Knight of Wessex (A Written World Quest)
- Thread starter Alectai
- Start date
- Original Fantasy Alt. History
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Crowley
[X] Solomon
[X] Solomon
[X] Edric
[X] Almond
[X] Oswald
[X] Solomon
[X] Almond
[X] Oswald
[X] Solomon
Turn 4.1 - Meet Crowley
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Names carry weight untold. They hold power over the fates of men; a good name can bring good tides while a bad name leaves little luck to its owner.
With this in mind, as Audrey looks upon the glossy black feathers of her newfound companion, there is only one name that truly fits this face:
"Crowley," Audrey speaks her mind, laying a name on the crow's shoulders just as her parents did to her so many years ago.
"A fitting name," Sister Caoimhe remarks as the newly-named Crowley offers a nod, "Now, assume the prayer position and we shall begin the Rite of Bonding."
Doing as asked, Audrey presses knees to hardwood floors as she clasps hands together. Head tilting into a bow, loose locks of fair hair cut across her vision as her eyes close shut.
"Repeat after me," Sister Caoimhe lays hand to Audrey's brow, holy power sparking at her touch. The heady smell of smoky incense fills the air alongside words of adoration and supplication.
O Holy Father, Creator of All,
Who worked clay into flesh,
And granted the gift of life,
See us now, your humble followers,
Who seek to build the bond
Between two birds of a feather
Give to us your Holy Blessing
And send the Holy Spirit
To turn hand and eye into one
Amen
The moment the final words of prayer leave Audrey's lips, the click of snapping fingers rings in Audrey's ears. The scent of burning incense reaches a near-choking, smothering intensity. Bells sound, birds call, and a loving warmth spreads through it all.
And then it is over.
And then Audrey was two.
At once, Audrey was knelt in prayer before a two-way mirror. At another, Audrey was sitting atop a wooden table inside a brass-barred cage.
At once, Crowley was sitting atop a wooden table inside a brass-barred cage. At another, Crowley was knelt in prayer before a two-way mirror.
Woman and Bird. Bird and Woman.
One soul, two bodies.
Praise the Lord.
0~0~0
During the next three months, finishing out her first year as a Squire, Reinald trains Audrey in how to see through Crowley's eyes, a fundamental Meditation for Knights with avian companions, but otherwise slows down his training regimen to something much more sustainable. Make a plan for Audrey's actions and training for the next three months:
[ ] Example Plan
-[ ] [Focus Action] Insert Action Choice Here
-[ ] [Secondary Action] Insert Action Choice Here
-[ ] [Secondary Action] Insert Action Choice Here
-[ ] [Chancellery] Pick either Red-Black Lightning or Slowing Down for the Commons
-[ ] Training and Zeal (15 Training, 24 Zeal)
–[X] Spend 3 Training on "Through Their Eyes" Meditation
–[ ] Spend 12 Training on whatever you desire (7 at most may be spent on Feats and Shapes)
–[ ] Spend 0-24 Zeal on ???
AN: It's another short one, but we couldn't figure out what else to add to this that wouldn't feel like completely changing the topic, hopefully reducing it to one Focus Action again in the future should help avoid these kinds of hiccups in the future, lesson learned. Maybe an edit later if an idea strikes us, but I wanted to get this in tonight.
With this in mind, as Audrey looks upon the glossy black feathers of her newfound companion, there is only one name that truly fits this face:
"Crowley," Audrey speaks her mind, laying a name on the crow's shoulders just as her parents did to her so many years ago.
"A fitting name," Sister Caoimhe remarks as the newly-named Crowley offers a nod, "Now, assume the prayer position and we shall begin the Rite of Bonding."
Doing as asked, Audrey presses knees to hardwood floors as she clasps hands together. Head tilting into a bow, loose locks of fair hair cut across her vision as her eyes close shut.
"Repeat after me," Sister Caoimhe lays hand to Audrey's brow, holy power sparking at her touch. The heady smell of smoky incense fills the air alongside words of adoration and supplication.
O Holy Father, Creator of All,
Who worked clay into flesh,
And granted the gift of life,
See us now, your humble followers,
Who seek to build the bond
Between two birds of a feather
Give to us your Holy Blessing
And send the Holy Spirit
To turn hand and eye into one
Amen
The moment the final words of prayer leave Audrey's lips, the click of snapping fingers rings in Audrey's ears. The scent of burning incense reaches a near-choking, smothering intensity. Bells sound, birds call, and a loving warmth spreads through it all.
And then it is over.
And then Audrey was two.
At once, Audrey was knelt in prayer before a two-way mirror. At another, Audrey was sitting atop a wooden table inside a brass-barred cage.
At once, Crowley was sitting atop a wooden table inside a brass-barred cage. At another, Crowley was knelt in prayer before a two-way mirror.
Woman and Bird. Bird and Woman.
One soul, two bodies.
Praise the Lord.
0~0~0
During the next three months, finishing out her first year as a Squire, Reinald trains Audrey in how to see through Crowley's eyes, a fundamental Meditation for Knights with avian companions, but otherwise slows down his training regimen to something much more sustainable. Make a plan for Audrey's actions and training for the next three months:
[ ] Example Plan
-[ ] [Focus Action] Insert Action Choice Here
-[ ] [Secondary Action] Insert Action Choice Here
-[ ] [Secondary Action] Insert Action Choice Here
-[ ] [Chancellery] Pick either Red-Black Lightning or Slowing Down for the Commons
-[ ] Training and Zeal (15 Training, 24 Zeal)
–[X] Spend 3 Training on "Through Their Eyes" Meditation
–[ ] Spend 12 Training on whatever you desire (7 at most may be spent on Feats and Shapes)
–[ ] Spend 0-24 Zeal on ???
AN: It's another short one, but we couldn't figure out what else to add to this that wouldn't feel like completely changing the topic, hopefully reducing it to one Focus Action again in the future should help avoid these kinds of hiccups in the future, lesson learned. Maybe an edit later if an idea strikes us, but I wanted to get this in tonight.
DangerKitty
shoddy writter
- Location
- lala land
Audrey just became bird-brained
[X] Plan tournament prep.
-[X] [Focus Action] Bird bonding.
-[X] [Secondary Action] Attended mass/communion.
-[X] [Secondary Action] spar with the other squires (specifically see if you can try for armored spars).
-[X] [Chancellery] Red-Black Lightning
-[X] Training and Zeal (15 Training, 24 Zeal)
–[X] Spend 3 Training on "Through Their Eyes" Meditation
–[X] Spend 4 training to get perfect footing to refined.
--[X] Spend 3 training on getting an armor piercing Rote (or in not avelibe armor damaging).
--[X]Spend 5 training on clever deflection (putting int 11/27 to mastery).
–[X] Spend 16 Zeal on combat 5.
--[X] spend 4 zeal on getting to the 6th dacade.
I've talked about the zeal expenditure we want to follow before and this puts us on that plan, to hopefully by the end finish the second decade and get tactics 4 with then us having 32 left over to spend for either combat 6 or soma 7 (or tactics 5 and psych 5).
As for training, I'm finishing off perfect footing (which we started) I want to at least look a t an armor piercing rote, it would be really useful against our fellow knights and can have surprising use against other opponents and I also start the road to mastering clever deflection (which is by far our most important rote).
-[X] [Focus Action] Bird bonding.
-[X] [Secondary Action] Attended mass/communion.
-[X] [Secondary Action] spar with the other squires (specifically see if you can try for armored spars).
-[X] [Chancellery] Red-Black Lightning
-[X] Training and Zeal (15 Training, 24 Zeal)
–[X] Spend 3 Training on "Through Their Eyes" Meditation
–[X] Spend 4 training to get perfect footing to refined.
--[X] Spend 3 training on getting an armor piercing Rote (or in not avelibe armor damaging).
--[X]Spend 5 training on clever deflection (putting int 11/27 to mastery).
–[X] Spend 16 Zeal on combat 5.
--[X] spend 4 zeal on getting to the 6th dacade.
I've talked about the zeal expenditure we want to follow before and this puts us on that plan, to hopefully by the end finish the second decade and get tactics 4 with then us having 32 left over to spend for either combat 6 or soma 7 (or tactics 5 and psych 5).
As for training, I'm finishing off perfect footing (which we started) I want to at least look a t an armor piercing rote, it would be really useful against our fellow knights and can have surprising use against other opponents and I also start the road to mastering clever deflection (which is by far our most important rote).
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So, to be clear from an expectation management perspective, stuff that just ignores armour isn't gonna usually do too much more damage than your current options that do that unless it has specific restrictions (like the maneuver the Norseman used to stab Audrey in the face, which required grappling). And a general request like this isn't gonna get something with restrictions like that (see below). A lot of these would also not ignore Hama, depending on the exact mechanism.
Now, in terms of stuff that damages armour, those Rotes might in theory do a bit more to armour than GKB does, but probably not a lot more (40 instead of 30 maybe)...the big advantage there would be that something like that could be a lot cheaper, though their actual damage number is probably not much higher than their damage to armour. Like a decently inexpensive attack that does 30-40 Damage, all of which applies to armour, is the sort of thing you could expect if aiming for a generic version of that. It would also not, by default, apply to Hama.
However, the biggest thing here is that more specificity on what you want would be nice...this is two whole different categories of Rote. You should probably narrow it down to at least one, and the more detail about what you want it to do, the better honestly. Not in terms of specific mechanics but, like, thematically. What is this Rote intended to be used for? What restrictions are you willing to put on it? How expensive do you envision it?
Like, GKB technically meets the requirements of this prompt as does Limb-Breaking Hold. Those are very different Rotes. Something to clarify what you want a bit more would be nice.
"A cheap rote that does extra to armour, in order to work through armour before using GKB" is a much more informative statement, as is "A way to do as much pure damage ignoring armour and Hama as possible, price and restrictions are no object". Just as a couple of examples of what I'm talking about.
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AeonIlluminate
The power of friendship and aggressive landscaping
- Pronouns
- They/Them
So, for the anti-armour rote, I feel we should go for something more based around ruining armour so that we use it once or twice and then the vast majority of GKB damage goes clean through to an enemy, instead of a more thread the needle type blow to do chip damage through their armour. Functionally something like the following, if it's allowable in Hard-Fall Style.
[Anti-Armour Rote] Shell Peeling Blow - A Rote based on Giant Killing Blow, it seeks to open up a large hole in the enemy's protections (deal stupid amounts of damage to armour and similar) so that it's parent rote can be used cleanly to kill the foe.
Basically, similar cost to GKB, does around as much damage, just directs it all to the various layers of armour equivalents (Hama Field/Armour/Focus/etc) so that GKB can be used next round to obliterate the enemy. Couldn't think of an especially good name though, but this gets the point across.
Deadman, is this viable to make, or do we need Red-Black Lightning finished for something like this.
[Anti-Armour Rote] Shell Peeling Blow - A Rote based on Giant Killing Blow, it seeks to open up a large hole in the enemy's protections (deal stupid amounts of damage to armour and similar) so that it's parent rote can be used cleanly to kill the foe.
Basically, similar cost to GKB, does around as much damage, just directs it all to the various layers of armour equivalents (Hama Field/Armour/Focus/etc) so that GKB can be used next round to obliterate the enemy. Couldn't think of an especially good name though, but this gets the point across.
Deadman, is this viable to make, or do we need Red-Black Lightning finished for something like this.
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If it is (even if its not as much damage as a regular GBK) I would switch for that.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Even with stuff you don't have, that's not an available option as suggested.
Damage that wrecks armour is self-evidently a lot better than damage which doesn't. Even if priced at GKB levels, we're talking a lot less damage than GKB. Wrecking Hama as well is even more specialized and would drop that number significantly. This is all especially true given the nature of the Style and GKB's place in it...a super high cost/high effect anti armour thing is not really thematically on point.
- Location
- Earth
[X] Plan Building our foundation
-[X] [Focus Action] Bird bonding.
-[X] [Secondary Action] Attended mass/communion.
-[X] [Secondary Action] Spar with the other squires
-[X] [Chancellery] Red-Black Lightning
-[X] Training and Zeal (15 Training, 24 Zeal)
–[X] Spend 3 Training on "Through Their Eyes" Meditation
–[X] Spend 4 training to get Perfect Footing to refined.
--[X] Spend 8 training on Clever Deflection (putting it to 14/27 to mastery).
--[X] spend 19 zeal on getting to the 9th bead
The armour piercing/ignoring vote just feels redundant; we already have stuff like grappling (with Limb-breaking hold) that ignores Hama and armour, we could work on refining that instead.
15 training for the next 3 months means about 60 over the next year. We can master Clever Deflection while still refining a bunch of techs. Personally I'd like at least Strandsense (to make it usable), Francisca Toss to counter shields, and Litany of Resolve in case any squires have a mind-influencing tech in their back pockets.
Zeal-wise, everyone is pretty agreed on getting 3rd Decade and Combat 5. I'd like to argue with that we should spread the rest of our gains out a little rather than combat 6, and go for:
- 16 on Psyche 5
- 12 on Athleticism, Scholarship and Precision to 3
- 16 on Tactics and Diplomacy to 4
All this expenditure totals 85, so we can afford it over the next year. Tactics is obvious, while Precision and Athleticism are so our supporting skills don't fall too far behind. Diplomacy is so when we're interacting with all these new people our sin of Pride is hopefully less likely to get us into unnecessary fights or start any grudges.
Scholarship is kinda niche and mostly to identify who we're actually fighting for potential hints to their fighting style. That said maybe it would be better to drop it and have 4 extra zeal to use in combat, since we'll want a reserve for emergencies.
-[X] [Focus Action] Bird bonding.
-[X] [Secondary Action] Attended mass/communion.
-[X] [Secondary Action] Spar with the other squires
-[X] [Chancellery] Red-Black Lightning
-[X] Training and Zeal (15 Training, 24 Zeal)
–[X] Spend 3 Training on "Through Their Eyes" Meditation
–[X] Spend 4 training to get Perfect Footing to refined.
--[X] Spend 8 training on Clever Deflection (putting it to 14/27 to mastery).
--[X] spend 19 zeal on getting to the 9th bead
The armour piercing/ignoring vote just feels redundant; we already have stuff like grappling (with Limb-breaking hold) that ignores Hama and armour, we could work on refining that instead.
15 training for the next 3 months means about 60 over the next year. We can master Clever Deflection while still refining a bunch of techs. Personally I'd like at least Strandsense (to make it usable), Francisca Toss to counter shields, and Litany of Resolve in case any squires have a mind-influencing tech in their back pockets.
Zeal-wise, everyone is pretty agreed on getting 3rd Decade and Combat 5. I'd like to argue with that we should spread the rest of our gains out a little rather than combat 6, and go for:
- 16 on Psyche 5
- 12 on Athleticism, Scholarship and Precision to 3
- 16 on Tactics and Diplomacy to 4
All this expenditure totals 85, so we can afford it over the next year. Tactics is obvious, while Precision and Athleticism are so our supporting skills don't fall too far behind. Diplomacy is so when we're interacting with all these new people our sin of Pride is hopefully less likely to get us into unnecessary fights or start any grudges.
Scholarship is kinda niche and mostly to identify who we're actually fighting for potential hints to their fighting style. That said maybe it would be better to drop it and have 4 extra zeal to use in combat, since we'll want a reserve for emergencies.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Strandsense is usable right now, to be clear, you just can't be assumed to be using it passively, so it'd definitely be better at Refined, but it's usable as a combat tactic.
[X] Plan Building our foundation
- Location
- Earth
Ah ok, good to know. I think we should still get this to Refined, since it's a decent utility tech we can use in and out of combat, and we'll want to use Crowley more for long-range scouting than a second set of eyes on us.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That's a reasonable perspective. Just clarifying parameters.
Are there any prayers that increase skills?
For example, temporarily increase the Combat skill in order to both receive automatic successes and be able to put more Zeal into a strike.
Are there prayers that give weapons certain properties?
For example, fire properties to deal powerful blows to monsters that have a weakness for it, or acidic for the greatest destruction of armor?
For example, temporarily increase the Combat skill in order to both receive automatic successes and be able to put more Zeal into a strike.
Are there prayers that give weapons certain properties?
For example, fire properties to deal powerful blows to monsters that have a weakness for it, or acidic for the greatest destruction of armor?
- Location
- Bretonnia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Those sound like they'd be Prayers that'd fall under a Revelation, specifically Fire and Acid respectively.
While there is merit in that, doing well in the tournament is likely to provide us with zeal (and maybe even grace through the church) which can be utilized on such skills and getting combat 6 would do a lot to help our chances of doing well.
[X] Plan Building our foundation
- Pronouns
- He/Him
There are absolutely Prayers to boost up skills and give auto-successes out-of-combat, usually in a specific area. For Combat, however, those look like Vanguard's Prayer more than they do like this.
Those could exist but, as Constenanto correctly notes, they'd be tied to something like a fire or acid based Revelation or Martial Style.
You did not receive bonus Grace from a single Communion, no. The Grace progression is not nearly that quick. Your piety is, however, being noted.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Plan Building our foundation
I'd probably do a few small things differently, but this is close enough to my preferences that I'll gladly vote for it.
I'm still opposed to an armor-piercing attack, given that it'd have to be very limited. I understand the desire for an armor-destroying attack, but GKB is already decent at that.
If we're going to get a new attacking rote, I'd like to advocate for a limb-severing attack. Not before the tournament, mind. I don't think it'd be a great look to be maiming our opponents. A limb-severing attacking would fall under Hard-Fall Style as per the bigger they are the harder they fall. And that's our primary combat method.
It would synergize well with our tactics bonus, letting us identify what our opponent is doing that's most dangerous to us and disabling it. And it just feels more impactful than most things we can get.
Edit: Added the various discussed prayers to the prayer repository.
I'd probably do a few small things differently, but this is close enough to my preferences that I'll gladly vote for it.
I'm still opposed to an armor-piercing attack, given that it'd have to be very limited. I understand the desire for an armor-destroying attack, but GKB is already decent at that.
If we're going to get a new attacking rote, I'd like to advocate for a limb-severing attack. Not before the tournament, mind. I don't think it'd be a great look to be maiming our opponents. A limb-severing attacking would fall under Hard-Fall Style as per the bigger they are the harder they fall. And that's our primary combat method.
It would synergize well with our tactics bonus, letting us identify what our opponent is doing that's most dangerous to us and disabling it. And it just feels more impactful than most things we can get.
Edit: Added the various discussed prayers to the prayer repository.
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