A Simple Transaction I
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
- Original
It's always interesting to see the sorts of stories that slumber inside of people. There are allusions to Never Die Twice with the Pale Serpents, the list of elements in HMS seems Aerbian in origin, and other inspirations that I'm sure I missed. A fascinating array of worlds, each hinting at pools of passionate worldbuilding just waiting for the player to dive in. I'm glad posting something of mine inspired you to share this. Now, for a build (1071 words):
El-Ahrairah
Insertion Point: Alheria (+3)
Magics: Eight Divisions: Violet (1), The System (1), The Diamond Perfection (4)
Benefits: Satan Shrugged (1), The Lucky Devil (1)
Drawbacks: The Drifter's Curse (+1), The Dreaming Forest (+2), Anti-Citizen One (+2)
The prince with a thousand enemies. In exchange for avoiding the doom of Damocles that is Turenval's interest, I pick up a handful of lesser adversaries to pay for my overweening greed. Really, if there was ever a build that actually deserved Stonesnout's curse it'd be this one. Not only is Alheria's atmosphere of wonder appealing, the world has a proven track record of producing glorious paragons. It's a shame about all those wizard death squads mistakenly (?) believing I committed some atrocity or other.
The idea here is to escape and play my enemies off against one another until they can be outscaled. The Drifter is insane and thus not inclined to rational cooperation, Flagland's stooges dutifully obey the laws set down by their Shining Emperor, and Vedara treats the Dreaming Forest as her own personal playground. One could hardly ask for a more motley cast of antagonists. It's the last who I'll target with Satan Shrugged; the domain of which Daa'Nazhd's the capital should be broad enough to count as valid.
Anti-Citizen One is the most dangerous in the long term because of its ability to escalate into calling on Henrietta, Dominique, or even Tyrmillion himself. Violet means spatial/temporal powers can be used to get out of dodge, so evading Flagland's hunters rather than fighting them and raising my threat level's the goal. I couldn't make a build named after a trickster god without taking Lucky Devil; the mythic archetype may play into the logic-loose rules governing Alheria and some choice lies could have my hunters doubting.
Between that and Diamond's omnicompetence, the initial stages of Anti-Citizen can be evaded without much trouble. Anti-synergy between the two would be unfortunate, since Diamond's described as the opposite of a demon, but hopefully Games in Silver follows Pathfinder rules and they're different breeds. The grace period here should be spent on training Eight Divisions and seeking out System-granted opportunities, ideally weapons and provisions. Because as soon as the Dreaming Forest manifests, the insurgency will begin.
El-Ahrairah dislikes Vedara, as this version of me has leaned into the mental alterations of Satan Shrugged. The Silvered Isle is not large enough for the both of us. Why should the Forest suffer this creature's cruelty, her selfishness and vanity? Let justice be meted out at long last, the predator finally become prey. Listen to the secrets whispered by woodland creatures as the First Devil did, tame them like the Fourth, and wreak havoc. Use System & Diamond to fuel the Divisions and whatever abilities Satan coughs up.
I actually debated going Green and making a pet class, but concluded that would be playing into Vedara's strengths. Violet's just too useful, considering all the people after my head and the Dreaming Forest's spatial shenanigans. Using it as a shelter from strike teams and the Drifter is nice, but I don't want to stay forever. Killing Vedara and conquering the Fortress of Daa'Nazhd is only the first huge hurdle. It's unclear where the Drifter fits into this timeline, since he'll make a detour to recover Crimson Riot first.
He'll be stronger, but will arrive later. If he can just be disposed of and the blades recovered, that's a fair bit of additional strength for me (one reason I took the drawback). Alas, anyone who Turenval took the time to personally fuck with is likely not a laughing matter. The Drifter's power outstrips his sanity and he believes me responsible for his suffering, so why not play another game of cat and mouse? See if I can't lure him into attacking the Fortress and doing a bit of the heavy lifting for me.
As for Anti-Citizen, disappearing into the Dreaming Forest may delay them but I doubt any drawback that nets me two orbs can be so easily resolved. At least Vedara seems the type to be territorial about her prey. But long after the Huntress-Queen and Drifter have been disposed of, I suspect this drawback will still be haunting me. But by judiciously avoiding provoking Flagland, perhaps a diplomatic resolution can eventually be achieved as my crimes slip further and further into the past?
Tyrmillion's a curious character. The 'cold in his mind' is odd phrasing, implying an external influence as opposed to cynicism masquerading as wisdom. But attempting to guess the mind of the Shining Emperor from afar's folly... though not as insane as actually asking Flagland's ruler when he gave up on his dreams, amusing as such a scenario would be. If there's no peace to be had with Flagland, well, this build has enough long term potential to eventually tangle at the higher tiers.
The Eight Divisions cap out without external improvements, but are broad enough that years can be spent mastering their palette, so it pairs well with the System and Diamond Perfection. If El-Ahrairah's strategy pays off, I'll have both Blue Rose and Crimson Riot and the physical powers accumulated during my campaign of Satanic Shrugging on top of everything else. The rebel has become a ruler, the guile that overthrew the Dreaming Forest's tyrant now turned to the task of taming it.
Rufescent Magic might also go well with a variant of this build, dropping Divisions and Devil. Inventory all the iron the System can handle before I get Forest-napped, abuse the strategic learning speed while converting slain hunting parties into wraiths. It incentivizes a more aggressive strategy versus Flagland, though. I also considered replacing Eight Divisions with Immaculate, hoping that the luck boosts from it and Devil would stack, but El-Ahrairah honestly needs some meat-and-potatoes magic to benefit from its long-term potential and it's unclear whether an Exemplar-equivalent would be redundant or synergistic with Diamond.
Real question, though: what happened to the Seventh Devil?
Just unlocks it. So we still need to praxis training and spend 25 Arete. Don't forget the 3 pick fight. It would be very awkward if we die here. I am a bit hesitant for it, now that I think about it. Let's drop the risks for a bit. The 5 pick fight, while awesome was dangerous.
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OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Goals Time! We're getting more build vote after this update and should make our decisions accordingly.
0. Repayment of Nilfel for Platinum taken - We still have not spent the essence or put mundane platinum in the fonts if we need to do that still. True Companions supports the development of new options via Gisena if need be, as does Ambrosial Tinge in the form of selling our blood, and perhaps Ring of Essence
1. Decimators Affliction management - Anything that Takes Fisher King helps manage it. True Companions can be used to get Gisena progress to stage 3 mitigation. Ambrosial Tinge can be used on public water supplies to mitigate damage caused by brief periods of Decimation. The Essence Shenanigans of Ring of Essence could also lead to something useful here.
2. Dealing with Aobaru's Terminator - Companions of the King makes Aobaru into a harder target. Beyond that, anything that provides more immediate power improves our ability to protect Aobaru
3. Getting Letrezia out of the Voyaging Realm - No obvious insights
4. Getting ourself/Aeira/Aobaru out of the Voyaging Realm - No obvious insights
5. Conquering the Human Sphere - Everything seems conceivably useful
6. Successful Odds of Vengeance/Avoiding Death by Epilogue - Majesty, True Champions, and November Sky all seem conducive to this, as does Fisher King in general.
7. Ruling Well - Majesty is the optimum choice here. Full Wombo combo once you get Grail Keeper online.
8. Curse Mitigation - Fisher King is Decimation Management. Ambrosial Tinge is Decimation Management. Ring of Essence has the potential for Decimation Management. True Companions can be used to get Gisena closer to Stage 3 mitigation.
Word Count: 271 Words
0. Repayment of Nilfel for Platinum taken - We still have not spent the essence or put mundane platinum in the fonts if we need to do that still. True Companions supports the development of new options via Gisena if need be, as does Ambrosial Tinge in the form of selling our blood, and perhaps Ring of Essence
1. Decimators Affliction management - Anything that Takes Fisher King helps manage it. True Companions can be used to get Gisena progress to stage 3 mitigation. Ambrosial Tinge can be used on public water supplies to mitigate damage caused by brief periods of Decimation. The Essence Shenanigans of Ring of Essence could also lead to something useful here.
2. Dealing with Aobaru's Terminator - Companions of the King makes Aobaru into a harder target. Beyond that, anything that provides more immediate power improves our ability to protect Aobaru
3. Getting Letrezia out of the Voyaging Realm - No obvious insights
4. Getting ourself/Aeira/Aobaru out of the Voyaging Realm - No obvious insights
5. Conquering the Human Sphere - Everything seems conceivably useful
6. Successful Odds of Vengeance/Avoiding Death by Epilogue - Majesty, True Champions, and November Sky all seem conducive to this, as does Fisher King in general.
7. Ruling Well - Majesty is the optimum choice here. Full Wombo combo once you get Grail Keeper online.
8. Curse Mitigation - Fisher King is Decimation Management. Ambrosial Tinge is Decimation Management. Ring of Essence has the potential for Decimation Management. True Companions can be used to get Gisena closer to Stage 3 mitigation.
Word Count: 271 Words
Strange9
hdellaverson@gmail.com
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
Didn't Oath of Winter make this a non-issue?
There is some misunderstanding here regarding Fisher King. It only works on territories that we rule. Also the range is massive (Combat Cursebearer was solar system range and we have long since passed that). We don't rule Nilfel (Adorie is the Sovereign and we have to kill her if we want to rule it), we only rule the Spa Resort. FK gets online in late game when we control stuff.
- Location
- Louisiana
I wonder if the ring option has potential curse mitigation? It's capable of resisting/draining essence of purely esoteric things. Just something to consider.
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
At the same time though...
Ah yes. Fair enough. I should probably get rid of that for future goals analysis since us leaving the VR with Adorie seems like a settled Goal.
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Tangentially/To the Thread in general, I realized something about November Sky. If that and nothing else is taken, we're in good condition for the gambit that part 2 of the build vote will have something better.
SJUC is a good combo due to the Rank increase.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
you fool
rihaku hasn't even begun to devils advocate
by tomorrow evening a write-in to buy once-and-future II will be in the lead
Opalescence + Iridescense + Pearlescence would be the true winning vote
Tyrant_Rayne
Probably Not Evil… Maybe
- Location
- Canada
[ ] Generic Litrpg Protagonist
[ ] Alheria
[ ] The System (1 orb)
[ ] Immaculate (1 orb)
[ ] The Lucky Devil (1 orb)
[ ] Arcadia's Heart (2 orbs)
[ ] The Intimation of the Pompadour (3 orbs)
[ ] The Drifter's Curse (+1 orb)
[ ] Alice In Wonderland (+1 orb, alternate insertion point)
[ ] Immersive Mode (+1 orb)
[ ] The Dreaming Forest (+2 orbs)
Here's another build for Birdsie's CYOA. This is more of a joke build than anything else. I'm basically going all in on luck to try and get the closest thing to plot armour there is in this world short of diamond. I'm going to have some dangerous enemies but such is the fate of a heroic protagonist. Alice is because with my luck I have very good odds of surviving the dangers in this time period. Heck with my heroic protagonist abilities I may be able to get done really strong companions who'll help me. With all of the OP freaks running around there has to be someone out there both willing and able to lend a weirdo calling themselves a hero a hand.
[ ] Alheria
[ ] The System (1 orb)
[ ] Immaculate (1 orb)
[ ] The Lucky Devil (1 orb)
[ ] Arcadia's Heart (2 orbs)
[ ] The Intimation of the Pompadour (3 orbs)
[ ] The Drifter's Curse (+1 orb)
[ ] Alice In Wonderland (+1 orb, alternate insertion point)
[ ] Immersive Mode (+1 orb)
[ ] The Dreaming Forest (+2 orbs)
Here's another build for Birdsie's CYOA. This is more of a joke build than anything else. I'm basically going all in on luck to try and get the closest thing to plot armour there is in this world short of diamond. I'm going to have some dangerous enemies but such is the fate of a heroic protagonist. Alice is because with my luck I have very good odds of surviving the dangers in this time period. Heck with my heroic protagonist abilities I may be able to get done really strong companions who'll help me. With all of the OP freaks running around there has to be someone out there both willing and able to lend a weirdo calling themselves a hero a hand.
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DarkSideBard
Flying, without moving on
[X] True Champions
Really happy to finish Fisher King, and also tick my beloved Companions of the King off the list, finally. I never really thought it would come back like this, and I'm pleasantly surprised!
Maybe next time we'll even get offered Slice Fate! Gotta accumulate those Rank 9 Sorceresses, don't ya know.
Really happy to finish Fisher King, and also tick my beloved Companions of the King off the list, finally. I never really thought it would come back like this, and I'm pleasantly surprised!
Maybe next time we'll even get offered Slice Fate! Gotta accumulate those Rank 9 Sorceresses, don't ya know.
Lealope
Not yet invincible
- Pronouns
- She/Her
great idea!
[X] The True King - Fisher King + Once and Future II. 37 Arete + 4 picks.
hey there Forebear, it's me, ya boy.
And hey, there's an actual vote to be had alongside all the CYOA mischief the thread's been getting up to. I'll go with True Champions for now, my highest priority for this training sequence was finishing Fisher King. Since we've filled all five of our Vanguard slots (Gisena, Letrizia, Aeira, Aobaru, Adorie) and are traveling as a team, Companions of the King is quite strong. +50% to All Stats, perfect teamwork, +100% to all Rank-ups attained with the full party participating. Useful, since Rank is both more valuable and harder to come by at Hunger's present heights.
Perhaps we can finally dispense with the mercenary transactional bullshit and forge some true legends? Sword in the Stone would be a powerful answer to Apocryphal procs, but the phylactery function's replicated in part by Companions' resurrection ritual. Spending this much Arete on upgrading allies does hurt, but Aobaru's got a terminator coming after him. If he dies, we'll suffer Apocryphal Onslaught. Given that the 20-50% boost from Cursebearer's Strain (was it ever confirmed how badly that roll went?) dropped Procyon on us, powering him up and making the rest of the group less of a liability's in our best interests.
[X] True Champions
[X] Buy Fisher King regardless
Perhaps we can finally dispense with the mercenary transactional bullshit and forge some true legends? Sword in the Stone would be a powerful answer to Apocryphal procs, but the phylactery function's replicated in part by Companions' resurrection ritual. Spending this much Arete on upgrading allies does hurt, but Aobaru's got a terminator coming after him. If he dies, we'll suffer Apocryphal Onslaught. Given that the 20-50% boost from Cursebearer's Strain (was it ever confirmed how badly that roll went?) dropped Procyon on us, powering him up and making the rest of the group less of a liability's in our best interests.
[X] True Champions
[X] Buy Fisher King regardless
Yeah, once OaF III's blurb arrives on the scene all this support for teamwork and the aforementioned arguments'll go up in smoke.
Lealope
Not yet invincible
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This also seems like a pretty powerful effect. The only Investiture tech we've seen thus far is Refinement of Battle, if the others can improve our abilities to a similar degree, being able to stack five times as many is a significant advantage.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
It is, but we completely lack any such abilities at the moment and are frankly unlikely to gain any in the next month since we will likely not have the down time needed for Praxis during our initial foray into the human sphere and we are likely to be able to gain this in the next couple months. Rihaku warned offers wouldn't be consistent, but we know that by taking more fights we can learn to make them so. Likely getting categories of effects like "cheaper praxis" is or will be possible relatively soon. Ish.
Magical_Duck
The One Who Quacks
- Location
- A Pond
- Pronouns
- Duck
[X] Buy Fisher King regardless
[X] Ambrosial Tinge
"... Quack?"
[X] Ambrosial Tinge
"... Quack?"
I want to remind people that vote for Ring of Essence for Ring War concerns, Gisena has a Ring as well. We might be immune to the Ring War but she is not and we have to fight for her or risk losing the Ring to the Ruling One.
Really excited for the Essence Ring's powers (50 Arete 5 picks DA!), but sadly that would waste our current investiture into Fisher King. Maybe we could acquire another Core Panoply effect and continue whee we left off at some later point, but then we could also get the Essence Ring later, without skipping out on Fisher King's Decimator Mitigation in the interim.
And speaking of Fisher King, while the other EFBs are cool, we didn't vote for Decimator Mitigation last time, so it's pretty much a must by this point. I trust Rihaku to know what it fits best with, so it's a choice between the first two EFBs for me. Majesty gives more personal power while Champion diffuses that power into our Companions. Combined with the opportunity for Gisena to get more Graces, I think Champion gives more benefits overall, so
[X] True Champions
Not as certain about turning Hunger into a drug dealer, but surely he will handle his blood responsibly! Nothing quite says 'Divine Right' like becoming a living, walking source of Ambrosia...
[X] Ambrosial Tinge
And speaking of Fisher King, while the other EFBs are cool, we didn't vote for Decimator Mitigation last time, so it's pretty much a must by this point. I trust Rihaku to know what it fits best with, so it's a choice between the first two EFBs for me. Majesty gives more personal power while Champion diffuses that power into our Companions. Combined with the opportunity for Gisena to get more Graces, I think Champion gives more benefits overall, so
[X] True Champions
Not as certain about turning Hunger into a drug dealer, but surely he will handle his blood responsibly! Nothing quite says 'Divine Right' like becoming a living, walking source of Ambrosia...
[X] Ambrosial Tinge