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

We will seemingly get a flute either way but this will probably hasten it and shape how it's done. Can't find Meng Instrument Master Craftsmen everywhere, but it's not as necessary as it may sound at first. And bear in mind that the Great Moon Spirits have been shaping our luck before, maybe the reason Ling Qi lost her flute was that they want to give her a new one?

Discord said:

Vanguard_D — Today at 10:00 PM

We where promised a moon quest for the flute long ago. I do hope yrs has not forgotten that

Yrsillar — Today at 10:01 PM

if you choose the flute here that's just shaping my plans for the flute quest in one direction

flazarazzadazzle — Today at 10:10 PM

@Yrsillar Would it be possible to build clan arts with #1?

Yrsillar — Today at 10:10 PM

sure it would help with that

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dycouza said:

We choose the Weilu tapestry over writings of Grandmistress Lei, now it's time to have our cake and sell it too. It feels like without any training Ling Qi... won't stagnate but will inevitably end up without new ideas and insights into Music. With the Forgotten Vale Melody being the core of our Domain and Lei's own Mists being the visual theme of our cultivation I don't see how this wouldn't be the best option.

Same with the Meng Geomancer. The Meng land's wards and geomancy was exactly what we wanted for our fief before we choose to found it in the lands of winding rivers and caverns. Now we have the perfect place to build a domain where labyrinthine misdirecting wards keep our settlements safe from Cloud Nomads. Combined with the teachings of the Grandmistress we'll have everything we need for a confusing Mist fief.

Maybe it's just me really wanting that promised Moon Quest for our flute and feeling disappointed if it'd be some Meng instead, but I'm not loving the Craftsman no matter how Master he is. And the trade agreement sound nice but in a numbers go up kind of way but the cost in narrative for exploring the Black Lotus Mountain, the Old Road, and our connection to the Diao and eastern counts feels pretty high.

[ ] Notes and Writings from Master musicians of the Meng (New options and projects for creating and modifying arts)
[ ] Ten years of service from a Meng Geomancer, for construction and tutoring (Opens special options in fief construction. Zhengui gets ideas)

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On the subject of the moon flute quest, we're still getting that. It's just the quest would have a different shape or flavor to it. We would be questing for high end mats or memory of the old flute to influence the new one with. In short moon flute quest is still happening either way, it's just if we choose master crafter here then the final product gets the bonus of a 6th realm crafter.

The moon quest can still be used to gather high realm materials for our flute. A violet specialist Crafter is nothing to scoff at. Remember that our dress was created by Lin Hai who is "only" an indigo. So this flute should be of a realm higher quality than our dress before it got the thread from Liming. That's insane! This is a master that has access to sovereignity! This flute could last us into the highest echelons of our cultivation!

Vote flute

Could the Geomancer help out the Merpeople with their fight against the impurity spirit?

Hah, double ninja'd.

I'm currently in favor of geomancy and flute. The first for Zhengui. He's wanted something like for a long time and shows visible interest here.
The flute because I think it's a great narrative device. It's the perfect storyline for us to go visit all the different people and elders at the sect (and uncle skelly) both collecting mats and saying our farewells. Not necessarily goodbye forever but we want some closure on the Sect chapter of LQ's life and I think this is a great way of going about it.

I think we should divide our choice here.

1.) One offer that will benefit Ling Qi and her cultivation personally.

2.) One offer that will benefit our wider domain and wider projects.

To break it down,

Options for #1:
[ ] Notes and Writings from Master musicians of the Meng (New options and projects for creating and modifying arts)
[ ] Access to a Master Craftsmen in constructing a new instrument (Sets down the path to a new weapon talisman, focused on acquiring resonant materials)

I think we should go with the master craftsman. We already have quite a few arts and different options in this regard. While more would always be nice, there isn't a need for it. On the other hand, lacking a weapon talisman will drastically impair our combat effectiveness. My only concern is that I can't remember if we've spoken to Renxiang about this. The ducal heir might have connections to an even higher higher quality craftsman than the scion of a count.

Options for #2:
[ ] Ten years of service from a Meng Geomancer, for construction and tutoring (Opens special options in fief construction. Zhengui gets ideas)
[ ] One hundred year trade agreement for duty free imports from your fief (More options if trade begins with the foreigners, closer ties with the Meng)

I can see both being useful, I actually don't really remember the whole issue with the pass. I think the skills of a geomancer is going to be more useful in the very long term. Maybe we can assign our mother to be one of the geomancy students? Maybe Zhenggui too?

Could fall into either:
[ ] One open ended favor from the Meng clan (Gain alternate option in future events which will bypass or greatly decrease costs or difficulty. Once.)

This would also be extremely good.

[ ] Notes and Writings from Master musicians of the Meng (New options and projects for creating and modifying arts)
[ ] Ten years of service from a Meng Geomancer, for construction and tutoring (Opens special options in fief construction. Zhengui gets ideas)
[ ] One hundred year trade agreement for duty free imports from your fief (More options if trade begins with the foreigners, closer ties with the Meng)
[ ] Access to a Master Craftsmen in constructing a new instrument (Sets down the path to a new weapon talisman, focused on acquiring resonant materials)
[ ] One open ended favor from the Meng clan (Gain alternate option in future events which will bypass or greatly decrease costs or difficulty. Once.)


The open ended favour seems like something that will sit forever in our inventory as horder mentality kicks in and we keep saving it 'for a more important situation'. so uhh, please no.

100 years trade seem great... for people that lean more into economics and stuff, but that's not really who we are playing, right? Money is what we get from looting epic artifact.

then come the 3 options i consider actual choices:

Music notes are nice, as they would provide a narrative justification for Ling Qi to be able to do more things with music arts. So in a way, this option allows us to go wild with all our music art ideas for successors and selfmade arts, when we create them. There have been many cool ideas for arts here and on discord and this option could be useful for making them work.

Geomancer seems fun too. We just started on liminal geomancy and the meng are experts in the field. we could sign up Ling Qi and maybe Zhengui for lessons and we can get access to the liminal building projects for our fief. +this might turn into fun garden ideas.

Craftsman is also really useful. 6th realm is higher than Lin Hei, who made our dress. So this instrument crafter from a clan known for their music cultivators might be one of the best instrument builders in the empire. Sure, we would still need to quest for epic materials, but that is not really a downside here. We can certainly go for some really exotic or otherwise personally relevant, if we go looking for it

The new talisman-weapon is very just us. (It is a shame our old flute broke if only because it could've been a great early clan heirloom, mom is using the hui brush isn't she. Be nice to start building our collection of artifacts) but it is a 6th realm crafter that we have to supply with goodies. I'm not sure what we have 'on hand'/accessible. But Uncle Skelly might be willing to donate some more goodies. Or someone at the Gala/the God Tree itself. A 6th realm crafter (Foxy jojo poser uncle to renren is only 5th correct?) is a mighty prospect. High value, potential potent long term talisman/clan heirloom. Though we have a Moon Quest that might score us a flute? I don't remember this but my brain has permanent bruising (called lesions for some reason) from all the hard knocks to it so this isn't unsurprising. That moon quest lowers the value of this choice.

The music is something we can continue to build. We have Yu Nuan(? That's her name right) as a fellow musician in the clan along with Hanyi, and we can build our understanding more naturally by jamming with them. But we do have a lot of stuff from Grandmistress Lei already, and she does have a lot of things we like. Further it could lead to creation of arts from the low end to the high end, expanding what we have for options for the clan (Biyu at this point, really). So the notes are of middling-high value to be totally honest since there are no actual arts to go with.

I'm personally leaning towards geomancy. I think it's really good in the medium and long term, and it's really good for Zhengui (And LQ, we probably want to be one of those tutored). We might be able to bargain with geomancy against the already established spirits too. Also special options when building in our fief, which could have really good gains in the medium-long term depending on build speed. We can also bargain away the other spots for favors or maybe adoptions. Maybe Fefe's friend? We do need/want a crafter for the clan, and a dedicated crafter and geomancer is pretty ++. He'd probably appreciate not having to get with a woman for kids for his own clan and have a lot of social pressure taken off by being subordinate and get in on the Ling Clan on the ground floor. So this is very high value. Everyone should choose this. I think it's the highest absolute value out of all the options.

The trade does improve relations with the Meng, but... We have the opportunity with Hanyi coming up don't we? So special trade is of middling-low value out of the options imo. I mean, we want to establish trade with the kislevites but I... don't think this is particularly good, and it's easily countered with relations with the Bao. Bao Quan, right?, wants to set up trade down at our fief because he wants to. And if we marry him, he is the sceond best husbando choice after best boi Xuan Shi, then we can probably swing a bunch of killer trade deals as part of the dowry/bride price discussion. (Those are Chinese cultural things yes?)

The favor is too... it's too vague. And it could bite us in the ass. It has the highest theoretical value, but I expect what we get out of it would be comparable to what's being offered. And we have a really good chance coming up at further improving our relations with the Meng via Hanyi which will hopefully score us the political support we want from them anyways. It has the highest theoretical value, but also the lowest. It's too swing, I'd really rather something more definitive.

I think the Geomancer and either the Talisman or the music notes.

I'm very opposed to the open favor. While it could end up being useful, it could end up actively detrimental if we hold on to it for too long. People don't like being in someone's debt.

[ ] One open ended favor from the Meng clan (Gain alternate option in future events which will bypass or greatly decrease costs or difficulty. Once.)

This seems like perhaps the best option of them all because of the sheer flexibility of it. The fact that they are ready to even offer such a thing shows their sincerity. Being owed a favor by a major clan seems HUGE to me even if there are limits. It is the wise option to take in my opinion. Someday, such a favor could get us something we absolutely need or it could even save our life. The other options are nice bonuses but can all more or less be substituted by different ways to obtain a similar result. The favor is something we won't get any other way.

And I wouldn't be surprised if the favor ended growing in value somewhat as we grow in power and influence and as our relations with the Meng improve since a favor is intengible and depends on the relative importance and relations of the two parties.

The Favor is just a salt mine waiting to happen

Vote's open!

[X] Notes and Writings from Master musicians of the Meng (New options and projects for creating and modifying arts)

[X] Ten years of service from a Meng Geomancer, for construction and tutoring (Opens special options in fief construction. Zhengui gets ideas)

Orkus Majorkus said:

The Favor is just a salt mine waiting to happen

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Yeah normally I'd go for the favor too, but I just know there will be a ton of angst over when to use it. It will just stress everyone out a ton so we might as well not get it lol.

[X] Ten years of service from a Meng Geomancer, for construction and tutoring (Opens special options in fief construction. Zhengui gets ideas)

[X] Access to a Master Craftsmen in constructing a new instrument (Sets down the path to a new weapon talisman, focused on acquiring resonant materials)

[ ] Notes and Writings from Master musicians of the Meng (New options and projects for creating and modifying arts)

It's a difficult choice between these 3.

[X] Ten years of service from a Meng Geomancer, for construction and tutoring (Opens special options in fief construction. Zhengui gets ideas)

[X] Access to a Master Craftsmen in constructing a new instrument (Sets down the path to a new weapon talisman, focused on acquiring resonant materials)

[X] Notes and Writings from Master musicians of the Meng (New options and projects for creating and modifying arts)
[X] Ten years of service from a Meng Geomancer, for construction and tutoring (Opens special options in fief construction. Zhengui gets ideas)

Between improving Ling Qi's Music or her flute I really feel like the Music is the more interesting option. I wanna study the school of the Grandmistress who we are most similar to and who we've already based so much of our cultivation on. A woman who was an isolated hermit for many years before finding a family sounds like the exact type of teacher a girl who sings of loneliness would need. It's also a connection to the music culture and history of the province as a whole, even without the man who composed the Forgotten Vale Melody. Narratively there's a lot more to play with than a A+ flute.

Geomancy is a given. Favor is poor idea from a quest perspective. Trade we didn't pick that option so no point in trying to walk it back now. Which leaves the second option between music and flute, with the former sounding more interesting overall to me.

[X] Ten years of service from a Meng Geomancer, for construction and tutoring (Opens special options in fief construction. Zhengui gets ideas)
[X] Notes and Writings from Master musicians of the Meng (New options and projects for creating and modifying arts)

[X] Notes and Writings from Master musicians of the Meng (New options and projects for creating and modifying arts)
[X] Ten years of service from a Meng Geomancer, for construction and tutoring (Opens special options in fief construction. Zhengui gets ideas)

The music notes are great for Ling Qi's advancement, but also can be useful to the entire Ling Clan, while a singular flute can only be wielded by one person. Geomancy, likewise, is a resource that just keeps on giving, as those taught by the loaned Geomancer can themselves take apprentices, leading to a Ling tradition in Geomancy.

For the young clan, investments that can keep on growing in utility are wise. Ling Qi is not a lone adventurer, she is a clan Matriarch.