#1035 Words
Okay, yes, maybe if we had picked different tools in the past we would be more prepared for this fight. But with how the Apocryphal Curse works, it's totally possible that it would throw an opponent at us that fucked over whatever build that was as well. Save the speculating about could-have-beens for when we inevitably lose a fight badly. Apocryphal finds a hole to hurt Hunger no matter what, and the only thing to do about that is to diagnose and examine failures right when they happen, because any alt-timelines which are further divergent than that vary too much for us to say.
Overall, I don't actually think the wheels have really come off our build when we think about this fight, either offensively or defensively. Neither Procyon nor Fervenweirr is a uniquely bad matchup, imo. Like, this is pretty much a direct confrontation between the Armament's Power and Hunger's Power. We have Rank equalization techniques, we have offensive measures that are direct (Deathly Star) and indirect (high tier Bloodcasting) and defensive measures that are sure to be relevant (but probably not inviolable) unless the Shroud is a hard-counter.
The only features of this proc that are uniquely bad for us are the timing (before Pillars), the battlefield (Nilfel just got a major investment of our energy) and the Armament's stats. Otherwise it's a lot like Augustine-take 2. Hell, even the unfortunate timing on Pillars allows us to fight without concern for long-term complications to Hunger, because we'll have 3 weeks to lick our wounds and relax/ recover before returning to the Voyaging Realm.
Our opponent has the following characteristics:
- Rank 10 Astral Pressure
- The ability to deploy a Shroud
- Physical stats corresponding to the size of a fuckhuge Robot
- These most likely far exceed Hunger's own parameters
- A fully loaded & maintained suite of specialized Sci-Fi weapons
- Unique attacks related to the Plenary Brand or Doom of Lunacy
- Support troops with technology and weapons superior to the Legions of Nilfel
- Support Mages of unknown ability
- An advantageous set of Rules of Engagement
- They don't have to care about collateral damage
By contrast, Hunger has the following loadout:
Offensively:
- We have high enough rank to contend directly with the Armament (outside the Shroud, which remains a total mystery box afaik).
- We have +ISH on that Rank
- We have +ISH on the reality warping effect of the Ring of Blood
- We have +ISH on an attack that was described like this:
She was maimed horribly, but now came her retaliation, a blast of transcendental magic from runes freshly - and brutally - carved into her own flesh, raggedly infused with blood and marrow. Augustine marshaled such force as to reduce entire worlds to ash, a pantheon-slaying strike of truly foremost malice.
The obverse reflection of Augustine's supreme offense, absorbed and now reflected by the Cloak of Sky. This is an onslaught of sheer destroying force that strikes across every level of the physical and conceptual gradient, targeting Health as well as the target's Attributes, both fundamental and emergent. Virtually no defense short of perfection absolute can shield against all the vectors by which this strikes. Cancel the apocalypse by marshaling power greater still.
- Note: The Walls of Myth are described as having a defensive parameter above mere Astral pressure (Rank). The Signs of the Empyrean seem to draw from the same Well of Myth. Pitting our existing Signs against Pressure might be a really good matchup.
- We have +ISH on the Power of Ruin, multiplied elevenfold thanks to the effects of Whiteout
- We have +ISH on both Artful Thorn and Refinement of Quickness, which can be used more often thanks to Adorie's bloodline.
- We have +ISH on physical parameters thanks to Aobaru's True Vigorflame
- We have +ISH on various non-Praxis sword techniques like the fell handed stroke & bladewinds (which might've been subsumed by Cut Through, tbh)
- This might actually be ++ISH, depending on how you read the blurb for Cut Through
- We have +ISH on the domains from the Tears of Winter,
- Their dominion includes: ice, cold, rulership, intellect, calculation, beauty, finesse, quickness, overwhelming power, the season of Winter, grandeur, truth, and purity.
Defensively:
- We have +ISH on a perfect defense from Silver of Evening
- We have +ISH on the Armor of Midnight, which by default grants infinite PROT and universe-scale magic resistance
- Note: The Walls of Myth are described as having a defensive parameter above mere Astral pressure (Rank). The Signs of the Empyrean seem to draw from the same Well of Myth. Pitting our existing Signs against Pressure might be a really good matchup.
- We have +ISH on the power of Ruin against incoming attacks
- We have +ISH on the power of Holy Shit, which guarantees intimidation against non-Armament enemies
- We have +ISH on Edeldross infusion
- We have +ISH on Ring of Blood regenerative abilities
- Note: Many of the Ring abilities convert one stat into another; I'm not sure how to interpret the effects of +0.2 ISH for such blurbs as Vigor Incarnate.
- We have +ISH on the protection for our allies from Undying Vanguard
- We have +ISH on Hunger's memetic appeal via Triumphal Gleam
- This will let us do PR damage control if/when we walk away from the fight with the armament having saved Nilfel a second time within a month
- We have +ISH on the rank-equalizing effects of Hero-Defeating Stance + Bastion of Myth.
- The effect of being at a minor disadvantage from Rank disparity (10 vs 9.7) should be almost completely mitigated
With all of our abilities, this is
still a 5-pick fight. Hunger has not received the benefits of Fisher King (which we took because we thought we didn't need immediate power against Augustine). Hunger has not received the benefits of Pillars of Creation (which we
got because we killed Augustine). That's 5 picks invested into potential without any payoff yet. Hunger has not received the benefits of Birdsie's contribution to the Digital Waterfall.
It would be utterly tragic to leave all this potential completely unrealized. A vote for
[ ] Call Up is a vote to leverage Hunger's Progression into a semblance of safety. After hitting you with the wall of text above, I just want you to consider the following three reasons to vote for
[ ] Call Up:
- Progression is one of Hunger's abilities. That means that OaF II granted at least +0.1 ISH to the power of Progression itself. Hunger is a Progression Type whose growth curve just got even faster. Grinding a pick from a Chromatic Beast is the only option we have that uses Hunger's strongest ability against Procyon.
- The Republic has a tactical advantage from the rules of engagement, but Hunger has a strategic advantage from positioning and fortification. The Walls of Myth are noted to have parameters higher than mere pressure. Call Up is an effective way of turning that strategic advantage into power.
- There is more than 30 Arete in the bank right now. Call Up gives us the chance to turn that into power without needing a GM rescue like being allowed to go into Pick Debt for a Praxis technique.
- (Can you imagine fighting Procyon while in Pick debt??)
If I manage to write any more before the update drops, I'd like to try proposing some tactics for meeting the Arcanist. I'll also discuss some of the ways that our companions might be able to contribute in each outcome (Hold the Line or Call Up.)
...
I mean, neither Ringlord* nor Assault Halo would change much in this particular situation. Something like Aobaru's EFB would, but we both didn't know about OaF II back then and we choose not to get it for completely reasonable rationale of saving for our core upgrades - it's just that we got ganked before getting to them.
*well, with our Social Rank at 10.5 maybe convincing Procyon to fuck off might be a possibility, although that doesn't sounds like something that would actually happen
The vote that
lost us this fight really mattered was when we passed on
heartpiercer!!!
