The Way Forward v2: Guiding your descendant to glory.

Welcome to the second iteration of The Way Forward.

After musing on lessons from the first version and other quests, I hope you find this more fun. (And less confusing!)

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A new member of your lineage rises to seek her future out. You have been chosen by the rest of your lineage to guide her to a glorious destiny, so that all of your lineage from souls at rest, to souls to come, can rest in honor.

But these are interesting times. The Fates have their eyes on her...

Character said:

[UNREADABLE]: Born a certain day to uncertain parents...

A former solider of [UNREADABLE], she rose to the rank of Commander of her unit. In a pyhrric defeat, she lost at the [UNREADABLE], with 99% of her unit destroyed, along with about 95% of the rest of the attacking army. While it had been her breaking her limits and killing the enemy commander and their Twelve [unreadable], preventing a breakout towards the farms in the rear, she was told "thank you for your service" and dismissed from service, with no explanation given.

She is looking for a new purpose in life, but is very relucant to leave her old life.

Celestial Fortune: The sage serves the many, with unselfish concern for the multitude and the myriad things. Tend to the soldiers, the farmers, the tradesmen, the scholars, and the officials.

Stat Notes:
* Slight Yang-leaning Imbalance
* Very Weak Wood and Water Connection
* Strong Fire and Metal
* Very Strong Earth
* Divine Connection.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

(note these will be applied to any path she picks. That's mostly due to the way she's generated.)

As an Ancestor spirit, you are a ..
- [ ] A spirit of the heavenly Dao, a former cultivator that chose to remain to assist future descendants
-- [ ] (Write in element) elemental spirit. You can grant additional Qi and techniques related to this. You also can inspire the character, but very often your advice is limited to what you experienced in life.
(Bonus Action: Useful Advice - You lived a life full of experience. Once a turn, you can opt to give advice that will assist the characters.)
(Every turn: Determine which action is Inspired of the characters.)

-- [ ] A divine beast, who can work and teach a descendant. Successfully getting a descendant to reach Heavenly tier will also result in your ascension.
You can assist the character in combat, although your power will grow far more slowly - being very fixed - and you can detect malintent.
(Bonus Action: Assist Combat - You can add another dice to the character's combat roll next turn.)
(Every turn: Provide the character with the intent of the speaker, as long as your skill is within two ranks.)

Recommended Character Classes: Cultivator, Martial Artist.

- [ ] For your deeds, you ascended to a heavenly plane, and you are an angel representing a god of (write good domain in, name)(Default name: Talionas.) and wish to guide someone to heavens.
You can grant the character a boon of variable length (at start: 2 turns, every 2 turns), but you also must try to guide her to the Mandate of Heaven.
(Bonus Action: Heavenly Boon - You can add half a dice to a character's roll of some type for 2 turns. This power will scale up with your advancement.)
(Every turn: Provide the character with awareness of the Mandate of Heaven. Awareness of what is likely to happen if she follows or ignores it.)
Recommended Character Classes: Paladin, Priest(ess)

- [] a neutral guardian of Justice.
The character is going to be an inquisitor of justice. This may take many forms, and in many places, she may encounter hostility, or have to jump through additional hoops and burdens of proof.
(Bonus Action: The Arm of Justice - You can add a dice to investigation rolls to find evidence or detect lies.)
(Every Turn: Can detect CRIME!!! subject to limits, and the information will require refinement of the ability.)

Recommended Character Classes: Paladin, Priest(ess), Inquisitor.

- [ ] a conduit from the Plane of Magic
The character will be either a sorceress (innate magic) or a wizard (have to learn spells from others). Note that you have very *very* little input into her goals, but you will eventually be able to talk to the character directly.

There's also the option to absorb power and magic spells directly from a source of power but this will be mean more traveling to level up, and a lot more effort to master the power/magic. However, it is easier to master.

Note: The character can opt to channel from your patron, as well, with you as a medium. You will have more control, but the character can opt to stop, and is going to not listen to you even more.

Recommended Character Classes: Sorceress, Wizard, Conduit.

(Bonus Action: Spark of Inspiration - Inspire the character to come up with a spell that will have some kind of relevance to an ongoing issue.)
(Every Turn: Magical effects will always be more fortunate to the character.)


The character's name is ... and she is a .., a female ...
- Name
-- [ ] Ci Xiaoqiao
-- [ ] Sakamoto Naomi
-- [ ] Maria Hernadez
-- [ ] April Smithidottir
-- [ ] Emilia Thorisun
- Class:
-- [ ] Paladin - Called to defend the followers of a faith with force, a Paladin is called for combat primarily.
-- [ ] Priestess - Unlike a Paladin, a Priestess is often called to do non combat things. They may dispel curses, and ex1orcise spirits.
-- [ ] Inquisitor - A very focused class on one calling, and often very zealous, to the point where they are not welcome in some places.
-- [ ] Cultivator
-- [ ] Martial Artist - Focusing on mastering their body, a cultivator can be seen as "improves everything", vs a martial artist accepting some limits.
-- [ ] Sorceress - Manifests internal magic in a structured way.
-- [ ] Wizard - Learns from some external source, imposing rules and structure on raw mgaic.
-- [ ] Conduit - Channels power absorbed from places and magic learnt thereof. It is also possible to channel from a patron. A conduit who channels from a source in the Hells is a Diabolist, from magic, an Arcanist, from the heavens, an Empeyrian.
- Race:
-- [ ] Human - The most common race, with no issues in most places, excluding some enclaves.
-- [ ] Elf - A fey race most often seen in rare growth forests. They are weaker at cultivation, but better at most other things.
-- [ ] Kitsune - A race often in touch with their own internal energies,
-- [ ] Kemonomimi - Insert type here - kemonomimi are often descendants of divine beasts of some kind, but are common in some places.

What world are you from?
- [ ] The world is a vast country of plains, hills, and forests, around three separate spread vast inland seas. The country is surrounded by mountains that pierces the sky - with no one that is known reaching the peaks, or the other side, or if they have, they have never returned.

Think vast China surrounded by mountains. There are cities dotting the plains, and there are portals to various mystical realms dotting throughout for adventures. But expect a lot of intrigue, since as far as everyone knows this is all there is, so there is always some tension between nation-states.

- [ ] The world is three continents seperated by a tumultus sea, with many storms coming in from the seas to most of the nations. The nations are full of mystical pheonomea, such as fogs, floating cities, mountains that float high in the sky - moving islands, etc. There is only one mountain range that cannot be summitted, the Kalirathians, a forbidden range. Tensions between the nations are there, but often rogue monster waves or other issues prompt times of cooperation.

This may be more mystical Europe, or something similar. Probably very animeish.
- [ ] The world is a modern one, with tensions after the last Great War. However, the Empire of the Risen Sun, where the sun never sets, has recently seen the ascension of Empress Honoria, the First, and the best magician of the age, Lady Alice Barnham. But the tensions between it and the Commonwealth of Gallia, led by Honorable Chief Jurist Mistral, are keeping the continent of Tarlia tense, with magi-corps and armies being trained. The magitech revolution has begun, with some proposing steam could be used.

Think gaslamp fantasy. Just, you know, with magical zepplins. Maybe.

- [ ] The world is not one, but many, stretched across the Orion Star Federation. From ocean worlds, to desert worlds, to worlds wrapped in mystical nebulas, it is a time when many people of various races mix equally. However, the threat from the Divine Tribunal is never ending, and pirates and PMCs plague the outer worlds.

Think Star Ocean or Phantasy Star.

As for system, it's dice based with modifiers towards certain things. The stat names and stuff will differ based on your votes, but the major stat, her trust value to you, is constant. Do not let it fall to untrusted, or if you do, be prepared to be crafty about it.

Character Stats
- Strength
- Agility
- Vitality
- Intelligence
- Presence

Ranks
- Characters have their abilities, skills, and others ranked on a scale from Infernal to Master. If it's not listed, you can assume it is Common 0 (i.e no bonus).
- Ranks go Infernal -> Abysmal -> Cursed -> Inept -> Poor -> Common -> Adept -> Expert -> Master -> Divine.
Most cases of Cursed or below are .. due to being cursed.
- Going from rank to rank is difficult, and will require specific actions.
- Each rank has a subrank from 0 - 9. (i.e Common 9 -> Adept 0)

Skills
- Skills may need mainteance to remain.

Powers
- Characters who can wield magic or other powers have them ranked, which is both a measure of skill, but of potentially efficiency.

In most cases, things will be handeled via the narrative, but there will be dice rolls. In the case of something being 3 ranks above another, they will automatically win except on a critical fail.

Class: Sorceress
Sorceress's rely on Prescense and Agility, but often are treated like experts and called on to do such tasks. The wise Sorceress does not neglect her Intelligence or Vitality. They often do not have the strength to maintain higher Strength ranks as they must spend some of their time communing with themselves, or researching to understand spells.

Unlike the Conduits and Wizards, they channel their own energy, but often learning how Wizard spell works gives them insight in how to channel it into desired effects. While they cannot use the same methods to optimize their Qi and mana emissions, all power is knowledge.

That all being said, all sorcerers must be affilated with some organization in the continent of Eahair, and reputable organizations make them wear a sigil that will magically break if they do not obey their tenets, or be state-affiliated, often becoming war mages.

- Prescense and Agility increasing is easier. Strength increasing is much harder.
- They often serve cultural roles as investigators, or othre such things.
- This is considered a base class and can specialize or hybridize down the line.

Training Mechanics

Classes have a base statline they give, and then a flat modifier to certain skill growth. For Sorceress, it is +27 to Mana Sense,Mana Control,Magic Missile (The modifier increases given certain plot beats.)

Every morning, April does training. The intensity (and the length) is currently Normal (modifier*1 to skills, +1d100/3 to Intelligence and Agility)

(This can be switched to Light, which is modifier*(2/3), -1 skill choice, and +1d100/5 to INT/AGI, +1 action
or Heavy - modifier*(4/3), +1 skill choice, +1d100/2 to INT/AGI, -1 action.)

During the day, she takes classes to both get her up to a minimum standard of represnetation, and because the Alley of the Star Seeker is not a cloistered/pure academic organization.

The classes award a random item from the pool. On a critical success, the reward is ranked up.

After that, April has off-time to do certain things. She can do additional training, do a task from the taskboard, socialize, etc.

This training action is for three things, and can be for
- Skills
- Powers
- Stats
- Specific Actions

Each gets a 1d100 roll added to whatever it was already. You can specify a skill or power, or state (Random Known Spell) and (Random Known Power).

A critical roll can upgrade the power or skill that is either about to rank up to the next rank, or already a rank above the tier of the spell.

For example, Magic Armor (Common) at Common 9 can upgrade to Armor of the Earth (Adept) at Common 0. But Magic Armor (Common) at Common 5 can't unless the critical roll is enough to increase it 5 subranks.

Stat increasing here does require some explanation as to how, though. Some stats, such as Presence, which controls social abilities, may require something like 'attending talks, or seminars' given for fun.

Character Sheet

April Smithidottir, Age 24 (Female Kitsune)

Aspects
- Former Solider
- Cursed by Haunted Battlefields. (30%, 3% per turn)
- Haunted by Failure
- Banished from Home
- Skilled in Deception
- Two Tailed Kitsune
- Follower of the Compact
- Marked by Demons

Affinities
- Weak Wood and Water Affinity
- Strong Fire and Metal Affinity
- Very Strong Earth Affinity
- Divine Connection

Items
- Very Low Grade Spear
- Low Grade Magic Focus (Red-Myrtle)

Stats
- Strength: Common 5
- Agility: Adept 0
- Vitality: Common 5
- Intelligence: Common 7
- Presence: Common 8

Skills
- Sword Proficiency: Common 6
- Spear Proficiency: Common 9
- Mana Sense: Adept 6
- Mana Control: Adept 2
- Qi Sense: Common 3
- Perception: Adept 0
- Military Tactics: Common 6
- Deception: Common 3
- Form Neutral Mana: Common 1
- Manasight (Rare): Common 1
- Create Mana Handgun: Common 8
- Knowledge (Arcana): Common 3
- Survival: Common 3

Powers
- Inertial Canceller (Adept): Common 4
- Entangle: Common 2
- Flaming Arrows: Adept 1
- [Arc 1] Magic Missle (aspectless): Adept 3
- [Arc 1] Extradimensional Space: Common 6
- [Arc 1] Analyze Dweomer: Common 1
- [Arc 1] Purify Water (Common): Common 8
- [Arc 1] Mage Armor (Common): Common 3

Trust
- Talonis: Low (12 Trust)

Unlocked
- Neutral Mana, Aspectless Channeling, Kitsune: Alter Self, Common Power Structure Knowledge

Relations
- Kingdom of Tokyai: Banished. (Abysmal)
- Kingdom of Teyerali: Hated. (Abysmal) (Trending to Disliked (Inept) very slowly.)
- Alley of the Star Seeker: Initiate (Poor)

Talonis
Mana: Poor
Spells: None unlocked
Current Mana Power Boost: 25%

The Setting

The world of Eorlia is an old one, with many civilizations come and gone. Legends speak of ice that used to dominate the south, and north, now long gone. It is only in recent living human memory that glaciers and ice has returned to the mountains, and petrified forest tops visible off the continent of Eahair, making the former ports on the northwest shore unavailable to all but the shallowest drafts.

There are ruins made of marble on all three continents, with some buildings made out of a crumbling hard sand with weak-steel in it. A few crumbling are of what looks to be an strangely old and unknown warpweft material mixed in wolfite. Sometimes it's hard-brick with scratch-glass. The continent to the bottom-right has the fewest - two of them - centered around a large lake.

The "Cradle" of civilization is in the nertheast continent, referred to asthe lands of the Osteria. There are many monasteries and one necropolis here. Typhoons blow here off the central sea, and the fog here is often the lightest, with the deadly red and purple fogs being extremely rare and on the west coast. There's a mountain range here that is forbidden, made of a pure black material. Those that try to summit or travel them never return, much like those who go into the deep seas never return as well.

There are those who travel to the dangerous and wild western continent, up to the Vast Rift, as to cross it is dangerous, and to go west is to go into the rainbow fogs, and no one returns the same from that.

Monsters are plentiful across all continents, with occasional beast waves more common on the southern and western continents. Dragons, Great Eagles, and more, are common.

It is in this world that the civilized races strive to not just survive, but thrive. To deal with the storms, they fortify and do not build on the low-grounds near the water. To deal with the frequent star-showers, they build observatories and magical bells that ring in watchtowers and train up mages to deflect them from inhabited areas. To deal with the monster waves, they sometimes cooperate. To hunt the mages who would unleash evils, they have established the Inquisitors.

But it is an inherent in the human condition that there is always lies. And the endless waltz of war, peace and revolution continues.

Base Data:
The world of Eorlia is a Super-Earth in size, but would be considered a Tropical climate. Temps in the summer in many places surpass 50C, with places of 60+C not unknown. Many who live there are the more hardier civilized races, or the ones who can instinctively use magic to keep them cool. However, arcanists and various researchers are recording that the world seems to be cooling, and they predict that ice might become more than a peak of winter thing in the seas soon.

It has one sun, a blue-orange color, and it is known that a civilization of the past has caused that odd swirling color. The moons are fragments in the night sky, with a small moon forming out of debris, but many religions and cults predict it will impact the surface and bring about Shardfall.

The omnipresent magical fog often means the nights are dark and gloomy, and some larger cities have specialized mana devices to absorb the fog and run magical devices on it.


Character

April Smithidottir, 24, was a prodigy at combat and the arts of athleticism at a young age, joining the army of the Kingdom of Tokyai at the age of 14. While Tokyai needed to draft it's kids on the age of adulthood early, the Kingdom sensibly tried to keep them to defensive and training duties until they reached the age of majority at 16.

A beast wave occurring out of the Necropolis of Lutekia meant her and her unit saw sustained combat earlier, and while she could utilize the shield spells and star-caster, she excelled in the arts of spear, sword, and bow.

As such, she rose to a command rank earlier than normal. Her career was marked by quiet professionalism, and like most kitsune with an inclination to combat, marked by maneuver and use of deception.

However, this all changed with the cataclysmic battle of Snayalmie Fort, overseeing the contested border between them and the Grand Duchy of Teyerali.

In this battle, both the Tokyai forces, numbering roughly 40200, and the Teyerali forces, numbering 39000, saw a fatality rate of 97%, and a casualty rate of 99%.

While she was able by herself to kill the most powerful elements of the Teyerali advance, it didn't change the facts on the ground. Coupled with the sole reason this was viable was due to the sheer death Qi in the air allowing her to tap into her what was likely her locked talents, she was soon discharged from the Army, which had been her life.

Peculiarly, other unit commanders who had lost their units were not. As she was not welcome in her home, either, she was at her wits end...

Ancestor

You are Talionis Smithison, and you died in 234 AE. You have been dead for nearly 700 years, but when you were alive, you were one of the first archmages to deflect a star-shower that would have destroyed a village, at the cost of your life. You are still remembered in many now-ancient research institutes.

The Moirai have commanded you: Lead April to her future.

- The world is three continents separated by a tumultuous sea, with many storms coming in from the seas to most of the nations. The nations are full of mystical phenomena, such as fogs, floating cities, mountains that float high in the sky - moving islands, etc. There is only one mountain range that cannot be summited, the Kalirathians, a forbidden range. Tensions between the nations are there, but often rogue monster waves or other issues prompt times of cooperation.


The world of Eorlia is an old one, with many civilizations come and gone. Legends speak of ice that used to dominate the south, and north, now long gone. It is only in recent living human memory that glaciers and ice has returned to the mountains, and petrified forest tops visible off the continent of Eahair, making the former ports on the northwest shore unavailable to all but the shallowest drafts.

There are ruins made of marble on all three continents, with some buildings made out of a crumbling hard sand with weak-steel in it. A few crumbling are of what looks to be an strangely old and unknown warpweft material mixed in wolfite. Sometimes it's hard-brick with scratch-glass. The continent to the bottom-right has the fewest - two of them - centered around a large lake.

The "Cradle" of civilization is in the northeast continent, referred to as the lands of the Osteria. There are many monasteries and one necropolis here. Typhoons blow here off the central sea, and the fog here is often the lightest, with the deadly red and purple fogs being extremely rare and on the west coast. There's a mountain range here that is forbidden, made of a pure black material. Those that try to summit or travel them never return, much like those who go into the deep seas never return as well.

There are those who travel to the dangerous and wild western continent, up to the Vast Rift, as to cross it is dangerous, and to go west is to go into the rainbow fogs, and no one returns the same from that.

Monsters are plentiful across all continents, with occasional beast waves more common on the southern and western continents. Dragons, Great Eagles, and more, are common.

It is in this world that the civilized races strive to not just survive, but thrive. To deal with the storms, they fortify and do not build on the low-grounds near the water. To deal with the frequent star-showers, they build observatories and magical bells that ring in watchtowers and train up mages to deflect them from inhabited areas. To deal with the monster waves, they sometimes cooperate. To hunt the mages who would unleash evils, they have established the Inquisitors.

But it is an inherent in the human condition that there is always lies. And the endless waltz of war, peace and revolution continues.

Base Data:
The world of Eorlia is a Super-Earth in size, but would be considered a Tropical climate. Temps in the summer in many places surpass 50C, with places of 60+C not unknown. Many who live there are the more hardier civilized races, or the ones who can instinctively use magic to keep them cool. However, arcanists and various researchers are recording that the world seems to be cooling, and they predict that ice might become more than a peak of winter thing in the seas soon.

It has one sun, a blue-orange color, and it is known that a civilization of the past has caused that odd swirling color. The moons are fragments in the night sky, with a small moon forming out of debris, but many religions and cults predict it will impact the surface and bring about Shardfall.

The omnipresent magical fog often means the nights are dark and gloomy, and some larger cities have specialized mana devices to absorb the fog and run magical devices on it.


Character:
April Smithidottir, 24, was a prodigy at combat and the arts of athleticism at a young age, joining the army of the Kingdom of Tokyai at the age of 14. While Tokyai needed to draft it's kids on the age of adulthood early, the Kingdom sensibly tried to keep them to defensive and training duties until they reached the age of majority at 16.

A beast wave occurring out of the Necropolis of Lutekia meant her and her unit saw sustained combat earlier, and while she could utilize the shield spells and star-caster, she excelled in the arts of spear, sword, and bow.

As such, she rose to a command rank earlier than normal. Her career was marked by quiet professionalism, and like most kitsune with an inclination to combat, marked by maneuver and use of deception.

However, this all changed with the cataclysmic battle of Snayalmie Fort, overseeing the contested border between them and the Grand Duchy of Teyerali.

In this battle, both the Tokyai forces, numbering roughly 40200, and the Teyerali forces, numbering 39000, saw a fatality rate of 97%, and a casualty rate of 99%.

While she was able by herself to kill the most powerful elements of the Teyerali advance, it didn't change the facts on the ground. Coupled with the sole reason this was viable was due to the sheer death Qi in the air allowing her to tap into her what was likely her locked talents, she was soon discharged from the Army, which had been her life.

Peculiarly, other unit commanders who had lost their units were not. As she was not welcome in her home, either, she was at her wits end...

- a conduit from the Plane of Magic

You are Talionis Smithison, and you died in 234 AE. You have been dead for nearly 700 years, but when you were alive, you were one of the first archmages to deflect a star-shower that would have destroyed a village, at the cost of your life. You are still remembered in many now-ancient research institutes.

The Moirai have commanded you: Lead April to her future.