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Nobility on the Golden Plains [A Clan Builder / Cultivation Quest]

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Alright voting is open.

Just a note for the future, but if you try to recruit a retainer and you write an omake about them I would be pleased. As it saves me some work coming up with a character.
 
Sirrocco said:
Beastmaster - we're never going to be raising spirit animals, but having a bonded spirit animal, if we can find a good one, would both assist us in some other thing that we're doing a fair bit and also give us an ongoing source of stress reduction.

I don't think blacksmith is worth pursuing. For one thing, we aren't any kind of metal elemental.

Getting a competent herbalist on staff makes a lot of sense, and is almost certainly worth it. Training up from "nothing" to "highly competent herbalist" is a major investment, though, in inspiration, in training time, and in training stress. Our stress mitigation options are a bit limited for the moment. Basically, it's going to eat a lot of actions. Now, if we get an herbalist on staff, and it turns out that he's not really adequate to our needs, and this is an ongoing issue that comes up multiple times? Then yeah - it starts to be worth considering. On the flip side, though, we've had this issue show up just now for the first time. I don't necessarily think that it's the right answer to immediately jump to the most expensive available solution.
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I think we were planning on making the Tree our Bonded Spirit Animal. That would fall under the Alchemy/Sage Skills still, I think.
 
[X] Plan: Alchemist With Broader Horizons
-[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. [Cultivation]
-[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
-[X] Search for fire techniques, focus on ones which buff combat against metal cultivators
—[X] request family support in sourcing technique options
-[X] Find a Spirit Herb Grove (Goal 50)
-[X] Send your Poplar Guardian to look for spirit groves. (Free Action)
 
[X] Plan: Herbalist and Alchemist
-[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. [Cultivation]
-[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
-[X] Search for an Herbalist (Goal: ???)
-[X] Attempt to Gain Insights
—[X] Path of the Herbalist
-[X] Send your Poplar Guardian to look for spirit groves.
 
To give people an idea of the action costs of 'learning a new skill' at our current cultivation, we get 4 TP per action, so it is an average of 5 actions to get a skill to 4 (a reasonable level). That's also +5 Stress, and thus another three actions or so and $9 to burn off that Stress.

Which is to say, in reality, a new skill at an adequate level is 8 actions and $9 or thereabouts. And some Face checks that risk losing that. Getting it to level 6 is another 4 actions, for a total of 12 actions and $12. If it's a Wood School we average 5 TP and can thus save one whole action, making it 7 actions (or 11 for level 6) and the same price in money.

It's wildly time-intensive to invest in a skill. It's still potentially worth it, mind you, and I'm not saying it's not, but we need to be extremely selective in what ones we actually pursue.

In terms of the actual turn plan (name courtesy of Blankmask):

[X] Plan: Last Hurdles
-[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. (School of the Leaf Cauldron)
-[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
-[X] Brew Rusted Lotus Elixir (Goal: 0/10 Repeatable) (+1 Stress) (Costs $5 per elixir after first)
--[X] Show it to our older Brother as proof that you can actually do this.
-[X] Get Help with your Plantation
--[X] Ask Our Brother

I don't think we need to focus on getting new stuff this turn, we have enough ongoing projects to eat all our existing actions, let's finish some more before we do any of that.
 
Woohoo! We have some good discussion going on. :D

Quick side comment about getting a Herbalist retainer:
The main benefit is initially that they are doing a job for us and providing access to knowledge we don't currently have.
However, we have: 'Impart the Fundamentals: Passively improves knowledge of retainers two realms or more below you.' Which may improve in the future too.
So, we will eventually be able to benefit from both having a qualified retainer and learning that stuff ourselves. The end goal being that we have the skill to handle things, but we also have a retainer that we can trust to deal with all the lesser problems on our behalf.
So, getting a retainer, and then having them be our mentor isn't a wasted action.

Other than that, have some brainstormed potential future Liangs:
Head Alchemical Researcher of the Clan, doing making and refining lots of new elixir recipes. (Heavy focus on Alchemy Schools and any skills that help run the Silver Grass Pavilion.)
Top Clan Sage, where Liang branches out his teaching skills to run some things outside of the Silver Grass Pavilion too. (Leans more towards Sage and Admin.)
Chief Alchemist, by taking on some of the other Alchemy Pavilions and works on streamlining research and production of elixirs for fun and profit. (Leans more towards Admin and maybe Merchant)
Herb-lord Liang, uses his experiences with the Silver Grass Pavilion to boost the production of spirit herbs in the Clan. (Optional side avenue of general food production and making trade deals.)
Grove Alchemist, by developing a small army of Spirit Trees, which I'm sure we'll find many suitable sites for while looking for somewhere to grow Zhuge Lotus. (Potentially more combat focused, but maybe if they are used for general security then Liang won't need to be there for any fighting.)
Clan Problem Solver, by leveraging the double training bonus to advance many skills and hunting down those Trouble Clocks. Then retreat back to the Silver Grass Pavilion to relax and make drugs.

DeadmanwalkingXI said:
It's wildly time-intensive to invest in a skill. It's still potentially worth it, mind you, and I'm not saying it's not, but we need to be extremely selective in what ones we actually pursue.
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This is maybe leaning too much on considering high skill levels. Each point gained is always a 14% improvement on an untrained roll and adds reliability.
Even training a skill a little bit is a boon when we use the skill. Return on investment is based on using the skill, not the attainment of any specific amount of it.
So, we don't need to invest a whole 5 actions to get value from it.
(I'm also unsure if combat is based on highest combat school, or by adding all combat schools.)

[X] Plan: Last Hurdles
 
HousePet said:
This is maybe leaning too much on considering high skill levels. Each point gained is always a 14% improvement on an untrained roll and adds reliability.
Even training a skill a little bit is a boon when we use the skill. Return on investment is based on using the skill, not the attainment of any specific amount of it.
So, we don't need to invest a whole 5 actions to get value from it.
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This is definitely true for skills used in isolation. I was more talking about combat schools (where I was assuming, correctly it turns out, you use the highest as a rule) or things like herbalism where we're competing with 'hire a guy to do that'.

For stuff like Merchant and Diplomacy even one rank is good, but I think it's fair to say we need around a 4 before having an Herbalism skill ourself is better than just hiring a guy.

Also, it is, like, 3 actions even for level 1 in something.
 
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[X] Plan: Ready Your Pavilion
-[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. (School of the Leaf Cauldron)
-[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
-[X] Purchase New Equipment (Goal: 0/10) (Spirit Stones: $5)
-[X] Consider Other Promising Apprentices (Goal: 0/20)
 
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Guest99 said:
I think we were planning on making the Tree our Bonded Spirit Animal. That would fall under the Alchemy/Sage Skills still, I think.
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Nope. I'm sure not. From what we've been told, the tree is basically a combat monster and nothing else. Also, it's very large (doesn't fit in buildings) and also slow. It's a powerful beast, but it's also a poor fit for our actual life in basically every way. As far as I'm concerned, it's a really bad choice for Bonded Spirit Animal.

[X] Plan: Last Hurdles
 
[X] Plan: Last Hurdles
-[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. (School of the Leaf Cauldron)
-[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
-[X] Brew Rusted Lotus Elixir (Goal: 0/10 Repeatable) (+1 Stress) (Costs $5 per elixir after first)
--[X] Show it to our older Brother as proof that you can actually do this.
-[X] Get Help with your Plantation
--[X] Ask Our Brother
 
[X] Plan: Solving issues
-[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. (Cultivation)
-[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
-[X] Lead a Grand Project
--[X] Reverse engineer and optimize the Bountiful Lotus Elixir (or an Iron Knight version of it)
-[X] Consider Other Promising Apprentices (Goal: 0/20)

[X] Plan: Herbalist and Alchemist

[X] Plan: Ready Your Pavilion
 
Scheduled vote count started by Arcanestomper on Mar 31, 2025 at 10:44 PM, finished with 22 posts and 18 votes.
  • [X] Plan: Last Hurdles
    -[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. (School of the Leaf Cauldron)
    -[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
    -[X] Brew Rusted Lotus Elixir (Goal: 0/10 Repeatable) (+1 Stress) (Costs $5 per elixir after first)
    --[X] Show it to our older Brother as proof that you can actually do this.
    -[X] Get Help with your Plantation
    --[X] Ask Our Brother
    [X] Plan: Ready Your Pavilion
    -[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. (School of the Leaf Cauldron)
    -[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
    -[X] Purchase New Equipment (Goal: 0/10) (Spirit Stones: $5)
    -[X] Consider Other Promising Apprentices (Goal: 0/20)
    [X] Plan: Alchemist With Broader Horizons
    -[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. [Cultivation]
    -[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
    -[X] Search for fire techniques, focus on ones which buff combat against metal cultivators
    —[X] request family support in sourcing technique options
    -[X] Find a Spirit Herb Grove (Goal 50)
    -[X] Send your Poplar Guardian to look for spirit groves. (Free Action)
    [X] Plan: Herbalist and Alchemist
    -[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. [Cultivation]
    -[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
    -[X] Search for an Herbalist (Goal: ???)
    -[X] Attempt to Gain Insights
    —[X] Path of the Herbalist
    -[X] Send your Poplar Guardian to look for spirit groves.
    [X] Plan: Solving issues
    -[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. (Cultivation)
    -[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
    -[X] Lead a Grand Project
    --[X] Reverse engineer and optimize the Bountiful Lotus Elixir (or an Iron Knight version of it)
    -[X] Consider Other Promising Apprentices (Goal: 0/20)
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Arcanestomper threw 2 6-faced dice. Reason: Action 1 Total: 6
1 1 5 5
Arcanestomper threw 2 6-faced dice. Reason: Action 2 Total: 8
5 5 3 3
Arcanestomper threw 2 6-faced dice. Reason: Action 3 Total: 7
3 3 4 4
Arcanestomper threw 1 2-faced dice. Reason: Clock Total: 2
2 2
 
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Arcanestomper said:
Scheduled vote count started by Arcanestomper on Mar 31, 2025 at 10:44 PM, finished with 22 posts and 18 votes.
  • [X] Plan: Last Hurdles
    -[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. (School of the Leaf Cauldron)
    -[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
    -[X] Brew Rusted Lotus Elixir (Goal: 0/10 Repeatable) (+1 Stress) (Costs $5 per elixir after first)
    --[X] Show it to our older Brother as proof that you can actually do this.
    -[X] Get Help with your Plantation
    --[X] Ask Our Brother
    [X] Plan: Ready Your Pavilion
    -[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. (School of the Leaf Cauldron)
    -[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
    -[X] Purchase New Equipment (Goal: 0/10) (Spirit Stones: $5)
    -[X] Consider Other Promising Apprentices (Goal: 0/20)
    [X] Plan: Alchemist With Broader Horizons
    -[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. [Cultivation]
    -[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
    -[X] Search for fire techniques, focus on ones which buff combat against metal cultivators
    —[X] request family support in sourcing technique options
    -[X] Find a Spirit Herb Grove (Goal 50)
    -[X] Send your Poplar Guardian to look for spirit groves. (Free Action)
    [X] Plan: Herbalist and Alchemist
    -[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. [Cultivation]
    -[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
    -[X] Search for an Herbalist (Goal: ???)
    -[X] Attempt to Gain Insights
    —[X] Path of the Herbalist
    -[X] Send your Poplar Guardian to look for spirit groves.
    [X] Plan: Solving issues
    -[X] Select a technique to boost with 3 TP. (Cultivation)
    -[X] Look through Kasjan Documents (Goal 45/50) (Administrator)
    -[X] Lead a Grand Project
    --[X] Reverse engineer and optimize the Bountiful Lotus Elixir (or an Iron Knight version of it)
    -[X] Consider Other Promising Apprentices (Goal: 0/20)
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And just when we finish the Kasjan clock, the dices finally decide to be a troll and roll 2 instead here,... if it happen earlier then we would be able to try out that diplomacy for potential great reward from Kasjan there (since if the detail on how 'Face test' work + bonus, then it would have been more value to us early and maybe even mid game here)
 
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