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A Simple Transaction I

Reader mode
This was done on phone, sorry for bad formatting and no pretty colours.

Pain Begets Gain.

Favourless behaviour

DLC
[X] Questionable: Lady Replaceable (-38 Coin)

Benefits (In the order they appear in the cyoa.)
[X] Bestowal, Least [-1 Coin] - Supernatural Willpower
[X] Hallowed [-40 Coin] - A Prophecy, True;"To one day usher in a Gilded Hierarchy, where suffering is not necessary."
[X] Clarity, Lesser [-9 Coin]
[X] Sublime Fusion [-14 Coin] - Crown of Thorns + Lady Replaceable;
Taraxacum

An unassuming piece of flora, sometimes used as food, sometimes seen as a weed and some people even find its flower pretty.

There is one fundamental truth about it however, be it in dried arid earth, be it in a garden, be it in concrete, be it in Hell...

It will survive.
[X] Sever the Limit [-1 Remittance] - Taraxacum
[X] Ring of Power [-50 Coin] - Ring of Perseverance
[X] Fruit of the Grove [-20 Coin] - Myriad Mulberry, Providential Fruit, Green Dragonfruit
[X] Crown of Thorns [-1 Remittance] -
[X] The Undying King: Deathless [-20 Coin]

Drawbacks (In the order they appear in the cyoa.)

[X] Martyr's Doom [+30 Coin] - Breath
[X] Drawback: Geassa x9 [+27 Coin]
[X] Drawback: Name of the Wind [+1 Remittance]
[X] Drawback: Arborification [+15 Coin]
[X] Drawback: Beast of Principality (+38 Coin)

Have 5 coins back, give em to the next person.



"It is that for success to come, sacrifices must be made..." She pondered over that as she thought over her friends and their struggles in this cruel world. They were willing to keep on fighting, but they themselves weren't enough. They needed help, her friends had incredible weight to carry on their shoulders

What would she do? Her best wasn't good enough.

She would become the Arca of their Burdens and become better for it.


I tried my best at making a thematic build, someone who could take all the punishment for everyone else. As such I intentionally didn't pick a Favoured Patron, because in character if I was trying to make their life easier it would certainly not be by being around me.

Expecially considering just how fucked my Drawbacks are. Well, hopefully that prophecy will come true. If things go alright maybe this build is resilient to be dropped into Hell and have some pretty flowers grow out of it in the end.

Again, my bad for phone formatting.
 
Birdsie said:
Given my incurable Ormulum addiction, it should've honestly been expected this'd happen at some point. I should say that Orm Embar challenged me to write this; I simply lacked the will to refuse.
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I've only met another with such a crippling addiction to fictional characters and let me tell you, beating him is a tall order :V

But I suppose we aren't here to chit-chat but to make a build, hmm? Unsurprisingly, all the bad choices for all the good reasons are about to be made...

Favored: [The Ouroboros]
[ ] Bestowal, Least [-1 Coin]
[ ] A Choice [-7 Coin] - Dawn Tower
[ ] Drawback: Martyr's Doom [+30 Coin] - Senses (Taste)
[ ] Clarity, Lesser [-9 Coin]
[ ] Sublime Fusion [-14 Coin] - see below
[ ] Sever the Limit [-1 Remittance] - Sublime Fusion (Quantity)
[ ] Secrets Worth Keeping [-2 Coin]
[ ] Ten Fetters [-6 Coin] - Jealousy (Envy)
[ ] Ring of Power [-25 Coin] - Ring of Usurpation
[ ] Drawback: Name of the Wind [+1 Remittance]
[ ] Lifeblood [-3 Coin]
[ ] Fruit of the Grove [-20 Coin] - Providential Fruit
[ ] Litanal Accession Deluxe (-1 Remittance) - Reinforcement, Reaping, Reciprocity

An exercise to see how much effects can be stacked together with a Severed Sublime Fusion in order to become an axiom of raw Usurpation. It did serve a certain group well in the past, so one just needs to apply it to a cosmic scale and proceed to commit the most gleeful patricide ever.

Besides, given my knowledge I'd be a target for the Wind upon signing the geas, better to squeeze it for all its worth. The secrets of not!Orochimaru will likely be a Wind ward of some kind, although if I were to guess the current war has likely an answer to that question...

I do not know how many powers can be stacked with a Severed Fusion but I presume at least twice as much, so the choice falls upon the following: A Choice (Dawn Tower), Litanal Accession Deluxe, Ring of Power (Usurpation), Ten Fetters (Jealousy) - and Bestowal or Fruit if a fifth option is possible.

Last, a final comment: Oathbound would have been taken without a single regret in most other occasions but my personal ideology has always been closer to Non Serviam rather than Golden BDSM.

EDIT: a greedier version of this build swaps Fruit for Chivalry's Zeal (not to mention add Bestowal to Sever instead) and stacks 9 Geassa to compensate the cost. Not sure if the ultimate result is better or worse though.
 
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Crimson Moon said:
Last, a final comment
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I mean as always the Hand is such an awesome friend in a cyoa.

33% chance to get away without being detected with all of his benefits.

56% chance to take the contract freeing and then unprincipled expression, without being caught.

Even if you don't want to become an Oathbound, 8 in 10 odds for an unprincipled expression is a helluva deal.

I salute the Hand for always carrying in cyoa's about the Ormulum.
 
Birdsie said:
Given my incurable Ormulum addiction, it should've honestly been expected this'd happen at some point. I should say that Orm Embar challenged me to write this; I simply lacked the will to refuse.

This CYOA's contents are in no way canonical to the Ormulum; albeit the content within is based on real lore, some of that lore may be warped, and some of the characters not exist in their presented forms (or at all.) Consider it something of an AU or potential future of the setting, as it's based on something we've been writing together.
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Link to other things in setting? I'd like to be able to easily make references.
 
Robotninja said:
Link to other things in setting? I'd like to be able to easily make references.
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Into the Ormulum, Infinite Morning.

We've truly become a CYOA thread, waiting for the next AST chapter...

Robotninja said:
Why would anyone give Expression away? Isn't that basically a path to setting breaking powers?
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If you survive and can develop it; keep in mind the Expression you receive isn't your own, it's a stolen spark, even if a good one.
 
Birdsie said:
:: Grand Ordination CYOA ::
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You know what? Screw it, let's see how this works out.


[X] Sublime Fusion [-14 Coin] King of the World+Litanal Ascension
[X] Ring of Power [-50 Coin] Song
[X] King of the World [-1 Remittance]
[X] Drawback: Name of the Wind [+1 Remittance]
[X] Litanal Accession [-1 Remittance]

It is very likely I'll die to my drawback despite the Crown hopefully making me "an ascendant erudite and mastermind" of the Litanies, which should at minimum be far beyond the ability included in the Deluxe version. But I have time before it triggers, I should be able to get to Icarel at some point to make the choice with it scaling to what I've managed after years of practice, so I should be able to keep up for at least a little while...

And yet, my personal ability here is practically irrelevant. The most important part of this build is that it should form a new Kingdom of people who can all access the Litanies, and possibly even a second location powering them throughout the multiverse, in addition to the Dominion.
 
Birdsie said:
Receive a crown, an artifact shining with an investment of ineffable Light. This crown forevermore enfetters you to your soul's creation. All the citizens who perceive it shall understand on an instinctive level you are their ruler, the master of reality, the highest authority to which they all must answer.
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What if your fundamental nature is not that of a ruler, and its reflections, not ruled?
Birdsie said:
From now on, you effectively roll 1d100 every day. On the day you roll snake eyes, you and everything in your vicinity dies as 'the giant fucking death squid kaiju' descends and utterly annihilates you before anything can be done to escape. Fortune and luck-based options can boost your odds of avoiding the squid's attention beyond this level.
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Snake eyes is a pair of ones on 2d6. Do you mean 11, 01, or something else?
beowolf said:
You know what? Screw it, let's see how this works out.


[X] Sublime Fusion [-14 Coin] King of the World+Litanal Ascension
[X] Ring of Power [-50 Coin] Song
[X] King of the World [-1 Remittance]
[X] Drawback: Name of the Wind [+1 Remittance]
[X] Litanal Accession [-1 Remittance]

It is very likely I'll die to my drawback despite the Crown hopefully making me "an ascendant erudite and mastermind" of the Litanies, which should at minimum be far beyond the ability included in the Deluxe version. But I have time before it triggers, I should be able to get to Icarel at some point to make the choice with it scaling to what I've managed after years of practice, so I should be able to keep up for at least a little while...

And yet, my personal ability here is practically irrelevant. The most important part of this build is that it should form a new Kingdom of people who can all access the Litanies, and possibly even a second location powering them throughout the multiverse, in addition to the Dominion.
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Grab coin drawbacks - Geas seems appropriate - and buy training boosts. Least Bestowal is 1 coin and unlocks Practice, for one thing. I think there's also a way to grab Exemplar?
Edit: And Secret, going by Crimson Moon's commentary that's huge for you.
 
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How does the essential entawak compare with the lesser gift obtained by taking flame of apprenticeship without any internal source of essence?

Also: Would some form of "inventory" magic be an appropriate choice of magic system for [ ] Minor Bullshit Magic Catalogue
 
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Alright, sometimes you just have to go hard.

Power, at a Price​
[The Ordinator] -
[ ] Bestowal, Least [-1 Coin] - Prioritized Anti-Misfortune
[ ] A Choice [-7 Coin] - Choice of Dusk
[ ] Hallowed [-40 Coin] -
[ ] Drawback: Martyr's Doom [+30 Coin] - Scent
[The Heroine] - Favored (-36)
[ ] Clarity, Lesser [-6 Coin] -
[ ] Sublime Fusion [-7 Coin] - Practice + Essentialism
[ ] Essential [-24 Coin] -
[ ] Sever the Limit [-1 Remittance] -
[ ] Drawback: Geassa [+3 Coin] - *7
[The Ouroboros] -
[ ] Secrets Worth Keeping [-3 Coin] -
[The Originator] -
[ ] Lifeblood [-3 Coin] -
[ ] Fruit of the Grove [-20 Coin] - Providential Fruit
[ ] Chivalry's Zeal [-33 Coin] -
[The Traveler] -
[ ] Drawback: Beast of Principality (+38 Coin) -
[Lesser Powers] -
[ ] Celebrant Cadfael: Training Arc [-8 Coin] -
[ ] The Undying King: Deathless [-20 Coin] -
[ ] Drawback: Charitable Works [+20 Coin] -

Credit: 173C 1R
Debit: 171C 1R
Net: 002C 0R

There are a lot of parts to this build, but when consolidated it's actually pretty manageable.

Beast of Principality requires tremendous good fortune and luck to survive. For this we take the Providential Fruit enhanced thrice over by the Originator's life blood. Then, we choose the Tower of Dusk and climb it with the combined Willpower and Endurance of Clarity + Chivalry's Zeal. At this point our fortune and luck are tremendous, but we go a step farther.
Bestowal, least provides us a modest superpower, the power of Prioritized Anti-Misfortune. It does not increase your fortune, rather it reduces the probability of harmful occurrences. The greater the harm the more it is opposed. Stepping on a potato chip would find itself negligibly less likely. For an event which would see your soul irrevocably destroyed this is roughly equivalent to a flat -0.89...9%.

The Martyrs Doom and Charitable works can simply be endured with Clarity, lesser. Charitable works end with your term of service, while the Martyrs Doom can be both somewhat mitigated (manageable) and completely removed (unlikely).

This leaves the term of your contract. Your tremendous fortune and luck serve you well in surviving, which can combine with Deathless to leave you more tenacious than a cockroach. On top of this you have scaling arms and armor, as well as tremendous physical attributes.

Finally, you have the engine of the build. Unify Practice with Essentialism. Then apply Severed to remove it's limits. Then apply Hallowed to further enhance it, on the basis of it being a severed unified magic, which should be greater than the sum of its parts, enhanced and unrestricted, 103 coins and 1 remittance worth of power and potential crammed into a single system. Depending on how these options interact and what exactly you want out of it, it may be more effective to apply Severed to Practice first, then unify them after, then Hallow them. Just ask the Ordinator, or your favored Patron the Heroine, they have no reason to refuse you an answer, since you'll be working for them.

Then, with all of that, go have a training montage. Also, if it's worth acting on, take advantage of your Secret, whatever it is. With some luck and hard work you'll be able to get enough Coins from your service to buy out your Geassa debt before you leave. Otherwise, given your luck and good fortune, it's unlikely the Heroine will screw you over too bad, so pay her back as needed.

This is a hard build and hardly guaranteed to survive, but it shouldn't be certain to kill you, either, and there's power, potential, and, if not comfy, then still satisfaction at the end.

For my Severed, Hallowed, Unified Magic I'd aim for a system like Directorate Sorcery, without the unelected gods waiting on the other end. Advance through practice and deriving the essence of things, combining and codifying them, etc.
 
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Archon said:
How does the essential entawak compare with the lesser gift obtained by taking flame of apprenticeship without any internal source of essence?

Also: Would some form of "inventory" magic be an appropriate choice of magic system for [ ] Minor Bullshit Magic Catalogue
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Essential Entawak is about 125% as good to start with and can be trained to get higher than that.

Also yes, that's definitely something you could get out of it.
 
Birdsie said:
In a comical flash of pink-violet light and smoke, a hovering fountain pen appeared, alongside a floating parchment outlining the terms of your agreement. It seemed you were signing a bona fide geas. Its contents didn't seem disparate from the levitating words.
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I'm not giving ten years unconditional service, so that contract needs to include:
-Serving the Alliance is verifiably good by my lights. Their goals are decent, their methods aren't warcrimey, and there doesn't seem to be a ridiculous opportunity cost here.
-Lying to me about any of the above voids my obligations but doesn't leave me powerless or stranded.

I'll consider the Hand's offer. To be precise, I'll do the ridiculously Lawful version of considering it, where I extract a promise from both sides to not leave me worse off for coming to them - probably I'll need the Heroine as my Favored Patron for this to work, if I'm reading it correctly - and explain the situation as I understand it. Then they can submit utility-bids, which the Heroine probably wins due to better alignment and possibly better commitment-ability.
If the result of the auction is that I feed the Hand false info for a bit, I'll still have treated him fairly.

Now, the actual build:
Spoken Before
[+] A Choice [-7 Coin]
>ETERNAL DAY
[+] The Undying King: Deathless [-20 Coin]
-[+] Sublime Fusion [-14 Coin]
>UNDYING LIGHT
[+] Sever the Limit [-1 Remittance]
>CLIMBING STILL
[+] Hallowed [-40 Coin]
>TO ME RETURN
[+] Clarity, Lesser [-9 Coin]
>MY TRUER SELF
[+] Bestowal, Least [-1 Coin]
>REVENANT WISDOM
[+] Secrets Worth Keeping [-3 Coin]
>A FINAL ANSWER
[ ] Drawback: Charitable Works [+20 Coin]
>ONCE AND FUTURE

Look through the cycle, and find myself. This was always- well, if not the plan, the hope. I've sought this, knowing-unknowing, for a very, very long time.
I seek advice, of course. This is probably my best chance at true reawakening in a kalpa. But the power that can make an Expression Unprincipled seems like it should be enough by itself to reach Day's pinnacle, eventually. Do I truly need more?
Perhaps. I'll definitely be asking to see an anemometer, as the Wind may seek to thwart my journey whether or not I learn its Name.

Favor unsure - it depends on what the Heroine thinks of my spy negotiation. It's either her or Orden; either will make the budget fit comfortably.

Finally, the superhero I chose to reference was The Revenant, from PS238. He's a reasonable adult with Batman-ish resources, lots of experience, and a calm and humorous attitude. Wilson Fisk doesn't realistically stand a chance against him, since he mostly fights supervillains as a background gag, but Kingpin wouldn't be an out of character opponent, so I'm calling him 'street level' anyway.
 
HoratioVonBecker said:
-Serving the Alliance is verifiably good by my lights. Their goals are decent, their methods aren't warcrimey, and there doesn't seem to be a ridiculous opportunity cost here.
-Lying to me about any of the above voids my obligations but doesn't leave me powerless or stranded.
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The Alliance has actively saved entire planetary populations from certain death and does its best to provide for citizens; it has also proliferated afterlives on multiple worlds for free and overall advocates higher standards of living. War crimes are the opposite of the mission statement; Orden keeps his order.

As for the second one, there's no real reason for them to lie to you.
 
Birdsie said:
The Alliance has actively saved entire planetary populations from certain death and does its best to provide for citizens; it has also proliferated afterlives on multiple worlds for free and overall advocates higher standards of living. War crimes are the opposite of the mission statement; Orden keeps his order.

As for the second one, there's no real reason for them to lie to you.
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Yup, it's just important to make sure that's part of the geas. Not a perfect guarantee of anything, given that I don't know for sure how magic works, but if it really does just enforce itself as described, and they really are as they claim to be, there's no disadvantage to a "you don't have to follow illegal orders" clause that includes having obtained my service by deception.
 
By some miracle, my preferred build costs exactly 64c/1r, before tacking on a single plot-hook gamble at the cost of one Geas. So:

A Choice (-7c)
Bestowal, Lesser (-1c)
Clarity, Lesser (-9c)
Ten Fetters (-12c)
Patron: Originator
Fruit of the Grove (-10c)
{Green Dragonfruit, Providential Fruit, Myriad Mulberry}
Chivalry's Zeal (-17c)
Crown of Thorns (-1r)
Training Arc (-8c)

Geas x1 (+3c)
Secrets worth Keeping (-3c)


First Summit, or Ice Climbers:
I am not a clever man, but even I can see a clear line here.

There is a world of Towers, each more esoteric than the last.

At the top of each tower is an eminently attainable bundle of cosmic power.

The Towers exist to be climbed.

So: I'm going to start doing pushups until I am able to climb higher and faster than anybody else.

Physical enhancements:
+ A Royal-blooded Arborist's natural attributes begin at 'slightly superhuman' and geometrically compounds additional physical enhancements
+ The Tethers' physical enhancement has a mortal punching through boulders within a month
+ The Lesser Bestowal imparts acrobatic flexibility for high speed rooftop parkour chases (Daredevil is street-level)
+ Chivalry's Zeal doubles down in these domains: annihilating mountains at the end of character creation and adding a dancer's flair to both parkour and combat
+ The Fruits of the Grove render me superhuman four times over (the Green Dragonfruit counts as two)
+ Three months of boot camp hone these raw abilities into a cohesive whole with the experience of a veteran.

Mental enhancements:
+ The Lesser Bestowal imparts supersensory awareness and processing. (Daredevil is street-level)
++ Also, the Lesser Bestowal allows Practice of other skills, which means I can grind Prowess (Climbing)
+ The Fetter of Conceit (Pride) provides additional extrasensory perception and spurs me to complete the ascent of my Tower, while Jealousy (Envy) provides additional enhancements to the Grovetenders' panoply
+ The Lesser Clarity provides ironclad determination (and esoteric mental / spiritual defenses) sufficient to endure any adversity.


Esoteric advancements:
+ The Grovetenders' panoply complements my abilities, which are hyperfocused on graceful movement through complex terrain, endurance of physical, mental, and spiritual stressors, and customization of skills and gear for unexpected challenges. Beyond the standard armor and weaponry, a Gardener's trowel and a satchel of seeds is all that I need to cultivate a hybrid into any conceivable tool *in-situ*. Doping the seeds with my own blood is enough to send them reaching across any gap, or to spawn gnarled root systems with esoteric chemical compounds for more subtle tasks.
+ The Providential Fruit provides luck manipulation to capitalize on opportunities and avoid the worst possible fates



After pouring 57 coins of value into physical and mental buffs that pay off within the 3 months of boot camp, I am finally ready to make my choice:

The Dusk Tower ensures that I will die with a smile on my face, and my doubled regeneration means that it will not happen any time soon. Paired with the Providential Fruit, I can live the life of an action hero making narrow escapes from an unending montage of exciting missions. The first stop is to cash-in whatever secret I learned from The Ouroboros, and the last stop is probably to pay off the Geas I took on to afford the secret.




Unfortunately, it turns out that the treasure at the top of these towers is not particularly powerful without updating the software. So, consider an alternate build:

Second Summit, or Jormugundr:
A Choice (-7c) + Hallowed (-40c)
{Zenith - Permanent physical gains from eating stars}
Martyr's Doom (+30c)
{Cord - No vocalization}
Clarity, Lesser (-9c)
Patron: Originator
Fruit of the Grove (-10c)
{Green Dragonfruit, Providential Fruit, Iridescent Eyefruit}
Chivalry's Zeal (-17c)
Crown of Thorns (-1r)
Training Arc (-8c)
Secrets worth Keeping (-3c)

Here, I drop Ten Fetters, Lesser Bestowal, and Geas in exchange for Martyr's Doom and Hallowed. Discord information from Birdsie suggests that a proper Narrative can massively elevate the effects of a tower. The elevated Tower of Zenith was described as: "Radically increased benefits that become even stronger when you are exposed to sunlight, like Superman; permanent gains from eating stars." Given that I am already photosynthetic, it is entirely seemly for my roots to reach the sky.

Note: I don't want to compete with my echoes for eating stars so I swapped Myriad for Iridescent.

This build retains the absurd survivability of a royal-blooded Arborist and lacks the looming threat of a Geas to push me into (undue) risks. Extremely good
 
Generic Rihaku Protagonist

Birdsie said:
For now, receive a credit of 64 Ordinal Coins and 1 Venerable Remittance to spend as you wish on the contributions of the Alliance's Patrons.
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Favored: Orden Losthane
[R] Clarity, Utter (-9C, -1R, Sever the Limit used)
[R] Phoenix True (-84C, Sublime Fusion: Phoenix Resurgent + Deathless)
[R] Choice: Dusk Tower (-4C)
[R] Hallowed: Pure Progress (-20C)
[R] Hand Over
Drawbacks: Martyr (Taste), Arborification, Geas x3

Clarity, Utter: Perhaps no Odyssial in full, but about as close as the metaphysics of this CYOA may permit us to become. Absolute competence married to absolute will; in all endeavors, such shocking proficiency of assessment, calculation, judgement and execution that, starting from nothing, one could raise an empire of worlds in the span of a year and a day; or in one-hundredth the time, dismantle one.

Phoenix True: Invested with its missing deathless aspect, the true Phoenix differs from its resurgent form in only one respect - when its phoenix form falters and at last abides to death, instantly it is reborn at the apex of its might and vigor, undimmed and fully restored. The character may at all times instantly and painlessly incinerate themselves to trigger this effect. This may occur infinitely many times; the Phoenix simply cannot be overcome by destruction, only imprisonment or compromise.

The Deathless' 'death sense' is subsumed into a broader 'Phoenix sense' that applies its same powers of broad, long-range and instrumentally useful precognitive discernment to all aspects of the Phoenix's domain: life, death, rebirth, cycles, flame, birds, etc... each variable is easily distinguishable just as green is distinguishable from red, or sweet from salty.

Pure Progress: This magic system does effectively nothing to start, but in the long view is utterly terrifying. All it does is uncap the user's skills, traits and attributes and allow them to be continuously improved with no plateaus, bottlenecks, backsliding or diminishing returns. This does not offer truly infinite progression, as the Authority of Hallowed Lore itself has limits; but the power of Pure Progress can be turned upon itself (for it is itself, a trait of the character) to steadily and inexorably climb higher.

Given my effectively infinite physical (endless rebirths) and mental (Clarity, Utter) stamina, the power of the Dusk Tower will suffuse the Generic Rihaku Protagonist with absurd fortune, a showering of benedictions not unlike some sort of 'digital waterfall' of extradiegetic boons.

Finally, the power of an Unprincipled Expression in the hands of a character with Utter Clarity is well worth whatever information the Alliance has to surrender to the Hand, so even if this is a betrayal, it is a correct one whose benefits (for the Alliance itself) vastly outweigh the costs. If Orden does not understand this, the Heroine certainly would.

---

There's an augmented version of this build that takes Name of the Wind for Greater Bestowal, in which case Phoenix Resurgent would be fused with that instead. Any ordinary bird would be well advised to avoiding flying in the face of the prevailing winds, but a Phoenix cares nothing at all.
Rihaku threw 1 10-faced dice. Reason: 3 or higher = pass Total: 6
6 6
 
Zampano said:
A Choice (-7c) + Hallowed (-40c)
{Zenith - Permanent physical gains from eating stars}
Martyr's Doom (+30c)
{Cord - No vocalization}
Clarity, Lesser (-9c)
Patron: Originator
Fruit of the Grove (-10c)
{Green Dragonfruit, Providential Fruit, Iridescent Eyefruit}
Chivalry's Zeal (-17c)
Crown of Thorns (-1r)
Training Arc (-8c)
Secrets worth Keeping (-3c)
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Good work - your secret from Ouroboros would most likely involve information about a certain ontology with supernaturally empowered stars you could eat for additional magical benefits.

Rihaku said:
Favored: Orden Losthane
[R] Clarity, Utter (-9C, -1R, Sever the Limit used)
[R] Phoenix True (-84C, Sublime Fusion: Phoenix Resurgent + Deathless)
[R] Choice: Dusk Tower (-4C)
[R] Hallowed: Pure Progress (-20C)
[R] Hand Over
Drawbacks: Martyr (Taste), Arborification, Geas x3
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Interesting. With all of this, you'd likely become a target of the General of a decently high priority; likely right under Orden, since he's the only member of the Alliance who can still definitely scale faster and more comprehensively than you. (In case it wasn't clear, the enemy mentioned in the CYOA is the Transcendent Pit and its Fire. Your immunity to being slain won't help much against the General; all he does is damn you to the Pit; the torment within can take care of breaking you.)

For the Hand Over deal: even if your treachery isn't discovered immediately, Orden would ask you some pointed questions about where you got an Expression from, and he'd be pissed off that you cut a deal with the Hand, although he'd be ultimately pragmatic about the choice at the end of the day. Your decision is highly utilitarian, in the sense that it likely has some cost of souls forever lost, or key assets stolen or sabotaged. If your information ends up allowing the Hand to destroy the Icarelian Cordon, the Alliance may entirely choose to put you on trial for suspicions of collusion with Fire, or at least gross negligence. Then even Orden can't bail you out.

Keep in mind, the Expression you receive from the Hand is only the best he can acquire to match your personality - its compatibility isn't a hundred percent, so even if Unprincipled, it's not quite as amazing as awakening your own Unprincipled Expression.

(Overall, though, you end up as powerful as you'd expect; within a couple of years, if not less, you could be a match for more than half the Patrons.)
 
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Birdsie said:
Interesting. With all of this, you'd likely become a target of the General of a decently high priority; likely right under Orden, since he's the only member of the Alliance who can still definitely scale faster and more comprehensively than you. (In case it wasn't clear, the enemy mentioned in the CYOA is the Transcendent Pit and its Fire. Your immunity to being slain won't help much against the General; all he does is damn you to the Pit; the torment within can take care of breaking you.)
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I haven't taken any Drawbacks that give enemies, but presuming they somehow know I exist and my exact capabilities, that would likely be so. However, isn't fighting against such forces exactly the area where Alliance and Hand are in almost perfect congruence? I thought the entire Oath of the Hand was about removing Hell.

Pure Progress can scale 'willpower,' 'pain tolerance,' and 'ability to not feel pain' as are all traits, if Utter Clarity isn't sufficient to largely ignore the effect. Failing that, I can simply continuously incinerate myself painlessly, leaving no form against which their instruments can find purchase - not perfect, but we are talking about a worst-case scenario here since the Alliance would have to be in dire straits indeed to be incapable of protecting its second-fastest scaling asset.

If the General doesn't have the <time, effort, resources, ability> to neutralize Orden, then he also doesn't have such for me - just as an entity not willing/capable to kidnap the president wouldn't be willing/capable of kidnapping the vice-president.

Birdsie said:
For the Hand Over deal: even if your treachery isn't discovered immediately, Orden would ask you some pointed questions about where you got an Expression from, and he'd be pissed off that you cut a deal with the Hand, although he'd be ultimately pragmatic about the choice at the end of the day. Your decision is highly utilitarian, in the sense that it likely has some cost of souls forever lost, or key assets stolen or sabotaged. If your information ends up allowing the Hand to destroy the Icarelian Cordon, the Alliance may entirely choose to put you on trial for suspicions of collusion with Fire, or at least gross negligence.
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If the decision is objectively correct, then it's a shoddy process indeed that would condemn the man who makes it! Assuming I can't simply represent the Expression as a developed facet of Utter Clarity or Pure Progress, if Orden agrees with me about the choice why would he tell other people about it, especially if that is likely to result in an unproductive bureaucratic quagmire that will damage their assets further? How would they prove that I gave the information to the Hand and that said information was instrumental in whatever the Hand cooked up? If they have such immense powers of information gathering as to defeat both the Hand's opsec and the competence of Utter Clarity, why is the DC so low?
 
Rihaku said:
I haven't taken any Drawbacks that give enemies, but presuming they somehow know I exist and my exact capabilities, that would likely be so. However, isn't fighting against such forces exactly the area where Alliance and Hand are in almost perfect congruence? I thought the entire Oath of the Hand was about removing Hell.
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Eh, Hierarchal politics get a bit more complicated than that; the Hand's Oath moreso, and he predates Hell by a rather significant margin from what I know. 'No matter the cost,' the Oath says; a fact worth keeping in mind. Orden's cooperated with the Hand on some fronts, and clashed on some others; it's the sort of uneasy alliance the Eldar might have with the Imperium if faced with Chaos.

The General will learn of your capabilities and usefulness in not too long, most likely within the month of your arrival; the Pit has its methods of picking out the damned. He can likewise acquire your latest known coordinates; fortunately, once he sets out from the Pit itself, he can't effectively re-acquire them, so he's working off of the last known location. If the Alliance suspects he's approaching, they'll simply do the Traveler classic - AKA, the Traveler will pick up the entire local ontology and tow it somewhere else so the General can't find it. Worst case scenario: rapidly build a new Cordon and fight him off, or purposefully kite him towards the Dominion kill-universes like Orden once did.

The General's not dumb either, though. He can set his own ambushes; a fact also worth keeping in mind.

Rihaku said:
Pure Progress can scale 'willpower,' 'pain tolerance,' and 'ability to not feel pain' as are all traits, if Utter Clarity isn't sufficient to largely ignore the effect. Failing that, I can simply continuously incinerate myself painlessly, leaving no form against which their instruments can find purchase - not perfect, but we are talking about a worst-case scenario here since the Alliance would have to be in dire straits indeed to be incapable of protecting its second-fastest scaling asset.
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Although a smart approach, the Pit's broken much tougher nuts than that. It's driven utterly insane beings that made no initial claims to sanity, and broken armies of heroes. The Alliance always recommends immediate suicide over damnation, even if you have slim or no chances of resurrection.

Check out Kandata from Infinite Morning; it's a good example of what someone rescued from the Pit acts like, and as far as I know, Zoran's a relatively light case. They went easy on him. (Mostly because he wasn't hard to break by their standards, but still.)

The best and only reliable way to escape the Pit is to never enter its clutches in the first place.

Rihaku said:
If the General doesn't have the <time, effort, resources, ability> to neutralize Orden, then he also doesn't have such for me - just as an entity not willing/capable to kidnap the president wouldn't be willing/capable of kidnapping the vice-president.
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There were a couple of close calls, especially early on; fortunately, you have a good support network to bail you out.

Rihaku said:
If the decision is objectively correct, then it's a shoddy process indeed that would condemn the man who makes it! Assuming I can't simply represent the Expression as a developed facet of Utter Clarity or Pure Progress, if Orden agrees with me about the choice why would he tell other people about it, especially if that is likely to result in an unproductive bureaucratic quagmire that will damage their assets further? How would they prove that I gave the information to the Hand and that said information was instrumental in whatever the Hand cooked up? If they have such immense powers of information gathering as to defeat both the Hand's opsec and the competence of Utter Clarity, why is the DC so low?
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If people are damned to Hell as a consequence of conscious action, someone will be upset nonetheless, and the Alliance's protocol demands charges be brought against you. With Orden's backing, you can likely get away with only some further years of service imposed on you, and much tighter constraints on who you're allowed to contact - and obviously, you'll have, like, zero friends anywhere. The DC starts off low mostly because the Hand's expending some modest resources to avoid attention in this situation, and because few would suspect your involvement as someone summoned from an entirely foreign and disconnected Earth.

Also, investigating the matter isn't difficult: Orden will ask you if you know something about this, and with the Authority of Imposing Justice, he'll know if you're lying. Develops predictably from there. Convincing him to keep it a secret is unlikely; he's stringently scrupulous with good reason (none of the Alliance would be possible if he weren't, as no one would trust him enough to make this a thing) but he wouldn't take much convincing to back your exemption; he'd prioritize maximizing the Alliance's anti-Hell capabilities over redress of something that can't be undone. They're fighting a war, and another Unprincipled Expressive to enter the ranks is always a welcome sight, but it doesn't change the fact it's a prize paid for with blood; assuming that's what the Hand uses the data for, at least, as it could be any number of things.
 
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Birdsie said:
The General will learn of your capabilities and usefulness in not too long, most likely within the month of your arrival; the Pit has its methods of picking out the damned. He can likewise acquire your latest known coordinates; fortunately, once he sets out from the Pit itself, he can't effectively re-acquire them, so he's working off of the last known location.
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I don't get the Expression until a year in, so even my pre-Expression form suffices to outscale everyone except Orden?

Spamming the Phoenix's star-multiverse travel should be an efficient way of evasion, then, especially if the Alliance has any way of detecting him. Or I could just do it constantly, as nothing requires me to stay in one place for very long - though this capability is somewhat redundant with the Traveler's cooperation.

You should probably mention in the CYOA that the General will proactively hunt anyone who becomes powerful to matter! Makes comfy builds significantly more appealing. Had I known in advance, I would had significantly considered taking Underhanded as well, or just taken something like Fusion: Hallowed + King of the World for an entirely custom world. It's kind of like playing a Worm CYOA with versus without Scion!

Birdsie said:
Although a smart approach, the Pit's broken much tougher nuts than that. It's driven utterly insane beings that made no initial claims to sanity, and broken armies of heroes.
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Neither of those strike me as even close to the elevation of Clarity, Utter, so I can't take this as definitive either way!
 
Rihaku said:
I don't get the Expression until a year in, so even my pre-Expression form suffices to outscale everyone except Orden?
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Although you are an Odyssial-level determinator and therefore capable of rapid progression on your own if let loose, it'd mostly be your nature as an eternally resurrecting phoenix that interests the Messiah. If the mantle could be stripped from you and integrated into Fire's ethos, it'd make for an amazing boon to blend with the General's metaphysiology: no more need for him to ever recall again! Of course, once you have an Unprincipled Expression, it only makes you even more tantalizing.

The General doesn't hunt powerful entities by default; you're simply a uniquely fascinating target.

Rihaku said:
Neither of those strike me as even close to the elevation of Clarity, Utter, so I can't take this as definitive either way!
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Well, assuming the Pit's scions do not simply choose to strip those capabilities of you once you're inside - which should be well within their power - then an entity with Odyssial's determination and no ability to feel physical pain should prove a welcome professional challenge for the Messiah to overcome as a minor side diversion? He'd likely not have seen anything within your overall level of resilience in recent millennia, so it'd be a good game. They'd most likely leave you with both Clarity and your abilities and find a way to torture you anyway, simply because it's more tasteful to hammer in how futile such efforts are against them than leave anyone who may be studying their methods with a ray of hope as to believing you can delay the inevitable?

That's only my surface-level guesstimate, though. Orm's the authority that'd best be able to answer this. I do know as a matter of fact the Pit can find ways to torture intangible and painless entities and drive them insane, though.
 
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