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A Shaper of Ice and Fire (Geneforge/GoT crossover)

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We need to have more contacts to sell our pods and batons to so that Givanni can enter a bidding war. It would also keep Sindri from negotiating as much because I know it will be a bitchfest when we decide to hike up our prices. Also don't want us to avoid doing the raise in price.

A steel sword can go over 1000 IMs and a good blacksmith plus helpers could churn out several of those a day. I do not want to be making less than a craftsman that doesn't use magic to make miracles happen.

Aghhh! I want to get out of this situation where money is a concern and we cannot throw coins at a normal problem to resolve it.

[X] You hope you can continue to be amicable associates, but you don't want to complicate yourself with who owes what favour to who so if they want your services they can pay for it like anyone else, the same as you will give them money if you have a job in the future.

The way I see this favour system is just a new resource to track. I would prefer if we could buy the same help this 'favour' would have gotten with money and not have to worry about spending the 'favour' if we don't have anything for the street gang to do for us as it would be worthless then.

We can heal them for cheap with the heal spell instead of using pods so it wouldn't be out of their price range.
 
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[X] Accept the deal.
-[X] Request that they tell you if any unexpected favors they could repay come up - interesting items "found", them meeting someone they think we might like to be introduced to, vaguely describe any information they learn that we would want to know, things like that.
 
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Skewfiend said:
@Leoric, do we know whether Hassan is earning his boss's ire by trafficking with us? It would render the favours worthless if they led to our contact being killed/stripped of rank.
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You suspect he is either bribing his boss not to care or framing it in a way so that he would not. As long as your interactions is isolated to Hassan's group you think he can get away with it. Maybe.
Kelenas said:
Though, @Leoric, has she made any mentions of the amount of pods she's interested in acquiring? Or of the batons, for that matter?
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She will buy what you are willing to sell - you have a monopoly on a product that she knows someone, somewhere will buy.

Kelenas said:
Kinda curious she's willing to pay for the thorns, though. IIRC they're basically just particularly hard wooden spikes, so they're capable of piercing through light armor. Shouldn't they be able to easily make those themselves?
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Carving a thorn would be tricky, as the shape needs to be just right and it needs the right properties to be fully effective.

You could do it, but expect a significant amount of duds that you would only notice upon actually firing them.

That and she does not actually know how a baton functions and so is unlikely to wish to risk damaging them for what is to her pocket change.
 
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[X] Accept the deal.
-[X] Request that they tell you if any unexpected favors they could repay come up - interesting items "found", them meeting someone they think we might like to be introduced to, vaguely describe any information they learn that we would want to know, things like that.
 
[X] Accept the deal.
-[X] Request that they tell you if any unexpected favors they could repay come up - interesting items "found", them meeting someone they think we might like to be introduced to, vaguely describe any information they learn that we would want to know, things like that.
 
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205 - Year 266 AC: Spring
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Accept the deal.

    You end up reluctantly agreeing to the agreement, for while you are loath to waste even more of your precious time on subjects that may not even see a future reward you are also aware that you are without allies, bar Givanni, and so sorely need the assistance, even if it is in the form of uneducated and crude thugs and street rats. At least Hassan is proving to hold some mild spark of intelligence - and a not insignificant spark of ambition as well, as far as you can tell.

    Still, as you slip away from the tavern you have much to think about - but not enough that you miss how two of Hassan's Red Hands trail behind you at a respectful distance through the darkening streets, forming a silent and trailing escort all the way to the docks and your boat at the harbormasters building where they remain on the pier until you are well out into the waters of the harbor itself before they slip away.

    X-X-X-X-X

    Your return home is without events of note after that, your home silent as you reach it with only the faint clicking of clawbug claws and moving chitin disturbing the pleasant night - and your creations are of no threat to you, merely linking themselves to your mind as you get within range and returning to their patrol routes across the darkened island.

    You meanwhile turns your focus to the papers and ledgers within the lighthouse, sorting through various plans as you create a personal schedule for the months to come.

    [Givanni Request: 500 thorns, 5 batons, 5 healing pods]*
    [] Research.
    -[Finished] Basic Fyora 1000/1000: Unlocks the basic fyora template.
    --[] Cryoa 0/4000: Unlocks the cryoa. Benefits from general fyora upgrades.
    ---[] Size +1 - 0/500:
    ---[] Intelligence +1 - 0/1500:
    ---[] Initiative +1 - 0/500:
    ---[] Breath Attack +1 - 0/500:
    ---[] Toughness +1 0/1000:
    -[Finished] Basic Thahd 2500/2500: Unlocks the basic thahd template.
    --[] Wounds +1 - 0/1000:
    --[] Initiative +1 - 0/1000:
    --[] Toughness +1 - 0/2000:
    --[] Strength +1 - 0/2000:
    --[] Intelligence +1 - 0/1500:
    --[] Humanlike Appearance: +1 - 0/500:
    -[] Basic Clawbug 4000/4000: Unlocks the basic Clawbug template.
    --[] Poison Resistance - 0/1000
    --[] Toughness +1 - 0/3000
    --[] Strength +1 - 0/3000
    -[] Basic Artila 200/3000: Unlocks the basic artila template.
    -[] Baton 1200/1200
    --[] Strength +1 - 0/2000
    --[] Size -1 - 0/1000
    -[] Lesser Healing Pod 0/1600
    -[] Power Crystal 352/5000 ~0/10 Crystal Units
    -[] Crystal Key 0/3000 ~0/5 Crystal Units
    -[] Shaper Mines 0/1500
    -[] Basic Shaper Weapon & Armor Designs 0/500
    -[] Yi Ti Crossbows 0/1000
    -[] Dragonglass Dagger 0/?
    -[] Rune Bone (compass) 0/?
    -[] Chitin & Shells 400/500
    -[] Blood fly larvae 0/?
    -[] Ghost ink 0/?
    -[] Blood of the stone men 0/?
    -[] Star Disc 0/?
    -[] The Ice-That-Was 0/?
    -[] Ifequevron Flute 0/?
    -[]Dragonglass Marble 0/?
    -[] Salt Purification 0/?
    -[] Salt Resistance II 712/?
    -[] Bioluminescence III 0/?
    -[] Energetic Organ I 205/?
    -[] Spell Research
    --[] (specify spell)
    [] Personal training.
    -[] Creation control.
    -[] Ranged combat. (baton)
    -[] Essence Training. (max 5D100)
    [] You have 90D100 creature dice.
    -[] Island wave breakers 0/10,000: A set of clawcrete wave breakers placed around the island. Reduces potential storm damage.
    -[] Clawcrete dock 0/1000: Replaces your wooden bridge dock with a clawcrete construction to offer a more convenient unloading spot for goods.
    -[] Clawcrete fishtrap 0/5000: A set of clawcrete tidal pens and pools that traps fish as the tides turn.
    -[] Underground Base(tiny)(link) 5260/30,000: An underground base created beneath the island by the clawbugs and reinforced by clawcrete. Capable of housing a small lab, study rooms, storage space, living quarters and amenities.
    -[] Clawcrete Gardens level 1 0/500: A chain of sturdy, anchored planters created to house pod and thorn bushes. Offers reinforced scaffolding for the bushes to grow upon(reduces potential damage from bad weather). Can hold up to 10 bushes. Can be expanded upon/upgraded.
    -[] Hassans Bargain
    --[] 1 Dice.
    --[] 2 Dice.
    --[] 3 Dice.
    [] Something else? (write in)

    *: Givanni expect you to deliver at least this much to keep to your agreement, but she will take more if you are willing to provide it.
     
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    • Leoric said:
    [] Underground Base(tiny)(link) 5260/30,000:
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    This should be at ~10100 now, I believe.

    Okay, there's more or less two options that I see. The first one is that we now rush for Power Crystals. We've hit the maximum of what our existing one can provide, so we'll need additional ones if we want to run more vats, crystal growers, and the like. Crystal growers would obviously increase the amount of crystal we can get each turn, which is a necessary material for a fair amount of more advanced Shaper technology and items. Vats, meanwhile would increase the size of our research dice further, because Sindri can use them to run multiple experiments in parallel rather than being forced to run them in sequence, thus saving time.

    The second option is to basically say "okay, d190 is good enough for now", and instead focus on a number of other projects, with the Power Crystals as overflow-catch, so to speak. This is honestly the approach I prefer, for several reasons.
    For one, while we aren't completely "maxed out", yet, space is starting to become sparse as well, and the underground base is ~4-5 turns away from completion, meaning even if we get the Power Crystals early, we might not be able to make use of them. The crystals we're already gathering don't decay or anything like that, so they'll accumulate, and once we do get the Power Crystals, we can produce a large number of growers and vats all in one go, effectively losing us very little time.
    For another, having increased capabilities, such as a higher Control Points limit, or additional spells we can use, would also make a variety of events a fair bit easier. A spell like Burning Spray could've made short work of the door in Tregan's ship, for example, which might have allowed us more time to go through his office there for additional information, or Blessing Magic could've improved the performance of our Thadhs against the Unsullied.


    Leoric said:
    500 thorns
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    Question; is that five hundred individual thorns, or 500 batches of ten thorns each?
     
    I think we should finish these, at least:
    -[] Chitin & Shells 400/500
    -[] Salt Resistance II 712/?
    -[] Clawcrete Gardens level 1 0/500: A chain of sturdy, anchored planters created to house pod and thorn bushes. Offers reinforced scaffolding for the bushes to grow upon(reduces potential damage from bad weather). Can hold up to 10 bushes. Can be expanded upon/upgraded.
    -[] Clawcrete dock 0/1000: Replaces your wooden bridge dock with a clawcrete construction to offer a more convenient unloading spot for goods.

    I mean it's the low-hanging fruit, to say.
     
    Kelenas said:
    This should be at ~10100 now, I believe.
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    No, you went from 372/30,00 before last research turn to 5260/30,000 after it.

    Kelenas said:
    Question; is that five hundred individual thorns, or 500 batches of ten thorns each?
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    Individual thorns. Cathalina has batons, but nothing to fire from them as it is, hence the order.

    Edit: The number of thorns will increase later on you suspect, as she is likely still gauging how many she will need to expend each "turn" to keep her men learning how to use and grow comfortable with the batons.
     
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    At some point we should try to get our hands on a sample of wildfire to research.
    Wildfire Fyoras anyone?

    Until then, I'm on board with the low-hanging fruit @Shard pointed out.
    Maybe also throw some dice at the dragonglass marble?
     
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    Building up our Control should be a high priority. Master Shapers can control armies of creatures and accomplish vast projects in short amounts of time. We'll eventually want our entire island covered in clawcrete gardens, wave breakers, fish traps, underground bunkers and defensive walls. Having Control over tons of clawbugs will make that happen much faster.

    Our Thahds and Fyoras were rather pitiful compared to Givanni's guards. We really need to put in some research to eventually make them stronger the next time we get into a fight.
     
    Leoric said:
    No, you went from 372/30,00 before last research turn to 5260/30,000 after it.
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    Huh, okay. In that case, the Power Crystal is even less urgent, in my opinion. Still, gonna make two plans, just in case.

    Binary_Sobriquet said:
    Building up our Control should be a high priority. Master Shapers can control armies of creatures and accomplish vast projects in short amounts of time. We'll eventually want our entire island covered in clawcrete gardens, wave breakers, fish traps, underground bunkers and defensive walls. Having Control over tons of clawbugs will make that happen much faster.

    Our Thahds and Fyoras were rather pitiful compared to Givanni's guards. We really need to put in some research to eventually make them stronger the next time we get into a fight.
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    The issue with our thadhs and fyoras was more their incredibly small numbers, plus our unwillingness to reveal the fact that we could easily Shape more of them in a short amount of time. As a result their impact was rather limited.
    As it stands, increasing our power is mostly a matter of increasing our control limit, as you said. Raising our limit from ~30 to ~40 points, for example, would gain us another 30 creature dice for projects, along with a fair amount of additional creations we can control. This makes improving our fyoras and thadhs admittedly somewhat less of a priority, since in many cases throwing an additional five thadhs or ten fyoras will make more of a difference overall, than just raising one of the stats of our existing creations a little bit.
    An increased control limit is also more versatile than improving a specific creation at this point, since it allows us to better tailor our force composition for the situation at hand. Having slightly better fyoras doesn't matter too much when we get into a situation where we can't or won't use them (fighting in an area with highly flammable materials around, for example), whereas the ability to bring an additional amount of thadhs certainly wood.
    Add blessing magic to the equation, and improving our creations' base stats becomes even less of a factor.


    [] Plan Crystal Rush
    [78D] Research/Production
    -[] 2 Pod Bushes, 2 Thorn Bushes (1000 DVP)
    -[] Fill out the rest of Lady Givanni's request as needed (~400 DVP)
    -[] Power Crystal 352/5000
    -[] Overflow into Personal Training: Creation Control
    [] Personal training.
    -[5D] Essence Training.
    [2D] Hassans Bargain
    [5D] Socializing
    [] You have 90D100 creature dice.
    -[] Clawcrete Gardens level 1 0/500
    -[] Underground Base(tiny)(link) 5260/30,000


    [x] Plan Spread Out
    [70D] Research/Production
    -[x] 2 Pod Bushes, 2 Thorn Bushes (1000 DVP)
    -[x] Fill out the rest of Lady Givanni's request as needed (~400 DVP)
    -[x] Chitin & Shells 400/500
    -[x] Yi Ti Crossbows 0/1000
    -[x] Burning Spray 0/800
    -[x] Basic Blessing Magic 0/500
    -[x] Minor Cure 0/800
    -[x] Overflow into Power Crystal 352/5000
    [x] Personal training.
    -[5D] Essence Training
    -[5D] Creature Control
    -[3D] Baton Training
    [2D] Hassans Bargain
    [5D] Socializing
    [x] You have 90D100 creature dice.
    -[x] Clawcrete Gardens level 1 0/500
    -[x] Underground Base(tiny)(link) 5260/30,000


    These are my to plan proposals, with the latter being what I vote for. In regards to side-research, I decided to finish off the shells along with the crossbows; the latter should help us improve our batons' design in terms of ergonomics and whatnot, and also means we don't need to keep the crossbows around any longer, and can sell them off to Hassan.
    The rest goes into researching some of the spells currently available. Acid Spray in order to provide us with an area-of-effect attack/debuff, and Minor Blessing in order to gain access to spells we can use to improve our creations in general.
    I could reduce the amount of bushes made, though; a single pod bush could easily cover Givanni's requests in terms of healing pods and then some, and the production of thorns requires very little time (~25 DVP for the 500 thorns she requested, which is about 1/3rd of a die). The additional pod bush, and the thorn bushes themselves, are mostly a mix of income maker (the pods) and future proofing (the thorn bushes), and could easily be reduced or even outright dropped to free up more points for other things.

    Thoughts?
     
    We're producing batons for sale to the Givanni, and in the future potentially for other customers as well. Them having better ergonomics could potentially help a fair bit in various ways. It also means we don't need to keep the Yi Ti crossbows around any longer but can sell or give them away for some money/favors, and when we do start to invest more research into batons, we'll already have this done.
     
    Kelenas said:
    We're producing batons for sale to the Givanni, and in the future potentially for other customers as well. Them having better ergonomics could potentially help a fair bit in various ways. It also means we don't need to keep the Yi Ti crossbows around any longer but can sell or give them away for some money/favors, and when we do start to invest more research into batons, we'll already have this done.
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    I would like to reasearch upgrade for our creatures and i would really like to get our Fyoras the cone attack. That would give us an an range aeo (at least it looks like an aoe attack to me) and that can be very potent if we have to fight against lager groups again.
     
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    Skjadir said:
    I would like to reasearch upgrade for our creatures and i would really like to get our Fyoras the cone attack. That would give us an an range aeo (at least it looks like an aoe attack to me) and that can be very potent if we have to fight against lager groups again.
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    That is going to take a while, to say the least. Based on this, we'd have to research 6 intermediary steps/upgrades before we can get the cone attack.
    As a general ballpark, we'd probably be looking at something akin to 5000 research points, quite possibly more.
     
    Kelenas said:
    That is going to take a while, to say the least. Based on this, we'd have to research 6 intermediary steps/upgrades before we can get the cone attack.
    As a general ballpark, we'd probably be looking at something akin to 5000 research points, quite possibly more.
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    In general i would prefer it if we upgrade our creatures over try to make learning combat spells (as we should never have a need to use them) and would like to focus more on support spells if we want to learn spells.

    E: and yeah that would take a bit, but it would i think improve our combat power by quite a bit.
     
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    Skjadir said:
    In general i would prefer it if we upgrade our creatures over try to make learning combat spells (as we should never have a need to use them) and would like to focus more on support spells if we want to learn spells.
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    We are learning support spells (that's what Blessing magic predominantly is, and Cure is also a support spell), and Burning Spray is an AoE combat spell with some out-of-combat utility as well (melting doors, for example).

    E: and yeah that would take a bit, but it would i think improve our combat power by quite a bit.
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    Not really. For the same amount of research dice, we could increase our control limit by ~160 points or so, which would be a vastly greater increase in our combat capabilities.
    Particular since, as I said, we're learning blessing spells, which can improve the capabilities of any and all creatures.

    Chances are that raising control points will become a bit harder over time, but for the moment, it beats any other forms of increasing our combat power by a huge margin. Blessing magic comes next since it can improve the capabilities of any and all creatures, rather than just a specific sub-set, and improving individual creatures comes last.
     
    Kelenas said:
    Not really. For the same amount of research dice, we could increase our control limit by ~160 points or so, which would be a vastly greater increase in our combat capabilities.
    Particular since, as I said, we're learning blessing spells, which can improve the capabilities of any and all creatures.

    Chances are that raising control points will become a bit harder over time, but for the moment, it beats any other forms of increasing our combat power by a huge margin. Blessing magic comes next since it can improve the capabilities of any and all creatures, rather than just a specific sub-set, and improving individual creatures comes last.
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    I assumed the controll training was a given.
    So any idee how the plan would look for the next turn if we don´t have anything happening that would warrat us chaning plans (apart from the ungoing parts (underground base and power crystals)?
     
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