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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Well yes, obviously. I wasn't really serious, it was just such a perfect line that I couldn't resist.

Though it is true that their attitude towards sex, while healthy, is gonna be a real obstacle in Ling Qi making good Zheng connections.
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On the other hand Sixiang is going to be going "I like these people!" nonstop.
I'm not really interested in Ling Qi going Full Harem or some shit like that. I don't even particularly see the need for a romantic relationship at the moment. I just think that like how a character whose name I've inconveniently forgotten told her, a Way focused among other things on family and connections that completely omits sexual and romantic relationships is not healthy. I'm getting the impression that Qi still doesn't understand that what she saw in the brothel isn't how these things usually go.
At this point Bai Meizhen has a healthier attitude toward romance than Ling Qi, and while I'm very happy for Best Snek, there's something faintly ridiculous about a Bai of all people being better at that particular subject than the protagonist.
 
As I mentioned a while back: Ling Qi needs therapy to deal with her issues surrounding sex. In the absence of that, she likely needs to go on a psychedelic dream quest to unravel her own issues in that area via Cultivation-based insights.

It says...interesting things about the setting that the latter is significantly more likely to actually occur than the former.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
As I mentioned a while back: Ling Qi needs therapy to deal with her issues surrounding sex. In the absence of that, she likely needs to go on a psychedelic dream quest to unravel her own issues in that area via Cultivation-based insights.

It says...interesting things about the setting that the latter is significantly more likely to actually occur than the former.
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Maybe about that particular part of the setting. If she'd somehow wound up in the Ebon Rivers after being discovered by the Ministry of Integrity I'm getting the impression that there'd be a legion of aunties ready and willing to help her work through her issues.
 
well just saying there is a dream tribulation about fear on the way.
  • Dreaming Songstress: You walk the twisting way, the realm of divides and barriers. Witness the moon above shining bright! Witness Joy, witness laughter! Witness the night Lunatic, the grand revel 'mongst the stars, the passion in the heart of humankind. Witness the Madness unleashed! Witness fear, witness despair. Witness nightmare, the fear in the heart of humankind, the engine of its drive. -Locked Until Isolation IV
 
Karthak Urzak said:
I'm not really interested in Ling Qi going Full Harem or some shit like that. I don't even particularly see the need for a romantic relationship at the moment. I just think that like how a character whose name I've inconveniently forgotten told her, a Way focused among other things on family and connections that completely omits sexual and romantic relationships is not healthy. I'm getting the impression that Qi still doesn't understand that what she saw in the brothel isn't how these things usually go.
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I'm fairly sure it was more specific than that-not that it would be inherently wrong and bad to leave those things behind, but that to do so without first examining them and how she interacts with and wants to interact with that part of the human experience would be limiting on her ability to understand people generally. Basically "don't give it up without knowing what it is".
 
I've been in thought for a while on how to deal with the Cloud Tribes and I think I hit upon an idea. Basically if/when trade between the Empire and the Nation of the Polar Gates starts to really pick up, the caravans will need guards and guides and way stations. Guides for the dangerous terrain, guards for the dangerous inhabitants, and way stations for safe stops along these routes. My idea is to find and encourage friendly Cloud Tribes to fulfill these positions, to act as guides, as guards, and stewards of safe stops. The goal is to tie these tribes' growth, power, and wealth to the existence of trade route between the Empire and the Polar Nation all in order to cultivate allies, foment heretical belief, and induce change within the Cloud Tribes.
 
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Yeah, but that's also a problem. If those Cloud Tribes allied with White Sky were to be the guards, guides, and way stations, then that means giving up initative and influence and claims in The Wall to White Sky and to the Polar Nation. It means any strife with those allied tribes is strife with White Sky.
 
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Karthak Urzak said:
Ah, so a White focused on protection and nurturing would be going "sweet Great Spirits no!" if they saw how Fuxi spoke to Shao about his family.
-snip-
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Yes, they would. Unfortunately for the Bai, across their entire history they have a grand total of negative three whites associated with nurturing.


0disseus said:
I am not super clear about the process of creating a successor art, but would it be possible to modify FSS+ in such a way that any time we kill/defeat an enemy us and all out allies get a boost? It would tie in the whole ending/beginning concepts that we got from the insight, it would move us in the direction of one woman army adept at fighting agains multiple enemies that I do not think is necessary a bad idea, and it would keep FSS+ as our finisher move
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So, I actually really like this idea, but NOT for the mechanical reasons. We currently have an insight about small endings lead to new beginnings. It's pretty basic, honestly: a day ends and the next begins, winter ends and spring blooms anew (note: being basic doesn't make it a bad insight. Being easy to grasp and understand is good). But notably, it's the same thing that's ending and beginning.

The advanced insight would be that the ending of one thing, can lead to the beginning of an entirely separate thing. Without Zequing's End, Hanyi couldn't have had her beginning. We strike down enemies not to give them a new beginning, but to give a new beginning to our allies, those who might have been injured or killed if we hadn't intervened.

Striking down a rotted tree does not necessitate the planting of a new sapling. Strike it down, and allow the grass to thrive.

This also allows the art to maintain its focus on endings while still being integrated into our overarching way. In order for overall growth, sometimes a specific thing needs to be removed. It will not be part of the new beginning.
 
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Imugi said:
Yeah, but that's also a problem. If those Cloud Tribes allied with White Sky were to be the guards, guides, and way stations, then that means giving up initiative and influence and claims in The Wall to White Sky and to the Polar Nation. It means any strife with those allied tribes is strife with White Sky.
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So? If the Cloud Tribes aren't raiding or attacking the Emerald Seas, we have no problem with them. And the White Sky would be responsible for keeping them in line. Besides, there are two realities to factor in. First, the Emerald Seas has a lot of territory to digest and develop first before considering expanding.

Second, well:

yrsillar said:
Over the course of the next few days, they continued to travel south, and with every step the air grew colder and the mountains bleaker. Scraggly trees and plantlife gave way to tough grasses and lichens, and the caps of white on the cloud piercing peaks of the wall crept lower and lower. By day they began to face increasing snowfall, and encounter valleys filled with many meters deep white powder. Even what ground was bare began to grow slick with ice. It probably did not help that they were traveling in the early month of winter. Increasingly,they began to run into minor trouble with spirits, who troubled their path until Ling Qi managed to placate or drive them off.
...
However, as they traveled south the weather only grew worse. Screaming winds assailed them, icy cold fit to carve a lesser cultivator's flesh, and falling snow so thick that all the world became blank white nothingness, even with all of their senses. The air was thick with potent cold qi, and Ling Qi could feel powerful spirits, things comparable to her mentor, lurking in the seemingly infinite expanse.
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That's a drastic amount of climate change in just a short time, and you haven't even reached the Wall yet. Imperial civilization is simply not suited for this kind of environment. Why waste your money and manpower on trying to claim this region when you can just trade with the White Sky/Polar Nation for anything of value?
 
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Turn 16 Preliminary Vote
  • Threadmarks
    • Turn 16 Dawns. For this month you will have 2 Professional and 2 Personal actions. A personal Action may be swapped for a Professional action. You may select three cultivation projects. There will be only the normal Two hour voting moratorium since there has been a week to consider what you'd like.

    Exploration actions are always connected to some narrative beat and thus are never 'empty' secondly rather than isolated rolls for results. Exploring locations will now advance you toward reward thresholds based on your roll on the d100 with modifiers. When you reach the maximum reward threshold the site is fully explored. It is still possible to eanr special rewards or miss them during the narrative section, but Exploration will no longer have a chance of turning up nothing. Some Explorations will only be available for a single instance though so you may not reach the full threshold for those.

    Omake points can be applied to exploration rolls. Each one adds a modifier of +5. Each person may contribute up to two points to a roll, and the overall maximum omake modifier is +40, meaning four people contributing their full points.

    Social Arts have been eliminated as a cultivation choice. Instead social traits will increase as rewards for social actions and choices.

    Locked Retainer Action:

    • Peace preparation: The time of the summit is coming, and you must begin to prepare more than the field behind. Together with Cai Renxiang and Gan Guangli, you will set out to see the embassy being prepared, hear the concerns of those there and begin planning your approach(Characters: Cai Renxiang, Gan Guangli, Various. +1 XP to Power)

    Professional Actions: (2 available)
    • Paying Respects: The Argent Peak Sect has been your home for two years now, and though you are growing apart from it, you still feel that connection. To it's disciples, to its Elders, to the caves and the vents and the trials. Spend some time showing your gratitude for lessons and connections [Maintains current relations with the Argent Sect Peak Sect on departure. 40% Chance to boost reputation with Argent Peak Sect by 1, and ???. Characters: Sima Jiao & Xin, Liao Zhu, various. +1 to Isolation and Power projects undertaken)
    • Root Inroads: Bian Ya, your occasional tutor and acquaintance is a fellow vassal of the Cai clan. Strengthen that relationship and see about learning more of your 'peers' (Information on Cai Vassals, particularly Bian and Xia, +1 to bond with Bian Ya. Character's Bian Ya, Ruan Shen)
    • Hou Zhuang's Gift 3 of 3: Bai Meizhen's father has given you a princely gift as far as intelligence goes. It is time to really delve into it and begin establishing the potential contacts he has given you. Now as you finish, your tutor Shu Yue takes an interest, and seeks to teach you new ways to see [Completes establishment of provincial intelligence. Advances the Argent Disciple Trait by 2. Raise Reputation with Central Valley by 1, Eye of Grudges unlocked. Characters: Sixiang, Shu Yue]
    • Survey the Wall: You will need to begin establishing yourselves, Renxiang and you. The cradle of the Sect will no longer last forever. Search within the newly claimed sections of the wall for good location choices to investigate further. With Cai Renxiang's funding and help this task will be much expedited. [First Reward Threshold at 60, with additional thresholds at 100, 120, and 160 and 200 and 300. Characters: Bai Lao Keung and Xia Lin) Completes final threshold without a roll.
    • Cathedral of Winds: A darkness lurks beneath this potent cultivtion site, an impure beast that corrupts and consumes the native spirit fauna. Delve into the black waters and seek the source. [Exploration at base 1d100 +40 if taken alongside Diviner's Path. Reward Thresholds at 60, 100, 180. Characters. Gan Guangli, Varies, choices given in action]
    • Starlit Labyrinth: Beast of starlight, crumbling and breaking, menacing the spirit court of beasts in your lands. You cannot yet know what lies within the glacier and the twisyed tunnels of broken space that the beasts emerge from. [Exploration base 1d100+20. Reward Thresholds at 60, 120, 180, 240, 300. Characters: Beaver Buddies, Xia Lin, varies by choices in action]


    Personal Actions (2 Available)

    • Idols and Ancestors: It has been awhile now, since Zeqing found her End. In many ways both you and Hanyi have grown. It is time to take a little time aside to walk the high mountain peaks, to think and listen and remember. [Must be taken with the Frozen Soul Serenade Successor project. Character's Hanyi and Sixiang]
    • Diviner's Path: A chance to walk your new lands with your friend. Li Suyin has offered aid in locating points of contact with the underground world of the ith-ia, and Bai Meizhen has been growing terribly restless. Absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong. (Reveals and gives details on potential fief dangers. +1 to Community XP. Characters: Bai Meizhen, Xiao Fen, Li Suyin.)
    • Sea of Dreams: You seek to bring Xuan Shi onboard with the White Sky negotiations, and perhaps make up for your rude treatment in the past. And so you have invited him out for a walk in the realm of dreams. What he wishes to see is his choice, but there is never a dull moment on the other side. (+1 XP to Want. Increase Dreamwalker Trait by 1. Ally gained for the summit on success. Characters: Xuan Shi, Sixiang, Zhengui, Kongyou.). Available only this turn.



    Spiritual Cultivation
    Framing Green Soul (11) - 330/7400

    Physical Cultivation
    Framing Bronze Physique (11) - 160/7400

    Qi18 (6/18)

    Domain Concepts

    • Community IV (1/8): Family is only a knot of strong bonds, it is the small connections between people which build community. There was no line between love and obligation, not if both were true.
    • Isolation IV 1/8): As starvation is privation of the body, isolation is privation of the soul. Thus is born suffering. But, one has only two hands with which to reach out. Yet, others have two hands as well. The cold, sad street cannot be unmade by the efforts of one.
    • Expression III (1/5): Art, music is the expression of ideas, the sharing of concepts with other people and beings. It can express the truth of your soul, it can express desires, it can express simple observations and so much more. You have only begun to explore the truth of art.
    • Motion III (3/5): Motion is change, the wind of your wings obscures destiny
    • Power III(0/5): Power is absolute, but comes in different forms. What is strength in one context may be weakness in another.
    • Want III (0/5): Want is the soul reaching out, the impetus of connection, the abrogation of Isolation, the seed of Community and Home.
    • Creation II (2/3): Abundance begets creation. Creation denies Isolation.
    • Freedom II (1/3): Choosing to be bound for the sake of others does not dull Freedom's edge
    • Home II (0/3): Home is the people you gather, and call your own, a binding wrought of ones own will.
    • Mystery II (1/3): Hunger is privation of the body, loneliness privation of the heart, Ignorance privation of the mind.
    • Persistence II (1/3): The world is in flux and things last only due to the exertion of will.
    • Truth II (0/3): To call all truths subjective can only bring ruin.
    • Endings I (1/2): All things end in time, it is the journey to ending that has meaning.
    • Causality I (1/2): Action precedes reaction. Time flows forward, ever forward.
    • Courage (0/1)-?
    • Protection (0/1)-?
    • Cycles (0/1)-?
    • Chaos- Assimilated by Motion


    Arts Development

    Songseekers Ceremony:     Moon, Yin, Mystery, Motion, Expression
    • Grinning Wind: You have learned that there are many ways to be a thief. Many things which may be stolen even under the light of law. You have found your freedom in the gaps, in the spaces between the chains you have chosen, and made the moon laugh all the same. But your path is not the joyful directionless wind. What is the treasure you seek for yourself, little thief? Advances the Freedom, Motion, and Want projects one step on completion. 50 XP to physical cultivation. ??? (0/8)
    • Hidden Scribe: You have asked the second question, and looked upon the world with the eyes of a seeker if only for a moment. Delve further into mystery and the questions that underlie the world of now. Advances the Mystery and Causality Projects by one step on completion. 80% Chance of additional Moon attention on completion. 50 XP Spiritual Cultivation. ??? (0/8)
    • Dreaming Songstress: You walk the twisting way, the realm of divides and barriers. Witness the moon above shining bright! Witness Joy, witness laughter! Witness the night Lunatic, the grand revel 'mongst the stars, the passion in the heart of humankind. Witness the Madness unleashed! Witness fear, witness despair. Witness nightmare, the fear in the heart of humankind, the engine of its drive. 50 Physical Cultivation XP. ???

    Starless Night's Reflection: Yin, Lake, Darkness, Reflection, Stillness, Void
    • Lake Hei is Wide: The great lake is bottomless, but it is also wide, a sea in its own right, there is nothing which cannot vanish into its depths. So to can you render inert even assaults that would strike down a whole company. Improves Rippling Starless Shroud as well as your passive defense against Area Arts. Unlock one Projects. (0/3)
    • It's Depths Without End: The imperturbable surface, a skin of shimmering black that lies over the infinite deeps beneath. All vanishes into the dark, leaving mere ripples behind. Where sleeps that which vanishes from world, sight, and memory?. Advances the Mystery and Ending Projects one step. Reveals text of Imperturbable Soul Trait. (0/3)
    • We are but Ripples: In waters deep, under skies far, we bear witness to our own crushing smallness. Where then does meaning rise, in the infinite dark? Advances Isolation and Mystery Projects one step. 40% Chance of acquiring Void concept for your Domain.(0/3)

    Beast King's Savage Dirge: Yang, Wood, Darkness, Music, Beasts, Conquest, Power
    • Bear God's Fury: The Bear God, avatar of wrath, whose crushing paws sundered trees and reshaped hills, Learn the stanzas of the great ballad which spoke of his coming and the ruin of the wolf gods plans. Learn the Bear God's Fury technique, which summons the phantom limbs of the titan to crush and pin down foes. Unlocks One Project. (0/3)
    • Primacy of Beasts: Learn the song of nature, the melody of tooth and claw. Where lies the line between beasts and men, which brings us to war? Mere greed and pride, or something more? Transforms the Primal War Calling technique into Vermin God's Legion technique. Advances the Power and Want Projects by one step. (0/3)
    • Xiangmen, Fortress of Tsu Pt. 2: Before the ravening of the Gods, Xiangmen stood uncaring, and in the trunk sheltered all of the people of the Emerald Seas. Against the Gods stood the Diviner, who would see that man was never subjugated again. Alters the Wolf God's Cunning technique. Advances the Motion and Home projects by one step. (0/5)

    Melodies of the Spirit Seekers: Balanced, Music, Bargaining, Sincerity, Understanding
    • Spirit Seeker VI: Go forth and practice your art on the spirits of the land. Advance the Spirit Seeker trait by 1 (0/3)
    • Raising the Bastion: In the harsh south, under the gaze of Bleak Skies yearning, you received a taste of the casual cruelty which spirits unbound and uncaring of man may display. In the lessons of the Bastion's Melody, you find the lessons needed to mitigate their harm, and even bring understanding of their doings to spirits most inhuman. Alters the Bastion's Melody Art, giving a chance to negate damaging environmental traits of higher spirits. Advances the Community and Protection projects by one step. Unlocks one project. (0/5)

    Laughing Flight of the Wind Thief: Yin, Darkness, WInd, Freedom, Motion, Want
    • The Laughing Wind: Flight is freedom, defiance of one of the First Laws. Feel the wind on your face,witness all the earth below, and laugh in the midst of the clear blue sky. Advance Sable Grace by 1. Advance Motion and Freedom projects by one. Unlocks Two Project. (0/3)

    Winter Hearth Resounding: Cold, Fire, Music, Boundary, Home, Renewal
    • Kindle the Hearth: So long as the hearth burns still, home remains. Nurse the embers and ashes, no matter how mean, and one day the fire will burn again.Acquire the Technique Ashen Hearth Return. A technique which sacrifices the function of the Winter hearth Resounding Art to negate negative traits on you and your allies. Advances the Community Project by one. (0/5)
    • Winter Reinforcement: The task of preparing for the winter comes every year without fail. A home must be maintained, it's walls repaired, its portals reinforced. A home is a work without end, a project of a lifetime. Yet, in the end, is there any more vital art? Advances Home and Protection projects by 1. Improves Unbroken Will by one. (0/3)
    • Release of Spring: So in sorrow, so in joy. Another year and you remain. What you have, you have kept. Celebrate the wild ides even as the next hardship drifts on the horizon, and Know that you will survive again. Improves the Passive effects of the Art. Advances the Home and Want projects by one. (0/3)
    • Garden of Mists: You keep no hearth, but you do tend the garden. Kin and clan, parents and siblings, dreams of the future and trials of now. You have come to know the ways of boundaries and stories, told to keep back the night. You protect your own. Alter the WInter Hearth resounding Art, replacing the Fire Keyword with Dream and Music with Formations. Advances Community and Cycles Project by 1. Advances Liminal Carver by 1. (0/5)

    Unstoppable Glacier's March: Yin, Cold, Music, Expression, Inevitability, Pressure
    • Path Unyielding: To know what you wish and to advance toward it with all of your heart, this is something you know well. Study and meditate upon what you have learned and seen of the glaciers of the wall, and ponder the value of Implacability: +1 XP to persistence and Want projects by one. Improves Grinding Glacial Melody. Unlocks one Project. (0/3)


    Special Projects: Yin, Cold, Expression

    • Soul of Ice: Blizzard and glacier, fine snow and driving sleet. cruel wind and soft snow. Stasis, Inevitability, Endings and Renewal. There is more to ice, more to winter than meets the casual eye. Is your own understanding too narrow? +1 XP to Isolation and Want Projects. Advances Winter's Heart by 1. Begins Trait Quest Chain. (0/5)

    Meridian Slot Projects

    Open New Slot: Open a new Meridian Slot. (0/4) 40% Chance of Success
    Alter a Meridian Slot: Change one slot to another Type: 0/6 40% chance of Success.

    Unlearned Arts
    -Currently Locked

    Modifiable Arts

    -CurrentlyLocked

    Successor Creation
    [] Frozen Soul Serenade: The crystallization of the lessons you learned from Zeqing on the high, snowy mountaintops. Yet the form she taught you an echo of her own nature, is falling behind you cultivation. The time has come to make it your own. Requires selection of the Idols and Ancestors Social Action



    Shattered Gaol

    +1 XP to a Dream, Darkness or Wind Project
    +10 XP to Spiritual Cultivation in a turn

    Veins of the Earth

    Heat lives in the frozen earth here, bubbling to the surface in pools and springs, and gathering in the hearts of the mountains. Enables agriculture in otherwise inhospitable locations and enables certain building options.
    Cultivation Effects.

    +1 to Fire, Mountain or Water projects
    ???-Not developed

    Saline Grotto

    +2 Success to a Darkness project or +1 Success to a Lake or Earth Projects
    Reduce Cultivation Upkeep by 1 Green Stone if a Darkness Project is cultivated here
    ???-Unexplored effects

    Thunderclap Mountain

    A peak shrouded in perpetual storm where the shadowed forms of dragon horses have been spied.

    ???-Not Developed

    Cathedral of Winds

    +2 XP to Wind, Water Light or Sun projects
    -1 GS Cultivation Upkeep when a Wind, Water Light or Sun project is cultivated.
    ??? Unexplored Effects

    [Argent Vent(Greater):
    +1 Success to Any Project -or- +2 Success to any Balanced Project.
    +10% Success rate to Assigned project.
    Reduce Cultivation Upkeep by 4 Green Spirit Stones.

    Silent Stones:
    +1 Success to a Moon, Sun, or Earth Project

    Mirror Basin:
    +1 to Water or Lake Projects
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Yay!! It's time!!

    Edit: Plan ideas

    [] Plan Step by Step
    -[] [Professional] Survey the Wall
    -[] [Professional] Hou Zhuang's Gift 3 of 3
    -[] [Personal] Idols and Ancestors
    -[] [Personal] Sea of Dreams
    -[] [Cultivation] The Laughing Wind (7/3, Shattered Gaol)
    -[] [Cultivation] Frozen Soul Serenade Successor Creation
    -[] [Cultivation] Bear God's Fury (6/3, sites irrelevant)


    []Plan: Strong Foundations
    -[] [Professional] Survey the Wall
    -[] [Professional] Hou Zhuang's Gift 3 of 3
    -[] [Personal] Idols and Ancestors
    -[] [Personal] Sea of Dreams
    -[] [Art] Frozen Soul Serenade
    -[] [Art] Soul of Ice (8/5, Argent Domain, Falling Waters Palace)
    -[] [Art] Bear God's Fury (6/3, sites irrelevant)


    []Plan: Winter Blossom
    -[] [Professional] Paying Respects
    -[] [Professional] Root Inroads
    -[] [Personal] Idols and Ancestors
    -[] [Personal] Sea of Dreams
    -[] [Art] Frozen Soul Serenade
    -[] [Art] Soul of Ice (8/5, Argent Domain, Falling Waters Palace)
    -[] [Art] Bear God's Fury (6/3, sites irrelevant)


    Why Bear God Fury?

    As Doramas said in the last turn:
    If we are doing both Phantasmal Mastery and Tree then we should commit, right here and right now, to steadily keep improving BKSD. To dedicate 1 action to it each turn. It would be a massive waste otherwise.
    As you said, BKSD is our only really offensive construct art. FVM and PLR aren't meant to do damage. And before keeping to modify the art there are still useful techniques we haven't even learned.
    The Bear God strong attack and pin, and the Songbird God Qi drain. Those would be great additions to our repertoire. Getting Phantasmal Mastery but not getting those would be absurd.
    Then we would probably unlock the actions to modify those, besides Tree 2 and Primacy of Beasts which we already have.
    But those are a lot of actions. Too many to complete all even if we do 1 each turn, to which we should commit to.
    So I would recommend focusing first in actually finishing the art, to learn the 2 remaining gods.
    Then Primacy, because exploring the difference between man and beast fits too well in Ling Qi's take on the Grinning Moon's philosophy.

    Edit: Tree is "Modify Eagle", so Tree 2 may be "Modify Wolf" or "Modify Bear". So we would have 2 "Learn God" actions, 3 "Modify God" actions and Primacy of Beasts, a total of 6 more actions to finish BKSD.
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    Why Root Inroads?

    Root Inroads: Bian Ya, your occasional tutor and acquaintance is a fellow vassal of the Cai clan. Strengthen that relationship and see about learning more of your 'peers' (Information on Cai Vassals, particularly Bian and Xia, +1 to bond with Bian Ya. Character's Bian Ya, Ruan Shen)

    Reasons:

    Bian Ya has been very considerate with LQ (turn 4: Arc 3-2, quote below) and also all the support in our work in the previous turn... Also, obviously having the breakdown of factions under the Cai is very important information.


    Turn 4: Arc 3-2

    yrsillar said:
    Cai Renxiang gave a small nod before her eyes flicked over to where Ling Qi stood, behind the main circle. "Ling Qi, has some concern arisen?"

    "Not at all Lady Cai," Ling Qi replied, clasping her hands in front of her chest and bowing toward the assembled nobles. "With some small time free, I simply thought to observe the discussions of my fellows from our fair province," spirits talking like this made her feel silly.

    "Hoh, and here I thought foreigners your sole realm of interest," the effeminate boy said in a silky voice. "Was that not what our Lady procured your services for?"

    "I have retained Ling Qi's services for a number of reasons," Cai Renxiang replied, heading off the conversation. " You are welcome to spend your respite from your duties observing of course."

    "Thank you very much Lady Cai," Ling Qi replied simply. "While I know Miss Bian already, could I humbly request the rest of your names?"

    They answered, some more reluctantly than others. The lean and wolfish boy was Luo Zhong, and the effeminate one Meng De, members of the eastern and western count families. Aside from Wang Chao, the rest were a scatter of viscount and baron family scions from all around emerald seas.

    As the last of the introductions died down, Bian Ya shot her a smile. "I have to say Miss Ling, your talents are truly admirable. I have found myself impressed in both of your challenges thus far."

    "I would caution Miss Ling to control herself better in the future," Meng De said quietly. "The final showing in her duel exceeded good taste."

    "Quite right," Wang Chao said, shaking his head. "I cannot speak against your musical talents, but that part at the end of the duel was a bit vicious to use on a countrymen, wasn't it?"

    Luo Zong scoffed. "She displayed the virtues of a noblewoman of Emerald Seas. Beauty and grace sheathing a swift and fatal fury, there is no need to be soft when an Elder is overseeing matters. If anything, her duel cleared some of the doubts the first competition raised."

    "My opponent gave his best against me," Ling Qi replied carefully. "I would not do him the insult of holding back out of pity."

    "You will find that your lessers do not generally know what is best for them," Meng De replied. "In the future, consider using the superior judgement that your cultivation and position affords rather than simply catering to foolish pride."

    "You'd get mad if I yanked that ones underclothes up over his forehead, huh?" Sixiang whispered.

    "Thank you for your advice, Sir Meng," Ling Qi said, giving no outward indication that she had heard Sixiang.

    "...Leaving that advice of yours aside," Wang Chao huffed, shooting Meng a disgruntled look. "It occurs that this is a rare opportunity. You must be aware of the foul rumor that has begun to spread around your house already, Miss Ling. Might you want to address the matter?"

    Despite her best efforts, Ling Qi could feel her expression hardening a little. "I am merely rewarding loyalty. Those who were friends to my Mother and I when we were in low position deserve that much," while she might not remember them, her Mother did see them as friends, and that was enough. "If the Liu family is truly in such difficult straights, I would be happy to discuss recompense for recruiting some of their citizens."

    Luo Zhong smiled thinly at her, while Meng De simply shook his head in a condescending manner. Bian Ya shot her a sympathetic look though.

    However their responses all stilled when Cai Renxiang cleared her throat. "I find myself disappointed, but not surprised that to find those who obsess over petty nonsense, even in my own province. It is unfortunate, but I trust Ling Qi with the maintenance of her own household."

    "Well said my lady," Bian Ya replied lightly. "Really, it is unfortunate to see that such foolishness being taken seriously."
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    Turn 15:Arc 3-6

    yrsillar said:
    "Are the curtains ready?"

    "Naturally," said Bian Ya, who had been standing with a few more junior musician disciples, overseeing some last minute practice. "It was a little expensive on short notice, but I was able to get it done."
    "I said I would pay," Ling Qi said mildly.

    "And I refused, consider it a graduation gift," Bian Ya replied. Smiling behind her veil.

    "As you like," Ling Qi said, smiling back.
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    Last edited:
    FSS and Sea of Dreams are my top priorities, which locks both personal actions and a cultivation one. Need to figure out what the best synergies with those are.
     
    Paying Respects, Idols and Ancestors, Sea of Dreams, and the Frozen Soul Serenade Successor Art seem like must-haves.

    The other Professional Action and Cultivation Projects are up in the air, but all that seems necessary to me.
     
    I want to do Hou Zhuang Part 3 and Root Inroads. We have no knowledge on the Cai clan and we kinda desperately need to learn more. Also I like Bian Ya, and we don't have much time to recruit her as well, for Comm Specialist.
     
    Paying Respects, Hou Zhang's Gift, Idols and Ancestors with Frozen Soul Serenade successor.

    We Are But Ripples, using Mirror Basin and/or Saline Grotto

    The Laughing Wind or Soul of Ice, using the Cathedral of Winds or the Greater Argent Vent respectively.

    Or maybe using the Shattered Gaol for any of those?
     
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