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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)
- Thread starter I.F. Ister
- Start date
- Original Fantasy Action
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- Tags
- norse mythology (mythology) original xianxia cultivation western cultivation ask sirihand did your mother tell you anything? discussion pleases yggdrasil farming gloating gets people killed granary management hubris is a coward's word you will die norsemen do not die when they are killed the qm has a bad memory the qm is bad at math viking courtroom drama (legal drama) vikings
Ariesthegolden
He who knows not how to ADHD, but is learning
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Soulsight: The ability to read a soul like a book
- Location
- Bretonnia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Sundersight: The ability to look at something and gain an understanding of its weaknesses
This just feels more useful to me given Halla's talent when it comes to crafting, not to mention it'd help when it comes to combat, in case there's anything we meet that can't be beaten by being hit hard enough. I'd rather Halla be more skilled rather than developing an entirely new portfolio and becoming broader. But mostly, I'm just unsure of what we'd really need Soulsight for beyond healing Aki's soul.
This just feels more useful to me given Halla's talent when it comes to crafting, not to mention it'd help when it comes to combat, in case there's anything we meet that can't be beaten by being hit hard enough. I'd rather Halla be more skilled rather than developing an entirely new portfolio and becoming broader. But mostly, I'm just unsure of what we'd really need Soulsight for beyond healing Aki's soul.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Soulsight will definitely give us a fair bit of insight into the people we look at with it...who they are and what they're about. Sundersight might do some of that in terms of their weaknesses, too, though.
- Location
- Bretonnia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I suppose so. That's not really enough of a draw for me to pick Soulsight over Sundersight, though. Unless we learn spells that can interact/target it, I suppose? I imagine some would be helped by Soulsight?
- Location
- England
[X] Shroudsight: The ability to see through shrouds and disguises and all other kinds of lies
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Soul-targeting spells seem like Bad Juju outside of healing. I wasn't necessarily arguing for it, just noting use cases.
[X] Soulsight: The ability to read a soul like a book
This honestly feels like it fits for us.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs
I was assuming that the Enemy has servants we have not seen yet which could kill a Jotun, to be honest. That might be incorrect though, you're right.
I loved it honestly. I hope you had fun too!
Also you honestly got worryingly close with "twigs", well done! What did you think of the riddle @Imperial Fister? Was it too ambiguous?
I think "fluffy" beard does not necessarily fit with twigs, which is why I'm glad I added that, and "road of roads" is a kenning for "river" I stole from Odin's riddling contest with King Heidrik in the Saga of Hervor and Heidrik. But otherwise "twigs" fits fairly well, and conceptually is pretty close. I was also worried that you might go for "willow", since willow shoots can be used to make baskets, willows like to grow near water, and many species of willow trees have fluffy seeds. If you'd answered that then I think you'd fairly be in the right tbh.
Of the ones I did, I think the second one, which is (#5) in Deadman's listing, is probably my favourite. Do you think that one was easier?
This honestly feels like it fits for us.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs
I was assuming that the Enemy has servants we have not seen yet which could kill a Jotun, to be honest. That might be incorrect though, you're right.
I loved it honestly. I hope you had fun too!
Also you honestly got worryingly close with "twigs", well done! What did you think of the riddle @Imperial Fister? Was it too ambiguous?
I think "fluffy" beard does not necessarily fit with twigs, which is why I'm glad I added that, and "road of roads" is a kenning for "river" I stole from Odin's riddling contest with King Heidrik in the Saga of Hervor and Heidrik. But otherwise "twigs" fits fairly well, and conceptually is pretty close. I was also worried that you might go for "willow", since willow shoots can be used to make baskets, willows like to grow near water, and many species of willow trees have fluffy seeds. If you'd answered that then I think you'd fairly be in the right tbh.
Of the ones I did, I think the second one, which is (#5) in Deadman's listing, is probably my favourite. Do you think that one was easier?
- Location
- Bretonnia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I mean yeah, there's that too. I don't think it'd be nid per say but, like the Seeress said, I imagine it'd lead to us getting chased out of town by a lynch mob very quickly.
Shame that Shroudsight wouldn't be automatic, as otherwise I'd support that as much as I do Sundersight.
I know I've said this before, but I'd still like Halla to work out to enter someone's soul. It's our best bet at doing emergency life-saving soul-surgery if something goes wrong, whether it is Odr cultivation gone wrong, or possession by a spirit, or whatever.
We could practice with Abjorn or someone else we trust, but I think we should practice.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Soulsight is really helpful for a whole lotta reasons.
1) We can experiment with Odr on animals and actually see the results, greatly reducing the risk of Odr experimentation by offloading the risk to a farm animal or plant.
2) We can read people's soul just prior to combat or even during negotiations, giving us a grasp of them!
3) We could go and check out the souls of our friends and family for possessing spirits and whatnot. Also potentially helps with training.
4) We could work on Aki's blindness - Though this would require a lot of research and work.
5) Might be relevant for if we need to fix soul destruction at some point.
6) Might help with our Seidr Odr drip experiment to initiate people into Odr cultivation.
Of course, Sundersight is really good as well:
1) Immediately find out the weaknesses of an enemy! (Usability pending on whether we have access to their weakness: Weak to Water would need someone with Water on our team to exploit, for example.)
2) Improve our crafting by figuring out weaknesses and hammering them out! Improve our magical wards by finding out their weaknesses! Break other people's magical wards by looking for weaknesses in their wards!
3) Help train other people by using Sundersight for their weaknesses and hammering them out!
4) Find weaknesses in people's arguments!
5) Actually one of the Seersights we haven't seen before, giving us more variety in addition to fitting well with Halla being a Crafter.
6) Potentially figure out the Riddle of Forged Iron with Sten, because Sundersight would give us (IC) insight into how Forged Iron works (impurities!)
1) We can experiment with Odr on animals and actually see the results, greatly reducing the risk of Odr experimentation by offloading the risk to a farm animal or plant.
2) We can read people's soul just prior to combat or even during negotiations, giving us a grasp of them!
3) We could go and check out the souls of our friends and family for possessing spirits and whatnot. Also potentially helps with training.
4) We could work on Aki's blindness - Though this would require a lot of research and work.
5) Might be relevant for if we need to fix soul destruction at some point.
6) Might help with our Seidr Odr drip experiment to initiate people into Odr cultivation.
Of course, Sundersight is really good as well:
1) Immediately find out the weaknesses of an enemy! (Usability pending on whether we have access to their weakness: Weak to Water would need someone with Water on our team to exploit, for example.)
2) Improve our crafting by figuring out weaknesses and hammering them out! Improve our magical wards by finding out their weaknesses! Break other people's magical wards by looking for weaknesses in their wards!
3) Help train other people by using Sundersight for their weaknesses and hammering them out!
4) Find weaknesses in people's arguments!
5) Actually one of the Seersights we haven't seen before, giving us more variety in addition to fitting well with Halla being a Crafter.
6) Potentially figure out the Riddle of Forged Iron with Sten, because Sundersight would give us (IC) insight into how Forged Iron works (impurities!)
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Honestly @Imperial Fister, this whole arc has been a blast, thank you so much for writing it.
Initially I'd thought of this as quite a lowkey trading expedition, and advocated for it under those terms, and we've instead had a grand adventure! This expedition is the sort of thing I was dreaming about when I've advocated before for Halla to be a bit more proactive and get out there in the world and do heroic stuff, and whilst I did not expect this to be the result from going out to purchase grain... I'm really pleased it has been.
We're probably in the last third of the story as things stand, but do people think a yearly trading expedition like this one each summer would be a good idea?
Anyway, I am buzzing with excitement for us to get home, and see people's reactions to all the food we've brought, and hearing stories about our adventures.
Initially I'd thought of this as quite a lowkey trading expedition, and advocated for it under those terms, and we've instead had a grand adventure! This expedition is the sort of thing I was dreaming about when I've advocated before for Halla to be a bit more proactive and get out there in the world and do heroic stuff, and whilst I did not expect this to be the result from going out to purchase grain... I'm really pleased it has been.
We're probably in the last third of the story as things stand, but do people think a yearly trading expedition like this one each summer would be a good idea?
Anyway, I am buzzing with excitement for us to get home, and see people's reactions to all the food we've brought, and hearing stories about our adventures.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We need a bit of time off, I think. Not only me but several other people mentioned they wanted to chill out for a bit and focus on the slice of life stuff a bit more. Especially in the leadup to Vestfold and then likely the War (which will both be action heavy).
So I think we take one year off from expeditions. We'll still be doing stuff...we advance to Second Realm in there and will be exploring what that means, plus we need to work out some local issues, talk to a bunch of people, visit the Heart of the Hading. All that kind of thing, but no actual long distance travel while we get our homefront situation squared away, do some training, figure out how all our new abilities actually work, and take a bit of a breather. This trip was just a lot and I think we need a break before heading straight into more excitement on this level, never mind Vestfold which is gonna be way more high octane and exciting than this was by all indications. Like, orders of magnitude more eventful.
And, the year after that, we probably do need to head to Vestfold for a wide variety of reasons. We can put that off one year to catch our collective breath, but not much more than that.
After the Vestfold Trip, we'll see where things stand, and the War will definitely change things whenever that happens, so planning that far out is probably not wise, but I think we do need a year off from major expeditions.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
I.. personally would like a balance between high-key high-stakes events (such as this event, or the Vestfold) and low-key low-stakes events.
Without the latter we run a real risk of burnout on both sides of the quest.
Now where that balance is, is a question in of itself.
- Location
- Virginia
[X] Sundersight: The ability to look at something and gain an understanding of its weaknesses
[X] Soulsight: The ability to read a soul like a book
[X] Soulsight: The ability to read a soul like a book
can someone explain to me why people think Halla's story is at its end? she's still young, has lots of room to grow, a great deal of adventures to do, and has no actual reason to believe she's gonna die soon. why do people think that's the end of the story?
[X] Soulsight: The ability to read a soul like a book
[X] Soulsight: The ability to read a soul like a book
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I could be convinced to do yearly expeditions more easily (even this coming year) if we could cut down on the extraneous variables better...the actual trade and mercenary work for Alfred, taken on its own, would be fine as a yearly trip I think, it's all the surrounding stuff that makes it a bit much. Both in terms of risk, but also in terms of screentime.
Like, from a pure screentime perspective that trip took about a month of real-world time whereas with minimal combat we can go through an entire year in a week or two. I don't think I want less than 1/3 of this Quest's screentime to involve our home, family stuff, and the kids, y'know? If our trading trips were more like half that length I'd be much more inclined to do them yearly.
Which is not to say trips are entirely off the table, but there needs to be some balance there.
The upcoming war is very risky, and that's likely only a handful of years off. That said, I'm inclined to agree...I feel like if she survives the war, getting Halla to the age of 40 should be something we can actually do and should 100% aim for rather than taking too many unnecessary risks. We want the kids to all be grown up when she eventually dies, if we can arrange it.
She'd definitely keep going on trade and mercenary expeditions during that time, naturally, as well as continuing to advance her cultivation understanding and experiments, so it doesn't need to be uneventful by any means...to say nothing of the likely unresolved Drysalt situation or a lot of other possibilities.
We shouldn't just assume she'll die soon and act like it's inevitable. That's a good way to make for a self-fulfilling prophecy. We can keep her alive a good long while with some luck and patience and should do our level best to do so.
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To be clear, when I'm talking about a yearly trading expedition, I did not necessarily mean something on the scale of the grand adventure this turned into.
I mean something a bit more along the lines of what we thought this was going to be going in - we pootle around, do a bit of trading, see some cool stuff, and maybe do a mercenary contract for Alfred or someone. And I agree, I'd like Halla to live a long life and be as successful as we can make her - but I think regular expeditions are probably a good thing for that?
This one is probably a bit of an outlier for various reasons, but even so, the growth we've gotten from it has been considerable, and that's likely to help keep us alive in the long run.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Once a year expedition on the same scale as what we expected this trip to be would be good, yes.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm much more down with something more like we expected this to be every year, yeah. And I don't disagree about the gains. I'm just a little worried that a trip with lower impact than this one is not a thing that actually exists? Like, Odin clearly had his hand on the scales here, but we don't have a good way to know whether that's actually unusual for us or not. Which makes me inclined to hedge our bets when aiming for a bit of quiet before the Vestfold Trip.
I could probably be talked into a shorter, easier, trip if we had a some way to assure it would actually be a bit shorter and easier.