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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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KreenWarrior said:
I doubt Steinarr has any influence on the raid trials, but I imagine almost doubling our orthstirr will make that a much easier challenge, too.
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If we can hit Hamr 5, Pierce 1, Bash 1, and grab a hugareida trick to conjure a shield, we'll be fine for the trials, I think. That gets us to a base combat dice pool of 23 (27 with our weapon) and 9-10 combat tricks (11-12 tricks total, not counting skill-tricks), which is fairly high end for warriors of 20, never mind someone of 16.

TheCount said:
Eh... the adversarial reaction was caused by said greed roll. And don't forget, this IS Xianxia world. killing a child because they have something good is only a bad thing if it goes against your decency or negatively impacts you. Like the Norseman's cultivation system.
And Hallr did scare her out of her house, the seat of her own power. There probably will be some securities against fire now, though.
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I'm not super scared of her in direct conflict, but I don't feel secure learning anything important from her. I'm pretty sure it's a lot easier to subtly sabotage magic lessons than it is to take on Hallr in a straight magical brawl, and she may well have motives to perform such sabotage.

TheCount said:
As for her being a foreigner shouldn't be that much of a problem... even if she does, actually, serve a god of death.
Though, she might have muddled with our fate, i admit. From what little i remember so does love getting others involved to get someone she doesn't like/was slighted dead... But then, Swordfury might have pissed her off, somehow.
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It's less 'foreign god' that's an issue and more 'active enemy of our gods' which is closer to the situation if she really does serve the Morrigan.

TheCount said:
im still curious what Blackhand has to say about it though, before pushing for the visit.
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Definitely. I'm very curious what he has to say.
 
Adhoc vote count started by Sivantic on Mar 6, 2023 at 3:55 PM, finished with 120 posts and 23 votes.
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A landslide
 
Voting is now closed and looks like you're going with the atgeir
Scheduled vote count started by Imperial Fister on Mar 5, 2023 at 7:57 PM, finished with 121 posts and 23 votes.
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Halfdan's Home is Burning Final
  • Threadmarks
    • The Atgeir, Sagaseeker (4d6, but is two-handed)
    Sagaseeker stretches from the grassy ground to well over an arm's length above your head. Its blade is longer than your forearm and gleams with violent intent. The atgeir shudders in your hand, its spirit far livelier than Thievesbane's.

    Perhaps it's because while you're carrying and using it in battle, Thievesbane isn't yours. Not really. It belongs to whoever that thief stole it from, not you. Sagaseeker, on the other hand, is yours, so it wants to be used by you.

    Sagaseeker warms against your palm as you tighten your grip on its haft. Its orthstirr brushes up against yours in a curious manner, like it wants to know its new master. Instinctually, you reach out and embrace it in crimson power.

    It purrs and rumbles in your palm as it seemingly finds you acceptable. You run a hand along its blade and the purrs rise in tempo and volume. It's almost as if you were petting a cat!

    'Atgeir are known for being peculiar weapons,' Blackhand muses. If he had a body, you imagine he'd be pressing a finger to his lips. 'The spirits of atgeirs are said to be stronger than others, some even sing as they're taken to battle.'

    You pause in your petting as you notice something rather odd about the iron. Glancing down at Thievesbane, you realize just what it is that has you curious. Sagaseeker's iron is a lot brighter than Thievesbane's and seems to hold a sharper edge, too.

    'That's because Sagaseeker is made of Forged Iron while Thievesbane is made of Bog Iron. The difference isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things, but it might give you a superior edge at your current strength.'

    You nod, committing it to memory. Sagaseeker's orthstirr feels different to your own. It feels almost as if it was gained through simply existing rather than achieving anything special. Somehow, you know that it is your right as master to wield its orthstirr as your own.

    The one downside is that Sagaseeker demands the use of both of your hands. No shield for you. However, the Skirsvikingr had two ounces of silver and another work knife on him. That should cover the costs for a decent gambeson, plus some left over!

    You also found a rather strange necklace. The cord holding it up was made of woven string but that wasn't the part that catches your eye. It's the thin rectangle of rough rock covered in runes that hangs off the end. The runes of the front, according to Blackhand, read 'Skirsalr Entry-Key' and the runes on the back read 'Slagson Hakon Atlason'.

    'The Skirsvikingar, like all the Warbands, have three ranks of brothers. The first and lowest are called Slagsons, these are the new initiates who have not yet proven themselves before the elders. The next are called Ironbrothers, the seasoned warriors who have earned the right to call themselves sons and brothers of the Warband. The third and final are called Steelfathers, for their bodies are said to be forged of steel and death.'

    "And that big bastard was only a Slagson?" You shake your head at the thought. If that was the weakest of the bunch, then you don't want to meet the strongest!

    'He seemed to me to be ready to try the Iron Walk, as the Ironbrother trials are called. I believe that Reidar Swordfury was an Ironbrother who was supposed to serve as witness for those Walking the Iron.'

    "Do Iron Walks typically involve attacking farmsteads?" You ask as you return the necklace to your belt.

    'Only if the residents are powerful enough that killing them proves that a Slagson is ready to be an Ironbrother.'

    "Do you think that that's what happened here?" That would make sense, sort of. Halfdan did seem to be a potent force on the battlefield, but why torch the barn if killing him was the goal? What point did that serve?

    'No. Iron Walks consist of one Ironbrother to navigate and twelve Slagsons to row. Here there was only a single Slagson and the ground was not nearly damaged enough for it to have witnessed the deaths of eleven others.'

    You frown, getting rather annoyed with how things keep not making sense. If they don't have a good reason for this, then they should hope their argument beats your atgeir's!

    Just as you go to voice that boast, the air burns with crimson might as thunder echoes across the valley. Trees shudder and shake as they bend to the will of Wildfire streaking across the sky. Your eyes snap wide open as you clock its destination; you.

    The streak impacts with enough force to leave a three-foot deep crater in the ground. The earth shakes, throwing you to the ground in a way all too familiar to you as a dark cloud of smoke rises into the air. Your ears ring with a dull throb as you cough.

    In the depths of the cloud glow twin licks of fire. As the smoke clears, flame flows from your father's eyes as he rises to his full height and casts a baleful glare about the tattered farmland. Mail glitters in the sun as he holds fire-wrapped Crowfeeder in hand.

    For a moment, your goofy father, Steinarr Hallsson, is gone.

    For a moment, the extremely deadly warrior, Steinarr Freedfire, is here.

    And then Steinarr blinks, realizing that the threat is gone. The fire burns out as he sheepishly scratches at the back of his neck. There's a strained, awkward smile on his face, like he wasn't just about to lay total destruction at the feet of whoever might have hurt you.

    "Halla!" Steinarr says with a happy look as he spots you. Climbing from the crater, he ambles on over to you. He blinks, seemingly just clocking that you're on the ground and covered in ashen soot. "Are you okay?!"

    You and Blackhand share a long-suffering sigh. "I'm fine, dad."

    (+2 Oz Silver)
    (+1 Basic Work Knife)
    (Sagaseeker added to Equipment! Shield removed!)
    (Journal Updated: Skirsvikingar and You)
    0~0~0
    Personal (Pick 2/3, if no Exploration is picked):
    [ ] (Personal) That armor Steinarr brought back... You can't use it to its fullest potential, but is there anything else it can do?
    [ ] (Personal) Ask Randi to tell you some stories
    -[ ] (Optional) Write in the topic
    [ ] (Violent) Gabriel says that he's *really* bored. Offer to spar with him.
    [ ] (Violent) Pick a fight or spar with...
    -[ ] Asva (You doubt she'd be willing to fight you, but maybe you can needle her enough?)
    -[ ] ...Drifa? (Maybe when she's older...)
    -[ ] Someone else (Write in)
    [ ] (Personal) Spend time with... (Write in)
    [ ] (Shopping) Ask Steinarr to buy or sell something for you (Write in) (Can only be used to buy things you are already aware of and cannot haggle)
    [ ] (Crafting) Try to make something (Write in) (Hugr+Some kind of crafting skill)
    0~0~0
    Exploration/Travel (Pick 1 or none):
    [ ] (Visit) Go visit... (Unavailable)
    -[ ] The Witch! (Actually, it's probably a good idea to avoid her entirely)
    -[ ] Asvir!
    -[ ] Vidby, Abjorn's Farm
    -[ ] Kerby, Stigr's Farm
    -[ ] Buriby, Osborn's Farm (Has a guaranteed chance of ending in a fight)
    -[ ] Glebby, Sverre's Farm
    -[ ] Runby, Aki's Farm
    -[ ] Horrby, Horra's Farm (Has a very good chance of ending in a fight)
    -[ ] Halfdanby, Halfdan's Farm
    [ ] (Exploration) Go on a walk through...
    -[ ] The fields!
    -[ ] The Hading!
    --[ ] (Optional) Try to find those bandits you heard about
    -[ ] The hills!
    --[ ] (Optional) Towards where the flaming thing landed. Maybe there's something you missed?
    0~0~0
    Training: You have 12d6 training dice to spend as you see fit.
    [ ] (Blackhand) Try to develop old/train new hugareida tricks (Write in)
    [ ] (Steinarr's Training) Ask Steinarr to teach you a trick/some tricks (Write in)
    [ ] (Training) Hamr (12 successes to rank up)
    -[ ] (Optional) Train a hamr skill or trick (Write in)
    [ ] (Training) Hugr (2 successes to rank up)
    -[ ] (Optional) Train a hugr skill or trick (Write in)
    [ ] (Training) Fylgja (5 successes to rank up)
    -[ ] (Optional) Train a fylgja skill or trick (Write in)
    0~0~0
    Orthstirr Available: 35
    How do you want to use your orthstirr? You can turn on passive tricks here.
    [ ] (Orthstirr Usage) (Write in)
    0~0~0
    Fylgja Capacity: 0/3
    Do you want to withdraw or deposit anything in your fylgja?
    [ ] Write in (Optional)
    0~0~0
    Equipment Management
    What do you want to have equipped? Leaving this blank means that no changes are made.
    [ ] Write in (Optional)
    0~0~0

    AN: I've added a section to manage your equipment as well as a Shopping personal action, which will allow you to buy and sell things without having to go to Asvir. However, you can only buy or sell things that you already know the prices of and you can't make haggle rolls on it either.

    25-minute moratorium.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Anyway, I'm kind of playing around with the idea of shoring up some of our Utility Skills right now. Poking Gabriel and the Armor might be a good gateway into Armorcrafting, and it's probably a lot cheaper for us to be able to make our own gear than it is to just have to buy it. Especially if we can crack the pod and learn how to make some skymetal stuff--a set of reinforced boots would probably help a lot against a hypothetical snake!

    Also, get our force-shield Trick online too, that's top priority. That and maybe picking up Pierce as a low lying fruit?
     
    Alectai said:
    Anyway, I'm kind of playing around with the idea of shoring up some of our Utility Skills right now. Poking Gabriel and the Armor might be a good gateway into Armorcrafting, and it's probably a lot cheaper for us to be able to make our own gear than it is to just have to buy it. Especially if we can crack the pod and learn how to make some skymetal stuff--a set of reinforced boots would probably help a lot against a hypothetical snake!

    Also, get our force-shield Trick online too, that's top priority. That and maybe picking up Pierce as a low lying fruit?
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    Let's also try to up Poetry, to increase Abjorn's Orthstirr reserves. He probably has some Drengsapr from the feat as well.
     
    So, we push Hugr to push it up to the next level, work on getting our Artcraft stuff together so we can work on the Pod, and see maybe if we can squeeze some Armorcraft training in while linking that with poking the armor and Gabriel? Even just getting the idea to add some solid plates to mail would be a nice feather in our cap, and we're a Hugr beast, so if anyone can figure out how to grab some insights from that, it might be us.
     
    Imperial Fister said:
    For a moment, your goofy father, Steinarr Hallsson, is gone.

    For a moment, the extremely deadly warrior, Steinarr Freedfire, is here.
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    Just a reminder folks. Steinarr is an honorable viking warrior and also over 40. Also, Viking warriors are stone-cold badasses at 30, and just get more terrifying with age after that.

    Other thought - our eldest brother would have been conceived after he spent however many years chasing Horra across the landscape and killing off various uncles and cousins. So...

    - Halla is currently 15.
    - By extension, Hallr died at least 15 years ago.
    - Also by extension, Eric is about 19.
    - Sten went off to be fostered somewhere 10 years ago. It's not clear exactly how old he is, but he's older than Eric.
    - Steinarr was 44 when Halla was 13. That makes him about 46 now, 31 when Halla was born, and 27 when Eric was born. Call it... 25 for Sten, at a guess? That would mean that he probably spent his years of hunting Horra and butchering uncles in his early 20s. Horra pretty much has to be in his 40s now as well.

    Horra's personal history, then, goes something like...
    - Murder the sons of the guy who killed my father: 16-20ish, maybe early 20s.
    - Spend 5 years fleeing from the one brother I couldn't kill, while running out of uncles and cousins: probably about 20-25.
    - Finally slip the noose: about 25.
    - Feel safe enough to return home: 15ish years later.
    Worth noting at this point that he actually has sons of our own age.

    Perplexing why he's returning home, though. I mean, he has to know that there's a good chance that Steinarr is here (and he surely found out relatively shortly after his arrival). If he's truly as weighted down with Odrengskapr as we might hope for (or expect) then there's no way he can reasonably expect to face Stainarr and live unless he has some sort of horrible cheat. So... I'm guessing "some sort of horrible cheat"?
     
    Sirrocco said:
    Perplexing why he's returning home, though. I mean, he has to know that there's a good chance that Steinarr is here (and he surely found out relatively shortly after his arrival). If he's truly as weighted down with Odrengskapr as we might hope for (or expect) then there's no way he can reasonably expect to face Stainarr and live unless he has some sort of horrible cheat. So... I'm guessing "some sort of horrible cheat"?
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    Like, I dunno, a venomous snake spirit?

    Unless Odrengskapr taken to the extreme is no weaker, but that'd be... Weird.

    Either way, now that you put it that way... How the fuck are we supposed to kill a guy that good at surviving?
     
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    Imperial Fister said:
    Orthstirr Available: 35
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    This should be 36, I think? We had 21 and gained 15, after all.

    Anyway, plan:

    [X] Plan Find Some Trainers

    -[X] (Personal) Spend time with...(Write in)
    --[X] Stigandr
    --[X] Try and help him with his grief
    -[X] (Personal) Spend time with...(Write in)
    --[X] Mom
    --[X] Ask her to teach us more about being a wife in terms of practical skills
    -[X] (Personal) Spend time with...(Write in)
    --[X] Halfdan
    --[X] Ask him to teach us more about how to fight with an atgeir

    Training:
    -[X] (Blackhand's Training) Try to develop old/train new hugareida tricks (Write in)
    --[X] Train something for conjuring a shield out of hugareida that we can defend with while using our atgeir 1d6
    --[X] Train Imaging Skill-Trick 1d6
    -[X] (Training) Hamr (12 successes to rank up)
    --[X] Train Hamr Itself 6d6
    --[X] Train Pierce 1d6
    -[X] (Training) Hugr (2 successes to rank up)
    --[X] Train Hugr Itself 1d6
    --[X] Train Artcraft 1d6
    -[X] (Training) Fylgja (5 success to rank up)
    --[X] Train Fylgja Itself 1d6

    Orthstirr:
    -[X] (Orthstirr Usage)
    --[X] 4 Hamr
    --[X] 5/6 Hugr (if we can raise it)
    --[X] 3 Fylgja
    --[X] 2 Silver-Tongue
    --[X] 1 Activate First Impression
    --[X] 21/20 free for tricks (based on if we can raise Hugr)

    Okay, so, this plan is a bit risky (because it puts off buying armor until next turn), but hear me out. We need to talk to Stigandr no matter what, and the sooner we talk to people about training the sooner we can get training dice from them (hopefully anyway), so this is asking the relevant people. Every turn of that is super relevant, while putting off buying armor is only relevant if we get attacked specifically this turn.

    Though, for training, it plays things a bit safer...if we don't manage to secure Halfdan as a trainer, this may be our last chance to put a bunch into raising Hamr for a while (since dad is, as I understand it, going off raiding along with Abjorn), hence the focus on it (we don't want to wind up with no option but to gamble on raising that right before we hit 16). The hope is that we can focus on non-combat skills pretty heavily next turn (hopefully with mom's help).
     
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    [X] Plan Find Some Trainers

    It's quite ironic that the only person that has objected to Halla being a warrior on account of being a woman is our mother.

    By the way, @Imperial Fister is there any reason to continue levelling up a stat instead of prioritising the lowest stats? Like, do our active tricks such as Power-Chop scale with Chop?
     
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    Constenanto said:
    It's quite ironic that the only person that has objected to Halla being a warrior on account of being a woman is our mother.
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    We don't interact with that many people, which has a lot to do with it. Like, we so far associate with our family, our close friends (of whom Aki feels he owes us for including him, Abjorn is into it, and Stigandr is aware that both Abjorn and Halla would take it badly if he brought it up as a problem), Halfdan (who owes us his son's life due to us having combat skills), the Seeress (who knew Hallr and is clearly a bit non-traditional herself), and the Witch (who I suspect has no objections at all to women warriors).

    I guess more of our male relatives being disapproving would potentially make sense, but we killed a guy right in front of Eric and Steinarr when we were 12, which I think convinced them, and Sten is willing to follow Dad's lead, especially since we did some cool smithing in front of him.
     
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    Constenanto said:
    It's quite ironic that the only person that has objected to Halla being a warrior on account of being a woman is our mother.
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    Ironic, but unfortunately not uncommon. I find that women are much more critical, even if men are louder about it. (Not saying everyone is like this, only that the worst seem to go that way)

    [X] Plan Find Some Trainers
    Our Mother is not happy with us so I expect we will need to some minor quest or promise to really get her help.
     
    Sivantic said:
    Our Mother is not happy with us so I expect we will need to some minor quest or promise to really get her help.
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    I mean, we're literally doing what she wants to at least some degree. My own suspicion is that any dice she gives us will be in very specific areas and we may need to spend some additional training dice in those areas every turn as well (ie: she gives us 3 dice but we have to spend a total of 5 dice every turn on 'womanly skills'...we'd be fine with this) rather than needing to do a quest per se...but I did put maxing out Silver-Tongue into the plan for a reason so as to talk her into it.
     
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    Constenanto said:
    By the way, @Imperial Fister is there any reason to continue levelling up a stat instead of prioritising the lowest stats? Like, do our active tricks such as Power-Chop scale with Chop?
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    The more levels you have in a skill, the higher the ceiling is for what you can reasonably pull off. Something like the kick move that the Skirsvikingr pulled off in response to your attack is an example. If someone's just flat-out better at fighting than someone else is, they're going to be able to do things that would otherwise be impossible.

    Another example would be the quality of your metal work. Doesn't really matter how good you roll if your raw skill simply isn't up to the task. You can have the best idea for a drawing in the world, but if you don't have the skill to back it up then you're not going anywhere fast.
     
    Sirrocco said:
    Perplexing why he's returning home, though. I mean, he has to know that there's a good chance that Steinarr is here (and he surely found out relatively shortly after his arrival). If he's truly as weighted down with Odrengskapr as we might hope for (or expect) then there's no way he can reasonably expect to face Stainarr and live unless he has some sort of horrible cheat. So... I'm guessing "some sort of horrible cheat"?
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    Historically speaking, there is at least one account of a pair of vikings from either Uppsala or Telemark who had a feud at home, after which both parties independantly decided to go to Constantinople to serve as Varangians, and upon reaching Constantinople discovered the other there and swore to renew the grudge upon departure. They then both served in the Guard, went back home (seperately) and the record reaches with them having returned home and "a judgement on the affair being made".

    So yeah this is honestly pretty plausible.

    Alectai said:
    Either way, now that you put it that way... How the fuck are we supposed to kill a guy that good at surviving?
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    That depends: do we want to be honorable, or do we want this motherfucker in the ground accept no substitutes? Because frankly speaking, I'm more than willing to dig up my Big Book of Awful Vikings to look for tips and tricks. Hell, just to start, we have an English knight right there we can use as an ablative meatshield so we go in when dipshittery mcgee is nice and tired out. There's options, before we consider such dishonorable options as "ask Aki to help us do the scry and die" or "get the local judge to find him in violation of oaths to crash out his othrasir" and the ever-popular "seek help from wild creatures in the forest in exchange for something".

    Like, we got options. They're not all great options, but there's options.
     
    Horra's skill set also seems focused on surviving by running and hiding, not straight fights, and we've been told his orthstirr is low for someone of his experience, which is very relevant. If we can figure out a way to keep him from running and confront him directly when he's not expecting it, we can probably help dad kill him dead...there's probably an application for Standstill that can help there, though I'm less sure our current trick would be sufficient.
     
    One thought I'd had is just... write scurrilous poetry about him. Like, we get Dad to tell us stories about it, and then compose an epic in his honor about his hunt across the world from this guy who just kept running away... while not actually putting a name to the guy running away. We present it as making Dad look good (which it would) but it's also a pretty vicious nid, and the guy can't really respond to it in any way without making the damage open and explicit. I his weakness is in orthstirr, then hit him in the orthstirr, you know?

    That said, I'm not convinced that that would be enough. Also, importantly, this guy came home. To me, that says that he either found some way to fix himself (in which case he's not as vulnerable as we might think) or he's managed to switch to some other kind of cultivation entirely (in which case it may not matter at all).

    Like, seriously, this guy is over 40. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but....
     
    Sirrocco said:
    One thought I'd had is just... write scurrilous poetry about him. Like, we get Dad to tell us stories about it, and then compose an epic in his honor about his hunt across the world from this guy who just kept running away... while not actually putting a name to the guy running away. We present it as making Dad look good (which it would) but it's also a pretty vicious nid, and the guy can't really respond to it in any way without making the damage open and explicit. I his weakness is in orthstirr, then hit him in the orthstirr, you know?
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    Would this even hit him without his name attached? I'm not sure. I also don't think our dad would be pleased by this at all...I'm pretty sure he views the whole thing as a failure. Plus, he'd have some hard questions to ask us about how we know.

    Sirrocco said:
    That said, I'm not convinced that that would be enough. Also, importantly, this guy came home. To me, that says that he either found some way to fix himself (in which case he's not as vulnerable as we might think) or he's managed to switch to some other kind of cultivation entirely (in which case it may not matter at all).

    Like, seriously, this guy is over 40. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but....
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    Interestingly, for carefully chosen non-combat stuff and even assassination of weakened targets, low orthstirr as compared to your stats isn't much of an obstacle if those stats are good enough. Like, someone with Hugr 8 and Wildcraft 7, plus the Stealth Skill-Trick can have 17 dice on stealth for a mere 16 orthstirr. If Horra has only 40 or 50 orthstirr, he can still do that with spare orthstirr to burn. A couple of good offensive tricks that can take a weak or unprepared opponent out are also well within that budget.

    Where the low orthstirr would hurt him is in prolonged fights, which are something we already know he avoids. Honestly, I'm not seeing any indications of him using a foreign cultivation method or anything, everything he does makes perfect sense for someone with high stats, low orthstirr, and no morals.

    Like, in more conventional xianxia terms, all orthstirr really equates to is the size of one's qi pool. Which is very relevant in a fight...but less so for other things once you have enough to get by.

    Imperial Fister said:
    The valley is Horra's ancestral home.

    It's not Steianrr's.
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    This tracks. Dad was never 100% sure that Horra was really dead (which makes sense from what we know of Horra), so he decided that if he was gonna settle down he'd do it somewhere Horra would be sure to show up eventually if he was alive.
     
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