Finally got this post out. And on Sufficient Velocity's tenth birthday, too! At least in my time zone. I appreciate everybody's patience immensely. It turns out that teaching a precalculus course while also still taking my grad school classes is real hard. So things will probably stay slow for a while, though the end of the semester is in sight and summer won't be as bad; at least I won't be teaching. I am very excited for Arc Four.
But before then, we have a vote that is a bit of a doozy. Still, it's what felt right for this moment. One thing I'll note is that if you have any thoughts about the downtime activity votes, please do voice them. I didn't want to break it down into a million sub-options, so the vote will stay as it is, but people's thoughts will definitely color the focuses of whichever options win.
It's really nice to finally update this story again. I hope you're all enjoying, and looking forward to what's to come, too.
[X] Sing.
[X] Try to bring your group closer together.
[X] Get closer to the master.
[X] Plan: Sight and Sword
-[X] 300XP to Combat Skill
-[X] 245XP to Enhanced Perception
Welcome back!
Fleshrender was infuriating as always. Really got my blood boiling reading how he treats Ythona. If we're going to act against him, then I think we need to start acting in groups more. Not only that, but the Master, if he's really sincere about caring for his Ghouls, should take our concerns and act on them somehow.
Other than that, I really think Ythona should keep holding onto her past. Her piety was a big part of her past life and her community, and it'd be a shame to forget them.
[X] Sing. [X] Try to bring your group closer together. [X] Get closer to the master.
[X] Plan: Sight and Sword
The singing option spurred a thought I already had, that this Quest is starting to remind me of Cinderella but with zombies. And with a desperately overdue Fairy Godmother
[X] Create.
[X] Try to bring your group closer together.
[X] Meet more wights.
It's always a joy to get another update. It's especially appreciated given that given bussy your life sounds like. Thank you for continuing this Quest regardless, even if it takes some times. Always excited to see where this goes.
Anyway, as for the votes, while singing has some nice flair for it, looking at the implied character growth here, Ythona immediately jumping to improving her life by rekindling piousness doesn't really appeal to me all that much, at least not when the alternatives are growing herself much more on her own terms. Either by going back to the idea of gathering comforts to actually live like a person instead of continuing to keep surviving in a hovel, or developing a spark of artistry for self expression. I do think that might by why I like creating the best, it helps Ythona grow a new aspect to herself, plus we'd have something to actually show for it. Giving the wights living conditions, just something as simple as making friendship bracelets could probably go a long way as well as having Ythona continue to grow being kind of the social/cultural hub of her group, as she already started to bewith the cooking.
Which brings us to how making our group more tight knit sounds like something good to strife for. I'm also just curious about meeting the other wights. We have a consistent track record of meeting interesting characters, so I'd like to at least know who our options are to interacting with. Everything else that leads to Ythona having some more support amongst the general population of this place, or just improve her state of mind through socilisation is just a nice bonus on the side.
As for the XP plan, not too different from Sight and Sword, just also putting some XP into one of our higher skills to start chipping away at that level up to avoid a situation where we just keep going for whatever is the closest to leveling up and end up with a blob of same level skills with no notable specilisations.
Edit: Seeing how the vote is developing, I can get behind Eater's plan for the XP distribution.
[x] Plan: kindling
-[x] Allocate XP: Domination 800/800
[X] Create.
[X] Try to bring your group closer together.
[X] Meet more wights.
[X] Plan: Sight and Sword
So...turns out being an emotionaly abused dead woman working for a mad scientist is stressful. Who knew?
Piety is not something I really don't know if we should encourage. I'm not sure what the Gods/Church/Paladins are like around here, but I'm not exactly optimistic they'd be fans of ours. Seems like we might be setting ourselves up for a letdown in the long run.
The ability to create something with our own hands, however, is something we can take pride in that no one can take away from us and will aways be with us, as well as giving us tangible proof of an accomplishment to look at when the world is being horrible, even if it's just a crude necklace or something.
Ythona's piety isn't just a matter of religiosity for her. It's a major part of her past, her family, and the community she belonged to. Considering the big emphasis we've put on her clinging to the memories and habits of her life as a human, it wouldn't do to ignore something that played such a significant part in her life.
Remembering the songs she used to sing with her friends and family is valuable enough on its own, even better if she can share them with her fellow ghouls one day.
Ythona's piety isn't just a matter of religiosity for her. It's a major part of her past, her family, and the community she belonged to. Considering the big emphasis we've put on her clinging to the memories and habits of her life as a human, it wouldn't do to ignore something that played such a significant part in her life.
Remembering the songs she used to sing with her friends and family is valuable enough on its own, even better if she can share them with her fellow ghouls one day.
The thing is that remembering the songs isn't just a choice for Ythona to recapture some of her past. It's a choice to do it instead of something else. I can fully agree that Ythona's past is important, but I also think there should be some balance between rediscovering her past and her growing her present self. Neither of them should be neglected, but Ythona has already done a lot to reclaim parts of her past in the story so far, so now that an opportunity presents itself, I think we should use it to have Ythona develop herself in different way.
The fact that said growth also comes with side effects that appeal to me more than what we get from remembering the past helps with tipping the scale, but in general I still think that as important as it is we shouldn't just focus on her past to the exclusion of everything else. Maybe next we get an opportunity like this I'd be in favour of delving into her past to keep up the balance, but that's not right now.
[] Sing. Singing to yourself helped keep you together for three years out in the bog. It can still help you now. You don't need to worry about the ghouls. If something inside them can still hear you, maybe it can be some small solace. You're confident that with time you can remember the sanctuary songs. They were too important to lose, even to death. You can rekindle your piety, and burn too bright for even that bog to snuff out.
The highlighted line got me thinking a bit. Maybe there could be some synergy here between this and the Domination attribute. It says that "Your control of ghouls may not be as typical as you thought" and emphasizes that Ythona can give complex instructions and maintain contested control more easily than others. Perhaps it has something to do with her outlook? As in, seeing them as people, even former, more so than as ghouls is manifesting in some way.
I looked back at the first time that Ythona controlling ghouls was described directly:
You stare at him. He can take ghouls and make them people again? But then—why hasn't he? There are so many poor restless souls he could grant at least some measure of betterment to... And wouldn't they then be better able to serve his twisted purposes, as well?
He says specifically that they make subpar ghouls, but we already know that he doesn't look at the dead as anything more than raw materials to be moulded to his will. He doesn't care about who they were before, and with people like Bell creating a blank slate that is utterly devoted to him is his goal, not recovering or reviving whoever they were before.
Perhaps it would be possible, through uncovering or awakening memories of the past via singing/prayer, through Ythona's own power, and even perhaps through channeling some aspect of the divine, for Ythona to succeed in reviving ghouls to a level far more in line with how she is or was when she first awoke than would be possible for the master accomplish with his narrow and domineering worldview.
Whether this would be actually desirable, on the other hand, is something else entirely. Obviously waking someone up merely to be a slave to the master (and awake and aware of it) would be pretty awful, especially if they have more memories of their past than typical. But as a way to rebel and build a power base to escape it might be viable? It would certainly make Ythona more valuable, enough to get out from under Fleshrender's thumb.
Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree entirely, but I think it might be worth a shot?
Yay, it's back. Thank your work. Let's stop the master.
I think her singing will be important, I think it is unique enough to be remembered by the surviving village people.
[x] [] Sing. Singing to yourself helped keep you together for three years out in the bog. It can still help you now. You don't need to worry about the ghouls. If something inside them can still hear you, maybe it can be some small solace. You're confident that with time you can remember the sanctuary songs. They were too important to lose, even to death. You can rekindle your piety, and burn too bright for even that bog to snuff out.
[x] [] Try to bring your group closer together. Bell, Pepin, Sybil, and Bonecruncher are your comrades, but you aren't exactly a unit. They talk to each other, more than you used to at least, but the relations aren't that close. Being under Fleshrender's thumb might not have done much to bring you all together, but it's clearly reason you should be. Beyond that, though, you know it would do everyone a lot of good.
[x] [] Get closer to the master. The thought is still souring your mind. If the last day comes. Even if the master's plan is doomed to fail in the end, you can't imagine what awful things he might do before then. You can't afford to do nothing. But you don't know what you can do... Except understand things better. There's only one place you can hope to get that. Just the thought of heading back to that room sends shivers down your spine. It was terrible. But... So is dealing with Fleshrender, and you are managing that. If you could ask him about his studies, or borrow a book... Could that be worth it?
[x] Plan: Sight and Sword
Yay, it's back. Thank your work. Let's stop the master.
I think her singing will be important, I think it is unique enough to be remembered by the surviving village people.
[x] [] Sing. Singing to yourself helped keep you together for three years out in the bog. It can still help you now. You don't need to worry about the ghouls. If something inside them can still hear you, maybe it can be some small solace. You're confident that with time you can remember the sanctuary songs. They were too important to lose, even to death. You can rekindle your piety, and burn too bright for even that bog to snuff out.
[x] [] Try to bring your group closer together. Bell, Pepin, Sybil, and Bonecruncher are your comrades, but you aren't exactly a unit. They talk to each other, more than you used to at least, but the relations aren't that close. Being under Fleshrender's thumb might not have done much to bring you all together, but it's clearly reason you should be. Beyond that, though, you know it would do everyone a lot of good.
[x] [] Get closer to the master. The thought is still souring your mind. If the last day comes. Even if the master's plan is doomed to fail in the end, you can't imagine what awful things he might do before then. You can't afford to do nothing. But you don't know what you can do... Except understand things better. There's only one place you can hope to get that. Just the thought of heading back to that room sends shivers down your spine. It was terrible. But... So is dealing with Fleshrender, and you are managing that. If you could ask him about his studies, or borrow a book... Could that be worth it?
[x] Plan: Sight and Sword
Yeah. I do manually wrangle the options when I call the votes, so it won't cause a change in the final outcome, but it will be a bit messy for anyone using the tally function until then. Though, then again, this vote is going to be a mess for that no matter what. Still, I regret nothing.
(The manage votes feature is nice, it lets one nest multiple options together to all be counted as one thing. But it seems to be pretty strictly per-tally, so there isn't a way to set it preemptively for all tallies to come, I don't think?)
(The manage votes feature is nice, it lets one nest multiple options together to all be counted as one thing. But it seems to be pretty strictly per-tally, so there isn't a way to set it preemptively for all tallies to come, I don't think?)
Yeah, I've seen it done where people have gotten the "[z] [vote category y] Actual Vote x" thing to show in the tally sorted per category but it has never actually worked for me when I've set up votes like that.
You wave Pepin goodbye. It was a nice talk. Tricks to navigate, directions to actually find places you were looking for. It was a bit embarrassing to constantly get lost. Especially as you were already getting caught by what you thought were 'wrong' turns being the actual path. And making corrections to your own mental map should help in figuring out where you were going wrong. Hopefully.
Still, first you should get a grasp of how to get back to your room from here. So you follow the instructions. Only to find yourself outside of some storage room. Or at least, that's what it seems like, considering that it's empty right now, it is a bit hard to tell. Though it is clear that few, if any, have been here recently. Which doesn't make sense. This isn't that far off the path, right?
The bad part is you have no idea where this is. You haven't seen this room before. No directions that you can follow to get back to where you want to be. Which leaves you resorting your tried and true tactic of 'wander around until you recognize where you are'. It'll work. Eventually.
The next interesting point you came across was that cistern of water again. Well, it's a familiar point. Unless it's an identical one, somewhere else down here. Considering you didn't expect the first one to exist before you found it, it's possible there actually is at least one more. Which really won't help you navigate around. Best to assume that actually is the one you already know about for now. You try to remember the path you took the first time when you left here. Which should be that way, followed by that turn…
Some time later, you find yourself at the exit of your master's lair. Which doesn't quite make sense. Shouldn't it have been elsewhere? It must really have been a different cistern. That, or you were misremembering the route you took.
Okay. This is fine. Now you're somewhere that you know it is. You can't mess it up now. Well, it would help getting to where you were talking to Pepin solidified in your mind. Which should be this way…
…only to find that the room was on the wrong wall, from where you thought it was. It should have been on your left, not your right. In fact, from what you recall, it should have been impossible for it to be on your right. At least, on the approach to it.
After all, it's supposed to be a dead end passage over there. And it'll bug you forever if you don't check it right now. If only because otherwise you'd worry about getting lost. And you know for certain that this is in fact the room you thought it was. So you turn around and check.
Several minutes later, and to your growing confusion, you figure out that there's no path out this way. Not any that you can tell at least. No visible path. Even checking the walls revealed them to be solid. So you couldn't have walked this way. And yet you did.
What? How? It's like you were teleported or something. But you hadn't heard of anything like that being setup. And you would think something like that would have been mentioned. Just what was going on?
To celebrate the return, have an omake. Hopefully the layout isn't that confusing in the quest proper. (But then, Magic could be used to make strange connections between points, that don't always stay...)
Meant to post this earlier. Well, it's here now, after a quick read through to make sure I didn't have anything to tweak.
I'll stick the reward on 'enhanced perception'. Though I suppose it might be awhile to make it to the character sheet, since the Arc just finished.
(But then, Magic could be used to make strange connections between points, that don't always stay...)
