A Simple Transaction I

Lealope · Oct 8, 2020

Rihaku said:
At times like these, it was all he could do to channel the all-defeating stance of the Forebear and embody stillness, grateful that the energies which it harnessed fortified not only his body but his spirit and mind. It was the master of Ruin, so much so that Ruin could safely infuse his form, eradicating flaws and imperfections on a modest but comprehensive scale. It was a swifter and more concrete power than Rank, and the form of the stance itself implicitly conveyed to all who beheld him the sheer might embodied by its vessel.

The Blade was the Forebear's instrument, and perfected towards that purpose: with it physically present he needed only to align his internal energies, body free to take any action it pleased. The process was difficult but somewhat self-maintaining, Ruin itself destroying the pathways of causality by which carelessness or inattention could disrupt its alignment.

I was pretty curious about this stuff honestly. Its interesting to learn that the All-Defeating Stance is, well, a stance that requires a specific alignment of the body, which certainly makes it more understandable that its mutually exclusive with the Foe-Defeating Stance. I'm kind of sad we ended up losing the wordcount of the enlightenment in question entirely to the Fish, it would have been quite interesting to learn just what form the epiphany took.

As a sidenote, I'm surprised and quite pleased with the sheer versatility the power of ruin has displayed. Mediocre offensive ability it may be but it's incredibly flexible and there's at least one area it manages to exceed even the Praxis in. Is that why this and not some other power was the one that came with the Forebear's Blade? Or did he just develop it to such heights that it became a significant tool for him even a billion worlds into his Procession?

Ur-Mother, you the real MVP.

OctarineShrike · Oct 8, 2020

More analysis:

There are three states of continuous transcendence for findross sorcery that have been established as possible so far.

Once and Future:

High Sorceress - Through her examination of Letrizia's research into the nature of Pressure, Astral Rank and the Foremost, Gisena has transformed herself into a High Sorceress, findross integrated indelibly into her spirit so that her Sorcerous state is now the default. Her separate Graces have been merged and expanded into an overarching power of Nullity, though she remains conversant only with a few functions identical to her previous power-set at the current time. Still, the potential for future growth is tremendous, and she's already made a breakthrough in one area:

This is curious. Findross can be infused into peoples spirits using pressure/astral rank if this is indicative. It changed her graces from discrete powers into a theme. This is also evidence for my hypothesis about how Silver of Evening frees our graces from the need for Corporeal Structure or Upkeep. We integrate the grace-valid pattern of Edeldross into our spirit by putting it into the Evening Sky. The Truth Manifest Establishes that severing the Astral from the Material severs the soul from the body of low rank individuals.

Again Hunger channeled the Praxis, but now was interrupted by feedback as Augustine unveiled the set of runes around her: sigils of truncation in a circle of cold iron that severed the Astral itself from the material plane.

Hunger fell to one knee, Ring-hand clutching his head as his soul fought to retain connection to his body. If even so fundamental a verity could be contested, then an emergent phenomenon like Pressure stood no chance at manifestation. Within those bounds, Hunger was effectively stripped of his Rank, and the lion's share of his power thereby.

This opens up new material for Synthesis Tactics. It also establishes that Gisena discovered a way to effect her spirit on the Astral Plane with Findross. If a Coalesence is a Singularity of Findross within the Body. Then what is a meta-singularity? A Singularity of Singularities? Did Gisena trigger singularities within her body and spirit simultaneously, making them feed off each other?

A Simple Transaction I Original

You already have Whiteout! Which contributed to Hunger taking effectively no damage this encounter. What a truly powerful Grace... That effect (severing the Astral) actually auto-kills anyone who doesn't have enough Rank, as their soul is no longer able to communicate with their body. Rank is...

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That effect (severing the Astral) actually auto-kills anyone who doesn't have enough Rank, as their soul is no longer able to communicate with their body. Rank is greatness of spirit, while Pressure is the gravity generated thereby, and your spirit needs to be immensely potent to survive the disjunction of realms!

The Solitary Moon

"Actually," Letrizia chimed in, eager to contribute on matters related to her hobby, "While Miss Gisena may not be able to use her Rank proactively, as a magically potent being it's likely she still has one! A sort of 'defensive Rank' that protects her to an extent from hostile actions by those with Pressure. Most magical beings have some form of astral shadow, and great magicians will have a stronger one, though not to the extent of one who actively develops their Rank."

A Moments Reprieve

[ ] Gisena - Sorcerous Advancement I: By studying your body and spirit and its correlated astral shadow, Gisena has made a breakthrough in the nature of Sorcery and findross, though it will take additional time for this to translate into power. Nothing concrete as of yet.

This untaken Blurb in conjunction with Augustine's attack established that the soul/spirit exists on the Astral Plane. Souls and Spirits cast Astral Shadows in the Astral Plane. A shadow however implies the existence of a Light Source. I don't know what that light source is. The Realm of Forms?

Thunder of Blood

He frowned. "Why is it that physical wounds can reduce its Rank at all? Typically you would need specialized attacks to do something like that. I could lose half my body and my Pressure would remain unaffected."

"Your guess is as good as mine! When he's at full strength, most injuries don't weaken his Pressure by much. But if you hurt him enough, I think he begins ablating Rank to preserve his fundamental structure. Unlike you, the Armament's not a complete person by itself. It was designed with a pilot in mind. Its astral shadow only exists because of its physical body, but it may be that high-grade Foremost technology can't exist in the physical world without some degree of support from Pressure. Kind of like how a black hole can't exist below a certain level of mass density. Since the two are co-dependent, it may have to sacrifice one side to shore up the other if catastrophic damage is taken."

The Foremost were evidently doing some weird spiritual stuff to make Armaments. Is Verschlengorge an ambulatory soul fragment on the material plane ensconced in all the foremost technology?

A Simple Transaction I Original

Is it the fishing prowess itself that will impress her? Perhaps... Letrizia isn't dead or unnaturally aged to a noticeable degree, but they may just have vastly higher lifespans in the Human Sphere! Their method is actually not identical to Accretion, though the effects are basically similar...

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Their method is actually not identical to Accretion, though the effects are basically similar to those of Accretion Rank.

What were the Foremost doing then? If Findross supports spirit infusion were they messing with Armament Spirits with True Quintessence or Findross or something?

Moving on from Rank musings though --------------------------------------------

III.IV from the Original A Simple Transaction:

Sorcerer Eternal - This character is a Sorcerer of the Manifest Realm. Unlike other Sorcerers, innate findross production suffices to maintain continuous transformation and usage of all Graces.

Humans produce Findross. A Sorcerer/ess Eternal produces enough Findross to maintain continuous transformation and usage of all graces.

Base Third Coalescence Sorceress:

A Simple Transaction Original

Yuup. She's 5 years younger, too! What a gifted child. Correct, Sorceresses are primarily used defensively due to their limited deployment time. Even a Third Coalescence Sorceress can only use one of her three Graces at a time if she wants to maintain Continuous Transcendence. But why!? He's...

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Correct, Sorceresses are primarily used defensively due to their limited deployment time. Even a Third Coalescence Sorceress can only use one of her three Graces at a time if she wants to maintain Continuous Transcendence.

The amount of Findross a third Coalescence produces without being an eternal is this much.

Random Speculation(Low Confidence):

Findross mixes Edeldross with some kind of magical binding or preserving agent, shielding it against existential diminishment. That's why Gisena's world was impressionistic wherever Findross is. Either that or when Findross is bound to other things it doesn't fade away or takes significantly longer to do.

Random Speculation/Probably Baseless Doubts:
I Know I've established Findross can be gold, but what if True Quintessence is what happens when you hybridize Findross(blue) and Elixirdross(Gold) as Vali theorized, with the abilities of both? The Entire Venn Diagram? For that to be the case, Morgiana's hair from a Simple Transaction original, and perhaps Lelaine's Sword, would have to be side effects of Findross infusion. Gisena is special, having both Findross and Elixirdross in her body to combine, enabling her to gaze upon the Lathe of Heaven with her Sanity intact. Seram would have to have been mistaken about the Golden Findross in his body when he became a Sorcerer Eternal actually being Findross.

Augustine called upon the language of the Foremost/Arcanist Runes albeit with unpleasant materials to get the necessary power to generate the Tower of Earth.

Fear Itself

At last they reached the border of Augustine's inner dominion, the simple command tent now elevated atop a foreboding pillar, column of earth upthrust from the swamp around and fissured with seams of azure and gold

What do those Azure and Gold Seams mean? Are they Findross or are they something higher? Could we have mined those? What does it mean?

Once and Future:

[ ] Sublime Attainment - 2 Arete. It is said that this Sorceress' only lot is to nullify, but that is false. The powers of the Maiden are but one aspect of her Grace; her supernal perfection is the other. For is it not the province of the Maiden to excel at all things? And who better to embody that legacy than Lady Gisena Allria, genius of her age? Fitting that a genius would so adeptly play to her strengths.

Sharply increases the Attribute bonuses granted to Gisena from Sorcery, increasing Gisena's physical attributes, Wits, and Appearance to levels competitive with Hunger's higher stats.

*Very high initial utility, medium potential
*Makes her existing arsenal much more accurate and improves her powers in social combat

The Gold in Gisena's eyes would be Elixirdross in that case. Supernal physical perfection to the Blue of Gisena's Findross powers.

The Color of a Sorceresses magical energy in action is independent of their dross I suspect.

Information Gathering IV.I of A Simple Transaction Original

*Daystar - Summons an orb of crackling crimson energy upon which she can ride. The merest touch inflicts immeasurable damage to any living being. Automatically spares allies & herself. Maximum radius of ten miles.

Compare this to Alternate Universe Gisena's bolts of energy

Chapter III.III of A Simple Transaction Original

Instead, she simply began to fire bolts through her bodyguards, stark heat-haze pulses outlined in a nimbus of blue that shot with ferocious speed towards Seram's center of mass. He hurled the wagon at them: a midair detonation, the ragged tearing of wood blasted apart, burning splinters like snowflake raining across the battlefield.

Is Praxis Blue the Same Blue as True Quintessence/Findross Blue? The Foremost had connections to cursebearers so I don't know.

From Heart of the Matter

Nearly of a height with it was its opponent, a bio-mechanical giant armored in dark grey with accents of red. Hydraulics and ceramic plate spoke to a degree of sophistication that was absent from the city around them, but its overall appearance was disheveled, parts ill-fitting or in disrepair. Its head bore little resemblance to that of a human's; a fierce and angular thing with livid gold eyes, sporting an enormous maw filled with cruel, curving fangs.

Verschlengorge's Eyes are Gold.

Verschlengorge's eyes flashed blue, a light so harrowing and sublime that it struck him insensate, lake and sun and sky rendered an amateur's daubing before the absolute truth of that blue, this world - all worlds - cut away like an unpeeling rind to reveal the blinding firmament beneath.

This is probably cursebearer/accursed blue but I'm not sure anymore.

The Alternative to my doubts, if Azure and Gold really is Findross and not a higher True Quintessence, then Elixirdross has it's own separate, distinct, analogue to what Gisena did(Edit: Becoming a Fairbright? Something Even Further Beyond?).

Synthesis Tactics Current Status(New Strategy Discovered, Noteworthy amendments and musings marked by /* */ style comment tags and bold):

/*If we need tactics for how to acquire mundane platinum, I don't know why this would be the case, the fact Nilfel needs to specifically use myth infused platinum in their money implies mundane platinum is easy to acquire/valueless given the magics available to Nilfel society.

A. Engage in destructive mining practices possibly involving Deathly Star, banking on pressure to deliver us the mundane platinum out of the hole in the ground we make
B. Get hypothetical Nilfel mage X with conjuration powers to do it.
C. Tank the cost of getting it from an astral denizen with Supreme Enclosure
D. Hope the fifth sign has a conjure arbitrary materials option
E. If by some miracle gisena can conjure mundane platinum without us having taken veil of grandeur, let her do it. We probably have enough options for sourcing mundane platinum without her involvement though if we need tactics for it.*/

From there...

We need mundane platinum and then we need to mix it with pure edeldross. We need to shield the pure edeldross against existential diminishment. Adories blood is a venue with which to shield the pure Edeldross.

/*Blood is a valid dross carrier if Gisena's musings about using her blood to infuse a dress with findross are valid, and the first grace of the Eschaton Sorceress establishes findross infusion into material substances as possible.*/

Due to scalability concerns, we're going to need to buff Adorie and maybe use Blood Powers to copy her bloodline to get enough blood to sanctify all the Edeldross. So we take Skyward Claim(/*Or we gamble that the buffs we already have are enough and take Deathly Star like I made a deal with people to support*/). From there we need to melt the pure edeldross or find some method X to work it into mundane platinum. Aobaru's fire, with the ability to effect esoteric substances, fits the bill as something that can melt sanctified pure Edelross. The molten Edeldross and mundane platinum mix to make Myth-infused platinum. If Adories blood doesn't work, get Gisena to find the stabilizing runes in the Walls of Myth and put those on the Edeldross if possible.

/*If Aobaru's fire doesn't work, try forcing edeldross into the platinum with pressure/astral rank. Get Letrezia's help if that would improve our odds of sucessfully pressure crushing edeldross into mundane platinum for infusion*/

Wolfy · Oct 8, 2020

runeblue360 said:
I was pretty curious about this stuff honestly. Its interesting to learn that the All-Defeating Stance is, well, a stance that requires a specific alignment of the body, which certainly makes it more understandable that its mutually exclusive with the Foe-Defeating Stance. I'm kind of sad we ended up losing the wordcount of the enlightenment in question entirely to the Fish, it would have been quite interesting to learn just what form the epiphany took.

As a sidenote, I'm surprised and quite pleased with the sheer versatility the power of ruin has displayed. Mediocre offensive ability it may be but it's incredibly flexible and there's at least one area it manages to exceed even the Praxis in. Is that why this and not some other power was the one that came with the Forebear's Blade? Or did he just develop it to such heights that it became a significant tool for him even a billion worlds into his Procession?

Ur-Mother, you the real MVP.

ADS is essentially similar, although ultimately superior, to Yong's own Full Counter. It's omniapplicable in both offense and defense, forcing all and every hostile effects to have to deal with it and, by proxy, by Forebears own power, allowing Forebear to completely disregard huge amount of hax by turning every encounter into contest of power. Even beyond that, this update shows that those All Stats we got from ADS are actually from using it on ourself, using Ruin to destroy our own imperfections.

Forebear was very much single-mindedly committed to his SORD-build. When all you have is a SORD every problem looks like a nail - and ADS made is so that's actually the case.

It's interesting how Forebear's Advancements help us understand the man and his approach to combat - multiple death forms, multiple perfect resurrections, Stances, Praxis, number of massive pure power buffs and so on. For example, we know that based on his Advancements his healing sucks, just as we know that he solved it by using What Rains May Come to transfer friendly wounds to himself and then likely use ADS to obliterate them completely or just use Second Form to make them go away.

OctarineShrike · Oct 8, 2020

I've got a couple more data points/speculations/random musings

On Mythos:

Hunger went back to the vendor for seconds. The man accepted his platinum-based coinage without batting an eye, and they discussed briefly the hawker's life and economic outlook. He'd been a solider in the Royal Guard before retiring from a grievous wound to the knee some six decades ago. Now he ran this stall as a matter of personal enthusiasm, wishing only to bring to the next generation the savory street-fares of his youth. He complained about the haughtiness of the present aristocracy, engorged on pride and war, and bemoaned the imprisonment of their beloved Princess Adorie.

As for Hunger's currency, the man waved off his concerns. Their financial unions offered fee-less conversion of precious metals into credit, and tourists were rare enough nowadays that he didn't mind the hassle.

Sensing slight trepidation behind his air of insouciance, Hunger declined to press the man on political matters of Tower and Princess, instead returning to their table to resume the feast. Despite its position as a vendor stall, the furniture outside was spotlessly clean, tastefully crafted from sturdy white oak, the joints seamlessly locked and all surfaces curiously devoid of imperfections.

"It's enchanted," Gisena said, crossing her legs languidly. "As is most everything in this place! The food is magic, the walls are magic, the ground is magic, even the very air is magic!"

She pouted. "What's a poor Nullity to do? My Bolts won't reach but fifty yards with all this mythos everywhere intervening."

What's happening here is a work of the Foremost. Edeldross cancels Nullity and is a perfecting force. There's no Azure Gold Runes or seams floating around here that are obvious. Gisena knows what a Findross saturated world looks like. Findross would not stand in her way without a human actor behind it. Speculation, Edeldross has been successfully infused into the environment, cancelling Gisena's nullity via abrasion.

On the bindability of Edeldross to Blood:

[ ] Lunar Coronet - 7 Arete - Appellation of the False Moon's Conquerer; a crown of the soul, a tapestry of stars, and a writ of shining moonlight. Conjunctional [The Ring of Power; the Evening Sky]
*++CHA, +Int, +Wits, +Wis, -Heartlessness; Vassals gain +Mental, +Social Attributes.
*Enormously increases the Magnitude of your Elemental surges; for Hunger, this is represented as a two-stage increase in augment strength (30% -> 50%). Letrizia's Sharpbright would grant her a full additional Rank. You may designate up to two principal allies also to benefit from this effect; designations may be changed if a principal ally falls.
*Blood Augmentation: If Vigor Itself is acquired, apply the wielder's Charisma as Protection to these principal allies.
*Merges blood and Edeldross augmentation; dozens or even hundreds of allies may be Vassalized with a single drop of Edeldross-infused blood, the bonus lasting years. Duration depends on how closely they adhere to the preferences of the Elementalist; a vassal who is false will lose the bonus almost instantly. Total number of vassals = Rank^2 * 10.
*Requires Exalted Spirit. Arete debt incurred from this purchase is treated at half scope (you can take 2 debt, allowing it to be purchased this Experience point).

Edeldross infusion into blood is possible. Findross infusion into Blood is also possible. (Edit: Extending on this, using Pressure/Astral Rank/Spirit shenanigans to infuse Edeldross into things, we should try using astral rank to fuse Edeldross with Blood if Adories Blood doesn't just bind to Edeldross on its own, I'm not sure this is worth yet another restatement/amendment of my science tactics Omnibus)

Zampano · Oct 8, 2020

CB has been cycling through various ways of making Synthesis work. He has pointed out that this is a challenge that could even result in picks. One thing that he hasn't discussed is the type of picks that might be unlocked: this could be our first chance at a Tears of Winter advancement!

The Tears have the following domains:

The Tears grant ++INT, ++APP, +AGI and +0.3 Rank to both bearer and beneficiary. Their dominion includes: ice, cold, rulership, intellect, calculation, beauty, finesse, quickness, overwhelming power, the season of Winter, grandeur, truth, and purity.

Ensuring that the economy doesn't collapse falls under rulership, intellect, and calculation. Hunger can try pouring Rank into the problem as a first step towards filtering out which plans will work the best. If CB's edeldross + blood plan is a viable approach, channeling Rank through the Tears can help ensure the purity of our Platinum output

If we do get a pick from the Tears, then we'd get some information about how much +INT we can expect from actively trying to be a good ruler. Rulership-based advancements would make the pure power of Sword in the Stone dramatically more effective. The public blurb for Sword in the Stone says:

So sheathed, it becomes a tool not of war but of governance - and if its talents should be poorly tuned for that purpose, it upends such deficiencies through sheer weight of power

Imagine if we could combine "sheer weight of power" with even a single advancement that improves our actual talents...

Unelemental · Oct 8, 2020

While the enthusiasm for Synthesis is nice, please don't forget the 'very difficult', 'Consumes research time & priorities', and 'Unlikely to work on the first few tries' labels in the blurb. They aren't there just for show, and I don't think anyone wants to waste our precious rerolls on this.

If you really want to choose Synthesis, you should at least consider your answers to some of the following:

1. How high are the chances of success, and how many tries do you think it will take?
2. How much do you think tactics will improve those chances?
3. How many failures can we afford, and what are their consequences?
4. Do the results offset the risks? E.g. is spending a lot of time on this instead of finishing some other task (assuming we succeed in the first place) worth the difference in value between the options?
5. From the current votes, we don't seem to take the Veil of Grandeur option that would let Gisena support us in this endeavor, so it's probably mostly on Hunger. Is putting further strain on him worth the trouble?

The proposed tactics also seem to be a bit incomplete. Infusing money with Edeldross is a good idea, though I don't know how we would get around the fact that it 'swiftly fades beneath the withering indifference of the real'. Maybe just stick to findross infusion, even if it's less unique. But the question is whether we can keep our output at these magnitudes. We would need to infuse the currency of a nation, that's no small amount of metal. While Surgecraft is good at throwing around large amounts of magic and Gisena as a Maiden-equivalent should have a lot of findross, it's unclear just what their current capacity.

Anyway, we won't really know better than Hunger and Gisena how they should handle their magics, they're the experts here. Rather than focusing on the exact dross mechanics, we should also come up with ideas on what that money should be like in practice. What sorts of effects do we want for our currency, and how will they achieve equal to or better functionality than Nilfel's platinum coins?

They should be difficult to counterfeit, obviously, but what sort of magics would let money give the country 'protections against strong inflationary/deflationary shocks and concept-level maintenance of a prosperous economy'? Should they be magic items with intrinsic value? Should there be an in-built feature to produce more of itself (probably impossible at our current level unless we're talking about otherwise mundane coins), or should all currency flow from Hunger? Should they possess positive area-of-effect spells of some kind? Should gathering more in one place produce special effects?

This won't be just Nilfel's currency if we're really going to do it, it's probably going to get used more widely once we conquer more places, so we should put some thought into what we want it to be like. There are likely hundreds of possibilities here that didn't occur to me, and if the job is going to take so much of Hunger's time, it should be done well at least.

522 Words

qwolfs · Oct 8, 2020

@Conjured Blade I don't think it's been brought up, but it might be worth being aware that Exalted also contains a substance called Dross. If it's already been mentioned sorry about that.

In Exalted (Graceful Wicked Masques) Dross is a mixture of Essence (the foundational energy/reality unit) and Glamor (Dream stuff created by the Raksha). It's used to feed Bonefires, which are the Raksha equivalent to Wyld aspected Manses (Wishing Well analogue?).

How far this transfers is obviously unclear, but there seems to be a degree of thematic overlap between Findross and fairytale/exaltation style effects and the make-up of dross. Perhaps Fin-dross is a three part substance? Perhaps they're just coincidence?

No Hero Academia - Download: 100 Ordinal Credits.
5 Cerulean Obols.
0 Radiant Electrum.
—
[1] - Shards of Infinity: [+4 Cerulean Obols]
—
[ ] A Modest Realm - My Hero Academia
—
[ ] Gamble -
First Gamble: Receive [+1 Radiant Electrum] in addition to the listed reward.
[ ] 1: Caress of Winter - [+1 Cerulean Obols]
[ ] 6: Forbidding -[+100 Ordinal Coins]
—
[ ] A Saga. [+1 Radiant Electrum].
—
Melodious / Mask
[ ] I: Gourmet [2 Ordinal Coins] -

Ally / Alternate
[ ] I: Attribution Requested [5 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] II: Ally [20 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] III: Armada [70 Ordinal Coins] -

Dream / Double
[ ] I: Twice [5 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] II: Multi-Threading [28 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] III: Savor the Moment [65 Ordinal Coins] -

Extract / Exceed
[ ] I: Quintessence [2 Ordinal Coins] -
[ ] II: The Sword [33 Ordinal Coins] -
—
Cerulean Obols
[ ] Body Armor [5 Radiant Electrum] -
—
Radiant Electrum
[ ] First Sword [1 Radiant Electrum] - Mad Science

Debit: 230 / 10 / 2
Credit: 230 / 08 / 2

Strategy:
A Focused First Sword + Body Armor can reach comfortably into significant fractions of Lightspeed. That's enough to match even notably empowered All-Might on stats alone.

Wolfy · Oct 8, 2020

Unelemental said:
While the enthusiasm for Synthesis is nice, please don't forget the 'very difficult', 'Consumes research time & priorities', and 'Unlikely to work on the first few tries' labels in the blurb. They aren't there just for show, and I don't think anyone wants to waste our precious rerolls on this.

On the other hand, the point of Synthesis is not just to solve current issue without much fuss, but to also give host of additional benefits related to being capable of designing and mass producing metamagic alloy - hopefully quicker access to 6th Sign, especially if we can fiat mythic platinum within the Pillars of Evening once we know how to make it, capability of creating more robust economies via fuck you magic which would allow us vastly enhanced rullership, various insights into nature of Foremost magic for Gisena and so on.

Value of option was never in question, only amount of effort we are willing to put in to actually make it work. Given that Blade went and put a lot of it by making plans for days, overall risk/reward of Synthesis rose to the point where it's likely to be the most efficient options. And, well, it would be sad to let that work go to waste, wouldn't it?

OctarineShrike · Oct 8, 2020

qwolfs said:
@Conjured Blade I don't think it's been brought up, but it might be worth being aware that Exalted also contains a substance called Dross. If it's already been mentioned sorry about that.

In Exalted (Graceful Wicked Masques) Dross is a mixture of Essence (the foundational energy/reality unit) and Glamor (Dream stuff created by the Raksha). It's used to feed Bonefires, which are the Raksha equivalent to Wyld aspected Demesnes (Wishing Well analogue?).

How far this transfers is obviously unclear, but there seems to be a degree of thematic overlap between Findross and fairytale/exaltation style effects and the make-up of dross. Perhaps Fin-dross is a three part substance? Perhaps they're just coincidence?

Thank you, I was not aware of that but unfortunately I am in no position to speculate.

Unelemental said:
While the enthusiasm for Synthesis is nice, please don't forget the 'very difficult', 'Consumes research time & priorities', and 'Unlikely to work on the first few tries' labels in the blurb. They aren't there just for show, and I don't think anyone wants to waste our precious rerolls on this.

If you really want to choose Synthesis, you should at least consider your answers to some of the following:

1. How high are the chances of success, and how many tries do you think it will take?
2. How much do you think tactics will improve those chances?
3. How many failures can we afford, and what are their consequences?
4. Do the results offset the risks? E.g. is spending a lot of time on this instead of finishing some other task (assuming we succeed in the first place) worth the difference in value between the options?
5. From the current votes, we don't seem to take the Veil of Grandeur option that would let Gisena support us in this endeavor, so it's probably mostly on Hunger. Is putting further strain on him worth the trouble?

The proposed tactics also seem to be a bit incomplete. Infusing money with Edeldross is a good idea, though I don't know how we would get around the fact that it 'swiftly fades beneath the withering indifference of the real'. Maybe just stick to findross infusion, even if it's less unique. But the question is whether we can keep our output at these magnitudes. We would need to infuse the currency of a nation, that's no small amount of metal. While Surgecraft is good at throwing around large amounts of magic and Gisena as a Maiden-equivalent should have a lot of findross, it's unclear just what their current capacity.

522 Words

Some of this I can address. Assuming you weren't aware of this angle, protecting Edeldross against Existential Diminishment is banking on the special properties of Adorie's Blood protecting the Edeldross when they are mixed. Or Aobaru's Vigorflame elevating Edeldross on the infinite singularity husk leading to something weird happening. From a scalability standpoint we've got vigorflame ISH Constitution buffs for Adorie and Hunger, blood buffs for Adorie, and attempting to reproduce Adories Bloodline in ourself using our Blood powers for even more scalability as Adorie and Hunger buff themselves so they can handle consecrating a lot of mundane Platinum with Edeldross and their Blood. I would have liked to get Skyward Claim on Adorie too but apparently that was doomed from the start. There's also, though I wouldn't count on it because we need that Edeldross for production, Edeldross buffs for Adorie and Hunger if giving ourselves advanced Edeldross buffs becomes permanent in both of us because we're shielded against existential diminishment.

Alternatively, since some kind of Astral Science shenanigans can be used to Infuse Findross into things, Gisena figured out how to infuse Findross into her spirit on the Astral Plane and that's how she became a High Sorceress. Edeldross can be infused into blood, just like Findross can. Findross can be infused into the environment and into objects. Everything in the Realm of Myth is oozing magic of some kind and everything is unnaturally perfect. Gisena didn't make any comments about how the Realm of Myth reminds her of home that I noticed. I don't remember any comparisons to impressionist paintings that are characteristic of Findross influencing the environment. So it follows that something is infused into the environment perfecting everything. This something stymies the range of Gisena's magic. Edeldross is known to cancel out Gisena's magic. Hypothesis: The Realm of Myth environment is infused with Edeldross. So what happens if we use our pressure to crush edeldross into an object? Whether it be mundane platinum, a vial of Adories Blood that isn't mixing with the Edeldross, or some other object? Does it get perfected?

Lunar Coronet has implications for what Edeldross infused Blood is capable of as astral Rank increases. Adorie also has somewhat meaningful Astral Rank though she isn't capable of using it in combat.

*Merges blood and Edeldross augmentation; dozens or even hundreds of allies may be Vassalized with a single drop of Edeldross-infused blood, the bonus lasting years. Duration depends on how closely they adhere to the preferences of the Elementalist; a vassal who is false will lose the bonus almost instantly. Total number of vassals = Rank^2 * 10.

If we can get this part of Lunar Coronet on its own, Hunger's Rank is 8.475 right now, 10.475 for Blood purposes. One drop of Hunger's Blood infused with Edeldross is enough to augment 1097 people. Whatever existential diminishment properties of the Edeldross are present, they're modified by the loyalty of the augmented individual to us, and our blood is not a shield against existential diminishment at the moment. How many cubic meters of mundane platinum might the same Edeldross Blood mix augment?

Where are we going to get the Findross? Gisena Shenanigans?

Edit: Last resort method for shielding Edeldross from Existential Diminishment is, assuming the Walls of Myth are made of Edeldross stablized and made hyperreal/polarity reversed to debuff people instead by probably Findross runes, find out what runes on the Walls of Myth stablize the Edeldross, and get Gisena to scribe those into the Edeldross with Findross if possible.

Edit2: Addendum: Liberation vs Synthesis is a gamble Aobaru's Safety for Successful acquisition of Myth-infused Platinum, Where Synthesis let's us stay near Aobaru to shield him against the terminator at the cost of success not being guaranteed for resolving the Myth-infused platinum problem.

TooSlow · Oct 8, 2020

Conjured Blade said:
It's Strength, Charisma, Intelligence, and Appearance.

Oh, I thought it was all stats for some reason.

Conjured Blade said:
it's a good/valid medium to draw Gisena's Rune of Ascension in.

It might be possible to make myth infused platinum by shaping some edeldross into a Rune of Ascension, the research that we did suggested that it's possible for anyone to use the magic system if they can copy the runes.

OctarineShrike · Oct 8, 2020

TooSlow said:
Oh, I thought it was all stats for some reason.

It might be possible to make myth infused platinum by shaping some edeldross into a Rune of Ascension, the research that we did suggested that it's possible for anyone to use the magic system if they can copy the runes.

Rune of Ascension drawn in Findross made Gisena ascend to the Maiden's level and maybe/maybe not took her Findross to the level of something even further beyond(Edit: Without sufficient capabilities, using the Rune is hazardous to sanity). I'm not sure if there's an equivalent to the Maiden for Elixirdross or not. Fairbrights? Something even further beyond?

We may in theory, use the Rune if we ever somehow took Total Eclipse at this point.

Zampano · Oct 8, 2020

Unelemental said:
Anyway, we won't really know better than Hunger and Gisena how they should handle their magics, they're the experts here. Rather than focusing on the exact dross mechanics, we should also come up with ideas on what that money should be like in practice. What sorts of effects do we want for our currency, and how will they achieve equal to or better functionality than Nilfel's platinum coins?

I agree with the sentiment here, but the focus on mechanics so far is understandable imo. The problem facing Nilfel is a shortage of a specific commodity, Deep Platinum, which then needs to be printed with runes and/or infused with Myth. The details of "what sorts of effects do we want for our currency" are already set, because Nilfel enjoys a large-scale economic enchantment already:

Nilfel's store of Myth-infused platinum, the primary component of their coinage, has been all but depleted by this experimentation. They will need to conquer or purchase additional deep platinum mines from the surrounding nations. As circulation of glyph-printed platinum coinage is a component of the working that sustains Nilfel's prosperity, a substitute will need to be found.

Like, Hunger doesn't need to generate a Nationwide economic engine ex nihilo. We just need to refill the gas tank.

I can think of a few ways to address the shortage of Mythic Platinum as a reagent. Think of this as a tactics effortpost with less pretentious word salad than I usually use to pad my wordcount.

Generate more Mythic Platinum
- Conjured Blade has provided some mechanical approaches to make this work
- The Synthesis blurb points out that Augustine at the height of her power couldn't accomplish this, but Augustine manipulated sigils of the Arcanist. Hunger's Cloak of Sky is an artifact tied to the Sorcery of the Well [of Myth]. Hunger might have a natural affinity for manipulating Myth
  - Hunger's very high Rank seems compatible with the Sorcery of the Well, which is described as "not science but Art: Will rather than Mind"
- Supreme Enclosure might be another helpful approach
  - A high-rank Smith from the Astral Realm might have esoteric metallurgy abilities that we could contract for
Create an alloy of Mythic Platinum and a more common metal
- This is the same idea, except without getting caught up on the exact method of easing the bottleneck.
- If the same magical effect can be achieved with an alternative mix of materials then maybe a shortage of Mythic Platinum isn't such a big deal
  - In 1982, US pennies changed from 95% copper to 2.5% copper.
Forge smaller coins
- The same amount of Mythic Platinum used in one (USA) Half-Dollar coin could produce more than two (USA) nickels.
- For a fixed amount of metal used for coinage, smaller denominations would increase the velocity of money through the system.
  - Each coin would need to be spent multiple times in order to accommodate the same amount of spending as before
  - Increasing the number of transactions might counterbalance the reduced amount of platinum that actually changes hands
- Hunger / Adorie / Gisena could find a way to miniaturize any glyphs that need to be printed on the coins for the magic to work
Forge larger coins
- Maybe the magical effect scales according to the value of the goods purchased.
- Mythic Platinum could be used for something like notarizing a given transaction.
  - House sales and contracts are done entirely in Mythic Platinum
  - Small transactions like the ones at restaurants, hotels, or movie theaters involve only one coin of Mythic Platinum trading hands
    - This is a compromise with switching to fiat currency
- Pay the government budget with a Trillion Unit coin of Mythic Platinum to maintain the magical working
Scale back the scope of the Economy magic
- In the worst case scenario, a less ambitious set of economic protections could be sustained by the existing money supply
- Seigniorage is a tax added to the total cost of a coin reflecting the cost to mint it. The economic magic basically increases that cost. Reducing the magical complexity could also make it cheaper
  - (This is an example of existential diminishment, but a smaller amount than abandoning the Platinum standard entirely)
Modify the Economy magic to use something else, like gemstones
- Mythic Platinum is not the only magical substance that Nilfel has access to.
- The Tears of Winter are Myth itself, "crystallized and spun into sharpness and light." Surely there are other gem mines available to Nilfel?
- This could increase the money supply without needing to resort to fiat currency

Economically speaking, money has a few functions. It is a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value. Money has some defining characteristics. In order to be most useful as money, a currency should be: 1) fungible, 2) durable, 3) portable, 4) recognizable, and 5) stable.

The Realm of Myth probably layers various conceptual properties and goals on top of these real-world definitions. One way that Hunger could get his foot in the door is by thinking of money as the life-blood of a nation's economy. The update specifies "circulation" of glyph printed platinum coinage, so expanding or integrating additional substances into that blood metaphor might be within Hunger's purview.
#741 Words

Unelemental · Oct 8, 2020

Some more ideas for the pile in case Synthesis really wins:

The most conceptually potent tools in our arsenal aren't Pressure or Edeldross, though they're probably the easiest to use. It's our Progression, Praxis and Curses.

Well, the last one is stretching the definition of 'tool' a bit too much, but there's some precedent for options that allowed Hunger to take advantage of his Curses, mostly Decimator. It's why he called himself 'Hunger' in the first place, so maybe we could do this trick one more time and tie the currency to one of our Curses? I'm thinking Tyrant to enforce its legitimacy/supremacy. Not sure what name to choose for it, Tyrantcoin sounds a bit too cheesy.

Of course it's a bit too out there and trying to turn Curses to a beneficial purpose is likely quite risky, so it's up to Hunger whether he thinks it's feasible. Progression also isn't easy to incorporate into a currency unless you're a genius like Gisena, but maybe Hunger can set things up so that creating this currency turns into a dangerous challenge in order to get better efficiency.

Last but not least, we could try using Praxis Runes. Feels a bit wasteful to develop a Praxis Technique just to make money, but I do think preventing and inflicting harm are broad enough themes for it. Maybe this one can be combined with other suggestions, like drawing Praxis Runes with Edeldross or something.

OctarineShrike · Oct 8, 2020

For clarity, I'm under the impression the mines in neighboring nations are deep in the earth and that's why they're called deep platinum mines. Because they're as deep in the earth as they are, Myth-infused platinum can be mined from them, which is then mixed with the other components of Nilfel currency.

@Zampano thanks for pointing out the Tears of Winter. They are another data point, to be taken into account with the Walls of Myth.

The Contest of Kings

[ ] The Tears of Winter [25 Arete, 1 Panoply Slot] - The Crown Jewels of Nilfel are myth crystallized and spun into sharpness and light; they are pinnacle treasures beyond mere power or worth, transcendent droplets of pure creation rained down from the empyreal. Yet what is the value of a treasure, no matter how priceless, for a House that has lost the wherewithal to wield it, and the position to display it forth? Thus they are given to you, to rest in a Princess' crown, or a Duchess' necklace of jewels.

You may give the Tears of Winter to any titled noble with the power to wield them; channeling your own Accreted Pressure through the jewels to empower yourself and their bearer. Valid targets are Princess Regent Gisena I, Duchess Letrizia Artriez or Princess Adorie IX.

The Tears grant ++INT, ++APP, +AGI and +0.3 Rank to both bearer and beneficiary. Their dominion includes: ice, cold, rulership, intellect, calculation, beauty, finesse, quickness, overwhelming power, the season of Winter, grandeur, truth, and purity.

Pursuit to the Utmost

These were no simple ornaments, but light itself cast into matter, droplets of the empyrean distilled into material flesh, an incarnate conduit between base and supernal that shined with radiance undying.

The tears of Winter are Solid Myth, with no findross runes to stabilize them. Meaning they were stabilized by some method X. Like Miralleyan Blood perhaps? They are Sharpness and Light cast into matter. They are a conduit between the base and the supernal. They have several domains that are arguably compatible with Edeldross. Intellect, Calculation, Beauty, Finesse, Quickness, Overwhelming power, Grandeur, and Purity. All of these seem like subdomains of perfection. Maybe rulership too if you stretch. The rest is social context and backstory imprinted onto the jewels.

[ ] Edeldross: This precursor component of findross embodies redemption, perfection, restoration and the renewal of cycles. It is the liminal gloss between real and ideal, whereby the purposeless matter of the corporeal world becomes the refined substrate of supernal augmentation. Blasts, voids and shields of solidified edeldross convey the principle of 'transference without harm,' allowing the character to re-position allies and scatter enemies with minimal possibility of collateral damage. Kinetic flight is possible through continuous burst releases, but its greatest benefits are found in augmentation. Pure edeldross is semi-corporeal and swiftly fades beneath the withering indifference of the real, but contained within a person's body it holistically augments all elements of the self, supernal excellence beyond the reach of the mundane.

Subtle and Quick:

Leaving her to her work, he quickly arrived at the border and engaged the Rotspawn. As with Letrizia, it had taken a few hours for his Element to come in. At first it was tentative, unformed, a bright purposeless warmth bubbling up in his chest. He sensed that it was some kind of augmenting effect, colorless but welcoming, like the radiant glow of a hearthfire or the sun veiled by clouds.

He called forth a surge of it, bathing himself in that nameless translucence. Swiftly he felt his mind sharpen and body grow stronger, the powers of his self and soul tuned like a violin-string towards a more perfect expression. It was a powerful and comprehensive enchantment, hopeful and clean...

Edeldross is bright like light. Like a hearthfire or the sun behind the clouds. It sharpens the mind. The tears don't have a literal sharpness domain, but they do have cognitive enhancement domains, though I suppose Icy Sharpness could make sense too.

GenericName · Oct 8, 2020

I honestly what synthesis to win at this point just because conjured blade has been scouring for any potential hints of information. The dedication and effort is worth support imo.

Microwave MKII · Oct 8, 2020

[X] Conjured Blade

Strange9 · Oct 8, 2020

[X] Conjured Blade

Yeeeee

Tyrant_Rayne · Oct 8, 2020

Fair enough.

[X] Conjured Blade

Aabcehmu · Oct 8, 2020

[X] Conjured Blade

OctarineShrike · Oct 8, 2020

Thank you. Your support fills me with a mixture of pride and terror as we approach Stein's Gate. Magiscience is a rare opportunity and I can only hope I have not squandered it.

Zampano · Oct 8, 2020

Additional tactics:

Hunger's charisma is a memetic hazard. Running an NPR-style pledge drive would be enough to raise a lot of money if the problem is having a specific amount of money available to the government. It would be better, politically, to try melting down Augustine's vanity projects before asking for family heirlooms. But there is often a lot of wealth held by private citizens that could be released by a public minded donation drive. (Think about savings bonds during WWII)

Hunger's charisma is a memetic hazard. Convincing historians / researchers / artists to collaborate on a major R&D undertaking would not be terribly difficult. The capital city alone has a population of Billions... maybe there are academics or adventurers who went into hiding/exile during Augustine's regime. Reaching out for help from specialists in the Sorcery of the Well [of myth] could provide important insights. Hunger can offer Ennoblement + Edeldross amplification to help everybody work together.

The Walls of Myth are still standing. Getting information from Adorie about their history is the obvious next step for learning about how Myth is manipulated. They have tours for visitors! Visiting the Walls could provide very informative if there is a resonance between the Cloak and the Walls. Remember when Verschlengorge recognized Hunger as a Praehir? Something similar could happen when the Cloak of Sky is worn while inspecting the Walls of Myth.

The Walls of Myth are still standing. Use them as an anvil or catalyst when minting additional coins. (Note: A catalyst is an element in a chemical reaction that does not get used up. Do not dismantle the walls of myth!)

We could visit a Hall of Arulothel, the Patron Spirit of House Mirel. Even though Augustine made up the spirit of Claumgnor, we don't know for sure that Arulothel is equally fictitious. There might be research benefits if we restore the library to its former glory.

Edit: The Temple Remnant and Elixir Springs both have considerable Platinum reserves. Nilfel could process that platinum into Mythic Platinum and keep a portion as part of Adorie's new Regency setup. This option would take some time but there's room for magitech engineering of portals or Sky-gates to allow faster shipping between the three countries.

The basic thrust of this second batch of tactics is that Hunger doesn't have to solve the problem immediately on his own. A good ruler knows how to direct their subordinates to collect the relevant information. The citizens & patron spirits of Nilfel might have unique insights into the problem. Taking a day or two to look into the problem before surrendering to either Imperialism or Existential Diminishment will give the regular academics and civilians time to notice that they have something meaningful to contribute.

#460 Words

Pittauro · Oct 9, 2020

Rihaku said:
"Found a new toy?" Gisena smiled happily as he walked around to her side of the fish.

"No. It clung to me out of nowhere," he deadpanned, running a hand over the scales. They varied in tone and texture, some clacking with the ceramic smoothness of porcelain, while others resembled jewels or gold.

"Such a humble hero," she said, coming to his side. She laid her fingers against his new cloak. Her eyes flashed, changing color, become emerald green instead of blue.

"What's that?" He gestured at her face.

"Hm? My beautiful face, of course."

not what we meant and you know it Gisena!

Rihaku said:
He scowled.

"Oh? Do I have something on my face? This beauty mark, perhaps? It's very fetching, I know."

"Your eyes. They changed color."

"Huh?" She tilted her head to the side, the picture of perfect innocence. "But I've always had green eyes?"

..I wouldn't put it past her to reatroactively change the past to have differently colored eyes just so that she could troll us some more.

I mean, if she was able to at least.

Rihaku said:
"Is that so? How mysterious." He turned and began walking to Verschlengorge, but Gisena caught up to him, placing her hands around his own.

"Sorry, sorry!" She giggled. "You're just too much fun to play with! It's one of my Sorcerous Graces. A type of Nullity that requires close-in work, but can exert very fine control. It comes with enhanced magical senses."

"Good. Then you should have no problem dressing and studying the fish while I explore the Armament."

"Fine, fine! I can tell when I'm beat. Just one thing before you go. Which color do you prefer?" She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

"Mm... Green-eyed monster. It suits you."

"Hmm?" She tapped her lip contemplatively. "That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think? Or perhaps you're projecting? Afraid Zea and I will get too close!"

Well, at least she's having fun. She deserves it.

Also she's right, it IS quite a stretch.

Rihaku said:
"Of course. That would be my worst nightmare. Two allies who won't shut up."

"Then you'd better keep an eye on me!" She dragged him back to the fish. "Come, help prepare it! Leave the studying to me. Even with the comprehensive~ defenses of your new artifact, it'd be a shame to inflict my cooking upon you."

"A terrible cook? And here I thought you were a genius."

"Every genius has a weakness. Mine is that I'm just too humble."

"What happened to empirical self-assessment?"

"Oh, you remembered?" She clapped her hands in joy. "How wonderful! You pay such close attention to everything I say."

"...Now who's projecting?"

"I can't help but remember everyone's lines! A genius has a genius memory."

and so we're diverted from getting in the robot! Truly, Gisena is a master manipulator.

Would the "-" have been because we would have rudely refused? I can imagine it..

Also, at the very least she's aware of her cooking problems. I've always found the trope of horrible cooks thinking they're good very annoying.

Rihaku said:
The fish was truly a magnificent catch, its flesh utterly delectable and tender, melting in the mouth with a brief contact, but lacking neither substance nor chew. Letrizia brought over cooking supplies from Verschlengorge and they gorged themselves on a spread of different preparations: thick-sliced sashimi; thin cuts honey-glazed and lightly smoked; steaks pan-seared with a salt and pepper crust; and the remains broiled in a bed of spices and green onion.

"Mm," Letrizia moaned after taking a mouthful of sashimi. "This is even better than my palace kitchen's! Your skill befits your name, Lord Hunger!"

"Just call me Hunger," he said, suppressing a cringe at the appellation. "And it's mostly the ingredients." They'd foraged around the lake bed for the vegetables, which were positively violent with flavor, and the flesh of the fish was succulent enough to fully justify its bearer's arrogance in life.

...ok, now I'm hungry. Maybe I'll have a snack once I finish writing this, I have some homemade focaccia I could heat up... (basically a more crunchy square pizza)

Rihaku said:
Idly he wondered if claiming the ring's title had affected his cooking in any way. On the run for years on end, he'd developed a competence at preparing his own meals, though his skills in that area paled compared to his wife's.

He stopped eating for a moment, looking into the distance. As Letrizia continued to feast, Gisena intercepted her chopsticks with her own.

No Hunger, don't lose yourself in your memories! You'll get her and everyone else back, it's just a matter of time!

After all NOTHING is beyond a progression type cursebearer in time!

Well, except maybe the Accursed, and even THAT I'm not completely sure of. After all even HE had to start from somewhere, so it stands to reason that, unless he actually stops you from reaching his level, it might be possible, given enough time and effort, to reach his level.

He might even enjoy that, being the strongest at the top has to feel lonely at times (if mortal emotions and feelings still apply to him)

Rihaku said:
"Such a spoiled Duchess. Save some for the chef!"

"Bwuht it's soh good!" Letrizia whined, attempting to angle around the Sorceress' guard. Gisena, with superhuman dexterity, was sadly much too agile for her.

"Look what a mess you are! Hmm, is this the vaunted dignity of House Artriez? You've got sauce all over your cheeks! Let me get that for you..."

"Mm! Lemme go! I wanna eat!"

After their sumptuous repast, Letrizia stumbled semi-insensate into her cockpit to sleep, while they examined the other treasures extracted from the King Fish's corpse.

Well, Letrizia is enjoying her meal at least

Rihaku said:
A pearl the size of a melon that glowed the color of jade, a message wound tightly inside of a bottle, and the enormous crown-like scale that had crested the fish's own head, shimmering menacingly with subdued force.

...did we just find a TREASURE MAP?

well, either that or the classic message in a bottle.

Rihaku said:
"Good work today!" Gisena patted him on the back. "Go get some rest! I'll show you my notes on everything tomorrow. Sleep in for once?"

"No," he shook his head. "We could be attacked at any time. I'll obtain what power I can from these things before turning in."

"Such a diligent hero," Gisena tutted, eyes soft. "You don't have to push yourself to exhaustion every day, you know! Zea and I are plenty impressed already."

A long silence stretched between them.

...I think we remind her a bit of Jeanne (I think that's how you write it). Too serious and dedicated for our own good.

Of course she still doesn't know about the Geass, or the full truth of our curses. We have good reasons for behaving like we do.

Rihaku said:
"I'd given up, once." He said. "I was as good as dead. But someone gave me a gift. Something I'd neither asked for, nor deserved. A second chance, and power enough to seize it. I must do everything I can, not just to survive, but to avenge myself upon those responsible for my comrades' deaths. And, to repay the being that made all this possible. How few are given such a chance as that? I couldn't live with myself if I simply..."

"Squandered it?" She finished perkily. "I understand. And that's why you need to rest, Lord Double Standards! I heard you lecturing Letrizia. Then you push yourself to catch a giant fish and forge a new artifact from spirit and will?"

And here we have Hunger opening up a bit.

It's honestly easy to forget just how good of a deal the Accursed offers to potential cursebearers. Immediate power beyond anyone's normal means, or the potential for power beyond anyone's dreams, all for the low price of 1 to 4 curses.

I wonder, how would the multiverse look if (when) the Accursed finally manages to free himself from his burdens? How would it look if his enemies managed to kill him for good instead?

Rihaku said:
"...It's rude to eavesdrop."

She shrugged. "I'm a noble. It's to be expected."

He scoffed. "Fair enough."

Well, at least she's self-aware

Rihaku said:
"Now then..." she raised a hand to her forehead, brow furrowed. "The root of the matter is not that you want to exhaust yourself, nor do you have a problem relying on others. You're just used to always pushing forward and giving your all. Perhaps you used to have much greater power, and could easily withstand such a punishing pace?"

"Hmph." Perhaps she was right, not that he would admit it.

And again, it's easy to forget just how perceptive she is.

Rihaku said:
"In that case, the solution is simple! Until you've regained your former might, let us help you more. The being that saved you, he didn't do it for free, right? You're burdened with something. A form of metaphysical doom, beyond that suspiciously convenient 'Affliction' that you share with Letrizia's robot."

"Four in total," he admitted. "The Decimator's Affliction, The Tyrant's Doom, The Geas of Indenture, and The Apocryphal Curse. Even so, a small price to pay..."

"Supernatural Curses? And you haven't asked this friendly Nullity to help you?" She pouted. "Fully resolving them may be well beyond my power. But I can at least take the edge off!"

FINALLY! Please please PLEASE remove as much of their edge as you can!

Rihaku said:
"You were clearly aware of their nature already. Perhaps I was waiting for you to volunteer, if you were capable of doing something. We don't all have such comprehensive insight into our compatriots' powers."

"You overestimate me," she demurred, adjusting her hair with a finger. "Well, let's do this: tell me how you understand your Curses. I'll get right to work... as long as you promise to rest immediately."

"Fine. If you also promise not to throw any shoes at me for a month."

She raised her fingers. "Maiden's honor! How smooth, extracting so great a concession just so I can do more work for you..."

Truly Hunger is an incredible haggler

Rihaku said:
"You're one to talk. As for the Decimator's Affliction, your eavesdropping has covered it. I've got it suppressed for now and for a few weeks after."

He cleared his throat, and continued.

"The Doom of the Tyrant. It forbids me from acknowledging or obeying any external authority, law, rule or custom. The Geas of Indenture. It casts me from world to world, imposing tasks I must fulfill. Here I am to conquer the Human Sphere within the next two millennia. Finally, the Aprocryphal Curse... Have you ever heard of the malediction, 'may you live in interesting times?'"

She shook her head. "No, but I think I understand. A Curse that can essentially do as it pleases to complicate your life, hm? How dangerous. I always knew you were trouble!"

"Actually I'm Hunger. Miss so-called genius."

Gisena laughed. "Whatever happened to your real name? Burned it away for a moment of power?"

"Yes."

"...Thought so," she said quietly.

So perceptive...

Also I'm now imagining how funny it would have been if we actually called ourselves Trouble.

Rihaku said:
Her fingers gently grazed his cheek, turning his face to hers. Her eyes were the green of deep ponds. Moonlight invested them with flecks of blue and gold.

"What are you-"

"Sssh. I'm examining your Curses. It's a very delicate procedure, so please stay still! Wouldn't want your powers to be amputated."

Skeptical, but unwilling to countenance the risk, he did so. Long moments passed. He didn't remember slipping into sleep, or the airy softness of his cloak around him.

---

Smooth. Gisena always gets her way in the end.

At least when it matters.

Rihaku said:
The winner was [X] Crown with [X] Dress the Fish. Choose one benefit below:

Well, I agree with the winners. After having it clarified that falling asleep simply wasted the night away I ended up favouring Dress the Fish for the Gisena+. Also Astral Rank is THE number to raise. We just need to survive one day!

Worse comes to worse we can hide in the robot!

Rihaku said:
[ ] Superb Nutrition: The power of the King Fish infuses your insides. Gain +0.05 additional Astral Rank.

mh.. more rank is always nice, but this is quite low. Would we even notice it THAT much?

Rihaku said:
[ ] King's Blood: The limitless stamina of the Lake's overlord. Heal all active wounds on yourself and your company. For the next two months, you cannot bleed out and all wounds heal at ten times speed.

Much better! We're hurt, and we're going to go through multiple dangerous encounters in the following two months, so improved healing is certainly a good choice. Short term healing that 20% damage is likely to be of much more use than getting a 0.05 extra rank, and we NEED to think about the short term some more.

Rihaku said:
[ ] Fierce Vigor: The terrible might of its thrashing sinews, fit to part wave from shore. Gain one copy of [Echo of the Forebear], granting +Might and +Agility.

this is nice too, though I think the improved healing is better in this specific situation, especially to heal us while we're exhausted if we fuck up.

Yeah, definitely King's Blood for me.

Rihaku said:
Mitigation time! Gisena can work on 2 Curses at baseline. You may spend 2 Arete for her to work on a third. You currently have 2.7 Arete.

[ ] Spend 2 Arete (top 3 picks will occur)
[ ] Spend No Arete (top 2 picks)

mh... Probably in favour of the spending. Depends on the mitigation offers. Let's see

Rihaku said:
[ ] Decimator - Direct Mitigation: Reduces drain rate by 12.5%, now 8.75% per year.

[ ] Decimator - Huntress' Moon: Impairs all conventional mitigation attempts by 40%, but dramatically increases the number and availability of targets for A Hunger, Sated. Targets will always be at least minimally challenging or in some way exceptional.

so, direct mitigation bringing decimator to a net 8.25% yearly drain, or much improved "hunger sated" drop chance.

Short term I think the Huntress' Moon is better, as we're NOT going to lack for challenging opponents. Long term though that might work against us, as it would make a "complete" conventional mitigation of the curse that much harder to achieve.

Still, if we want to survive in a society that likely CAN detect the Decimator Huntress' Moon is probably the better short-medium term option, only losing on the TRULY long term, and we'll likely get more options by that point.

Rihaku said:
[ ] Tyrant - Direct Mitigation: A difficult Curse to mitigate. Imparts a very small amount of flexibility in acknowledging (though not obeying) some important laws or customs, if the interlocutor is extremely courteous and subservient.

[ ] Tyrant - Trusted Counsel - A single trusted Lieutenant can attempt to convince you that one law or custom would be sufficiently valuable to comply with that you may tolerate it for a time. The custom may be broad, but not overly so, and may not be changed once your mind is set.
-[ ] Trust Gisena
-[ ] Trust Letrizia
-[ ] Trust Verschlengorge

I'm starting to see a trend of the direct mitigation option usually being short-medium term WORSE than the lateral thinking solutions.

Yeah, I'd go with Trusted Counsel, Gisena.

...though I REALLY have to wonder just HOW Veschle would go about convincing us about respecting a law.. it's probably a troll option, but then I remember Terrascape and how there was TECHNICALLY the option of swearing Arthur to either the future heroine or the SON OF ENOCH, and how either (but especially the second one) would have had very good chances of offering more power than Alice...

Sometime what look like troll options are actually NOT ones in these quests...

Rihaku said:
[ ] Indenture - Companion - Add a companion to accompany you on your travels. You may decide upon the moment of transition.

yeah, no. It won't be relevant for AT LEAST a few centuries, possibly millennia. We can think about it later.

We don't even know if we'll get a companion that wants to come with us by then! Gisena might very well enjoy staying in this sci-fy universe, for example (though I guess she'd likely enjoy experiencing the multiverse even more, at least for a time)

Rihaku said:
[ ] Apocryphal Curse - Direct Mitigation: Reduces the difficulty of encounters by roughly 10%.

[ ] Apocryphal Curse - Tribulation: Slightly increases the difficulty of encounters, but the Apocryphal Curse will not trigger more than once per month, starting next month.

mh.. I think I'd go with Tribulation. Getting the CERTAINTY of having some rest time would be nice, and would allow us to better prepare for the challenge. We could make certain to always be well rested and healed a month from the previous encounter, and we could leave civilization when the time nears to avoid collateral damage.

Also I think that Tribulation synergizes pretty well with Huntress Moon, giving us basically higher chances of getting at least a Hunger Sated chance each month.

Yeah, I think this would be my plan, 3 mitigations, all for the "lateral thinking" solutions: Huntress' moon, Trusted Counsel and Tribulation.

Rihaku said:
Thread participation has yielded 2 of the 3 the following options! Pick 1:

[ ] +0.5 Arete
[ ] Extra +Gisena
~~[ ] An Insight Into Mitigation: Veschlengorge~~

Gisena. I won't be too disappointed if Arete wins, but Arete is, all things considered, easier to get through discussions and arguments. SHame about us not getting the chance to take the insight though, even if I think I'd STILL take Gisena all things considered.

1075 words.

BrainInAJar · Oct 9, 2020

Hey, why not jump on the bandwagon? It's basically my vote anyways.

[X] Conjured Blade

I do wonder if Aobaru as the legendary chosen park manager as some sort of intuition for maintaining park infrastructure. Even if not, we should probably involve him anyway, since stuff like this will likely be his responsibility in the future.

TooSlow · Oct 9, 2020

I wonder what would happen if we shaped our Pressure into a sigil of the arcanist?

OctarineShrike · Oct 9, 2020

TooSlow said:
I wonder what would happen if we shaped our Pressure into a sigil of the arcanist?

Pressure is like Gravity. Exerted by our Spirit in proportion to our Rank, with some potential for manipulation via our will and if Letrezia is helping, Sharpbright. I think it's a serious stretch to consider that a viable medium for writing runes.

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For more theorycrafting, I realized that Gisena's Eyes are normally Blue. They go Green with Flecks of Blue and Gold per Lady of the Lake. Those blue flecks could be Gisena's natural Eye color. If Seram is to be believed Findross is colored Gold. Implications unclear. Like what Elixirdross actually looks like? It also leads to the potential hypothesis that True Quintessence is ISH Elevated Findross, that the blue accompanying the golden runes is the blue of the wake of Hunger's Sword and the blue of the Praxis.

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