Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
- Location
- va
[X] Try to drive off the spirits with force, while the wards last
From an IC perspective, what we're doing doesn't make sense. An idiot noble who believes they know best might have decided that talking to villagers was beneath them. That isn't Ling Qi, but it's what we've done.
I saw an argument somewhere saying 'oh, but think of the innocent victims!' Oh man, fuck em'. You didn't vote to look in on them three weeks ago, there's no reason to think an hour or two would matter either from an IC perspective or an OOC perspective, that's just rationalizing a bad choice.
You know who would do what we're doing? Fan Yu and his 'LET'S CRASH INTO EVERY OPPONENT ON THE FIELD' ways. Even Su Ling who is hardly lacking in confidence thinks we're being insane.
Can we slow the fuck down for two seconds?
I saw an argument somewhere saying 'oh, but think of the innocent victims!' Oh man, fuck em'. You didn't vote to look in on them three weeks ago, there's no reason to think an hour or two would matter either from an IC perspective or an OOC perspective, that's just rationalizing a bad choice.
You know who would do what we're doing? Fan Yu and his 'LET'S CRASH INTO EVERY OPPONENT ON THE FIELD' ways. Even Su Ling who is hardly lacking in confidence thinks we're being insane.
Can we slow the fuck down for two seconds?
I think a lot of people were voting for whatever they thought would get us through the mission in the fewest updates.
- Location
- North Carolina
What would qualify as "Slowing the Fuck down?"
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
And what do you expect us to do? There is literally no option for us to slow down. It's either go hard or go home at this point.
EDIT: Actually there is an option to escape. Don't know if anybody will take that though.
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Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
Yes, because clearly not taking a sect-wide mission means 'fuck the villagers'. You know there are laws for this, right? E.G, as long as we don't begin to help it's normal to not be responsible, but once we being it's our responsibility. So, no, don't fuck the villagers.
Likewise the various choices were 'do you trust the guardsmans over the villagers and yourselves', 'do you trust the villagers over the guardsman and yourselves', and 'do you trust yourselves over the guardsman and the villagers'. The whole point of taking Su Ling around was to quickly find the root of the problem (though she is the weakest in dealing with it). If we wanted to talk to the guardsmen/villagers, we should have taken someone else with us that didn't have an advantage in doing it by ourself.
Likewise, this is also completely ignoring the very real (and more and more likely) possibility that someone is corrupt and causing this and using the spirits as scapegoats... and going to talk would have just alerted them.
So yeah, I am not sure why you want to 'slow down' when there is currently no particular choice to slow down, nor why you are gloating about wanting to leave people to die because we maybe could have saved them weeks earlier if we hadn't been more cautious (and hadn't though Gan Guangli was dealing with it, or some such).
That's on purpose though? The whole point of this week is "let's take risks and live a bit". Ling Qi is realising that she has stifled herself as she is too afraid of stepping out of line, so she is pushing the line a bit.
And to be fair, our confidence is not unjustified. It seems apparent that we can handle this - even if our path isn't the safest.
The question here is what the best path going forward is. If we're going to end up fighting the spirit at some point anyway, we should just get it over with now while the terrain is good.
However, the possibility that people have raised that dealing with whoever's here might placate the spirit should also be considered. On the other hand, we have shot it already, so it might hate us regardless of what we do.
This also requires that the wards will stay up under assault while we investigate (or that the spirit will back off if we're out of it's sight).
The question here is what the best path going forward is. If we're going to end up fighting the spirit at some point anyway, we should just get it over with now while the terrain is good.
However, the possibility that people have raised that dealing with whoever's here might placate the spirit should also be considered. On the other hand, we have shot it already, so it might hate us regardless of what we do.
This also requires that the wards will stay up under assault while we investigate (or that the spirit will back off if we're out of it's sight).
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
No, we would have always investigated the site. Going to the other places first would mean we would have CONTEXT for our investigation. If we had talked to the villagers, we probably would have been told of ghosts and compacts and how old treaties aren't being respected, all that good stuff. We might even have been told what offerings placate the spirit, though since something is riling it up that wouldn't have been reliable.
Like, our whole approach this time has been bad and utterly OCC. The guards might be in on it! The villagers might be in on it! Therefore we should talk to no one!.
I mean, what? Really? If one of the guards are in on it, talking with them would still be a good choice, because we would at least learn the story their telling, and possible some history. Same for the villagers. Taking Su Ling along in no way made that less necessary or useful. This...
This is just buying trouble. I'm pretty sure we can't get the 'good' ending to this mission at this point, because that would probably involving threading the needle between placating and threatening the spirits, and we don't know enough to do either. We'll just have to kill them at this point.
That's unfair to Fan Yu. I don't think he would do this. Questioning the guards is such an obvious first step that even in his arrogance he still wouldn't have skipped it.
There's a difference between choosing a more challenging mission and executing said mission in a reckless manner.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Source of info would probably have had a minor influence on the course of action. If there was "Oh yeah, there's all those old spooky death water spirit things in the woods you should watch out for next to the abandoned shrine of evil" that would have been included in the mission description. It was phrased as a mystery box probably because it came to the sect as a mystery, because they likely didn't know what/where things were caused.
If we're doing the retrospective, our mistake was bringing Su Ling to a mission aimed at mid-yellow+ instead of a second cultivator at mid-yellow+. Meizhen with us would have stomped that fight in all likelihood and we wouldn't be having problems. OTher avenues of information gathering existed, and would probably have eventually led us to a similar place in the woods (old ruins should be known by someone nearbyish)
Yes, more information gathering would have been better, and almost always is if not constrained, but my understanding is that most people wanted to do all the options regardless when the narrative and the game elements to the quest pushed us to pick one. There's little real merit to talking with locals before examining the scene over examining the scene before talking with locals. In either case, you're getting information that would contextualize the other choices. In an ideal world, we'd have done all of the above, but that wasn't presented as an answer.
As for the choice now, we don't know if violence is the answer, so while shooting the spirit with enough arrows that it just GTFOs while we hide behind the wards is a viable plan, it risks long term consequence. Running is the safe escape option, but probably means mission fail.
That leaves the temple and the human. Now, let's consider the human option. There are a few possibilities here.
1. They are a cultivator: This is either someone we can work with, an enemy or a neutral party.
2. They're not a cultivator: Then they're a bystander in all likelihood, someone we should help, and if they're an antagonist, we should be able to win easily.
Clearly, if they're not a cultivator finding them is the right move. What if they are then? Well, they're either investigating things on their own (an ally!), investigating the ruins but unaware of the problem (a likely ally) lost (again an ally) or probably causing things (the actual antagonist we need to defeat). The only real downside is if they're strong enough that we can't fight them at all, but I find this somewhat unlikely so close to the sect.
[X] Focus on the trail of human qi Su Ling can sense. It seems suspicious that someone would be out here in this old ruin.
If we're doing the retrospective, our mistake was bringing Su Ling to a mission aimed at mid-yellow+ instead of a second cultivator at mid-yellow+. Meizhen with us would have stomped that fight in all likelihood and we wouldn't be having problems. OTher avenues of information gathering existed, and would probably have eventually led us to a similar place in the woods (old ruins should be known by someone nearbyish)
Yes, more information gathering would have been better, and almost always is if not constrained, but my understanding is that most people wanted to do all the options regardless when the narrative and the game elements to the quest pushed us to pick one. There's little real merit to talking with locals before examining the scene over examining the scene before talking with locals. In either case, you're getting information that would contextualize the other choices. In an ideal world, we'd have done all of the above, but that wasn't presented as an answer.
As for the choice now, we don't know if violence is the answer, so while shooting the spirit with enough arrows that it just GTFOs while we hide behind the wards is a viable plan, it risks long term consequence. Running is the safe escape option, but probably means mission fail.
That leaves the temple and the human. Now, let's consider the human option. There are a few possibilities here.
1. They are a cultivator: This is either someone we can work with, an enemy or a neutral party.
2. They're not a cultivator: Then they're a bystander in all likelihood, someone we should help, and if they're an antagonist, we should be able to win easily.
Clearly, if they're not a cultivator finding them is the right move. What if they are then? Well, they're either investigating things on their own (an ally!), investigating the ruins but unaware of the problem (a likely ally) lost (again an ally) or probably causing things (the actual antagonist we need to defeat). The only real downside is if they're strong enough that we can't fight them at all, but I find this somewhat unlikely so close to the sect.
[X] Focus on the trail of human qi Su Ling can sense. It seems suspicious that someone would be out here in this old ruin.
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- Location
- United States of America
Alright, I can safely say that people are a tad salty over the last vote. However, debating and making a fuss over it will not solve the problem that we are currently facing. While discussing the merits of in character decisions and what we should do in the future regarding these situations has merit it does not actually try and figure out the best way to get out of the current situation. So lets all take a breath and look at the facts that we have and argue which course of action is the best.
We know a couple of things about the current situation. There is a horde of zombies which has a high level 2 Spirit leading them. The spirits believe we are trespassers, murderers, and thieves. The mists seem to be where these zombies are gathered as if the mists have some control or are causing the uprising of the dead. There is an abandoned village that seems to have an occupant in the area and it is still protected by spirit wards after all this time. The spirit wards are not faring well against the horde of zombies and the leader. We don't know how long we have until the spirit wards break.
We know a couple of things about the current situation. There is a horde of zombies which has a high level 2 Spirit leading them. The spirits believe we are trespassers, murderers, and thieves. The mists seem to be where these zombies are gathered as if the mists have some control or are causing the uprising of the dead. There is an abandoned village that seems to have an occupant in the area and it is still protected by spirit wards after all this time. The spirit wards are not faring well against the horde of zombies and the leader. We don't know how long we have until the spirit wards break.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
Yes. We need to kill the spirit before going forward. Anything else invites a fight where we have to fight both the troublemaker and the spirit at the same time. We've already shot getting a good end to this, but we can avoid getting into a super-fight if we take down our problems one at a time.
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Salt would be me walking around middle fingers raised going I hate all y'all and this is why.
No, we've hit cringe comedy levels of hands-over-eyes while reading the update. I'm out. I thought I could get through them unscathed, but I can't. Blessed be yrsillar's update pace, I'll be back after a week or two lest my constant moaning about bad life choices invite vitriol. =3=;;
@ManusDomine , can I request a seven day threadban? I want to head off any idiodicy on my part.
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Generally speaking getting salty over past events is counterproductive but this time I'd say it's addressing a mindset that is repeatedly influencing this event. I can't honestly say whether it was the wrong decision but I think we've been too reckless in trying to blast through this mission as quickly as possible. We were never going to go back to talk to people after investigating the scene of the abductions because we'd have a new trail to follow, so we missed out on potential prep work. Then rather than playing it cautious and retreating or holding our ground, we just pushed forward and hoped for the best. We just keep storming through trying to speed to the end and following that trend we'll likely run to chase another lead while the undead slowly wear down the wards. Once again, I can't say it would be the wrong decision but I would advise a little more caution.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
It's the "try to grab the opportunity ahead" option. It's possibly not the best option, but it's the option I feel fits Ling Qi's current desires and fits trying to solve the issue instead of trying to defend our back.
It's a very Ling Qi solution, too, as even when Ling Qi is cautious she is lateral about being cautious (see how we hid in the basement and hit people from there in Elder Zhou's test, or the thing about the well), we aren't 'step by step' methodical about it.
Trying to 'find out what's going on' by following the trail makes sense to me (though I haven't yet voted) because depending on what we find it might appease the spirits, or it might help us save an innocent, or whatever, while killing the spirits, or going to the temple and improving the defenses, are much more 'dealing with what's in front of us right now' and less "trying to see where the root cause of the problem lies". Well, temple might also show the root cause, too.