A Simple Transaction I

[beowolf]

It would make more sense to do a mad-scientist battle if we'd gotten Heroic Flare + Tower Above, but Tower only (or Flare Only) seems like a recipe for defeat.

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So, I want to comment on this, because I've had a thought since we first saw Gifts Of Plenty, which is that if my vote for Heroic Flare had won, we might actually have taken Ring Of Essence instead of Fisher King. The synergy between those two could well be better than Ruling Ring even in potential, and would actually give us the versatility and range to confront Dien with nothing else.

 

[Rihaku]

lofi hiphop beats to stop being a child soldier to

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Letrizia is an adult! No matter what Gisena says.

 

[Sharkey_smt]

Letrizia is an adult! No matter what Gisena says.

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No matter who you are, you will feel like a child when compared to Hunger and Gisena in battle.

 

[ilbgar123]

You know what would be amazing? If Haeliel showed up during the Pillars proc. It's quite likely that she wouldn't be able to stay for the whole thing, and teaching us Ordinalism would probably be time-consuming enough to be it's own week-AP, which would mean we couldn't do Amazing Grace for the first week, but the benefits from the Ordinals for the group would be immense, and Gisena would likely octuple-down on mind-buffing Ordinals to boost her Graces, giving her a massive leg up on Grace creation. We might not even need to go for Amazing Grace to get the remaining Majors from the previous Pillars proc. We could then spend the middle weak trying to finally fix our Blade if Haeliel can't, or Always Forward-ing if she can, and spend our EFB's worth of Arete in the last week.

Hey @OctarineShrike what do you think? Haven't seen you do an Ordinals assessment in a while, and circumstances have definitely changed.

 

[Sharkey_smt]

ould Lord Hunger and his allies merge into some sort of unstoppable memetic super-juggernaut, thematic mirror to Dien's own ascent atop the bodies of his unwitting lackeys?

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Apoc knows Closing the fist is good, Dien knows Closing the fist is good, why do we ignore it so much ? Let's try get it from the Pillars.

 

[ilbgar123]

Apoc knows Closing the fist is good, Dien knows Closing the fist is good, why do we ignore it so much ? Let's try get it from the Pillars.

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I know I'll be voting for it. Perhaps the full version will allow for some actual Panoply-merging experimentation, since the complete version should be easier to turn on and off.

 

[Tyrant_Rayne]

Apoc knows Closing the fist is good, Dien knows Closing the fist is good, why do we ignore it so much ? Let's try get it from the Pillars.

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I voted for it during the last praxis point and I'll do it again, especially now that we've seen Strife. I just hope we'll have enough Arete to get both.

 

[ilbgar123]

I voted for it during the last praxis point and I'll do it again, especially now that we've seen Strife. I just hope we'll have enough Arete to get both.

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It has been three weeks(well, 2 and 4 days), and we had at least 35 post-Promising Lead. It's not impossible. It could be like the Haeliel vote and we manage to edge it out through a Third Omake War, though it's likely to be somewhat less impressive than the second, seeing as I've only got about 25K in the tank, and my muse isn't getting much out per day.

 

[Zampano]

For your edification, here are some Graces from EFB. It really does seem like we made the best call if our goal was to optimize Artificer Gisena: Archsmith's Hammer's output is strength limited, but Vanquisher's Blade granted a dramatic boost to physical stats.

A Sorceress that goes True Perfecting Blade (from RW) into Vanquisher's Blade (from RoE1) will be allowed to produce more artifacts than a Sorceress that beelined for Archsmith's Hammer first. I am honestly getting pretty hyped up for the second Pillars Jaunt (RoE2) because it might end up with Gisena stepping back into the Human Sphere and immediately operating at a level higher than anything we've seen onscreen so far. After all, Clarion + Apex were enough of a boost to the Azure Ring that the blurb talks about Armament scale equipment.

During the first jaunt, two weeks and 12 Arete were enough to grant Gisena three major Graces. Hunger is now 50 pluses Wiser. I wonder what two weeks and 12 Arete would buy us this time?

Edit to add: My priorities / Wishlist would be:
S Tier: Gisena - Archsmith's Hammer + Evoker's Panoply
A Tier: Gisena - Grace of the Glaze
B Tier: Gisena - Mental Apex
C Tier: Hunger - Hyperreactor (To kill Dien)
D Tier: Gisena - Clarion Grace
F Tier: Hunger - Clarion Grace (wits -> Bloodcasting + Combat INT via Honing)

Cursebearer, Select your First Grace:

[ ] Archsmith's Hammer - Through arduous study and honest labor, the Sorcerer forges the ephemeral from the real. Material drawn from the earth can be smoten into the shape of his desires, their very natures bending to the dictates of his blueprint. Made malleable in the blast furnace of his mind, gross matter strains and compresses, folded over and refined into something greater, set forth into a path whose inscrutable logic is analogous and yet parallel to that of human technology. Mighty is the Archsmith - mighty his arms, mighty his armor. Let those who would stand against him never forget that fact, lest they be trampled beneath the iron march of Progress made flesh.

*May alter the properties of materials in simplistic, yet extraordinarily potent ways in order to create arms and armor
*While peripheral accessories can be built-in, they will never remotely attain the effectiveness of the item's core purpose
*Arms - Core Purpose: Destruction
*Armor - Core Purpose: Protection from Harm
*A limit of one Working, plus one Working per 50 baseline points of Strength (rounded normally), is permitted. If limit is reached, an existing Working must be Shattered to create anew.
*If Dr. Apocalypse is ever met, he will hate and relentlessly attempt to kill the character. Nothing can stop this.
*This is not a joke. If ever the character is transported to Dr. Apocalypse's world, the character will have to contend with an indestructibly hostile Dr. Apocalypse. For reference, Dr. Apocalypse with prep is capable of going toe-to-toe with the likes of Lex Luthor or Dr. Doom (also with prep).

Gain Skill, <The Translucent Craft>, which permits the creation of Workings of greater sophistication.

Examples of unsophisticated Workings: A sword whose edge cuts as solar fire. Armor comparable to battleship plate, yet with the weight of aluminum.

Examples of sophisticated Workings: A lens, mounted on cogitator arms, that channels light the color of the sky, which instantly targets and annihilates those to whom the forger has hostile intent. A swarm of seeking darts in the form of blood-gold birds, each with the intelligence of a savant and a single-minded devotion to their target's destruction. A towering automaton of riveted golden plates, within which can be housed a man whose movements it shall mimic, and whom it shall efficaciously shelter against insults physical and exotic.

[ ] Hyper Reactor - A singularity of findross leads to a Coalescence. Alongside the insight comes the power to act on it. Power unfathomable in this world of men and Sorceresses. The Power to give, and the Power to take away. With a supreme exertion of the self, Coalescence may be induced within a target. And with the inverse exertion, Coalescence may instead be dispersed.

An [Ultimate-Only] Grace with two functions: Sever Coalescence, and Induce Coalescence. May only be used on a given target once.

Ultimate - Induce Coalescence: Target human female becomes a Sorceress, or, if already a Sorceress, immediately undergoes her next Coalescence in the serial order. Use of this ability puts the Grace on cooldown for one year. Works on the caster, if she is female. Cooldown increased dramatically in worlds without natural findross saturation.

Alternatively, Induce Coalescence may be used on any human, male or female, to artificially grant them an additional Coalescence with a Grace of the highest caliber. Use of this ability puts the Grace on cooldown for ten years. Works on the caster. Cooldown increased dramatically in worlds without natural findross saturation.

Ultimate - Sever Coalescence: Point at target. Target Sorceress immediately loses her highest Coalescence, reverting to mortality if she was only of the First Coalescence. The target will find it exceptionally difficult to advance in Coalescence. Use of this ability puts the Grace on cooldown for one month.

Alternatively, Target Sorceress or Sorcerer loses all Coalescences and forevermore is stripped of the ability to Coalesce. Use of this ability puts the Grace on cooldown for one year.

[ ] Reversion - All things tend to entropy. The slow decay of aeons afflicts even the mighty, ensures that even the most dearly-bought of achievements will one day scatter into dust. No longer. The Sorcerer's self now tends towards something like the opposite of entropy. This effect is swift, relentless, and total: any hostile effect that works on the Sorcerer's body or mind is quickly and unerringly reverted. All effects susceptible to temporal reversion can be removed this way, though no negatives of such (i.e. amnesia) apply. The power is discerning and understands the difference between a hostile effect and natural unhappiness. In worlds with natural findross saturation, aging is reverted until the character reaches their physical prime.

*At baseline, cures damage at a rate of 100 HP / second. Reverses negative effects at a rate of one / 5 seconds.
*As long as the character's consciousness is not instantly destroyed (many attacks targeting the brain fail to do this), this power will continue to function.
*The character's sense of physical pain is reduced by a factor of their Wits.
*The power of this Grace naturally improves over time.

Ultimate - Make Whole: Restores one Loss. Resurrects one person, or fully repairs one object. Resurrection is perfect, total, and unerring, and can target any person in the world that died in the last year. If the target was of advanced age, they are restored to healthy middle age. Make Whole restores the original person in flawless health. It does not summon an alternate version of the person, it does not create a physically indistinguishable copy, it does not reach back in time to prevent that person's death - it fully and unconditionally restores that person, including their thread of subjective consciousness, as well as all powers and capabilities possessed. Objects affected have their charges replenished.

The use of Make Whole reverts the progression of this Grace by one year. If a year has not passed, instead this Grace is deactivated for the difference. Make Whole does not work on the caster.

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Second and Third Graces

Seram has selected [X] Reversion as his first Grace.

Cursebearer, please select your Second Grace:

[ ] Evoker's Panoply - The armamentarium of a wizard true. The crack of thunder, the blossoming detonation, the hurled thunderbolt, the freedom of the skies. The power to bind findross towards destructive purpose, to shape the warp and weft of incarnate grace into death, unerring and swift.

*The power to shape findross into flame, thunder, lightning or force. Constructs manifested by findross do not behave exactly like their naturalistic counterparts. Lightning will go where it is thrown and not immediately ground itself, etc. They cleave closer to intutions of "how magical <fire, etc> should work" than any deterministic mechanism. Recommended Stats: Dex, Wits, LOCKED I.
*Enables easy and fast personal flight, personal shielding, and area communication.
*Only one's personal findross may be shaped; improving findross output will dramatically increase damage
*Grants skill, <Wield Findross>, which can be employed to create effects of greater complexity and efficiency.

Examples of basic effects: Personal flight. Force shield. Hurl force-bolt. Hurl conflagration.
Example of advanced effects: Area flight. Programmable fire. Generate (extremely loud) music. Simulate telekinesis.

[ ] Tide of Glory - Not a champion's power, but a general's. Not a murderer's power, but a sovereign's. The character may designate any number of characters within a 1-mile radius as allies. Allies receive a +2 bonus to all physical stats. The character may designate enemies under the same parameters. Enemies receive a -2 penalty to all physical stats. In addition, the character may choose one Perk to be extended to allies for whom the relevant post-bonus physical stat exceeds 30 points; Perks will modify themselves to suit mortal wielders (Ever After increases healthspan / lifespan by 25 years, etc). In time, both the symmetrical bonus/penalty and the range can be improved dramatically. Passive aura, works even if unconscious.

The power to raise nations up, or to beggar them. To lead armies into glory everlasting, or crush them beneath one's boot-heels.

Ultimate - Overlord's Remit: Only a fool would challenge an overlord such as the character, and no overlord worthy of the title suffers fools lightly. Once per month, the character may propogate the effects of a single unarmed physical attack through all enemies in range.

*Grants the ability to sense the location of all valid targets within the character's general vicinity
*It is easy to improve the bonus/penalty to +4. +8 is achievable within a moderate timeframe. Beyond that, sustained effort is required.
*The bonus applies to the character if they so desire, though no Perk is granted.
*Range is more difficult to improve than the bonus/penalty, but with concerted effort it is eminently possible.

[ ] Inner Sanctum - Perhaps the character may never go home again. But that does not mean they cannot make one anew. From the soil of their soul the Cursebearer initiates the genesis of a new world, a personal realm of which they are steward and master. A Rune may be emplaced on items the character owns to send them to and summon them from this Realm near-instantaneously. With time and skill, near all aspects of the Inner Sanctum may be shaped to the character's will.

Ultimate - The World Within: Once a month the character may instantly transport themselves and any consenting beings they are touching to the Inner Sanctum. Barring extremely sophisticated dimensional assault magic, this is the only means of entry or egress. They may stay for up to a week before they must leave, re-appearing at the place where they disappeared. Even those rare attackers that manage to locate and breach the Sanctum within dimensional space must contend with a vastly more formidable Sorcerer than previously encountered, as the realm itself rises to the defense of its creator.

*The Ultimate can be used quickly enough to dodge any attack the character can anticipate
*Gain skill, <Mould Sanctum>, allowing one to customize the properties of the Inner Sanctum. Primary stat: Will Rank.
*By default, the sanctum consists of a fortress (in the character's preferred high medieval or renaissance style) with modern amenities, surrounded by grounds saturated with findross. The fortress measures 27,000 square feet, the grounds roughly one square mile. These sizes cannot be altered. Natural findross ensures a steady supply of breathable air.
*With sufficient time and training, the character may induce the findross of their castle and grounds to produce various unique effects - the generation of food and water, automatic cleansing and repair of facilities, or even more exotic and powerful effects such as armories that replenish the ammunition of weapons placed inside, regenerative hot springs, or a training-room that conjures level-appropriate enemies to battle.
*Ultimate comfiness

Of course, the power to retreat into a nigh-unassailable pocket dimension for a week upon encountering a formidable foe is by itself a near-priceless capability for a Progression-type Cursebearer...

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Cursebearer, please select your Third Grace:

[ ] Lord Regnant - A being's word is their bond. That is as things should be, and findross possesses the superlative quality of making things be as they should. This simple, yet deceptively power capability gives the Sorcerer the power to bind any agreement between two consenting beings. Forevermore they will find themselves not merely incapable of breaking the agreement, but their very nature will change to support the spirit of their compact.

*Brand of the Wretched got you down? Can't trust prospective allies? No problem.
*Defeat means friendship. Or slavery, whichever the Sorcerer prefers.
*An exorbitantly valuable economic service.
*In the pursuit of their oaths, a character can gain up to ten total supplemental levels, even pushing them beyond human limits.
*Beings are fully aware of the gravity of the Sorcerer's binding; this is necessary for them to consent.
*No particular skill is needed. The character merely offers a simple transaction.
*Even if it would benefit him, the Sorcerer is himself completely impervious to any obligation or alteration his power would apply. Beings of sufficient power (level > 1000 x Sorcerer's Coalescences) are similarly unaffected.

[ ] Mental Apex - Before the power of the mind, all things waver. The world yields its secrets; circumstance twists to advantage, and what enemies are not subverted find themselves laid low... And yet for all its prowess, the mind cannot affect the world directly. But mere to touch other minds - that is not such a difficult thing. To break them, to bind them, to overmaster them as one pleases. That, too, is the power of the mind.

This power grants a formidable improvement to the Sorcerer's powers of cogitation, analysis, recall and general reasoning. It is a direct upgrade to that most precious and deadly of powers, intelligence. Additionally, the character may launch psychic assaults to weaken or shatter the minds of others.

Ultimate - True Dominion: Once per month, the Sorcerer may launch an all-out assault upon an enemy's mind, coring out their self to wear them like a puppet. Only one being may be so mastered at a time. Enemies may resist with a composite (Will Rank x 10 + Level) against (Sorcerer's Wits + Level) check; on a success they resist and this ability is still expended, but the Sorcerer suffers no form of backlash or feedback. The Sorcerer controls the target's mind with no loss of signal fidelity, no second-chance at resistance, and no impediments to his normal functioning: multi-tasking is spontaneous and flawless.

*Primary stats: Wits, Will Rank, LOCKED
*Dramatically increases Seram's general intelligence, altering his personality and improving his implementation of plans.
*Psionic assaults take a few seconds of concentration, but are very effective at incapacitating most foes. The Sorcerer does not suffer feedback from failed assaults. The <Psychic Proficiency> Skill can affect success chance and execution speed.
*The Sorcerer can sense minds in their general vicinity, and can 'communicate' with them by sending low-powered psychic attacks with a general impression attached. This is unpleasant for the targets.
*Effectiveness of all Training actions increased by flat 40%.

[ ] Auspice Temporal - Dominion over time itself is offered by this Grace. The Sorcerer gains all the benefits of being temporally accelerated by an order of magnitude (10x) without complications (such as aging) or flaws. This extends to their personal-scale equipment, within reason: exceptionally large weapons may not be viable to wield while this Grace is active. Up to half the character's total waking hours may be spent under the effects of this Grace. Activation is easy and seamless, a mere exertion of will.

Ultimate - Freeze Time: The character stops time for all but themselves for three seconds. They may act normally during this time - for example, slaying an enemy while they are powerless to resist. Sufficiently powerful enemies may be able to resist while time is stopped, but it is unlikely that any but the strongest ithilyor (with foreknowledge and prep) would be able to do so in this world. Use of this ability puts the Grace on cooldown for one month.

*Acceleration factor may be improved slowly over time.
*While active, reduces the cooldown of other Graces except Inner Sanctum.
*Wow, what a broken feature
*Seriously, what the fuck

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Note that Seram will not know of his Third Grace options when selecting his Second Grace. Please take that into account for any arguments on the subject.

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While technically each of the ten Fourth Coalescence Sorceresses are invited to sit the Council, typically only a voting quorum of 5 are present in Joyeuse at any one time, and one Sorceress has never attended. By the laws of Joania the Sorceresses have no official political power, and thus the Council is a semi-informal agent that nonetheless exercise considerable behind the scenes influence. This is mitigated in part by Porcelain Faction Sorceresses whose wholehearted belief in the Implicate Duty has lead them to the conclusion that superhumans should never reign over mortal humanity for fear of being corrupted. In a rather bizarre and near-unprecedented turn of events, mortal political power has been preserved at their behest in a tenuous balance - the most corrupt and unseemly lords are often quietly disposed of by their peers rather than risk the collapse altogether of their power structure.

Porcelain Faction Sorceresses present -

Lady Porcelain
Appearance: Asiatic female of unspecified early middle age. Hair of porcelain blue and skin of porcelain white.
Congenial but also ruthless, especially towards her own kind. Policies Sorceress overreach and abuse of power aggressively. Though she is an exceptionally pleasant person to interact with, she unhesitatingly takes brutal and decisive action against those who threaten her interests. Objects to the use of Sorceress power in steering the overall course of human history.
Graces:
*White Grace - Grants physical invulnerability to herself and those she extends this protection to. Twenty-foot radius.
*Blue Grace - Unknown. Something to do with water and energy; the interaction matrices thereof.
*Grace of the Glaze - Vastly magnifies the power of her other Graces, allegedly to the level of the Maiden herself. Alternatively, enormously reduces the effectiveness of Graces and Elven Runes employed against her.
*Kiln Grace - Eye-beams like twin suns, capable of leveling armies and cities with ease. Homing, though the blast radius makes evasion difficult already.

Lady Emerald
*A kindly older woman, one of the few Sorceresses to exhibit signs of somewhat advanced age (late middle age). Tends towards compassionate resolutions and biases Porcelain to do the same, but is not always effective. Strong dislike of technology.
*A healer of considerable power, also capable of animating the land in her defense. Can animate a contiguous space roughly the size of a small mountain, granting it an investiture of findross that allows it to express supernatural capabilities appropriate to the terrain.
*Other Graces poorly-defined or unknown.

Lady Alabaster
*Appearance of a waifish teen obscured by layered veils. Extremely sickly and weak, does not talk. Writes in votes.
*Power to resurrect the dead in perfect condition, but each use permanently drains her essence.
*Reflexively and instantly turns any hostile object to stone, also locking its place in spacetime for several seconds
*Can turn intangible, becoming impervious to physical interaction and immune to conventional sensory detection

Crimson Faction Sorceresses Present -

Lady Crimson
Appearance: Pale skin, eyes and hair the color of blood, mid-twenties. Typically overdressed - evening or ballroom gowns with excess of stylistic flourishes and ribbons, but goes barefoot.
Impatient and reckless, though loyal to her friends. Believes in the innate superiority of Sorceresses, as evinced by their objectively greater mental speed and (supposedly) judgement. For this reason she is often at odds with the Porcelain. Obsessed with finding 'an interesting foe' to kill, as most enemies are too easy or too non-interactive (Porcelain & allies) for her to enjoy slaughtering.
Graces:
*Pennant - So long as a body part is touching the ground, gain a kinetic sense so accurate it resembles battle precognition. She is loathe to use this except against actually interesting enemies, and consequently tends to float on the Daystar in battle. The sense is not actually linked to the ground - it detects aerial combatants - leading some to speculation this limitation is feigned, just an excuse not to wear shoes.
*Sanguine - Unknown effect, likely grants general empowerment (including of Graces?) with anagathic and regenerative properties.
*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.
*Embroidered - Animates her current outfit. More outlandish outfits are more powerful. Single ribbons can contend with Witch-Slayers without effort.

Lady Vanish
*Appearance of a wild-haired woman, dirty blonde, yellow-gold eyes. Favors heavy armor.
*A serious intellectual concerned with truth and empiricism over ideals. Honestly believes mortals are inferior and it is the Sorceresses' duty to rule over them for their own good. Hates elves, but willing to look past her biases in the pursuit of sound counsel.
*Graces: Extreme physical augmentation, especially of speed. Fast enough to be imperceptible even to lesser Sorceresses. Immunity to poison, disease, and age. Mind control all orcs in an immense radius. Super luck.
*Wields an enchanted sword, more a human-sized slab of steel, with immense magical and kinetic power. Ridged with Elven runes, it exudes an aura of blood magic.

Unaligned Sorceresses Present -

Lady Enchantress
*Appearance of a child, blonde, often seen around the Crimson
*Extremely versatile meta-power Graces allow her to float undisturbed above the petty quarrels of faction and party. Minimal concern with actual rule or the well-being of the human nation. More interested in her work. Since reverting her age, possesses the mentality of a child. Used to be a fair-minded and impartial arbiter between the two factions.
*A number of Graces all of which deal with the imparting, augmentation, reduction, or transformation of supernatural effects. Hard to pin down her exact limits, as one Grace can often substitute for another.
*Very high physical stats.

Lady Abacus
*Appearance of a middle-aged woman, dark skin and hair, tidily coiffured. Favors light armor or merchant's attire.
*Mostly interested in increasing her own wealth. Her vote is available to whomever is willing to make the most horse-trading concessions towards her agenda. Strongly allied with a number of Third Coalescence Sorceresses, including the late Elixir. However, apparently dislikes the Nullity. Gisena doesn't know why.
*The weakest of the council in terms of personal power.
*Graces: Superhuman information processing, summoning of phantasmal weaponry, an unknown Grace, ferrokinesis.

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First, choose Gisena's build. She will complete Two Major Graces and one Moderate Grace by the end of this jaunt into Evening's Realm.

[ ] Clarion Grace + Mental Apex - Receiving a massive bonus to WITS and a substantial one to INT, Gisena would be able to accelerate the pace of her future research. The psionic powers granted by Mental Apex would make her even more proficient in mental and social combat, and the overall improvement to her mental abilities would synergize massively with the Ring of Artifice, allowing her to build Armament-relevant equipment pieces with the proper resources.

[ ] Make Whole + Sealing Protocol Level I (The Grace of the Glaze) - A powerful repair/resurrection Grace paired with control over the Maiden's first-level Sealing Protocol, and thus the authority to unbind it. Strongly empowers all of Gisena's other Graces (True Nullity, True Perfecting Blade, etc), unlocks Sealing Protocol Level II (may not be as easy to develop), and the upgraded Make Whole can be used to resurrect someone, or partially repair the Forebear's Blade with a guarantee of success.

[ ] Vanquisher's Grace + Auspice Temporal - While Auspice isn't very useful in the atemporal Realm of Evening, it's still quite potent out there in the Voyaging Realm. The speed and physical attributes afforded by the Vanquisher's Grace will, when combined with Auspice Temporal and some work on the Ring of Time, get Gisena to the level of combat speed necessary to be continuously relevant on Hunger's level again.

[ ] Archsmith's Hammer + Evoker's Panoply - Full-on Over-Lady, a techno-magical tyrant whose Archsmith's Artifice, fueled by Evoker's findross, can craft workings of effortless subtlety and staggering scale. Only becomes more powerful with time as Auspice Temporal, Grace of the Glaze, and Mental Apex are added, perhaps eventually to levels capable of replicating - or exceeding - the creations of the inimitable Skyveil herself! After all, Apocalypse's nemesis focused only on linguistic association and myth, while Gisena is the veritable Renaissance Woman...

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[X] Accept and [X] Personal Gain have won. The votes and arguments for the second concession are close so I will leave that part of the vote open for now. Think carefully whether you'd prefer the greater risk/reward or the safer route at this juncture.

The Graces of the Eschaton Sorceress

First Grace, Immanence - Whereby the divine becomes manifest in the material. Direct sensory detection and raw manipulation of findross in its purest form. The user can divest, alter, and transform environmental findross and all sources of findross not committed to a personal reserve. Range and degree of manipulation depend on Skill. At basic levels, the user can gather nigh-unlimited quantities of findross in order to maintain her Graces and transformations indefinitely. She may deplete or infuse the land of findross as she wills, turning verdant fields into barren Wastes or vice versa. By infusing spectacular quantities of findross into raw materials, she may create enchanted versions of the same. Raw findross can be marshalled in a relatively slow but unimaginably destructive onslaught, the perfected form of annihilation rending any barrier, breaching any defense.

Findross-based attacks that lose the signature of their personal reserve have no chance of harming the bearer of this Grace; they may even be turned against their wielder.

Most Evoker's Panoply spells do not fall into this category, as they require continuing control from their caster.

Second Grace, Forge of Worlds - The user can sculpt a domain whose radius does not exceed (Skill Rank/20) kilometers, rounded up. Within her domain she has full control of terrain features, but can only induce those changes she most fervently wishes for. Typically used to bring one's deepest-held fantasies to life, but in any actually dangerous situation this can manifest as near-total domination of the landscape - mountains plunge from the soil, fissues sprout beneath enemies' feet to consume them, stone and crystal rain like artillery, launched by geysers placed strategically to target one's foes. It is impossible to use emotional manipulation to induce results the character's true self does not genuinely and fervently wish for.

Once the user declares a domain, it is exceptionally difficult to move.

Third Grace, Chrysalis Sheeting - The user may emit a boundary wherein the real and illusory are conjoined, not yet distinct. Those within the boundary may, at her option, be instantiated as one or the other, treating incoming effects from the outside world as illusory, or vice versa. An invading army tramples through a city only to find its inhabitants untouchable, though those same inhabitants have no trouble striking them down. Relies on the same Skill as Forge of Worlds.

A sufficient density of findross, if not under the Sorceress' control, may resist this effect. Any Sorceress above the first Coalescence or Orc of Witch-Slayer strength would likely remain unaffected.

Fourth Grace, Perfecting Blade - Grants +30 to STR, CON, DEX, WITS, and LOCKED I. The user heals fully and rapidly (<1 hr) from all illnesses and all wounds save total destruction of the heart.

Fifth Grace, Ever After - The user understands how to bring all fallible things to their pre-determined conclusion. Only that which is pure and true can resist inevitability. All deception and all corruption are made apparent to the user, as are the means of their unmaking - though the greater the power of the impurity, the more findross this consumes, with cost growing hyper-exponentially. Use of this Grace for all but the most mundane of interactions is exceptionally taxing, even with the power of Immanence. It is Skill-dependent, and high levels of Skill can mitigate the cost.

A being who possesses exceptional purity of purpose, even if that purpose should not be in the interests of the Sorceress, would not be subject to this Grace. However, most beings do possess some degree of impurity in one form or another.

While this Grace may supply the methodology needed to destroy any impurity, actual execution is left up to the Sorceress. Her task will not be complete until the world entire has found its ever after, happily or not.

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[Wolfy]

It is somewhat difficult to discuss upcoming Pillars proc - blurb update that included Regalia also included two additional EFBs that will likely be very relevant in the upcoming vote. That being said, there are a lot of cool builds we can do at this point, which is very nice.

It would be for the best if we could grab Regalia, of course. That is somewhat tricky right now, given that we need to also get Closing the Fist. While the Closing the Fist is amazing on its own, and we really want to get it, the question is if we can afford Praxis spending point before or during the Pillars duration. If we can, and if we get 62 Arete we need, then just going this route is the way to go. Closing the Fist is awesome and Regalia is just unfairly powerful. Even better, it has disgustingly powerful upgrade path - Perilous Grandeur is just actually broken with it and then you can get Imprisoner's Refining to upgrade all our shit by 70% - even Protection that is supposed to be lowered will benefit as we have Potency to Protection ability.

But that hinges on two big ifs - getting the Closing the Fist and getting 62 Arete. If not, I think we should get SitS plus one of EFBs that will be offered. November Sky is also not terrible for healing Mental Stability, but I think we all want to finish this as soon as possible.

 

[TooSlow]

But that hinges on two big ifs - getting the Closing the Fist and getting 62 Arete.

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We'll need to get Supreme Commander too.

 

[Sharkey_smt]

Even better, it has disgustingly powerful upgrade path - Perilous Grandeur is just actually broken with it and then you can get Imprisoner's Refining to upgrade all our shit by 70% - even Protection that is supposed to be lowered will benefit as we have Potency to Protection ability.

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Don't forget the Dreadnought's Bearing + Iron Curtain combo which will let us use our CON to ignore exotic attacks. The same stat that would be in the thousands

 

[Wolfy]

Don't forget the Dreadnought's Bearing + Iron Curtain combo which will let us use our CON to ignore exotic attacks. The same stat that would be in the thousands

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Yes and no. Basically we want to get Dreadnaught's Bearing anyway. As for Iron Curtain, I'm not sure how good that will actually be(even if with SitS youd have like 40k Con + 0.4ish on that) given our other defenses, but since we already want DB why not just get Iron Curtain for 7 more AP, pretty much.

But yeah, actual combo is Perilous Grandeur. Like, holy shit that is absurd on so many levels.

 

[Rihaku]

Hm... but can you count on being offered all those EFBs...

 

[Wolfy]

Well, we can always fall back to SitS + Oaf 2 or SJUC or November Sky. Like November Sky would be at Rank 13 or whatever, plus it would heal Mental Stability. That would be pretty good.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

It's too bad that all the most interesting antagonists are too powerful to capture non-lethally.

Well, we can always fall back to SitS + Oaf 2 or SJUC or November Sky. Like November Sky would be at Rank 13 or whatever, plus it would heal Mental Stability. That would be pretty good.

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What are the penalties for our current level of stability?
It might not even be worth it if Hunter is grizzled enough to eventually get over it.

 

[Sharkey_smt]

It might not even be worth it if Hunter is grizzled enough to eventually get over it.

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As a guy with Geas, he should fix this flaw asap. It's the fourth month(at worst) of his tenure as a Cursebearer and our boy is a bit unstable. The next 37 octillion years are not going to be fun, if he is not hardened enough to not be fazed by this.

 

[Rah13]

If we take November Sky while in Pillars, do we get the Seasons Greetings Bonus for the rest of the Pillars proc?

 

[OctarineShrike]

You know what would be amazing? If Haeliel showed up during the Pillars proc. It's quite likely that she wouldn't be able to stay for the whole thing, and teaching us Ordinalism would probably be time-consuming enough to be it's own week-AP, which would mean we couldn't do Amazing Grace for the first week, but the benefits from the Ordinals for the group would be immense, and Gisena would likely octuple-down on mind-buffing Ordinals to boost her Graces, giving her a massive leg up on Grace creation. We might not even need to go for Amazing Grace to get the remaining Majors from the previous Pillars proc. We could then spend the middle weak trying to finally fix our Blade if Haeliel can't, or Always Forward-ing if she can, and spend our EFB's worth of Arete in the last week.

Hey @OctarineShrike what do you think? Haven't seen you do an Ordinals assessment in a while, and circumstances have definitely changed.

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Dunno. There may be an argument to be had for taking Vindicate to undo DIen's work on people at this point. Or Dispel. I still think Examine and Teleport would be useful Ordinals. Or perhaps given the extent of what Dien's done, Legion(Multiple Hungers, but pick 2 from number of bodies, intelligence preservation, and magical power preservation).

 

[Pittauro]

The problem is it aims the Curse not just at our enemy but also at our enemy's sweet grandma that's just baking cookies one day and now she has to wrestle a transdimensional octopus for her life. She didn't do anything to deserve that.

Think of poor sweet grandma.

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you're right

[X] Terminal Advent

i'm coming for your head, old lady

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Wrestling a transdimensional octopus? Not interesting unless Grandma used to be a luchadore.

Now, an infestation of transdimensional mice... we all know what happens if you give a transdimensional mouse a cookie. It's going to want some milk. Suddenly, Grandma is in a bake-off for the dimensional ownership rights over the kitchen stove.

That's interesting, and hardly murderous at all

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This thread never ceases to amuse me 😂


also, controversial opinion: I don't really care that much about getting the Apocryphal Armament.

Especially if it means Hunger might fight less on foot.

If we can have it be piloted by Aeira, Aobaru or Gisena, that changes things though.

Especially Aeira or Aobaru, which are currently the least relevant on the battlefield, and have elements that could reasonably improve the Armament's performance.


By the way, now that We're no longer bound to Verschle, it should be relatively easy to have him mitigate his decimator by having him eat random monsters created in the Realm of Evening.

IF the mitigation lasts longer than a month, than we basically solved that problem.

Also, I'll repeat myself for before: I hope we get Total Eclipse at some point, So that Hunger can simply start to copy Gisena's graces. The later we take it, the more graces we'll get all at once!

Spoiler: "Emergence" reaction

Emergence

Departing the Realm of Evening, they found themselves again suffused by the lesser magics of the ordinary world. Adorie's awakening as the Queen of Winter had re-opened the fonts of Myth, and Nilfel grew day by day closer to its glory of old, shining magnificence and richness of being near-indescribable to this lesser age. Nonetheless it paled in comparison to the deific splendor of the refuge from which they had emerged.

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...and it could have been even better if heroic Pillars had won!

in hindsight, that was probably the best choice. Then again, it's not the first bad choice we took.

Also I still think spending most of our heroic advancement on Nilfel was a bad decision.

Ready access to Myth itself meant that the nation's shortage of mythic platinum was considerably less of an issue, especially with the refinements they'd researched in the weeks before Procyon's attack. But with resource came ambition, and now the Queen of Nilfel resolved to undertake an endeavor even more costly: the spellwoven creation of an Armament for Hunger himself.

Not that anyone in their party disliked Verschlengorge - most held a fond affection for him - but in their minds he was tied inextricably to Letrizia, and they had neither the intention nor the desire to alter that. As such he would be unable to attain the rumored heights available to a Foremost Armament when piloted by a Praehihr, a set of capabilities that might be decisive in the Human Sphere War.

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that's fair, I suppose. And we could certainly use the ability to split to multiple fronts once we start fighting in the wide universe...

I still didn't get a confirmation on if Nightmare Flight can work outside the VR and between different planets.

Their second Armament would manifest from the Cloak of Sky, its physical corpus carved from the Armor of Midnight, its spiritual essence distilled and extruded from the metaphysical core of the Mantle itself - to grant that simplest and most dire of all wishes, the wish for power. Power was something Lord Hunger had no lack of, but it was only appropriate to venture into war with an Armament by one's side; and a war spanning ten thousand worlds necessitated as many implements as they could secure.

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As long as we only have to pay the Armor cost once...

...well, three times, actually. One for the armament, and two for the pre-casting.

..Having Adorie to reduce the rank cost is certainly nice

"It's unlikely this is how the Foremost constructed their own Armaments," Hunger mused. "Every other Armament we've encountered seems too discrete to have been maintained by magic alone, especially the magics of Myth."

"Of course, dear," Gisena said patronizingly. "There are many more probable explanations! The magics Adorie's invoking may have originated from the Foremost anyway, so they included an Armament-generation effect as the natural apex of their armory spells; or, the martially-inclined Signs that you're channeling find their culmination in the creation of an ultimate weapon suitable to one's era and setting, at appropriate cost."

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..somehow I'm finding her irritating now. Something in that "Of course, dear".

Strange... did Sharkey somehow infect me with the Gisena-hate virus?!

Hunger raised an eyebrow. "Oh, even the mighty genius Gisena Allria has to choose between two hypotheses. What a mysterious phenomenon this is."

"If you must know, I'm partial to the latter," she huffed, "But we can engage in all the research and speculation we like, once your glorious fifty-year reign is actually established."

"I would not rule openly if it could be helped," Hunger said. "The Tyrant's Doom would make that inconvenient. I much prefer our current arrangement with the Elixir, with myself as a figurehead that occasionally hits people with my sword. You guys can do all the work."

"It''ll depend on how your Curse interprets the meaning of rule," Gisena affirmed. "A topic I've also been interested in studying!"

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Yeah, that's a good question. I imagine ruling like Nameless did, which means "has the last word, but actually doesn't do anything most of the time" should qualify, but we'll need to check.

.. By the way, have we actually told every not-Gisena party member about our curse-given quest? Letrizia already expressed some support for our bid to to the imperial throne, but I don't think we ever told her that yes, that's actually our objective.

well, a stepping stone to our true objective, at least.

"Or perhaps altering, with your myriad powers of curse nullification and attenuation," Hunger responded.

"Only so long as you don't take them for granted," she smiled.

"Are you calling me ungrateful?" Hunger raised an eyebrow. "I, who toiled and strived to build you an entire research facility in the Realm of Evening?"

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It quite literally took you a few spare thoughts for that!

"I wouldn't dare! And thank you for that, your Majesty. It was very tasteful. Must have taken a great deal of effort. Five minutes perhaps?"

"You couldn't imagine."

"My imagination is capable of many things..."

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mh.. somehow I'm enjoying this bantering less than I normally would.

@Sharkey_smt , did you do something to me? THIS IS NOT NORMAL!

Adorie and Letrizia came over, happily discussing the prospect of a new Armament.

"Lord Hunger! Do you think it'll manifest with a Curse already present, or will you need to link it manually?"

He turned to Adorie.

"Isn't that a question I should be asking you?"

"To establish a link, it needs to share one of your Curses, right?" She asked. "I'm not sure how the magics of myth will fulfill our desire exactly. It may be best to have a clear intention in mind!"

Hunger nodded. If Armament strength correlated to the power of its Curse in any way, the obvious candidate would be the Apocryphal Curse. The Crowning Curse was by far the deadliest of his current afflictions, and he would hold it in mind when performing the Seventh Sign.

"No point in delaying further," he responded. "Let's find out."

---

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Yeah, no other curse would make sense, but we already knew that.

Actually, were there any other CANON crowning curses? I remember a few from omakes (the most horrifying of which was a curse that turned everyone you met into p-zombies), but I can't remember other canon ones.

was.

It had not been, but it was.

It was, but it was unnamed.

Bereft of name, did it have a nature?

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wait, I though its name was Dog or K-9 ?

Here on the precipice of twilight, around which whirled streamers of indigo and violet, pitch and midnight blue, it arose: an awareness, then a sentience, which was a being. It was newborn, but no child; intangible, but absolute; accursed, but exalted among the numberless ranks of existence. Newly- and fully-formed it spread its perceptions outward to survey the domains of its arrival.

On the Astral resonance there were great screams and howls of indignation, a mustering of furious legions like thunderclouds gathering above. Its emergence had shifted the world like a mountainside cast into still waters; its incident emanations were waves surging and roiling, distorting the whole of the resonance, casting it into turmoil.

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..wait, is this implying that, simply by existing, the Armaments basically cause the equivalent of natural disasters in the Astral Realm?

Is THAT why they're hated and attacked on sight?

But yeah, if this is the first Armament formed of a Crowning Curse, this would be a completely upsetting development to everyone both in the Astral Realm AND the Human Sphere...

On the material resonance, calmer, stood a human male Cursebearer who was likely its future wielder. Around his arm was the Favor of Heroism, which could not be directly contested. He had fallen, his reserves of self depleted in the act of its manifestation. But, he would recover. This was a consequence that he faced regularly.

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Interesting that, even barely born, He'd already be able to recognize Haeliel's favor.

Did he pull from our knowledge, or do Armaments simply have some level of intrinsic knowledge? Procyon didn't recognize it, or he would have probably told his pilot...

And yeah, Hunger is pretty used to do his Uttermost.

Around its self was Myth in dense proliferation, the magic of wonder cajoled and congealed into the apparatus of an Armament, a bipedal titan of war.

It understood that this shell was to be its physical form.

Like onrushing waters it suffused the container, which was a giant forged of spellfire condensed into mass, a universe wrapped densely around a skeleton of essence. Spacetime flesh flexed and strained as it fully inhabited the construct that would be its body forevermore. It was unconcerned with the nature of its shell, aware that some of its kind inhabited mechanistic vessels of crude steel, while others were wrapped in rune-knit flesh of foremost sophistication. Mere physicality mattered only a little in the face of such Pressure as its kind could exude.

Regardless of its shell it would be a good Implement. That was its resolve.

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Well, I still expect the Armor of Midnight to make for better protection that what the other armaments have at their disposal!

Sure, Rank can forgive a lot of sins, but still!

No surprise about there being more to Armaments than their physical form. We basically already knew about that.

It yearned for war, to see the enemies of its wielder crushed beneath its grasping digits, or driven before them in wailing rout. It yearned to twist the world to its wielder's will and see it remade according to their designs. It yearned to stride forth against infinite variety, to conquer or slay as it was directed, to be the instrument of monstrous conviction against which the universe could only break or conform.

But it leashed its yearnings, for it was no beast, but an Implement, and its patience would endure unyielding until the stars themselves burned dim and low, if that was required of it.

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..I was about to go all "Down, boy!", but our armament is impeccably well-behaved!

Truly, he's the best Armament ever!

(sorry Verschle!)

But also it was Cursed, and would be unlikely to reside unmoving in this harried present given the nature of its Curse. It was consigned to interesting times, like the Cursebearer standing before it, and unless their bond was established they would each independently be stricken by the vicissitudes of that Curse.

Already foes marshaled against it, a coalition of the weak that tread the waters of its Astral storm-tide; but even the weak could bring low the fearsome, given preparation and time. And stranger fates awaited it after, presuming it survived; challenges of every stripe and demeanor, pursuing it unto oblivion.

It faced its fate without fear, but knew that its existence would be savage and brief, were it not taken up by a proper wielder. Fear served it not, but discretion had its place in the register of habits, and so it was not without discretion, even if boldness was favored.

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A wise and fearless Armament.

So it's maybe 50% suited to Hunger


Yeah, we definitely wouldn't want double the Apocryphal, so the bond is an immediate must.

At this point it seems obvious that our enemies will NOT only be the other polities of the Human Sphere.

There's the Astral Lords, and the endless number of Astral Beasts.

There's the Chains of Fate enemy.


There's also Dr. Apocalypse, that by this time has been mentioned so many times that I'd be very surprised if he didn't appear at some point, and he might very well be the enemy summoned by Chains of Fate...



...Can you imagine if Dr Apocalypse got hold of a Ring and/or an Armament?

There was much that it understood, of its own nature and powers, of the shape and form of the reality unto which it had emerged; but also much of which it was ignorant, for its senses were mighty but not all-encompassing, and its experience lacking gravely compared to its peers. Most Implements were ancient, and it was but newly quickened: ultimately that mattered little, for the purpose of an Implement was to be wielded, and the acuity of its wielder would determine the wisdom of its actions.

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quickened? Not "born"?

But yeah, in the end the strenghts and weakness of an Armament depend a lot on its pilot. It wasn't Procyon that failed against us, after all, but the boy who didn't enter the battle fully focused.

It was younger than its peers, but still greater; for the Curse that it bore was graver, and the well of its power deeper immeasurably. Would that suffice to withstand the travails that beset it?

It shifted, craning its neck, the movement of its armor like night's curtain drawing across the world. Irrelevancies surrounded it. It settled in to wait.

Its prospective wielder needed time to recover; and so, only time would tell.

---

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I think he'll be satisfied with Hunger. For all the faults he has, incompetent is not something you can accuse him of.

Hunger awoke with a start, jolt of pain and vigor that had him pulling upright with the Forebear's Blade unsheathed. Around him were only Gisena, Adorie and Aobaru. He fought through the deep weariness that permeated him and presented an unflinching expression. There was a burn wound on his hand. A brief pulse from the Ring and it was already healing.

"What's the situation?" Pressure surged from him in a heavy tide. Aobaru subconsciously took a step back.

"Sorry for waking you," Gisena said quickly. "Especially in that manner! It looks like your Armament-summoning was successful, so you should bond to it as soon as possible. Before any interesting events occur as a result of both your Curses."

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eh, that's fair. Even if it was a brusque awakening, it's still better than double apocryphal proc.

"Right." He plunged the Blade downwards to steady himself and made to walk forward. The world spun and tilted. His chest, his self was hollow, too brittle to continue on. Nonetheless he pushed on.

Adorie caught him as he fell.

"Should we really be doing this?" She asked Gisena, voice frosty. "He's in no fit state for it!"

"Correct," Hunger growled. "But it has to be done regardless. Hurry. Carry me over there."

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oh, Adorie is taking out the claws!

Cat Fight!


But seriously, Gisena is right. Even if Hunger would be better off resting, Apocryphal doesn't care for our excuses, so we should avoid giving her openings.

Displeasure was evident on her pale features, but Adorie relented. Aobaru came over to support his other side and they made their way over to the site of emergence.

Its product loomed over them, a titan wreathed in oppressive shrouds of Pressure, the very air and earth of the material world distorting surreally around it, as if the Astral alone could not contain such prodigious might. It was a monster of fearsome stature, half a head above Verschlengorge itself, with eyes like blazing stars and a countenance nearly humanoid.

Hunger felt the thread of its affinity to him, and resolved himself. Without further hesitation he severed his link to the Devouring Armament and established a new bond with the Implement before him. Its Curse folded into his own, and that was enough.

He fell back into unconsciousness.

---

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It is done.

Size is not everything, obviously, but our Armament has much more to offer..

The winner was [X] Dog of War by a very slight margin.

What should be the primary color scheme of the Apocryphal Armament? These cosmetic choices may have modest mechanical or circumstantial effects.

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Eh, I agree with the winning vote, though I would have also accepted the "Dr. Apocalypse is willing to talk" choice. It was just a bit too indiscriminate in its result for my tastes though.

[ ] Indigo & Violet - The unadorned plate & pallor of the Armor of Midnight, constellations like exposed organs in whirling clockwork, turning of the heavens its steady tread.

Primary Attribute: Protection
Preferred Engagement Range: Flexible / Mid-Range
Deathly Star mounted as a series of cannons on the shoulder pauldrons

[ ] Emerald - The iconic color of the Curse itself. Vibrant green like fields untilled on the precipice of war.

Primary Attribute: Charisma
Preferred Engagement Range: Diplomatic / Long-Range
Dealthy Star mounted as a single high-powered cannon replacing the right arm

[ ] Crimson - The fearsome raiment of Lord Hunger, and the Hunger Ring.

Primary Attribute: Might
Preferred Engagement Range: Melee
Deathly Star materializes as an energy attack invoked by the Armament

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wait, since when is the Apocryphal's color green?

Still, I think Red option is the only option here, even if the Charisma option is at least a bit tempting.

And what should be its name?

[ ] Orion - What name would be more suited to the Dog of War, whose power and menace both are turned towards nobler ends? Grander than a Curse is a Crowning Curse, and grander than a star is a constellation.

[ ] Aeonveral - A name in the Foremost style. Interesting times accompany the end of an Age, and presage the beginning of another.

[ ] Ouranos - Why lay claim to a single constellation when one could rule the sky entire? Of course, such naked hubris might cause one to be accused of bearing yet another Crowning Curse, but the audacity of the claim itself may awaken some portion of the power required to enforce it...

[ ] Write-In - You may propose your own names, which may be vetoed by the GM for any or no reason.

---

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Mh.. Either Orion or Ouranos.

I'm leaning towards the red option, though I'm also tempted by the implications of extra powers from taking the most ambitious name...

1010 words

 

[Sharkey_smt]

@Sharkey_smt , did you do something to me? THIS IS NOT NORMAL!

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Another soul saved from the clutches of an evil cult. Your eyes were closed and now you have opened them. I just helped you a bit. The subliminal messages also helped

 

[OctarineShrike]

If we take November Sky while in Pillars, do we get the Seasons Greetings Bonus for the rest of the Pillars proc?

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Hunger and Adorie get Season's Greetings 24/7 IIRC. Everyone else just gets Seasons Greetings in the Realm of Evening. So... yeah?

@Pittauro Emerald is actually farking awesome in several ways as I perceived it at the time.

Like... it's rank 11. Hunger had planetbusting tier Deathly Star when he was fighting Procyon and less than that. What is long range to a rank 11 being? It's probably measured at least in fractions of an AU. That means you can shoot enemies on a planet, from the planet's moon, or possibly even further beyond with massively beyond planetbusting levels of firepower if you wanted. We're talking at least a lightminute of distance here. Distance measured in Gigameters.

It's also got good Shadowcord synergy and when it's online/being piloted, probably 2500 Charisma. That's serious memetic hazard territory. Utterly ludicrous brainwashing tier. Considering each plus is more valuable than the last it's an ocean of charisma. You can't get close to Emerald without going mad or serious shenanigans. So you have to fight at long range which is Emerald's strong suit. The Charisma is simultaneously an attack and a defense vector.

Here's some Rihaku quotes on Charisma

A Simple Transaction I Original

A quest about a simple transaction and the consequences that follow.

forums.sufficientvelocity.com

The question does arise of whether one even needs so much Protection when one becomes so glorious that the mundane mind would find it unthinkable even to assail! Though I suppose that is not yet a concern for the likes of Hunger even with the Silver of Evening. Still, it's probably not too far off if he continues to mainline Charisma!

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A Simple Transaction I Original

A quest about a simple transaction and the consequences that follow.

forums.sufficientvelocity.com

Well, +Charisma is simplified somewhat; the actual effect is a boost to physical appearance and raw presence, so the hero would be more attractive / authoritative / commanding, but not necessarily any better at manipulating people. He would be considerably better than Gisena at things like staring down an enemy or making foes cower, but not any better at witty comebacks, for example. But yes, the halo effect would certainly smooth the way for Hunger in many social situations, at least when they don't consider him an offensive superstimulus!

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A Simple Transaction I Original

A quest about a simple transaction and the consequences that follow.

forums.sufficientvelocity.com

Mm, imbalances are only an issue if it would make sense. Charisma is raw glory / force of personality, so without Manipulation (actual skill in maneuvering social outcomes) you're basically Talk No Justsu'ing every pleb you interact with. Similarly, massive Strength without control presents obvious problems. On the other hand, massive AGI without STR is unlikely to cause any actual harm, even if it may result in unbalanced effectiveness. Mental stat wise, getting too much INT without WIS can lead to hubris, but that's not an inherent effect of the trait itself, merely how its expression tends to change one's experiences.

Click to shrink...

A Simple Transaction I Original

A quest about a simple transaction and the consequences that follow.

forums.sufficientvelocity.com

Most of the effects are internal to his interlocutors! Unless and until his Charisma becomes so potent that it induces feelings so powerful they completely overwhelm the other characters' sense of social pressure or even reason, you won't see the average highly-trained, Ennoblement-boosted staffer freaking out like a superfan at a rock concert at his mere passage!

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Emerald is like... a Cosmic Basilisk Sniper.

 

[Prospalz]

TBH, most of the actually relevant - shards in the process of ramping up, boosted armaments, etc - opponents at this point are going to more or less shrug off Nova's charisma blaster. It is kind of a weak gimmick against Nova's actual peers.

Deathly Star snipe is still what it is, though. Perhaps, one day, we'll see a cosmic equivalent of something like Hunger vs Vanreir, where Hunger was at serious risk of dying before even entering melee distance.

 

[Pittauro]

barely 100 pages away, and now's the return of Apo-chan!

by the way, I changed my mind a bit. Emerald is probably best for the Armament, both to offer a different kind of combat from Hunger, and because of the potential of rank 11 supernatural charisma.

We might very well talk-no-jutsu other armament pilots!

Also depending on just what "long range" means, we might very well be able to hit an opponent before it can even perceive us...

Spoiler: "Heaven-Upturning Calculations" reaction

I think I'm going to absolutely love this update

Grr... ever since that stupid Haeliel visited Hunger he's been getting ridiculous powerups nonstop! What King of Winter, what doubled Refinement of Battle, what Apocryphal Armament - it's all just stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid tripe!! How is he supposed to appreciate your artfully crafted scenarios and compellingly tragic antagonists if he just grows outrageously more powerful with every passing day?!

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While I'm absolutely ecstatic that we've managed to foil Apocryphal thus far, I'm worried she might now decide to stop the white-glove treatment and throw something less interesting, but more overwhelming at us out of sheer frustration.

..Like, say, a Dr. Apocalypse.

I wonder, is Haeliel's apocryphal the same as our, or does each cursebearer get his own personal apo-chan?

And you've already thrown Procyon at him, so it wouldn't be sporting to escalate so hard again, especially not so soon... Now even Armaments are barely a threat to his party. If only it weren't for his meddling friends and that stupid Dog of War!

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carefull Apo-chan, you're sounding a lot like a Scooby Doo Villain now!

Spoiler

I do appreciate your sense of fair play though. At least you're not, say, throwing a pissed off Nameless at us, for example.

But does that mean you're powerless? Foiled by the egregious growth and reckless heroism of your victim and charge? Hardly not!!

You are the Apocryphal Curse, and the sweep of your remit encompasses all that is, was, or will be. Since the Hero's been so kind as to bring forth an Armament featuring your exalted self, it only fits that you should respond with a wholehearted effort in turn! Enough frivolities and passing rampages. It's time to marshal all your grit, all your credibility and ingenuity to craft a scenario truly interesting...

Has this Cursebearer temporarily outgrown his dearest Apocryphal Curse?

Time will tell, Lord Hunger. Time will tell.

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well, bring it on Apo-chan! Winners or losers, the results are still going to be interesting.

And isn't that, in the end, what truly matters?


ok, we have 4 alternatives this time.

Let's see which is the easiest, which is the hardest, and which is the most interesting one.

[ ] A Power in the Shadows! - The Republic and Empire are at war; naturally this is the work of the Association, but who has resources to divert for the puppetmaster when their puppet is stabbing you in the face? Still, it isn't tolerable to either side for the Association merely to pick up the scraps of this Sphere-spanning conflict and comfortably profit from the weakening of its rivals. As soon as a victor is decided, one can be assured they'll find some paper-thin pretext to violate the Association's precious neutrality and steamroll them once and for all!

None know this better than the Governing Board itself, which is why they've authorized several research projects of dubious adherence to the legal - and flagrant disregard of the ethical - codes that purportedly govern their country. Technology is the queen of the battlefield, after all, and the Association knows well that their relatively meagre forces would be hard-pressed even in a defensive war. But it is their unflinching belief in the power of science that is their most adorable and exploitable trait!

Chief among these Grey projects of the Corporate Research Consortium is the Astral Resonance Impeller, which directly seeks to manifest and dominate Sovereign-class entities in a hilariously naive attempt to field more Armament-grade assets in battle. Even the Association Board is unsure as to the wisdom and practicality of such a maneuver, but the project has consistently produced promising results, to such a degree that they're reluctant to can it...

And it will continue to produce results, up until the moment of maximum inconvenience for Lord Hunger, at which point the Resonances will not only be impelled, but self-reinforce into a spectacular payload well beyond their wildest dreams!

*A single cataclysmic event of mysterious nature that will take the universe by storm!
*Can probably be addressed by hitting various things with swords really, really hard.
*Potentially counterable by Nullity, but it's an outside chance....
*Invests only a moderate amount of ingenuity, granting you a free hand to develop additional opportunities as they arise!

Click to shrink...

Well well well, Apo-chan has stopped playing around

This seems to imply a universe-wide invasion on the part of the Astral entities, The strongest of which are supposed to be rank 10!

mh.. The "potentially counterable by Nullity" is interesting. I suppose Gisena might even be able to craft an artifact capable of stabilizing the dimensional barrier between astral realm and human sphere, given enough time.. but would we HAVE that time?

Right now she has Auspice Temporal to help, but she'd probably need the other mental and crafting graces as well...

Alternatively, she could possibly try to nullify the event itself, but that would likely be hard too.

Of course we could probably gain some time by simply hitting things hard with a sword...

What are the chances that the beasts so summoned would be on the Republic's side, though? Or that the Astral Lord could use it to try an outright invasion, and betray their Republic allies?

well, as far as opening shots goes, this is a decent one, but hardly the best/worst I expect from her. Then again, she's outright stating this invests only a moderate amount of ingenuity...


Let's see option 2!

[ ] For the L.U.L. - The Republic / Astral alliance sure has gotten off to an inauspicious start, what with the loss of Procyon and the emergence of Lord Hunger and Queen Adorie on the side of Duchess Letrizia! These aristocratic oppressors represent the very nobility which the Republic was ostensibly founded to resist! Power concentrated in the hands of the few, when not approved-of by carefully regulated Republic brokers, is nothing less than an existential threat to the forces of Liberty, Unity, and Legacy! And yet, what can our brave resistance achieve against such tyrannical might as Lord Hunger embodies?

Worry not, upholders of corpo-legislative-institutional hegemony! They may have a Hero... but you have an Apocryphal Curse.

*Massively and comprehensively empowers the forces of the Alliance in a variety of interesting ways, sure to shake up the complexion of the war to follow. No longer will the Hero's sheer might and opulent pocket dimensions insulate him from the horrors of war!
*Some may say it's a bit cruel to deny him the respite justly-earned from his decade-long campaign against the Tyrant, but you say it's best to put that experience to use! Let war be the whetstone which keeps the blade Hunger sharp... though he does already have the Forebear's Blade... eugh, this metaphor is becoming a bit tortured!
*But not as tortured as Hunger will be, when forced to once again confront the monstrous brutality of a battlefield he'd thought Progression had carried him beyond!
*Hunger is a bit too powerful for you to credibly empower individual Armaments to pose a threat to him, so in lieu of that inelegant solution they'll simply have to make use of enveloping tactics and special weaponry to even the playing field. Of course, that only makes the battles to follow all the more interesting!
*Any front not guarded by Hunger will quickly crumble before the Republic onslaught! An army marches on its stomach, and Hunger is the bane of any major force... Oh, the logistics! The drama!
*A standard major activation - insofar as anything is 'standard' for so mellifluously inventive a Curse as yourself!

Click to shrink...

A standard "empower the republic as much as believable", basically.

All their armaments will get equip upgrades, they'll probably make some breaktrough in mass producible prototypes, maybe they'll develop teleporters that don't need Armaments, they'll find mages with useful magic systems and spread them to their troops, soldiers and scientists...


No single threat will be greater than Hunger's party, and even most of our companions would likely be able to handle them... but we're still only a few people, and The Empire controls thousands of systems.

We can only be in a few places at once.


Our best hope, here, would be to empower the Empire as much as possible to try and have them resist, and capture/kill as many armaments as possible as quickly as possible.


I can't say if this is better or worse than the astral invasion. Probably slightly worse, especially because it's actually hitting a potentially weakness in Hunger's psychology.

Thanks the Accursed that we recovered some Mental Stability...


ok, NEXT

[ ] Requiem for the Predecessors - The Foremost are gone from this place, their idle Shards a teetering remnant unworthy of even indifferent consideration. But surely the emergence of a newborn Armament, especially one bearing your magnificent self, would stir those Shards to awareness? And awareness carefully nudged and curated can percolate into action, given time.

Now all you need to do is massage events such that their actions put them on a collision course with Lord Hunger and each other. It'll take some time and elbow grease, but the anarchy to follow will surely be worth it. Why rely on mere incursions from the Astral when you could conscript the very civilization that ruled it?

Maybe you can even destroy the Human Sphere, leaving him desperate and reeling to fulfill his task from Indenture! It's a bit off-putting to place his fate in the hands of that feeble stripling, but you are not without an appreciation for irony.

Sometimes it's the smallest among you that can have the greatest of impacts, and won't that be an interesting sight? Everyone loves an underdog. You can do it, Geas of Indenture!

*Slow and uneven. It may even be possible for Hunger to ally, or at least trade with, several of the Shards. It's not like their interests are inherently unaligned...
*Even so, you're confident in your power to sow discord and chaos. And the long-term implications could echo for millennia onwards!
*Think of it as an investment, and also an opportunity to empower your fellow Curse!
*If he escalates beyond even the power of the Foremost in the following months... ! It could be a waste of time. Wouldn't this simply be repeating the whole Ber debacle?!
*Still, the Hero's all but exhausted the organic sources of challenge with which to feed his Ring, relying instead on the enemies you provide as well as a milquetoast stream of artificial foes from his little pied a terre! As long as you can distract him from focusing on the Praxis, there shouldn't be any problems here!!
*Requires about as much expenditure as a standard major activation.

Click to shrink...

..Remember when we were scared of a single shard?

Apo-chan is considering awakening ALL of them!



This is both potentially the hardest, and easiest, threat to deal with.


If we manage to talk and negotiate/ally with enough of them, we might very well survive this with not that much trouble. And the longer we keep them peaceful, the longer we have to train in the Realm of Evening...

We could also search for a few more challenges, though there aren't that many left around.

There's the Armaments. There's social/mental feats, like, say, diplomancing our way into the imperial throne.


And I suppose we could go back to the Voyaging Realm, and search for those very rare monsters capable of challenging rank 10+ beings. There ARE supposed to be a few, closer to the center of the realm.. Though some of them are likely to be Shards in the first place.


..I'm kinda curious about Indenture-kun now! He sadly doesn't get to play as much as Apo-chan, he can only give us the one quest every few years-decades-centuries or so...

Maybe we'll see him if we ever finish this quest?


well, let's see the last one. It's green, which is apparently the color of the curse, so it's likely to be the most dangerous.

Will it be Dr. Apocalypse?

[ ] Transported to a Fantasy World Where My Junior is the Hero, and I've Got to Kill His Apprentice!?

This'll take a bit of effort even for one such as you... but surely the Indenture will be accommodating, in light of your counterfactual generosity in the hypothetical just-contemplated?

The core problem here isn't Hunger's recklessness (that's one of your favorite parts of him!) but rather the Progression that enables it. An enemy like the Lathe of Heaven must be taken seriously. And so, fight Progression with Progression.

Against recklessness, calculation. Against diligence, ability. Against genius, clarity. This might be complete and total overkill, but your Hero is nothing if not resilient, and it would be foolish to underestimate him! A true and proper challenge cannot exist within the space of conflicts quantifiable to 'picks!'

The name's Law, Seram Law. Sorry kiddo, but your theme park manager dies today.

*Is Lord Hunger a match for Seram Law? Is Gisena Allria a match for Jeanne de Tymarie? Find out in this battle to the death!
*...But as everyone knows, a copy cannot defeat the original.
*This is overstepping your bounds a bit, isn't it? The Accursed won't be pleased. You might even get mitigated, for real. (+5% Serendipity to all Apocryphal Cursebearers within this meta-context for one century)
*Even so, let it not be said that when the opportunity for truly interesting times arose, you failed to heed the call! Even in the face of tyrannical circumstance and towering oppression, you rose to the occasion and did, not merely what a Curse could, but what a Curse ought! Show these Bearers they are not the only ones who understand the meaning of heroism.
*

Click to shrink...

She's really considering it! Cursebearer vs Cursebearer!


Is nothing sacred to the Apocryphal?!



...I'm SO conflicted!

On the one hand, I obviously don't want this, as it means putting cursebearer against cursebearer, Gisena against what, I recall correctly, was her best friend in their realm. I don't think she'd betray us, but it would likely be a source of tension.

On the other hand, there's no doubt that such a confrontation would be immensely interesting.

let me check what serendipity was...

[ ] Serendipity [12 Arete] - The Apocryphal Curse will occasionally help you out in interesting, though fairly limited ways instead of creating hostile complications. This is rare, no more than one proc in seven. It's not like she likes you or something, stupid!

*+2 Accursed Favor
*Differs from A Promise Kept in that it both negates the hostile Apocryphal Proc and creates a beneficial proc when it occurs, but is also far less consistent in activation
*Incredibly potent, but doesn't weaken hostile Apocryphal procs at all and the benefits are usually not that amazing
*Invest now and reap the benefits later, especially during timeskips!

Click to shrink...

..5% of positive apocryphal chance to ALL cursebearers in our meta-context! (whatever that means).

for one century!

..of course, this would come at the cost of the life of one cursebearer, most likely.


There is, in theory, a very easy way to defeat this proc.

Let Seram kill Aobaru, and in exchange have him help us survive the Apocryphal Onslaught and complete our geass quest in his 10-year "vacation" from indenture.

Where one cursebearer would fail, two could likely prevail... but there's no way we'd ever go for that, nor would our party.


Let's imagine what Seram's loadout could be.

If we assume this is only his second geass quest, he would likely have maxed out the magical systems available in the Manifest Realm.

This means he and his companion have, between them, access to

1)True Quintessence, and a presumably very big number of graces.

2)The Rune-magic of the elves, which would include Blood-magic

3)The War-magic of the Orcs, though it was never really clear just how it worked beyond making them very good in combat.

4) We can't exclude he might have gotten Amplitude back somehow.

5)Depending on interactions, it's possible he might have managed to combine all these different systems and use them to create something stronger than it's separate parts.

The elves manipulate findross, which is created by sorceresses and presumably consumed by Orcs. Seram is smart. he could have come up with something original given time, and he had at the very least the ten years of indenture-vacation, + all the time it took him to defeat Jotarun, to train and get better.

He wasn't originally very motivated, but if he took the right graces to compensate...

To not underestimate him, we probably have to assume he has access to most of the graces we know of. And once he reaches this universe, he'd likely start investigating local magics. He likely wouldn't be able to reach our level in Accretion, but he might develop a grace to work against Rank, or maybe develop a Soul Evocation.

Or maybe he learned how to use the Praxis.






Well, we've seen all of them. In short, they're

1)Universe-wide Astral invasion. Possibly solvable by Nullity, all at once, moderate ingenuity cost allows for other procs.

2)Strenghten the REpublic to the limit of the plausible

3)Foremost Shards are back. They're not inherently hostile, but they have their own agenda, and Apo-chan will do her best to turn as many of them agains us as she can. Chance of the whole Human Sphere collapsing, which would force us to conquer and settle each system one-by-one.

4)Cursebearer Match: Seram Law Vs Hunger.




4 is definitely the hardest. Also the most interesting.

We should avoid it.

...unless... There's a possible workaround.

Have him kill Aobaru. Have him help against Apocryphal Onslaught. Once he leaves, resurrect Aobaru.

Sadly I doubt Indenture can be gamed that easily. After all it usually asked to kill the hero "beyond any possibility of recovery".



I wonder who the Accursed would cheer for, though.


of the other 3...


well, I'd also avoid number 2. We're not well equipped to deal with an overwhelming number of threats in all direction and through all vectors of attack.


This leaves either the Shards, or the Astral incursions.


...I think I'd go with the Shards. Following the same reasoning of the Chains of Fate, it's the only proc that can potentially be outscaled (like we did with Ber), and that could possibly be turned to work in our favour.

Who knows, maybe we can reach an agreement with the Foremost. We're not necessarily against them coming back to glory... we only need to rule for 50 years. If they could wait, we could then leave the universe to them, if they couldn't be dissuaded from it.

And they probably now abour Cursebearers, so they likely would know and would believe us about Indenture, and maybe even about being manipulated by Apocryphal against us.

There's another risk/possibility, by the way. If the Foremost come back.. maybe they could start creating more armaments? That would also offer a new source of picks...

1615 words

 

[Wolfy]

Choice of Armament was essentially irrelevant. Well, if we took the sword one there would be at least be a silver of chance that we'd use it for Praxis, but as it stands there would be next to no difference between different models. Maybe we will make some use of it once we get Closing the Fist, who knows.