NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)
- Thread starter I.F. Ister
- Start date
- Original Fantasy Action
-
- 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
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hmmm. That's a very ambiguous phrasing. Hmmmm. I'm gonna add something to the plan. We have an anti-illusion spell.
[X] Use The Mind's Eye Blinks to see if that's actually Gabriel, adding 3 Odr.
-[X] Assuming that doesn't reveal anything, offer to let Gabriel have the scholar.
-[X] Note that there is stuff we need here, we made a deal, but we can negotiate for the rest
-[X] Let him know about Steinarr's death even if he insists on fighting. Simply phrase it as 'You should know, my father was killed.' and see how he reacts.
Halla has now officially killed more people this year than in the entire rest of her life. Which is wild.
Last edited:
Re-reading, I am more willing to believe he might be an illusion - some of the wording is curious, and it almost seems like his abilities are an exact reflection of Halla's own.
I would be willing to try and find out the context before we fight, or let the scholar leave with Gabriel after our fight. But this whole thing feels to me like we're trying to back down from a challenging fight, and I dislike it on general principle for that reason.
I would be willing to try and find out the context before we fight, or let the scholar leave with Gabriel after our fight. But this whole thing feels to me like we're trying to back down from a challenging fight, and I dislike it on general principle for that reason.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's not about the fight's difficulty, it's about not wanting to fight a friend. If this isn't Gabriel, I say we kill him, if it is, well, acquiring an unwilling scholar is not worth fighting and potentially killing a close friend to do.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Gabriel walking up on us slaughtering people one sidedly and choosing to throw down isn't exactly what I'd call out of character for him. But the idea that he just happened to advance just like us to the point of being our exact mirror seems the weirdest to me. I mean, I know the whole world scales up to Halla and that as we gain levels every enemy we face is just gonna be stronger, but that has mostly been low key mechanics side mostly. This is like, called out multiple times, super suspiciously.
I think giving up attacks to something called out as our equal because we wanna try to parley when the text has explicitly said Halla knows it won't work is a bad idea. If it's a Slav trick, we know they are called out as masters of manipulation and ambushes, and we are falling right into it. If it's Gabriel and he has decided his mission is righteous because we are killing a village for our goal, we are gonna be on the back foot.
I don't wanna give up our goal just to play nice even if it is him either way. Whether this is or is not Gabriel, we should fight for our goals and our way of life.
I think giving up attacks to something called out as our equal because we wanna try to parley when the text has explicitly said Halla knows it won't work is a bad idea. If it's a Slav trick, we know they are called out as masters of manipulation and ambushes, and we are falling right into it. If it's Gabriel and he has decided his mission is righteous because we are killing a village for our goal, we are gonna be on the back foot.
I don't wanna give up our goal just to play nice even if it is him either way. Whether this is or is not Gabriel, we should fight for our goals and our way of life.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Offer to let Gabriel have the scholar.
-[X] Note that there is stuff we need here, we made a deal, but we can negotiate for the rest
-[X] Let him know about Steinarr's death even if he insists on fighting. Simply phrase it as 'You should know, my father was killed.' and see how he reacts.
-[X] Note that there is stuff we need here, we made a deal, but we can negotiate for the rest
-[X] Let him know about Steinarr's death even if he insists on fighting. Simply phrase it as 'You should know, my father was killed.' and see how he reacts.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I mean, my above idea is we try and dispel the illusion, which should give better results if it is a Slav trick, I think.
What part of our way of life? I'm not into enslaving people, and that's the part of our 'way of life' we'd be defending by refusing to let Gabriel rescue a scholar and kidnapping him instead.
The fact that his strength seems to have advanced to the point where it's an exact mirror of our own, that both his strength and speed mirror ours exactly, and even his moveset has apparently evolved to the point that it's more similar to ours, seems a bit suspicious on a second read-through, yes. Like, Gabriel gaining a lot of strength really quickly through some unusual method? Possible. But then you'd still expect him to be a bit different in strength from Halla, not an exact mirror image.
It feels a lot like what you'd expect from an illusion which somehow copies or mirrors the target.
It feels a lot like what you'd expect from an illusion which somehow copies or mirrors the target.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah. If people don't like negotiating even if it is Gabriel, I really think a plan to use The Mind's Eye Blinks first, possibly with a hefty Odr infusion (I have 3 in my above plan, but could easily be convinced to go higher) is still the way to go here...this is off.
- Location
- In the oldest city on the oldest land
[X] Use The Mind's Eye Blinks to see if that's actually Gabriel, adding 3 Odr.
-[X] Assuming that doesn't reveal anything, offer to let Gabriel have the scholar.
-[X] Note that there is stuff we need here, we made a deal, but we can negotiate for the rest
-[X] Let him know about Steinarr's death even if he insists on fighting. Simply phrase it as 'You should know, my father was killed.' and see how he reacts.
-[X] Assuming that doesn't reveal anything, offer to let Gabriel have the scholar.
-[X] Note that there is stuff we need here, we made a deal, but we can negotiate for the rest
-[X] Let him know about Steinarr's death even if he insists on fighting. Simply phrase it as 'You should know, my father was killed.' and see how he reacts.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
For the record, upon further consideration, I went back and edited the estimate of his strength and speed
GildedSergeant
Tarnished Gold and Rattling Bones
- Location
- Over There
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Well, the plot thickens.
@Imperial Fister have we been able to use our sundersight and if so does it give results that seem consistent with Gabriel's weaknesses? And does this Blackstone Blade seem the same as we remember, as far as we know of its capabilities?
If it is the real thing I'm inclined to believe he's real, being an inherited martial style (iirc) it'd probably be pretty difficult to replicate.
@Imperial Fister have we been able to use our sundersight and if so does it give results that seem consistent with Gabriel's weaknesses? And does this Blackstone Blade seem the same as we remember, as far as we know of its capabilities?
If it is the real thing I'm inclined to believe he's real, being an inherited martial style (iirc) it'd probably be pretty difficult to replicate.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Raiding. He's stepping in ready to kill to stop the raid. His problem with us wasn't us going for the thrall, it was 'I won't let you continue to harm people'. Raiding is part of our identity as Norse, and if we aren't going to back down from all raids I think it's weak of us to back down just because ot happens to be a friend who wants to stop us.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Huh. That actually makes me even more suspicious this isn't Gabriel. As far as we know, a Knight of the 6th Decade should have Speed 6. We currently have, like, Speed 8. Could Gabriel have significantly more? Potentially, but we've seen no evidence of Carolingian Cultivation doing things that could get, what, +5 additional Speed? That's...odd. Very odd. Not impossible, but suspicious.
Backing down so you don't have to kill a friend does not strike me as weak. Loyalty to friends and being unwilling to kill them for inconveniencing you is not weakness and I find the idea that it is pretty unpleasant.
I'm also actually not a huge fan of raids in general, mind you, but even leaving that aside, the Norse stopping mid-fight when they discover a friend or relative on the other side is kind of a thing in the sagas.
GildedSergeant
Tarnished Gold and Rattling Bones
- Location
- Over There
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I added that we won't harm any more townspeople if the fight ends here, and removed the part about the negotiations. We can talk about that once (and if) we get him to stand down. He said he's fighting to stop the killing, so anything will stop this fight, that will. As for his speed, I wonder if he was inspired by our own fighting success (assuming he's real).
[X] Use The Mind's Eye Blinks to see if that's actually Gabriel, adding 3 Odr.
-[X] Assuming that doesn't reveal anything, offer to let Gabriel have the scholar and leave the townspeople unharmed.
-[X] Let him know about Steinarr's death even if he insists on fighting. Simply phrase it as 'You should know, my father was killed.' and see how he reacts.
[X] Use The Mind's Eye Blinks to see if that's actually Gabriel, adding 3 Odr.
-[X] Assuming that doesn't reveal anything, offer to let Gabriel have the scholar and leave the townspeople unharmed.
-[X] Let him know about Steinarr's death even if he insists on fighting. Simply phrase it as 'You should know, my father was killed.' and see how he reacts.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Some Slavs are Christian in this era...but yeah, I'm not inclined to buy this, I don't think.
We weren't actually all that fast last time we fought him...we had, I believe, Speed 5, just one higher than his Speed 4. Him picking up a Speed Trick might make sense, but enough to hit Speed 10+? I'm really skeptical.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
He does, but I don't know if he'd actually let us call it in here if he's real. On the other hand, I doubt it will matter...my skepticism that he's real only increases the more I think about it.
Honestly I'm not sure if I can find the time/energy to write a plan tonight, especially as I think the quest is not going to go for fighting. But broadly, I want to say that I think trying to talk our way out of this is the wrong idea if it is Gabriel. This is some epic crossed destinies type of stuff, two heroes from opposing cultures forced to fight... it's just not dramatically satisfying to back out of that, IMO.
Admittedly, I don't really want to abduct the scholar against their will, so I am tempted to find out more about that whole situation. But the fact that Gabriel was sent here (assuming it is Gabriel) makes me think that there's an undropped shoe somewhere. Even if we beat Gabriel, then let the scholar go with him anyway because we won't take someone against their will, I think that would be more befitting our honour as a warrior who does not back down from a challenge.
It makes me think that IF wanted to correct the impression that he's an exact mirror of Halla. Either to stop us wrongly concluding he was an illusion for that specific reason, or just because my comment brought it up, IDK.
The specific numbers here seem less significant to me because on a Watsonian level, there's like, a million factors we don't know about which could play into this. And on a Doylist level, it's ultimately just Fister making numbers up, and it's not a huge stretch that he'd want to make a statline which challenges us by being quicker.
Admittedly, I don't really want to abduct the scholar against their will, so I am tempted to find out more about that whole situation. But the fact that Gabriel was sent here (assuming it is Gabriel) makes me think that there's an undropped shoe somewhere. Even if we beat Gabriel, then let the scholar go with him anyway because we won't take someone against their will, I think that would be more befitting our honour as a warrior who does not back down from a challenge.
It makes me think that IF wanted to correct the impression that he's an exact mirror of Halla. Either to stop us wrongly concluding he was an illusion for that specific reason, or just because my comment brought it up, IDK.
The specific numbers here seem less significant to me because on a Watsonian level, there's like, a million factors we don't know about which could play into this. And on a Doylist level, it's ultimately just Fister making numbers up, and it's not a huge stretch that he'd want to make a statline which challenges us by being quicker.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I feel like we shouldn't risk killing our friend if we wouldn't get anything out of it anyway. If this really is epic crossed destiny stuff, another opportunity will arise where the stakes are something we consider worth the price. But really, at this point, I think this is a trick.
I guess if we really do kill him we get the scholar? That seems like a shitty thing to do on multiple levels and very much not worth the price, though. All the outcomes of fighting Gabriel for the scholar seem bad to me, even the ones where we win, so I'm pretty against doing it if it really is him. If it's a trick, well, then we kill this asshole dead.
All true, but I'd expect high end Slavs to be heavily invested in Speed as opposed to either Carolingians or the Norse (specifically, from description, I think it might be one of the only 'direct combat' options they have for their equivalent of Shapeshift/Meditation slots, along with stealth and perception and similar subtler options). It's not impossible for Gabriel to hit Speed 10, but it is weird. And any weirdness here makes me inclined to suspect trickery given everything else.
Last edited:
That's fair enough, I can see where you're coming from.
Admittedly part of this is me wanting a cool fight. 😅
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Look on the bright side, if we're right and he's a fake, we definitely get one. Halla's reaction to someone impersonating her friends is very much gonna be 'brutal atgeir-related violence', and if this guy is actually Speed 10+ and can do this kind of illusion he's hardcore as shit, probably the village warleader.
- Location
- New Zealand
Not to mention, without sounding rude. How would Gabriel be a knight?
Based on what was discussed about knights, it requires someone to elevate a squire and isn't something that can be done by yourself, and while someone could offer a knighthood for his service, you would think he would still be near that person.
Conclusion, if it turns out that Gabriel isn't alone, I would be more likely to think it's really him. Otherwise, I suspect a trick.
Based on what was discussed about knights, it requires someone to elevate a squire and isn't something that can be done by yourself, and while someone could offer a knighthood for his service, you would think he would still be near that person.
Conclusion, if it turns out that Gabriel isn't alone, I would be more likely to think it's really him. Otherwise, I suspect a trick.