For all we know, the energy is being immediately expended to smash at the seals. Or it disperses upon contact with the daemon world, like vapor in a vacuum. Or it could be just as you suppose. This whole endeavor is a massive question mark.
Hellgate Hotel: A Quest of Friendship and Demons
- Thread starter picklepikkl
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
For all we know, the energy is being immediately expended to smash at the seals. Or it disperses upon contact with the daemon world, like vapor in a vacuum. Or it could be just as you suppose. This whole endeavor is a massive question mark.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Oh, sure, it's a solid hypothesis that doesn't contradict anything you know and it makes total character sense to propose it as a potential plan. I'm just cautioning that, unlike the case of noticing that someone isn't in a room, there are a whole lot of things that you are fully aware of not having good answers to, any one of which could mess it up. So if Maria Francisca proposes it, it would be in the way of "maybe this could work" rather than "here is my twelve-step plan to fix everything."
Yeah, exactly. What's the energy being collected for? Why is the demon on that side of the rift and not this side? Why does the rift appear to be doing a sensory impression of a funfair? Maria Francisca does not know how to answer any of these questions!
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- Pronouns
- Reader
Huh. Actually, if the demon lord caused this in the first place isn't it possible to potentially make that demon lord reverse the effect?
Well, whatever the case is, if there is a greater demon on the other side of that rift and mind-controlling it is possible, the possibility of interrogating it or otherwise procuring information via mind control, or even potentially reversing the process, feels worth attempting.
[X] Propose that specific people should go or not go.
-[X] Maria Francisca, Pilpyas - go
If the geography on the other side of the rift is wonky, gravity magic would be useful, and it might be useful for subduing the greater demon so that it can be mind-controlled. We also bring a decent amount of crowd control to the table, I think. I'm not sure who would be the best third mage for this plan?
I'm also fine with just trying to secure a spot ourselves.
[X] Try to be one of the three to go into the rift.
[X] Propose that specific people should go or not go.
-[X] Maria Francisca, Pilpyas - go
If the geography on the other side of the rift is wonky, gravity magic would be useful, and it might be useful for subduing the greater demon so that it can be mind-controlled. We also bring a decent amount of crowd control to the table, I think. I'm not sure who would be the best third mage for this plan?
I'm also fine with just trying to secure a spot ourselves.
[X] Try to be one of the three to go into the rift.
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- Location
- Earth
You should include a
- before [] Pilpyas so that the tally can identify that as a subordinate line to [] Propose that specific people should go or not go. Right now it's counting them independently.
Also, you should specify if you want Pilpyas to go or not to go, as the wording of the question leaves that ambiguous.
- Location
- Earth
Ideally, the group that gets sent needs to fulfill three main requirements/objectives:
- Combat capability - The group needs to defeat any demons/enemies present inside of the rift and make it back safely.
- Research capability - The group needs to investigate and identify what exactly is happening to cause the rift, and any possible means of slowing or stopping it.
- Diplomatic capability - The group needs to be able to cooperate with each other so that the first two objectives can be met, and so that efforts in working together are not hindered by friction.
The main vibe I'm getting is that we don't know a lot of people's capabilities and dispositions just yet, so we don't know enough to make an informed decision on what the best kind of group composition would be.
[X] Stay quiet, letting the group be assembled without your input.
-[X] Consenting if asked.
Plus, Maria Francesca strikes me as somebody who might be just a tad bit socially awkward and would prefer not to speak up
- Combat capability - The group needs to defeat any demons/enemies present inside of the rift and make it back safely.
- Research capability - The group needs to investigate and identify what exactly is happening to cause the rift, and any possible means of slowing or stopping it.
- Diplomatic capability - The group needs to be able to cooperate with each other so that the first two objectives can be met, and so that efforts in working together are not hindered by friction.
The main vibe I'm getting is that we don't know a lot of people's capabilities and dispositions just yet, so we don't know enough to make an informed decision on what the best kind of group composition would be.
[X] Stay quiet, letting the group be assembled without your input.
-[X] Consenting if asked.
Plus, Maria Francesca strikes me as somebody who might be just a tad bit socially awkward and would prefer not to speak up
Wiadi
Uncompromising Radical Leftist
- Location
- Something Clever
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Aha!
Out of curiosity, was I correct (to the best of Maria Francisca's knowledge) that the negative applications of Cosmic Essence magic are normally less dramatic than that? Or is this actually just within its standard capacities (& we didn't initially recognize it due to, perhaps, its rarity in Morleas)?
As to the vote, I think ReImagined has the right of it - we don't seem like a shoe-in for entering the rift (being among other things probably one of the least experienced fighters here), we don't know what a lot of our peers are capable of/specialized in, and we don't have command or organizational experience. Between that and Maria Francisca's established self-confidence issues, it doesn't make a ton of sense to me to try and direct anyone here, even if ceding agency isn't very protagonist-y of us.
[X] Stay quiet, letting the group be assembled without your input.
-[X] Consenting if asked.
- Pronouns
- Reader
[X] Propose that specific people should go or not go.
-[X] Maria Francisca, Pilpyas - go
-[X] Maria Francisca, Pilpyas - go
[X] Stay quiet, letting the group be assembled without your input.
-[X] Consenting if asked.
We don't really have the experience to judge who is best, and aren't the best-specced for fighting a boss, but I think Maria would be okay with going if someone puts forth a good reason for doing so.
-[X] Consenting if asked.
We don't really have the experience to judge who is best, and aren't the best-specced for fighting a boss, but I think Maria would be okay with going if someone puts forth a good reason for doing so.
Wiadi
Uncompromising Radical Leftist
- Location
- Something Clever
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I will say, from my own personal perspective, I think we'd be best served strategically by sending our three strongest (and especially most hard to kill) combat monsters through for this first foray. Getting more information is a priority, yes, but we currently have no idea how dangerous it is in there and we should at least learn the basics of that no matter who we send. Meanwhile, for the foreseeable future we should regard all of our companions as irreplaceable assets, especially with the nature of the rift favoring concentrations of force (meaning reinforcements from e.g. Stone Lion's branch will be of limited use). As such I'd argue that going overkill for now, and then sending more research-oriented members once we know how much/what kind of protection they might need, is preferable.
Which is to say that even if we're speaking up in favor of a plan, I don't think either Pilpyas (whose powers, for all we know, won't even work normally or at all on a greater demon) or Maria Francisca (whose primary unique value here would be her geomantic knowledge) should be part of the first away team.
Which is to say that even if we're speaking up in favor of a plan, I don't think either Pilpyas (whose powers, for all we know, won't even work normally or at all on a greater demon) or Maria Francisca (whose primary unique value here would be her geomantic knowledge) should be part of the first away team.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
So, the answer to your question is neither no nor yes, because
...what you saw her throwing around was positive energy, not negative energy. Nivveas has cultural reasons for approximately inverting the philosophical valence of black and white, and they're likely to come up in a story post, but also it's the sort of thing Maria Francisca and her Esoterica 6 would know, so I'm tossing it in a spoiler so folks who want to know can find out and folks who want to wait can.
Radiant Abyss Thought, the dominant philosophy of Nivveas, gets its name from a parable the semi-mythical founder told about discerning truth from lies, where the truth is like a speck of darkness in a blinding cloud. So presence is conceptualized as black and absence as white.
There is a failure mode I have seen in a number of quests where QMs give their questers the choice "do the thing" and "don't do the thing", the questers take what seems to them to be the reasonable choice to not do the thing, this repeats a couple of times and then the quest stalls out because the QM was not prepared for people to keep saying no to the plot and character moments. I've seen some people get burned by this multiple times.
For obvious reasons I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here, but I'm really confident that specific thing isn't going to happen in Hellgate Hotel. In particular, I want to poke at the term "protagonist-y" -- Hellgate Hotel (the original) was an online RPG in which every Hero of Vindar was notionally an equal protagonist, and part of why I'm running this quest is because I had some ideas about how to capture that feeling of being surrounded by a bunch of cool badasses with their own character arcs happening independently and intersecting in unpredictable ways while still preserving the quest fun of having a single character you're invested in and through whom you are trying to make meaningful decisions. It's very possible that I will fail at mixing this oil and vinegar! The thing I'm trying to do is complicated! But you don't have to worry that I'm giving you the choice to sit out a thing out of obligation and will end up spinning my wheels with nowhere to take the quest and character if you go for it. I've accounted for that.
- Pronouns
- Reader
I get where the don't do this or that plot thing style of questing can be frustrating. But while I'd definitely prefer to speak to Adelina before the day is out, I would find it incredibly entertaining if in this specific moment early in the day, Maria volunteered herself to go through the portal and fight a demon as a way of putting off the conversation just a few hours longer.
- Location
- Florida
[X] Try to be one of the three to go into the rift.
We might be able to sense where their stealing/storing all the leyline energy is if we go ourselves since that's our specialty.
Going ourselves isn't necessarily for our combat ability but rather information gathering.
We might be able to sense where their stealing/storing all the leyline energy is if we go ourselves since that's our specialty.
Going ourselves isn't necessarily for our combat ability but rather information gathering.
Wiadi
Uncompromising Radical Leftist
- Location
- Something Clever
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ah, okay, that'd do it. And has...several fascinating implications. Such as "magic's rawest and purest form fucking deletes things from existence" (or maybe specifically it does that to demons?) and "cultural associations can directly influence how spirit magic manifests" (at least visually). There's probably some ethically dubious mad sociology you could do about that second one, though Marika seems above-board enough that I doubt that's what the Nivvean project is up to.
Yeah, I kinda figured (or I'd not have voted for it) but thanks for confirming.
Pfft, okay, I'm not changing my vote just now but that is a pretty compelling argument.
Works for me.
Maria may not be socially brave, but they are willing to do what's necessary. For the moment, they're the only geomancer present and thus the only one who can follow where the energy is going if it isn't right on the other side. Presumably there's a whole other world over there.
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Stay quiet, letting the group be assembled without your input.
-[X] Consenting if asked.
() Propose that specific people should go or not go.
-() "Our three strongest heavy hitters."
--() An argument ensues.
---() A three episode arm wrestling tournament completely derails the pace of the first season.
-[X] Consenting if asked.
() Propose that specific people should go or not go.
-() "Our three strongest heavy hitters."
--() An argument ensues.
---() A three episode arm wrestling tournament completely derails the pace of the first season.
Vocalist
Verdant Maiden in Violet
- Location
- By a Cedar Tree
Yeah, but if Anathon Grier was friends with him, he can't be that bad...the Fleshwarper, you say?
Actually, since some people are calling him Necromancer Magneto, I wonder how accurate that is. It's said that Necromancy is a subset of Animation. @picklepikkl Is one "born" a necromancer, or is every necromancer simply an animator who chose to specialize in the spooky stuff rather than socially acceptable flying broomsticks and so on?
Maria Francisca, if you survive this you should be able to negotiate class credit, co-authorship on several papers about novel magical phenomena, and eventually a book deal.
Okay, this is actually wizardry, I would be hard-pressed to get this done in eight hours with modern search tools and digital sources but these people were clipping articles out of the newspaper by hand. What the fuck. Is this just for the convenience of the players, QM, or is there actually a supernatural librarian on staff?
Yeah, I can't help but be worried that the treaty does not keep Pilpyas from lying, stealing, or stabbing all he wants. I can only hope that he is reasonable enough to focus the majority of his energy on countering the Hellgate and not fucking with the other guests. (In particular, he has a very good motivation to get Lady Durand killed somehow, since her family is countering expansion on his southern border and her current heir is only three).
I mean, given that the lore post discussed the legends of demonology at length, before going "But that's probably not real after all", I'm betting that a demon summoner will show up at some point and he seems like one of the more likely candidates. Maybe Steadman is here to squirrel away a couple of demon cores into his pocket and save them for later use like Pokéballs.
Oh wow, is the Hellgate leading to other worlds? Are we actually going to get to do some dungeon delving? I suppose fighting battle after battle in this same field would get a little monotonous.
Cool, I was wondering how the geomantic technology works without draining the life force of the planet à la Mako energy from Final Fantasy VII.
Oh, but yeah, that's bad. Demons are stealing our planet's life force, that's bad.
Look, the carnival demons need to power the rides somehow! And how are they supposed to attact customers without using energy to light up the giant sign?
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Vocalist, there was a lot there, and I will respond here to some of it, but I want you to understand that for everything else, the response is "Interesting thought, the QM says neutrally." Got it? Great.
Actually that's good policy in general for the thread. Make a note of that.
Actually that's good policy in general for the thread. Make a note of that.
The latter, and it's a factor in why necromancy has such a bad reputation. Every necromancer has the option to just stop fucking around with corpses and be a perfectly respectable Animator; the lore compilation mentions that when Taranath's network was busted, some recanted, and that is what is meant by that term.
It's like 70% for the convenience of the players, 20% "characterizing the staff of the Dolphin Hotel as by and large extremely competent," and 10% "geomantic tools make physical document archival and retrieval a lot easier than you might think."
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] Propose that specific people should go or not go.
-[X] Maria Francisca, Pilpyas - go
[X] Try to be one of the three to go into the rift.
-[X] Maria Francisca, Pilpyas - go
[X] Try to be one of the three to go into the rift.
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While we don't have the most personal knowledge of everybody, we did just do a bunch of reading on everyone. We should be a little ahead of the curve.
I value her ability to mould earth and stone to her will and alter gravity, as it could be used to cover a retreat. Honestly though there's decent odds people select us to go, just given that we contributed into figuring out what it was doing to geomantic energies.
[X] Try to be one of the three to go into the rift.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Closing the vote now so I can start thinking the update through while I do things today, and writing will start when those things are thinged.
As a sneak preview, this update will introduce the last two major mechanics of the quest (though there are a few other ones with more limited applications): Timeslots where the sandbox elements of exploring the area and interacting with people more freely open up to you, and Relationships, a mechanic which is different from Social Links by way of being called something else. Which means...
As a sneak preview, this update will introduce the last two major mechanics of the quest (though there are a few other ones with more limited applications): Timeslots where the sandbox elements of exploring the area and interacting with people more freely open up to you, and Relationships, a mechanic which is different from Social Links by way of being called something else. Which means...
...the mechanics are more dating sim than visual novel, but well done for picking up what I was putting down.
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- Location
- Earth
We did do some reading, and the extent of what we gleaned from that can be summarized neatly in the Dramatis Personae threadmark. In the time between that post and the one before it, I tried to consider what a good team setup would be using that information— but as you can see, there's a lot of unknowns listed there, including all the lines about skills and combat abilities.
- Location
- The Space Between
Hey hey well you know me. I look at the vote, I don't know what to do, the vote's closed, I don't have to think no more. EZ.
If I was going to think though . .
~eh I think we basically just don't know anywhere near enough to weigh in on anything here?
Of all the listed people I think we're probably either the least qualified or nearly the least qualified to plan or otherwise strategize. It's funny but we're basically in the position that most YA protagonists are in, right? New girl, used to being poor, first year atcollege heroic combat crisis, surrounded by talented and experienced people from around the world including the brightest stars and most fearful terrors.
So we can be confidently inexperienced or we can be passive.
I think our best bet is to talk to both teacher-types and try to learn what we don't know? Because right now I think we don't even know what we don't know (other than knowing we don't know the people around us)
If I was going to think though . .
~eh I think we basically just don't know anywhere near enough to weigh in on anything here?
Of all the listed people I think we're probably either the least qualified or nearly the least qualified to plan or otherwise strategize. It's funny but we're basically in the position that most YA protagonists are in, right? New girl, used to being poor, first year at
So we can be confidently inexperienced or we can be passive.
I think our best bet is to talk to both teacher-types and try to learn what we don't know? Because right now I think we don't even know what we don't know (other than knowing we don't know the people around us)