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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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Alectai said:
Mmm, fair enough, but I think that's a bit too obvious. It wouldn't be his home that he does this in.
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I mean, "15 acres away over hill and dale, in a clearing in a dark, twisted forest, with a single standing stone marked with runes that twist your stomach just to look at it and an altar stained with blood" would be in his lands, but not at home, so to speak.
 
KreenWarrior said:
I mean, "15 acres away over hill and dale, in a clearing in a dark, twisted forest, with a single standing stone marked with runes that twist your stomach just to look at it and an altar stained with blood" would be in his lands, but not at home, so to speak.
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Honestly? There's too many people on hand, and that kind of thing would show up in a broad aerial survey regardless.

You don't shit where you eat, he's lived long enough to know that. He's probably shielded himself from incidental discovery, and at least some degree of supernatural as well. I sincerely doubt it's a problem we solve just by looking from above. It can't be that easy.
 
KreenWarrior said:
By the same token, I have no real idea what "follow the money" means to an owl.
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I mean, fair enough. The point is doing a headcount of his fields and herds and whatnot and taking a guess at how much he can support, and seeing if that matches the kind of firepower we've already observed--while later moving in closer and seeing what they talk about.

If there's a significant discreptancy in what he should be able to afford vs the quality of the people hanging out here as 'Farmhands', then we know he's making money elsewhere. Knowing whether he's getting support from the outside or if he's exporting is critical--because if he's exporting and yet there's no obvious source of that kind of money, we've got a clue as to where his secrets might be kept.
 
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[X] Do a broad aerial survey of Horra's lands, take note of his fields, and do an estimate of how many people he should actually be able to support with what he has on hand. When time and discretion allows, attempt to get closer--paying that many fighters with that kind of equipment shouldn't be something that just anyone can afford without being a famously successful leader of warbands--and yet nobody's willing to talk about him, which suggests otherwise. He's clearly not getting that money in an honorable fashion, and people might let some details slip if they don't think they're being watched. Follow the money, see where it points, if you get a chance to track Horra himself though, it's obviously worth a shot--but approaching his home should be the final step in your investigation--who knows what defenses he has on hand.
 
[X] Do a broad aerial survey of Horra's lands, take note of his fields, and do an estimate of how many people he should actually be able to support with what he has on hand. When time and discretion allows, attempt to get closer--paying that many fighters with that kind of equipment shouldn't be something that just anyone can afford without being a famously successful leader of warbands--and yet nobody's willing to talk about him, which suggests otherwise. He's clearly not getting that money in an honorable fashion, and people might let some details slip if they don't think they're being watched. Follow the money, see where it points, if you get a chance to track Horra himself though, it's obviously worth a shot--but approaching his home should be the final step in your investigation--who knows what defenses he has on hand.
 
Hmm, are we maybe able to discuss the fact that there is an Enemy and it's preventing us from revealing certain things?
 
edofthesquid said:
Hmm, are we maybe able to discuss the fact that there is an Enemy and it's preventing us from revealing certain things?
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Strikes me as one of those Forbidden Topics. Though possibly less Forbidden. I don't know, it's hard to gauge.

If it's an easy sounding solution though, it's probably accounted for.
 
Alectai said:
I mean, fair enough. The point is doing a headcount of his fields and herds and whatnot and taking a guess at how much he can support, and seeing if that matches the kind of firepower we've already observed--while later moving in closer and seeing what they talk about.
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I guess I don't mind doing that, but I'd at least like to take a look around first. We can scout for multiple turns, and aerial scouting is kind of the main advantage of the birb, and the QM has pointed at finding the Evil Ritual Site being a solid means of taking him down.

I don't think it makes sense to assume he's doing his Evil Mystical Stuff in another land. He would have no real way of protecting it there. It feels likely he's doing his Dark Work somewhere nearby, and has some means of compelling the loyalty of the men here, or concealing said Dark Work from them. Maybe one of the buildings is barred from discovery via rune-magic and pain-of-death to someone who enters without the keystone.
 
KreenWarrior said:
I guess I don't mind doing that, but I'd at least like to take a look around first. We can scout for multiple turns, and aerial scouting is kind of the main advantage of the birb, and the QM has pointed at finding the Evil Ritual Site being a solid means of taking him down.

I don't think it makes sense to assume he's doing his Evil Mystical Stuff in another land. He would have no real way of protecting it there. It feels likely he's doing his Dark Work somewhere nearby, and has some means of compelling the loyalty of the men here, or concealing said Dark Work from them. Maybe one of the buildings is barred from discovery via rune-magic and pain-of-death to someone who enters without the keystone.
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Again, that's Clues that we can get with the initial survey. Also, if it's a dead obvious thing like you suggest, it'd come up in our survey anyway
 
I think some of his allies know about his sorcery. A troll showing up to have words didn't blow the lid off the operation.

Also I am starting to think that the Enemy is probably a big pan-cultural chaos Serpent. Locally known as Nidhogr. But it goes under many names include Tiamat, Satan, Apep, (Typhon/Echidna), Orochi, and Hoopsnake. It's motives are unknown besides being a jerk but it's goals are clear.
 
Grytorm said:
I think some of his allies know about his sorcery. A troll showing up to have words didn't blow the lid off the operation.

Also I am starting to think that the Enemy is probably a big pan-cultural chaos Serpent. Locally known as Nidhogr. But it goes under many names include Tiamat, Satan, Apep, (Typhon/Echidna), Orochi, and Hoopsnake. It's motives are unknown besides being a jerk but it's goals are clear.
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I agree, again, that's shit that should come up in a survey applying Scrutiny to them, which my plan has as the second phase.
 
Alectai said:
How is he paying for all of this anyway? You know better than anyone else how expensive it is to equip people with quality arms, and you've got a good idea of how much space is needed to feed this many people and maintain their arms--and if Horra was a well regarded Raider, you don't think people would be quite as reluctant to speak of him as they are, and yet he's got a proper Felag apparently living on his territory? You doubt he's so well regarded that they'd sit nearby without significant reimbursement, so how is he pulling that off without doing anything that would make him well respected, and the talk of the town? Figuring that out might give you some insight as to the story here, or if there's anything you need to be aware of.
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The answer to this may well be banditry. We know there are bandits about, them coming from Horra's place makes all too much sense and would explain the monetary discrepancies and why they continue to follow him (since they're also doing criminal and awful shit).

KreenWarrior said:
I guess I don't mind doing that, but I'd at least like to take a look around first. We can scout for multiple turns, and aerial scouting is kind of the main advantage of the birb, and the QM has pointed at finding the Evil Ritual Site being a solid means of taking him down.
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We actually can't scout for multiple turns in the normal sense of turns. Scouting is a Visit and those are once per season...and we have a strict time limit on how many seasons we can take. Hopefully, we'll get another vote to keep going and try other things (or not) based on what we find this time, but that'd still be part of the same turn.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
We actually can't scout for multiple turns in the normal sense of turns. Scouting is a Visit and those are once per season...and we have a strict time limit. on how many seasons we can take. Hopefully, we'll get another vote to keep going and try other things (or not) based on what we find this time, but that'd still be part of the same turn.
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I was using "turns" imprecisely there. "Rounds of voting" would perhaps have been more carefully chosen.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
The answer to this may well be banditry. We know there are bandits about, them coming from Horra's place makes all too much sense and would explain the monetary discrepancies and why they continue to follow him (since they're also doing criminal and awful shit).
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If that's the case, it should come up--and then we can start choking him out without progressing the Feud in the eyes of the Law.

Bandits, after all, are outlaws :p
 
Alectai said:
Oh, a question incidentally, and I think it got missed in the press last night, but has our Standstill reached the point where it contributes Dice to the Hamr Contest brought on by Contested-Movement @Imperial Fister ?
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It does not, nor will it because I can only describe time slowing down so many times in so many ways in the same fight before it becomes derivative.
 
Imperial Fister said:
It does not, nor will it because I can only describe time slowing down so many times in so many ways in the same fight before it becomes derivative.
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Alas.

Oh well, that's fair I guess, does make it pretty situational though, there should be some neat, more active applications to Standstill on the table for us now that it's Rank III at least.

...

Tell me, is it possible to condense the effects of IAT into an attack?. Rather than something that can be used as a shield a pin, could we wrap it in a special move such that it effectively locks that specific part of their body in place?

Which forces them to either unwind it themselves, or have to take additional damage tearing themselves loose?
 
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Alectai said:
Alas.

Oh well, that's fair I guess, does make it pretty situational though, there should be some neat, more active applications to Standstill on the table for us now that it's Rank III at least.
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I'm not sure if it's a Trick or an Exalted stunt but I've wondered about doing an aerial bombardment where we just power-dive and use a Standstill shield to tank the landing. Or if we could form Standstill into a blade or clothesline, re-enact Clockblocker vs. Echidna.
 
Alectai said:
If that's the case, it should come up--and then we can start choking him out without progressing the Feud in the eyes of the Law.

Bandits, after all, are outlaws :p
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Absolutely. I think his whole little village here is shady as hell and catching them out would be excellent.

Alectai said:
Tell me, is it possible to condense the effects of IAT into an attack?. Rather than something that can be used as a shield a pin, could we wrap it in a special move such that it effectively locks that specific part of their body in place?

Which forces them to either unwind it themselves, or have to take additional damage tearing themselves loose?
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We've done this. The IAT is breakable so it breaks before their body does, but we have successfully trapped people in place with it before.

KreenWarrior said:
I'm not sure if it's a Trick or an Exalted stunt but I've wondered about doing an aerial bombardment where we just power-dive and use a Standstill shield to tank the landing. Or if we could form Standstill into a blade or clothesline, re-enact Clockblocker vs. Echidna.
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We've been told a Standstill movement option with double jumps was viable...but we have limited capacity and training time and something like that is largely redundant with EWC.

The clothesline effect seems not to work because Standstill erases all momentum...you can use it to bring a charging knight to a stop, but he's just suddenly stopped, not at risk of taking damage.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
We've been told a Standstill movement option with double jumps was viable...but we have limited capacity and training time and something like that is largely redundant with EWC.
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Well, EWC would let us yeet ourselves at the ground really hard, but if we could somehow protect ourselves from the landing effects while still delivering the damage, we could be our own Rod from God. It doesn't sound viable, but we are improving Standstill and our own capabilities, so idk.
 
KreenWarrior said:
Well, EWC would let us yeet ourselves at the ground really hard, but if we could somehow protect ourselves from the landing effects while still delivering the damage, we could be our own Rod from God. It doesn't sound viable, but we are improving Standstill and our own capabilities, so idk.
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If Standstill stops us then it stops us completely, I think, which would rob us of all momentum and make the tactic not work...I think EWC can use explosions to slow us down and do a better version of this all on its own. Once Mastered and combined with Leaping Cleave anyway.

We can also just get a basic Throw Trick and do the Fylgja Boulder Drop plan is we want aerial bombardment. Which we likely do eventually, though fitting it into our schedule is tricky (we need a minimum of two Tricks, the Throwing Trick and a defensive one to give the Fylgja and likely a higher Fylgja rating to boot).
 
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Yeah, Perfect EWC is probably one of the things we should push for, just given how big a deal having that kind of mobility is for us.

But it takes second priority over shit like having our Hugr 7 and whatnot.

Also, @Imperial Fister , what kind of gifts would be a good greeting gift for our Dwarf neighbours?

(Also, I don't think we've got any more votes coming in either.)
 
I wonder if the Duckling tribe has duck feet like the dwarves from Castle Falkenstein? (Which I assume is derived from some bit of folklore somewhere).
 
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