Yes, but so far all Decimation targets had to do with humans or civilization. Though maybe there's one that is out of the way in the wilderness if we bother to look for it? Some ancient ruins or something. Doubtlessly much more dangerous, but what else is new?
A Simple Transaction I
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
- Original
Would be pretty great to actually dip into the wild to hunt our game, instead of "hunting" during a fishing contest or a fairy tale civil war.
Seriously, currently, Huntress Moon feels a little bit misnamed.
...Man, I wish we marked Ber as Huntress Moon target back then. Oh well.
Aabcehmu
Confusion as a Natural State of Being
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Pronouns
- Any/All
The pirate dude was an AHS target, as I was corrected in the discord earlier, and while that was Apoc-Chan accidentally throwing us a bone, I don't see why that necessarily means we can't go and find our own bone, so to speak.
Yeah, but that could still take time. For example, something like fishing contest could take an entire week of doing the thing.
Duquette7
I am Fire, and I am Rain
Counter point, who was the Pirate to bear part of the Sky's Mantle?
What was his connection to the Royal Family of this land, that he bore such a relic? What might he have said to us, if give the leave to speak?
With what we now know, I have a theory that answers those questions, in a very Rihaku like way, what if he was Adorie's brother?
It would fit Rihaku's style to have that plot thread dangling in the world, the escaped son of the line, perhaps disgraced, or merely fled, seeking power, allies, or anything really to change what has befallen his people.
We know that mercenaries were hired to kill the Armament, he could well have been one, and given this line.
I have to believe that one of our present companions, or one we may acquire soon, is a hidden threat. I thought it was Aobaru, and it yet may be, but it could just as easily be Adorie who turns on us, perhaps in vengeance, wouldn't that be a familiar twist?
It feels like Rihaku to have our hasty choice come back to harm us, and we struck down the Sky's bearer as he tried to parley, this may be the hidden cost.
Aabcehmu
Confusion as a Natural State of Being
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Pronouns
- Any/All
My whole point is by going out and hunting for an AHS target in the wilderness, we can take time, since we're no longer threatening to kill millions of geriatrics or whatever the current calcs put the death toll at.
[X] Eye of the Storm
Eh, I guess I liked Tears enough to take them over OaF in the previous vote, I can do that here as well. 2.5% Apocryphal mitigation is a great bonus when we lost the OaF synergy with the Rune King, too. The Tower is not my favourite pick and I am not looking to rapidly finding another target for Decimator suppression, but I'll live with it.
Eh, I guess I liked Tears enough to take them over OaF in the previous vote, I can do that here as well. 2.5% Apocryphal mitigation is a great bonus when we lost the OaF synergy with the Rune King, too. The Tower is not my favourite pick and I am not looking to rapidly finding another target for Decimator suppression, but I'll live with it.
Eh, he was a bit too pathetic to be part of the Mythic Kingdom, and only tried to parley after it became obvious their target was way more dangerous than they thought. Point about him carrying Evening Sky possibly being part of some plot though. I think he was just a carrier, as ES fleeing afterwards made it obvious it can jump ship after the original bearer's death, but it's not impossible there was more to him than we thought.
That would require there being a valid Hunger Sated target somewhere in the wilderness. AHS targets are neither plentiful nor convenient.
- Location
- USA
Interesting how an option that offers 80-100% Rank gain, which is more valuable than ever, and buffs the power and potential of 4 other people is now being said to not offer enough potential.
Here's the facts, cold and hard. We have invested significantly in our companions. Aobaru and Aeira are both super elite Surgecrafters, Letty is a skilled Mecha Pilot/Diplomat, Gisena is pretty much greater than all the rest. If Rank is good, and how the arguments have been made that it is very good, then how is boosting 4 useful people to mid tier not insane value?
Gisena alone will be able to use Artifice and Time much more effectively with higher Rank, think for a second how good that is. We made it through the Temple mostly because Gisena hard countered some difficult fights making them doable. But this doesn't just buff her, it gives us a supreme stealth option in Aeira who, hint, is going to be key if we can bring her out of the Voyaging Realm to get us intel politically in the Human Sphere.
We are also firmly in Chains, and Aobaru dying sends the Apocryphal Curse into a shitstorm. Rank and Vanguard would really help in making sure he isn't easy to take down. It's also the only option that does what we came here to do, it rids us of the Decimation Curse, otherwise we have 2 days to pull off a miracle and we have more to deal with.
Is the problem that King and Court does what we want too much, so players are having a hard time trusting it? It fits perfectly with our previous picks, let's us get done what we need to and prepares us to deal with Chains. The problem with Chains was probably never going to be that we can't outscale the threat to defeat it personally, but whether we can do that and keep Aobaru alive. This is a big step towards that.
Here's the facts, cold and hard. We have invested significantly in our companions. Aobaru and Aeira are both super elite Surgecrafters, Letty is a skilled Mecha Pilot/Diplomat, Gisena is pretty much greater than all the rest. If Rank is good, and how the arguments have been made that it is very good, then how is boosting 4 useful people to mid tier not insane value?
Gisena alone will be able to use Artifice and Time much more effectively with higher Rank, think for a second how good that is. We made it through the Temple mostly because Gisena hard countered some difficult fights making them doable. But this doesn't just buff her, it gives us a supreme stealth option in Aeira who, hint, is going to be key if we can bring her out of the Voyaging Realm to get us intel politically in the Human Sphere.
We are also firmly in Chains, and Aobaru dying sends the Apocryphal Curse into a shitstorm. Rank and Vanguard would really help in making sure he isn't easy to take down. It's also the only option that does what we came here to do, it rids us of the Decimation Curse, otherwise we have 2 days to pull off a miracle and we have more to deal with.
Is the problem that King and Court does what we want too much, so players are having a hard time trusting it? It fits perfectly with our previous picks, let's us get done what we need to and prepares us to deal with Chains. The problem with Chains was probably never going to be that we can't outscale the threat to defeat it personally, but whether we can do that and keep Aobaru alive. This is a big step towards that.
Aabcehmu
Confusion as a Natural State of Being
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Pronouns
- Any/All
I'd be willing to wager the VR contains more wilderness than it does civilization, so even if AHS targets are rarer in the wild, I'm reasonably confident literally at least one exists, somewhere out there.
Even if there is a target in the wilderness, we'll either have to leave our companions behind or accept them being Decimated once again. It will also mean that a big chunk of the Tower's advantage (Cha) might become useless if there are no intelligent lifeforms to overcome as we're hoping for.
Aabcehmu
Confusion as a Natural State of Being
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Pronouns
- Any/All
Not taking our companions with would make it easier to find a sufficiently challenging target, while conversely none of our companions are especially close to the ends of their natural lives so I expect that losing an extra tenth of a second worth of life force every second would just be an inconvenience rather than a death sentence.
Additionally, whiles its true that a wilderness target wouldn't benefit from our huge Charisma, it would likely still benefit from our Protection. Plus, even if our Charisma goes unused during the hunt, it will still get plenty of exercise when we come back and start implementing that insurgency.
- Location
- a place
[X] King and Court
[X] Eye of the Storm
Yeah, if Tower ends up winning, Tears is the one that probably helps us the most, and ends up boosting Once and Future down the line by taking it first anyhow.
That's not how Decimator works, I thought. They don't lose 10% in addition to time spent, they lose 10% of their remaining lifespan in a year, 0.83% in a month (if simplified to a linear progression), 0.028% in a day. So if they have 100 years left to live (likely far more since we've Ennobled them), they lose around 10 days every day. There might be some mistakes and inaccuracies in my math, of course, but so far that doesn't seem insignificant to me.
Aabcehmu
Confusion as a Natural State of Being
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Pronouns
- Any/All
Fair enough, I may have a flawed understanding of how Decimator works. And you're fair to say that losing an extra month every three days is pretty harsh. At the same time though, I'm willing to bet that's a price at least one member of our party is willing to pay, and even if not, as I said, we are likely still capable of finding and tackling a target on our own.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
@Rihaku , may I ask if there is a specific rationale for why Once and Future plus Tears of Winter is not an option? I'm not seeing any inherent thematic conflict, and it would appear at first glance to be a recklessness-neutral option Hunger could reasonably take, while still saving the Tower for Decimator mitigation.
Speaking as someone who started out as a Tears of Winter voter and then switched to Once and Future as my second choice, I'm curious to know if there was any particular reason in your mind when you decided not to make that an option.
EDIT:
Also, I'm pretty sure that the most statistically significant source of reduced life expectancy for an Ennobled companion of Lord Hunger isn't the Decimation knocking a month off your life here and there... it's the very nontrivial risk of dying in battle at his side. Just because we aren't explicitly told what the risk of death is for these characters when we go into a dangerous fight, doesn't mean there isn't such a danger. And there's no guarantee at all that we won't, some day, be faced with a decision to (for instance) let Letrizia die or have something terrible happen, and choose "let Letrizia die."
Speaking as someone who started out as a Tears of Winter voter and then switched to Once and Future as my second choice, I'm curious to know if there was any particular reason in your mind when you decided not to make that an option.
Our companions are few enough in number that we can compensate for brief Decimation exposure by getting better at Ennobling and otherwise finding ways to bolster their health and longevity. That is, we can whittle a month off their life now, and compensate by giving them many many months more, long before it matters. We have the Ring of Blood and the Ring of Time in the party; the combination should be adequate to the task.
EDIT:
Also, I'm pretty sure that the most statistically significant source of reduced life expectancy for an Ennobled companion of Lord Hunger isn't the Decimation knocking a month off your life here and there... it's the very nontrivial risk of dying in battle at his side. Just because we aren't explicitly told what the risk of death is for these characters when we go into a dangerous fight, doesn't mean there isn't such a danger. And there's no guarantee at all that we won't, some day, be faced with a decision to (for instance) let Letrizia die or have something terrible happen, and choose "let Letrizia die."
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I don't really like the mindset that encourages in regards to our friends: "I've given you life, and I can take it away". This isn't the last Decimation target we'll be forced to hunt, and influences Hunger's attitude towards such things in the future. We can more or less steer him while we're in control, but timeskips are another matter.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Broadly speaking I agree with you.
But what I'm getting at is that where being blasé about knocking a month off the lifespan of everyone in a megacity of a billion people is unconscionable, being blasé about knocking a month off the lifespan of specifically five people who are going to spend the rest of their lives getting the best medical and longevity treatments our powers and influence can provide is... conscionable, shall we say. I'm not saying it's right, just that I'm not fucking appalled by the moral depravity that would be involved, y'know?
And, again, we do routinely put these people in situations where they probably have, say, a 2% chance of dying, so... eh.
Whew. I've calmed down and my SALT levels have been greatly diluted. It's truly a shame that Runes of Mastery was lost but given that Chains of Fate (ew) won, it is probably best not to cry over spilled milk and chase lost potential. I did say at one point that if Chains won, I'd rather go with Tears instead so I'm going to follow through on that.
[X] Eye of the Storm
Has the most mechanical S Y N E R G Y with Chains of Fate overall, though we're really going need to double-time it out of Nilfel and find another place to mitigate Decimator since we're going to be heisting not only the Tower and the Crown Jewels but even the Princess herself! Really lean into that supervillain aesthetic, stealing whatever we can even if it doesn't make sense! Might let us have a conversation topic to share with Dr. Apocalypse when he inevitably hunts us down as a result of Chains! Might even be able to fit in a
F I S H I N G contest in the meanwhile (lol)...
I have come to realize that if we can't get Once and Future at an appropriately dramatic moment involving either the death of a dear companion or the deliberate assumption of the burden of kingship, I'm not actually as interested in getting it. Tears gives Rank and Praxis and actually has bonuses with the EFB cost we chose, so I'm down with it. Prospalz and Aabcehmu also raised interesting points about the King of Winter being a cool Title and going around the Voyaging Realm, searching for Titles so we can catch 'em all sounds zany enough to have my vote!
Forget Artifact Panoply! Title Panoply is where it's at!
[X] Eye of the Storm
Has the most mechanical S Y N E R G Y with Chains of Fate overall, though we're really going need to double-time it out of Nilfel and find another place to mitigate Decimator since we're going to be heisting not only the Tower and the Crown Jewels but even the Princess herself! Really lean into that supervillain aesthetic, stealing whatever we can even if it doesn't make sense! Might let us have a conversation topic to share with Dr. Apocalypse when he inevitably hunts us down as a result of Chains! Might even be able to fit in a
F I S H I N G contest in the meanwhile (lol)...
I have come to realize that if we can't get Once and Future at an appropriately dramatic moment involving either the death of a dear companion or the deliberate assumption of the burden of kingship, I'm not actually as interested in getting it. Tears gives Rank and Praxis and actually has bonuses with the EFB cost we chose, so I'm down with it. Prospalz and Aabcehmu also raised interesting points about the King of Winter being a cool Title and going around the Voyaging Realm, searching for Titles so we can catch 'em all sounds zany enough to have my vote!
Forget Artifact Panoply! Title Panoply is where it's at!
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My primary reason for The Companions pick is that our most important objective going forward is to not let our newly minted Chosen One die. He has an amazing element, thanks to our Arete, but if we want him to not get insta-gibbed and unleash the Onslaught upon us, we really can't do much better than this + Undying Vanguard.
As a Chosen Hero our boy is going to put his neck out there and risk himself liberally, we've shown him what is expected of Heroes. We had best gird him properly, and having a full court of viable babysitters to watch out for him while papa Hunger needs a moment elsewhere to Cut Through is just good sense.
[X] King and Court
More to come after work, but mitigating our recklessness and greed are going to be very important if we want to survive time skip shenanigans, imo.
Also, I'm very much in favor of using this vote to consolidate our gains. We went in on rank, went in on all our companions at each spending point, and this option specifically reinforces those decisions we've made. With this strong powerbase going forward we(I) can rest much easier and enjoy arguing about what utility we are going to be slotting in to supplement these primary facets of our arsenal.
That it finally secures Undying Vanguard while the others noticeably lack it, well, I just feel it's time after our first* brush with death. (haha*)
As a Chosen Hero our boy is going to put his neck out there and risk himself liberally, we've shown him what is expected of Heroes. We had best gird him properly, and having a full court of viable babysitters to watch out for him while papa Hunger needs a moment elsewhere to Cut Through is just good sense.
[X] King and Court
More to come after work, but mitigating our recklessness and greed are going to be very important if we want to survive time skip shenanigans, imo.
Also, I'm very much in favor of using this vote to consolidate our gains. We went in on rank, went in on all our companions at each spending point, and this option specifically reinforces those decisions we've made. With this strong powerbase going forward we(I) can rest much easier and enjoy arguing about what utility we are going to be slotting in to supplement these primary facets of our arsenal.
That it finally secures Undying Vanguard while the others noticeably lack it, well, I just feel it's time after our first* brush with death. (haha*)
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