.
- [X] Give Harsh Mountain power to make a new servant. 4 Power, with the promise to dedicate a further 8 for an upgrade later.
- [X] Try to learn more about the nature of your power. 1 Power
- [X] Try to learn more about the nature of the world. 1 Power
- [X] Try to learn more about Divine Servants. 1 Power
- [X] Search the Sky Child. 1 Power
- [X] Monitor Skerhogis. 1 Power

How do people feel about moving 1 power from Bless the Dying or Imbue Shamans to Spying on the Devourer?

TheDuke said:
I'll be honest...I really don't think exodus is a very viable strategy in any capacity. If it were just US we'd probably be fine, but frankly, I don't think there's anywhere our people could flee to that Skerhogis couldn't find pretty easily. He's a giant flying serpent, they're little land/seabound mammals, the math really doesn't work in our favour here.

It's either stay here and watch our people die to the cold well all our power is siphoned away by the Devourer as the land is converted to his domain all around us. Or we leave, and actually have a chance of fighting back because the Devourer isn't stealing all our income, and killing our income source as he'd have to cast the ritual all over again where ever we settle down.

There, is no option other than exodus if we don't kill the Devourer, and do so soon except we don't have the ability to do that within the next few turns unless a miracle pops out of our research actions which we're maxing out anyways I might note in prep for us leaving.

Amilia · Dec 6, 2021

Our people are also neolithic subsistance farmers. They do not have the technology or the government to face this kind of change.

Sir LagsAlot · Dec 6, 2021

Amilia said:
Our people are also neolithic subsistance farmers. They do not have the technology or the government to face this kind of change.

They don't even have actual subsistence farming going yet we're still in the hunter-gatherer stage of throwing seeds at the ground when we harvest food and coming back for those extra berry bushes next year. I actually think our most advanced land-based food technology is our pastoralism currently due to having goats.

Also, just to clear this up you're agreeing that our people can't deal with never-ending winter right?

Amilia · Dec 6, 2021

Sir LagsAlot said:
Also, just to clear this up you're agreeing that our people can't deal with never-ending winter right?

I would like to believe we have a chance, but will also not fight an exodus.

Regarless, it's time to put the frostpunk soundtrack on high because the next few turns are going to be hard.

Sir LagsAlot · Dec 6, 2021

Amilia said:
I would like to believe we have a chance, but will also not fight an exodus.

Regarless, it's time to put the frostpunk soundtrack on high because the next few turns are going to be hard.

Ah, well I have to heavily disagree there as even with Proud Waters investing power into helping them feed themselves even well the ritual still isn't complete it just wasn't working as the Devourer straight up managed to lock us out of fishing for half the year.

Amilia · Dec 6, 2021

Sir LagsAlot said:
Ah, well I have to heavily disagree there as even with Proud Waters investing power into helping them feed themselves even well the ritual still isn't complete it just wasn't working as the Devourer straight up managed to lock us out of fishing for half the year.

Yeah, though you should probably assure Harsh Mountain that we are not leaving until we we get him his new body. Otherwise he might think we are leaving him behind.

Animus Ex Nihilo - A God Quest

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