Acorn Ascendant [Squirrels] [Cultivation] [Cards]

In an age long past, the forest was a haven for creatures and critters of all sorts. Following the first flowering of the Twelve Grand Oaks, Qi had been plentiful enough that many woodland animals had been able to awaken by pure chance. Foremost among these were, of course, the squirrels. For an unknown reason, squirrels exhibited greater intelligence and ambition, quickly becoming a prosperous sect. Following the War of Ambition, they became the dominant presence within the forest. When humans inevitably came to harvest the forest for its resources, grown and encouraged by the Qi-dense atmosphere wrought by this mass awakening, it was the squirrels who formed the first line of defense.

Alas, it was not to be. After repelling the invaders, the squirrels were too weak to protect themselves from those envious creatures who wished to dominate. Those Twelve Grand Trees were uprooted and divided between the twelve usurpers.

In the current day, life is difficult for the denizens of the forest. Qi is zealously hoarded, and there exist rumors of corrupted roots stretching from the heartland. For the disgraced squirrels, life is even harder. None alive wish to return to life under the yoke of squirrels, and all remember the sheer power gathered in the time of the Squirrel Sect. The current balance of power is precarious, and to not be in a sect is to live with only a feral intelligence.

You are a squirrel. This squirrel will likely die. Another squirrel will take its place.

The time has come to save the forest from itself. Do so, and die trying.

---

You are running.

To be more precise, you are being chased. A feral mantis, larger than any you've seen before, is chasing you. You will be eaten, unless something changes.

You leap over a fallen log, before landing with a soft thud on the soft grass of the undergrowth. The mantis doesn't bother, cutting straight through the log with little difficulty, its wings buzzing a little from its abdomen in order to regain speed.

It can outrun you, outmaneuver you, and outjump you. The only thing you had going for you was your stamina, but you can already feel yourself starting to flag.

To lose your life here…

[] It would be worth it. The others can take the rest of the brood. (Kindness)
[] It would be wasteful. You had already done so much…!(Ambition)
[] It would be unacceptable. You needed to keep your promise. (Determination)
[] Write-in (Needs to imply some sort of past, and exemplify a personality trait.)

Your front-right limb gives way with a crack, some sort of root entangling it while you were lost in thought. You begin tumbling, tail-over-head, down a sudden and sharp incline. You can't see, but you hear the buzzing of the mantis' wings. You're dead. You're so unbelievably dead.


Somehow, you manage to roll straight under a tree, tumbling deep beneath the earth, into a hollow formed of roots and wood. As you break through the thinner bits and strands of the root system, some of the earth around it is dislodged, partially blocking the tunnel that you had found. The Mantis is still coming, but you've been afforded a modicrum of time.

You scramble to your feet, pushing yourself up despite the pain in your forelimb.

It only gets worse as you push yourself through, but you manage to drag yourself deeper into the ground, a slight, impossible light guiding your way through the tunnels. You can hear the blockage begin to give way behind you, the insect screeching out in anger at the delay to its meal. Increasing your pace, you finally reach what had been emitting the light.

An acorn.

It had Qi denser than any you'd ever felt. Its weight was more than physical, suffusing the very air around it. The one you had eaten to awaken couldn't compare. You could use it to survive, and so you did. Quickly, you cracked the hat off, devouring the insides with reckless abandon, the Qi it held churning within your system. You could feel it touch upon your core, in a way that felt distinctly more than any attempt at growth you had ever tried before.

At your core, you were…
[] A Dreamer.
This deck is reliant on making use of falling asleep in order to passively recover while building up for lethal. Oriented towards large burst damage and hitting above your weight class, while lacking in physical growth. Glass cannon.

[] A Glutton.
This deck is focused more on snowballing and maintaining momentum through lethality. Survive via constantly dealing damage. Oriented towards shallow vampirism and continuous damage output. Ramp-up and lifesteal.

[] A Gardener.
This deck is based around applying debuffs to the enemy and healing up while dealing chip damage. Oriented towards stalling and staying alive, while setting up the battlefield to be more advantageous. Wide-scale battlefield control.

AN: Here we are. Please feel free to leave suggestions for daos in a format similar to what's been described above. Voting period will last 24 hours, and expect the next update on Friday at the latest. Around then, I'll be able to accept suggestions for cards.

A Squirrel Without a Name

Current Cultivation Status: Qi-gathering (1/9) - LVL 1

Health: 10/10
Qi: 0/1


Nuts (Currency) - 100
Qi Sources - None
Other - None

A squirrel that has awakened to it's inner potential. It seems to have been raised on the legends of old, and seeks to create new ones.

Basic Cards

Dream Deck

Combat

At its core, combat is going to be simple. You have a deck, and originally will only draw 5 cards per hand. Some cards cost Qi, or have requirements that need to be met before you can play them. You can play as many cards in a hand as you want, and unused cards will return to the deck. When at least half your deck is used, you'll have the option to reshuffle the discard into the deck, which is forced if you are out of both Qi and Qi-gathering cards.

You will always act before your opponent, and beginning/end of turn effects only count your own turn. You will be informed of the countdown to the next action each enemy will take, so plan accordingly. Both HP and Qi carry over between encounters. Winning an encounter will give you resources, such as currency or upgrade materials.

For the majority of encounters, especially in the beginning, I'll probably be running this in the background in a more narrative format.

Cultivation

This will be elaborated on the first time you successfully cultivate, but this is the main way to upgrade and gain special cards.

Let's get it started. Voting's open. Feel free to post.