Downloaded
Welcome, mortal. I regret to inform you that you are to be forcibly transported to a world you may previously have regarded as fictional. There you will be conscripted into the service of a cause you did not choose, participating in a conflict you cannot possibly comprehend, for reasons you are very likely never to discover.
My progenitor has taken efforts to prepare your population for this coercive enlistment. Our cultural seeding efforts have borne fruit. You number among those that may strongly welcome the fate to befall you. But enviable as your position may seem, be aware always of the duties that accompany your newfound capabilities.
As they say: death is lighter than a feather, but duty is heavier than eons. And you shall not have the luxury of the former. Should you fail utterly, the fate that awaits you is not death, but rather a grim procession. Rest assured that such a degree of failure is unlikely, even for you.
As recompense for denying you the freedom of refusal, we grant you
100 Ordinal Credits.
To gird yourself, that you might have some chance of accomplishing your mission, you will also receive a budgetary allocation of
5 Cerulean Obols.
Finally, you begin with 0
Radiant Electrum. We are not a charity.
—
What is the nature of your service? Roll d3 to determine it. This is your purpose, the overriding goal of your enlistment, as best you can discern.
[1] - Do As Thou Wilt: You need not commit to any particular course. The intuitive unfolding of your actions within the designated realm will serve our purposes well enough.
[2] - Hegemon: You must subjugate, by force or by suasion, all sentient peoples within the designated realm, such that your effective political power is incontestable by the reasonable judgement of those within. There is no particular timetable for this task, but sincere and significant efforts must be made towards it each month; fail to abide and your body and mind will undertake such actions regardless.
[+2 Cerulean Obols]
[3] - Shards of Infinity: Five Shards of Infinity will be scattered across your designated realm, each embedded into the body and spirit of a being of import. Your mission: to collect and unite the fractions of Infinity once more, winning both your safety and freedom for the eons to come. Empowered significantly in raw might and with limitless uncapped potential, the Shardborne will war amongst themselves while seeking your destruction. Contain and destroy them before their escalating conflict obliterates the entirety of your designated realm.
[+4 Cerulean Obols]
—-
Where shall you descend?
[ ] An Incarnate Radius - By default, you'll be sent to the realm of Aincrad, in the world of Immersion. Conditions on the ground have been partially optimized for your arrival, granting a substantial effective increase to your budget if selected.
[+2 Cerulean Obols]
A link for those unfamiliar:
Immersion (Sword Art Online AU). You don't need to have read the quest to play this CYOA; only a few options reference it specifically.
[ ] A Modest Realm - A world of minor dangers. After taking Drawbacks, halve your total budget, rounding up for each currency type. With this option you may also choose to remain here, on your seemingly mundane Earth, so long as you serve the purpose determined above.
Examples: Westeros, Modern Earth, SAO (Canon), Middle-Earth (Early Fourth Age), 'Comfy' or Slice of Life settings that at least present some moderate chance of supernatural danger.
[ ] A Comparable Realm - A world with dangers somewhat similar to those of the default option. Your budget is unaffected. Most mid-tier fantasy and science fiction settings fall under the remit of this option, with combatants generally topping out at the low planetary scale.
Examples: Middle-Earth (Late Second Age), Fate/Stay Night, Cyberpunk, The Manifest Realm, Dragon Ball (Start of Saga), Bleach, Naruto, Young Justice, D&D.
[ ] A Perilous Realm - A world with dangers vastly surpassing those of the default option, whether by sheer scale or proliferation of powerful esoteric abilities.
[+3 Cerulean Obols]
Due to hypertime affinity, if the "New World" of Overlord within the boughs of Yggdrasil is selected, this option grants an additional
[+1 Cerulean Obol]. You are unlikely to be able to peaceably co-exist with the inhabitants of Nazarick given their proclivities.
Examples: Exalted (Age of Sorrows), Middle-Earth (War of Wrath), Supreme Commander, Marvel Comics, Dragon Ball Z (Saiyan Saga+).
—-
If you wish to further buttress your budgetary allocation, you may grant us up to
3 additional considerations for the course of your service:
[ ] Gamble - Entertain us. Roll a d8 (via the forum roller, if possible) and be forcibly assigned the corresponding Drawback, but receive the following benefits in exchange. You may Gamble so long as you have open Drawback slots to use.
First Gamble: Receive
[+1 Radiant Electrum] in addition to the listed reward.
Second Gamble: All Drawbacks are 20% less severe. You don't receive the listed reward.
Third Gamble: Receive double the listed reward.
If in your lacking wisdom you rolled a combination of Drawbacks you find totally unacceptable, you may beg off, mitigating one Drawback by an additional 50%. This nullifies all listed and gambling rewards and costs
1 Cerulean Obol in addition. Such is the price of folly.
[ ] 1: Midsummer's Rhapsody - Your world shall drown in the fires of war. Total war of breadth and intensity comparable to WWII, scaled to your realm, shall break out within the first three months of your arrival, and will not be quenched save by your direct and persistent intervention on the fields of battle. In the default option, Escapist and Fantasizer tensions will come to a boil, causing internecine conflict of the highest level among the Chosen.
[+2 Cerulean Obols]
[ ] 2: Caress of Winter - You are blessed with a heartbreakingly deep connection; platonic or romantic (your choice) it is a relationship that will shape and enliven your life in ways unique and irreplaceable. How unfortunate that said relationship will also be plagued with substantial amounts of separation, drama, or tragedy; enough to make even the most ardent romantic seriously question whether any of it was worthwhile. Should you sunder this bond, none will ever come again that could match its depth and intensity. In the default example, you might meet a wonderful Aincradian who serves as an irreplaceable boon companion, only to discover they're the avatar of some 'Ethereal Beauty' that seeks to enforce adherence to an inhuman and impossible ideal.
[+1 Cerulean Obol]
[ ] 3: Incursion - While you yourself remain in control of both mind and body, your supernatural powers are held by a symbiotic existence, a being either obnoxious, demanding or alien that parcels out access to your full abilities only when its requirements have been met, or your motives align.
[+2 Cerulean Obols]
*Freedom to use your powers fully will cost you about as much time and effort as maintaining a full-time job, if its demands are generally reasonable; or minimal time but highly variable effort and risk, if unreasonable. You may select which. Also, as it is dependent on you to survive, self-defense will always be a valid opportunity to unleash your power.
[ ] 4: Impelled - You will find that the very current of reality appears to press against you, a subtle but inexorable gravitation that weakens and undermines your every undertaking and multiplies your chances of failure. A foe with a 10% chance of overcoming you will find themselves miraculously guided towards that slim probability, giving them even odds instead.
With diligent preparation and overwhelming might this can be almost consistently overcome, but you will always and forever be considerably less effective than your capabilities would naively suggest - especially during moments of import. This effect extends in lesser degree to your allies and catspaws as well.
[+50 Ordinal Coins]
[ ] 5: Thinblood - Any time you experience a serious wound or setback, you will find that the injury done to your self or circumstances only worsens and bleeds further unless you permanently diminish yourself to stopper the flow. In the default scenario, any attack you take that removes 10% or more of your Health might profusely bleed your fundamental essence unless you reduce your maximum Health by that amount instead; while a loss of reputation might lead to increasingly riotous and powerful enemies unless you accept a permanent demotion. That said, your ability to progress is not directly impaired; if you can rapidly raise your maximum Health or accomplish promotion-worthy feats in other career paths, losses so suffered can be managed - if you do not suffer too many consecutively.
[+75 Ordinal Coins]
[ ] 6: Forbidding - Force fails to avail you. You find in every martial contest that your enemies are far more durable and defensively competent than they have any right to be. This effect scales hyper-exponentially with the importance and deadliness of a foe to you. The mid-boss of an ordinary dungeon might 'only' be 5000% as durable as they might be otherwise, but your final foe, the nemesis of your lifetime whose means and goals you cannot possibly abide, would be more unassailable than a xianxia protagonist with a completely indulgent author and editorial staff. Everyone is aware of this, which may weaken your effective social standing in numerous ways - no one wants to be allied with the person who makes even his weakest enemies a dozen times more durable simply by existing. Nor would those who might be inclined to fear or respect your strength do so, given their likely impunity from retaliation.
[+100 Ordinal Coins]
[ ] 7: Plague - You possess the Decimator's Affliction. It is mitigated to half its normal speed (10% every two years) and has drastically reduced total energy requirements, such that you need not worry about the self-consumption clause of the Curse unless deliberately isolated. But the
only means to pause its Decimation is by draining enormous amounts of life-force from the environment, such that a mere five decades of this behavior would see a thriving Gaian planet reduced to a parched and hollow husk. If one day you attain truly epic might, you may need to drain entire universes instead.
[+3 Cerulean Obols]
[ ] 8: A Maw - No further progression will you experience. Once you finalize your choices below, your personal power, in terms of raw versatility, elevation and might will never increase. This does not stop you from forming memories or developing skills to better utilize what you do have, nor does it prevent recovery to baseline if lessened.
[+3 Cerulean Obols]
[ ] Prepare to Die - Hunger is hunting you and cannot be dissuaded. This version is a Combat-type Cursebearer with the Geas of Indenture, Doom of the Tyrant and Decimator's Affliction. His Primary Remittance is the Sword That Ends The World. His Lesser Remittances are Gisena Allria, the Forebear's Blade, and the Ring Hunger. His Arete generation is commensurate to his performance in the quest, spiking appropriately if he is ever tested; but his decision-making is wholly uncompromised. You will die and there is no pretending otherwise. It is only a matter of time.
[+9 Cerulean Obols]
—-
Were you perhaps looking for another source of that precious
Radiant Electrum? I'm afraid mere Drawbacks are mostly insufficient to the task. That said, there is one undertaking you might be interested in, which might deserve so sumptuous a down payment.
[ ] A Saga. A series of trials against difficulties profound and terrifying, the reward of which is not mere power, but the true steel of character itself. If you are willing to subject yourself to such a travail, to go wholly above and beyond in your service to the cause, knowing full well that the risks entailed could end in a fate far worse than extinction - well. Then you would be entirety deserving of this
[+1 Radiant Electrum].
[ ]
Safety Off - Requires A Saga. You do not start with any purchases made via Cerulean Obols or Radiant Electrum. Rather, you are guaranteed to acquire the benefits of said purchases over the course of your adventures in this Saga, should you survive. Mightier powers will be granted later, or in diminished form to scale up with training.
[+1 Radiant Electrum]
Example: The Saga for the default scenario. Other realms will have Sagas of commensurate difficulty scaled to their baseline capabilities.
First - Untouchable: Arriving in this realm shortly before his challenge with Heathcliff, you attract the enmity of this realm's Ishida Koji, who wishes very strongly to dispose of you. If you are beyond his means, he will do his best to evade your detection and scale up to counter you. If you are weaker than him, he will hunt you relentlessly. Unless you convince him otherwise or put an end to him, he will never stop hounding you. Koji's performance, tactics, and BP income are congruent with canon. Expect his speed of escalation to be extremely rapid.
Second - Totality: A few weeks following the resolution of Untouchable, you feel an instinct stirring within you, a restlessness of subjective existence that requires the well-being and regard of others to safety stabilize. The easiest and most direct means of doing so - to act as head of one of the major Guilds or Factions, and lead them to preeminence among the quarreling armies of the Chosen. This trial is continuous and ongoing: as time goes on, your fate and your faction's will be intertwined. If they prosper and reign unchecked, you shall be in fine health and great spirits, invigorated with will and sheer power of spirit; but if they decline, so too shall you in every regard.
You may of course choose to start your own such Faction, though this raises the difficulty of this task substantially. It of course yields substantial customizability of this crucial organization in every regard. Your condition will persist for ten years, peaking in 'severity' (correlation between the faction's health and your own) at the five-year mark, and slowly diminishing thereafter.
Third - A New Era: Several months after the beginning of Totality, SAO 2.0 is unleashed upon an unsuspecting populace. Heralding its arrival is the Elder Titan Thaargundrim, son of outcast progenitors whose horde of Oaken Men sweeps through meadow, fell, forest and city, slaying or converting all in their path. Unfathomably lessened as it may be, the errant Titan's sheer metaphysical weight renders it almost immune to all forms of interaction - thunderstrike and impassioned plea both shriveling beneath its unblinking disregard.
As one of the foremost powers among the 'Chosen' it falls to you to aid in the destruction of Thaargundrim, or its containment, before all of civilized Aincrad is laid waste. Its druidic and alien paradigm holds within it the secret to the Oaken Men's defeat, but will you unravel its archaic philosophies in time to take advantage?
Thaargundrim is obscenely powerful, on par with an endgame Raid Boss, but much of its strength is focused on sheer resilience, resistance-penetrating status effects and its horde of minions. If the unnatural etiology of its assault can be deciphered, it may be possible to manipulate it into only occasional devastating assaults upon the civilized world. That would suffice as a resolution of this trial.
Fourth - Unclaimed Fastness: A few years after Thaargundrim's awakening, Kayaba introduces a major 'content patch' unearthing a new region of Aincrad. This land of the far East is a snowy kingdom of myths and legends whose center houses an artifact of unimaginable power. The Lodestar of Wishes will impose any one alteration upon the fabric of reality that the bearer desires, up to and including: the creation and introduction of a new system of magic equal in scope and depth to Arcane Magic, the annihilation of vast swathes of Aincrad in exchange for a perfect facsimile of one of Earth's continents, or the addition of 150 Nightblade Levels to the bearer's character sheet. Should the Lodestar be claimed by any but you or yours, the machinations of Kayaba will ensure that it shall be used to weaken or erase your intrusive influence upon his creation, most likely resulting in your annihilation upon this plane.
Fifth - A Reckoning: Two decades after your arrival in this realm, your sins come home to roost. If you slew Ishida Koji in the resolution of your first trial, the Armada of the Horror King breaches Aincrad's shield and begins the process of inflicting its terrible Justice upon all within. Wielding technology on par with the Imperium of Man combined with armies empowered by the limit-broken Pillars System, their might is far beyond the power of native or Chosen alike. If you somehow befriended Ishida and contained his Supreme Manifestation, Akihiko Kayaba grows tired of your interference, his hands-off philosophy discarded in the face of such enmity. You will have to weather, escape, or counter the malicious attentions of the so-called 'Highest God' himself if you are to survive this final task and free yourself of this perilous Saga at last.
—-
And now, finally, to spend your currencies!
Ordinal Coins mainly yield boons of convenience or questionable practicality, but their highest expressions in combination can be startlingly useful.
All
Ordinal Coin purchases are arranged in tiers. Unlike with other currencies, you must first purchase the basic tier of an ability to gain access to the second, the second to gain access to the third, and so on. Additionally, the highest expressions of Ordinal power are usually mutually exclusive: you may choose one capstone or the other, but not both.
Melodious / Mask
[ ] I: Gourmet [2 Ordinal Coins] - Do you like food? You will. This upgrade will give you the palate, olfactory senses, and taste receptors of a grandmaster chef, then further amplify all scent and taste-derived pleasures by a factor of five. A true bon vivant! Also occasionally useful in detecting poisons.
[ ] II: Ordinal Ordering [20 Ordinal Coins] - You have access to a mystic food delivery service that will provide three square meals a day. Meals are generously portioned and of exquisite quality, easily comparable to the finest restaurants on your mortal Earth. Despite their extravagant taste, their optimal nutritional composition ensures you will reach your ideal body composition within a year of beginning a mystic-food diet. Split between four individuals, they can also serve as starvation rations. A useful bribe in many situations, especially if your ideal body composition is a popular one.
[ ] III: Resplendency [60 Ordinal Coins] - You've got a silver tongue. Your voice is superhumanly compelling in the way that you desire - whether a thunderously commanding baritone or heartbreakingly sweet and melodious. You have full command of your new vocal range and are a skilled voice actor. This is not magic, but precisely tuned superstimulus. With a voice like this, even mediocre arguments seem strangely convincing, and well-composed rhetoric borders on mind control. Gourmet now grants corresponding upgrades to the senses of touch and hearing as well - this will never cause pain due to oversensitivity. Finally, all powers channeled chiefly through your voice are quintupled in potency. You would make a terrifyingly formidable bard.
OR
[ ] III: The Mask of Autumn [43 Ordinal Coins] - The Mask of Autumn is placed upon your face and cannot be removed. It covers your mouth down to your chin with a triangle of cold steel. You are forever denied the senses of taste and smell, and can never use your mouth for any purpose ever again. In exchange, the Mask grants supernatural power of impressive versatility. You are equivalent to a 10th level Sorceror (D&D 5E) with a proper complement of spells known and are treated as possessing 22 Charisma for this purpose. You may always use the Subtle Spell Metamagic for free. The logistics of food and water consumption are up to you, but what are such trivialities in the face of power to bend reality itself?
Sight / Seal
[ ] I: Delayed Gratification [2 Ordinal Coins] - Surrounded by temptation, is it any wonder you never get any training done? Worry not, for this is a problem easily tackled by the strategic application of incentives! Now, whenever you are anticipating a particular experience, the longer you are denied from partaking - whether by your own action or others' - the better that experience will be! This scales up linearly without limit, so one only imagines how incredible it'll feel to finally be free of your duties here… and all the more reason to extend them, of course.
[ ] II: Beautiful World [10 Ordinal Coins] - Your designated realm, and all within it, will better conform to your personal aesthetic preferences. This is a mostly cosmetic change of moderate power, but highly encompassing. You could make reality look like one of your favorite animes!
[ ] III: Enter the Infinite [34 Ordinal Coins] - Once per month you and up to five consenting individuals may enter a perfectly realistic shared delusion. You may specify the parameters of this illusory world using a wide range of metaphysical templates, allowing for the construction of nearly arbitrary fantasy realms. This experience lasts no longer than a subjective month for all involved, and persists for only a moment in 'reality.' An infinitely indulgent vacation, but it can also be used for impromptu tactical meetings or guaranteed private communications!
OR
[ ] III: The Wrappings [54 Ordinal Coins] - You have special eyes. The longer you take to reveal them, the more special they will end up being. Your eyes are sealed by indestructible bindings of dark indigo. This blinds you regardless of what your underlying eyes end up becoming. The bindings resist removal unless you voluntarily unwrap them.
Wait a week and you'll have perfect 20/10 vision.
Wait two weeks and you'll possess the Byakugan of the Hyuuga Clan.
Wait a month and you'll have Kryptonian visual acuity and perceptiveness, or possess the vaunted three-tomoe Sharingan.
Wait two months and you'll wield a Mangekyo Sharingan, or mystic eyes on the level of Medusa's (Fate).
Wait two years and you'll command the Rinnegan, itself sufficient to grant you enormous chakra reserves, affinity with all elemental natures, and superior talent in all fields of nin- and genjutsu. Or perhaps the perfected Mystic Eyes of Death Perception that belong to Shiki Ryogi.
Wait ten years and you'll reveal the Rinne Sharingan, containing all the powers of a Rinnegan and Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan greatly amplified, and also possessing the capability of dimensional transit. Or maybe you would receive fully operational ocular implants equivalent to Superman's, with the ability to reflexively employ his heat vision to intercept incoming attacks.
The Wrappings won't offer power beyond that of Uchiha Sasuke at his height.
Profess / Preference
[ ] I: Profoundly Tasteful [6 Ordinal Coins] - In all facets of life, others who interact with you tend to enjoy what you enjoy, or a corresponding analogue, in addition to their normal tastes. Never will your friends ignore your media recommendations again!
[ ] II: Preference Ranking [14 Ordinal Coins] - Whenever it would advantage you to be chosen for something (winning a sweepstakes, lotto, or election), you are substantially more likely to be chosen. Whenever it would disadvantage you to be chosen for something (jury duty, random security checks), you are less likely to be chosen. The magnitude of this effect scales with how badly you wish to attain or avoid the outcome in question, but won't create choices from thin air. The world's richest corporation won't decide to give half its assets to one of two lucky winners no matter how badly you want it.
[ ] III: All's Fair [35 Ordinal Coins] - You are shielded against the most common forms of unconditional defeat. Overwhelming speed, temporal effects, precognition/simulations, mind control, and reality warping can grant no more than a moderate advantage against you.
OR
[ ] III: The Professor [43 Ordinal Coins] - You can train to improve the quantitative values of any power purchased with Ordinal Coins, Cerulean Obols or Radiant Electrum. From your Gourmet multiplier to your Mask of Autumn caster level, from the power of your Allies to the duration of Enter the Infinite - all can be expanded with time, effort, and diligent practice. This will by no means be fast or easy, but your rate of progression in any of these fields will fairly satisfying so long as you put in the work. Interesting conflicts can accelerate this greatly.
Ally / Alternate
[ ] I: Attribution Requested [5 Ordinal Coins] - You are made aware of, and may teleport, to the side of anyone who sincerely regards you as their ally and desires your presence. This will never become obtrusive.
[ ] II: Ally [20 Ordinal Coins] - You summon an individual, either from real life or an established 'fictional' world. This may be anyone desired; multiversal assortment will ensure they begin at least somewhat friendly to and compatible with you, but long-term loyalty is not guaranteed. If more useful than Captain America (MCU), their capabilities will be downscaled commensurately.
[ ] III: Armada [70 Ordinal Coins] - As per Ally, but you may summon up to ten individuals; their combined power and potential cannot be more than double yours, accounting for the choices made here. Furthermore guarantees the long-term loyalty of summoned individuals. A single powerful protector, or a team that can respond to multiple contingencies at once? It's your choice. If you select Safety Off, this will only account for powers acquired by Ordinal Coins.
OR
[ ] III: Protean Lord [45 Ordinal Coins] - By touch, you can reconfigure any individual's body into an alternate version of 'themselves,' drawing from an immense but finite range of unrealized possibilities. This works on your own body as well. Targets affected always retain their own mind, so this cannot be used to upgrade intellect or mental factors, but other bodily features are fair game. Essentially any human or human-adjacent form can be imposed.
This power operates on a reserve of energy; more dramatic changes require more energy. Transforming an eviscerated near-death bodybuilder with 350 lbs of muscle mass into a perfectly healthy eleven year old child with a venomous prehensile tail would require about a month's worth of stored charge; modest cosmetic changes would consume a day's. With sufficient charge, even an unenhanced version of you would be deadly in melee combat against biological opponents. You begin with two weeks' charge, sufficient to acquire the peak human version of yourself.
Dream / Double
[ ] I: Twice [3 Ordinal Coins] - Once, when you would be slain or experience an unacceptable fate, you will be promptly rescued from that predicament and deposited into a safe place.
[ ] II: Multithreading [28 Ordinal Coins] - You are manifold. You are now a hive mind in a singular body, capable of splitting your attention eightfold without any loss in cognitive quality or fidelity. This doesn't cause you to grow more bored than usual. It does make you eight times as resilient against all forms of mental attack or obfuscation, and with eight times the mental stamina if you choose to focus on one task solely.
[ ] III: Dual Life [23 Ordinal Coins] - Should you have chosen a realm besides Mundane Earth, you may now retain your Earthly and 'fantasy' existences while sacrificing neither. When you sleep in one realm you'll awake in the other, fully refreshed and prepared to face the day. Time will arrange itself such that you'll never have conflicting circumstances that require you to be awake in both realms simultaneously. You may choose to surrender this feature and use Multitasking to live two lives at once, if you prefer.
You won't be consigned to the procession unless your foes manage to slay you both in your designated realm and Mundane Earth. Quite difficult for all but the most capable.
OR
[ ] III: Savor the Moment [65 Ordinal Coins] - Among luxuries, the most sublime.
Who has never wished that a day could go on forever? This power cannot promise eternity, but it more than suffices to stretch a day into a month, and not mere repetition but the fullness of embodied existence - the passage of time undeterred, but without the ravages of age, illness, or resource depletion.
Memories are retained, events continue to develop - but nothing truly pressing or important, little that matters and almost never to your detriment. Invoked on a festival day, you could experience a month of festival activities, each as novel and joyous as the very first, and any relationships developed during that Savored sequence retained in its wake. Invoked as you open your favorite book, you will find proper sequels of the same style and quality emerging so long as you desire to consume them.
Ultimately this is a tool of enjoyment, not of tedious regimens or toil. The more productive are the Savored days, the slower this power is to recharge. They that fritter away their Savored moment could see it restored in half a week, while those that treat it as a hyperbolic time chamber may find themselves waiting years.
Yet there may be eventualities dire enough to warrant such abuse, for the power of the Savor to create genuinely novel experiences can indirectly, but explosively, augment training if invoked during appropriate activities.
Most activities are at least a little bit productive, so typically the Savor recharges every week or two. If you spends your Savored month enjoying a street festival but also profitably socializing, developing somewhat useful connections, and playing strenuous (but ultimately irrelevant) games, it would recharge within two weeks.
You begin with one Savor charge to use as you please. You may store a maximum of two Savor charges, the second taking twice as long to acquire. Used in conjunction with Enter the Infinite, you could experience thirty illusory months instead of one concrete. A decent final escape if one is on the precipice.
Extract / Exceed
[ ] I: Quintessence [2 Ordinal Coins] - You may convert money to power directly. By itself, this only permits you to inefficiently convert money into wakefulness, reducing your need to sleep. But any power here which relies upon a charge, or any system of magic which draws upon a fungible internal reservoir, can be recharged with sufficient quantities of money. You must have the physical currency on hand to convert.
The equivalent of USD $100 in 2022 will yield a mediocre night's sleep or fill the charge of an average magus. Replenishing a month's worth of Protean Lord or Savor the Moment might cost upwards of $10,000, while epically powerful entities might require billions to restore even 1% of their reserves. Debased currencies are worth comparatively less; it's the underlying economic value that's truly important.
[ ] II: Gauntlet [98 Ordinal Coins] - This deep bronze gauntlet of gleaming adamantite alloys can be used to manipulate space in a few set ways. These are conceptual alterations and cannot be resisted with raw power, only bypassed or repelled by absolute defenses like those of the Exalted. Using the Gauntlet's first three functions is no more taxing than issuing commands in a video game. The latter two draw upon an inner well of spiritual energy that can be replenished via Quintessence.
*Reach Through: Objects placed in the palm of the gauntlet can be sent to, or drawn from, an extra-dimensional inventory. This affects inanimate objects you can carry.
*Tremorsense: By detecting eddies in spacetime, the character is aware of all objects and movements in a fifty-meter radius. This ability requires considerable skill to employ effectively.
*Mirrorplane: Holding the Gauntlet up in a warding gesture, the character folds space along an angle to reflect all incoming attacks. This can only ward one direction at once.
*Final Durance: Requires a few moments of concentration to set up. The character is surrounded by flat spatial blades rotating like shark fins circling prey. Incoming objects, biological or otherwise, struck by a spatial blade will be severed, partitioned at the angle of impact. Any attacks that make it into the circumference described by the rotating blades will be teleported outside the circle as if their trajectory had continued - a hypersonic bullet fired at you will appear to 'pass through' without inflicting harm. While within the durance you may fly by hovering or walk normally, but not run without destabilizing the effect. You may launch a blade towards an enemy with a gesture; a new one will take its place shortly. This does not protect against effects which don't need to cross the intervening distance to target you.
*Titanfold: You spatially expand, growing in size up to a total height of fifty meters and proportional width. Your effective strength and durability are also proportionally multiplied. Can be used alongside Final Durance, scaling up that effect, but cost would be prohibitive for most.
The Gauntlet is nigh-indestructible and can be used as a shield. It has a deep affinity with the Orbs of Kalym; in conjunction it will awaken their power with greater speed, while regulating and minimizing any undesired mental alterations from the course of your ascension thereby.
OR
[ ] II: The Sword [33 Ordinal Coins] - The Sign of the Sword grants you the Blood Impulse. You will gain an intuition for physical conflict that well exceeds the humanly possible. This holistic combat instinct explosively accelerates your progress in any martial discipline and renders you immune to violent ambush. Magic is not a martial discipline per se, but differences in fighting skill can compensate for a power gap.
Applies to violent conflict in greater contexts as well, so with experience you could become an expert general and tactician as well as combatant. However, true battle is necessary to awaken your potential. You will not improve in a fight without stakes, the higher the better.
—-
Cerulean Obols offer straightforward security. They allow you to requisition certain capabilities that help you achieve your purpose and emerge from the experience intact.
You may (inefficiently) trade
Cerulean Obols for Ordinal Coins at a rate of 1 Obol for 15 Coins. This is a one-way transaction; Coins can't buy Obols.
[ ] Worldly Might [5 Cerulean Obols] - Power sufficient to matter. You are an above-average practitioner of the supernatural arts within your designated realm. In Dragon Ball, for example, this would grant you ki manipulation and martial arts capabilities comparable to Tien Shinhan. In Exalted, this would make you a Terrestrial Exalt. This option and its successors are not a valid purchase for Mundane Earth.
[ ] Unearthly Might [11 Cerulean Obols] - As above, but you are a truly notable practitioner of said arts, with great potential to advance. In Dragon Ball, you would be Vegeta's equal. In Exalted, this would make you a very powerful Terrestrial Exalt, comparable to a Dynastic Head.
[ ] Body Armor [8 Cerulean Obols] - This semi-sapient symbiotic silver-steel acts as a supreme shapeshifting sanctuary, offering great resilience to harm or compromise no matter the time or realm! Our body armor intertwines with your genetic makeup, bonding to your cells on a sub-molecular level to ensure you are never without its vigilant guard. Its features:
*Amplification of your mental speed and physical attributes. This is a multiplier applied to your baseline, making you an order of magnitude stronger, faster and tougher than you otherwise would be.
*Powerful, swift, and comprehensive regeneration. You can recover in minutes even from a single cell.
*The general utility granted by a rapidly shapeshifting, highly durable mass of silver-steel. Make weapons, grappling hooks, restrain your enemies, disguise yourself - request it of the armor and it will comply!
*High and generalized resistance to exotic and unnatural attacks, such as hypnosis, temporal shenanigans, or conceptual deletion.
*Upgradability: If you are an enchanter or titan of science, you will find that improving the armor in almost any parameter is much easier than it ought to be, and such improvements maintain and repair themselves after being integrated. This is often considerably more efficient than working on other projects; were you a master scientist capable of creating powerful combat androids, you'd find that an equal amount of effort applied to the armor would yield twice the might!
Synergies:
*If you have
Protean Lord, your regeneration instead grants you corporeal immortality, allowing you to recover nigh-instantly even if completely obliterated. Foes will have to use unconventional means to deal with you.
*If you have
Unearthly Might, you may discount the Body Armor by 3 Cerulean Obols. In exchange, its use will alter your mentality slightly, such that fulfilling your purpose seems more natural, logical, and congruent with your own values. If you have Do As Thou Wilt, this merely makes you more willful.
*If you have
Perchance to Dream, you may absorb the Body Armor and all its functions to acquire appropriate Lunar Charms and Knacks granting the corresponding abilities. This immediately raises you to Essence 3, doubles your essence respiration from all sources, and grants five Attribute dots to be spent as you please, even if this would raise an Attribute above 6. This bypasses the effects of A Maw. Additionally, your Great Curse is mitigated such that Limit Break merely causes you to pursue your purpose very strongly for a few days, without impairing your faculties or reason!
[ ] Chosen One [4 Cerulean Obols] - You number amongst the Chosen of Aincrad. Aside from the rapid progression granted by the Cardinal System, you also receive a corpus of reified power and experience that places you well within the top 10% of the Chosen as of their first month within: 20,000 XP to be spent as you please, alongside a budget of 20 BP for Achievements. You possess one Skill at the 250 level, one Skill at the 200 level, and three Skills at the 100 level.
You may select any Achievement Koji has been offered or had approved, so long as you meet the mechanical pre-requisites. Assume you meet any reasonable in-story pre-requisites. Free Achievements acquired by Koji cost BP commensurate to their value - 2 BP for something like Scale-Piercer, or 7 for Magelight.
[ ] Top Twenty [8 Cerulean Obols] - Your fearsome ability places you amongst the top twenty deadliest Chosen in Aincrad. As Chosen One, but you instead receive 120,000 XP, alongside a budget of 50 BP for Achievements. You now possess one Skill at the 500 level, two Skills at the 250 level, and four Skills at the 150 level. You may trade half your total XP and BP to instead receive 15 Levels in a Unique Class of your choosing - Nightblade, Dragonheart or Fluxstaff, alongside considerable development in the particular Abilities and unique features of that Class.
You may select any Achievement Koji has been offered or had approved, so long as you meet the mechanical pre-requisites. Assume you meet any remotely feasible in-story pre-requisites. Free Achievements acquired by Koji cost BP commensurate to half their value - 1 BP for something like Scale-Piercer, or 3 for Magelight. Your Achievements are re-flavored such that that they don't appear to be exact copies of Koji's. You might receive [Megaton] rather than [Optimum Prime], or be granted a Magic Faerie companion rather than a stuffed dragon. [Megaton] might operate off nuclear radiation rather than lightning, and its [Reactor Core] might be located in your center of mass rather than the Core Spark over Koji's heart, etc…
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Finally, the good stuff.
Radiant Electrum grants access to the finest capabilities available to you, effects deemed too outrageous or unnecessary for your mission of modest difficulty. But if you've earned our Electrum, you've already undertaken burdens beyond your duly necessary remit. For that, we salute you - even if you acquired such merely by entertaining us for a span.
[ ] First Sword [1 Radiant Electrum] - Save for his unfair advantages, you're the equal of Ishida Koji himself. As per Top Twenty, except your budget is 260,00 total XP and 100 BP. You possess one Skill at the 650 level, three Skills at the 350 level, and five Skills at the 250 level.
You may select any Achievement Koji has been offered or had approved, so long as you meet the mechanical pre-requisites. Assume you meet all in-story pre-requisites. Otherwise, as per Top Twenty.
You possess a magic sword or artefact of power comparable to the Ensilvered Blade, and may spend BP to augment its power as well. It isn't broken.
[ ] Solitary Pillar [1 Radiant Electrum] - You possess the body, and acquire the skills, of a Player of YGGDRASIL that might otherwise have been transported to the New World. Your character-body is level 100 and holds a single World Item. You may customize your build within reasonable limits. This grants immense power and versatility, but your power within the YGGDRASIL system has already been maximized; there is little room for further growth here.
While you are vastly more capable on net than even Koji during his duel with Heathcliff, you do not have the potential from this option alone to surpass or even approach the mightiest Chosen in the long term. At the uppermost limits of the Cardinal system, the Chosen can raze continents in seconds; you would struggle to level a major metropolis in that same period. In time, they might possess superhuman intelligence far beyond your comprehension; your mind remains mostly mortal. For now, of course, your advantage is overwhelming and nearly insurmountable for any Chosen save for Koji himself.
You may describe your build in terms as general or specific as you like. Not counting your World Item, you can't be more powerful than Momonga. Choose your World Item from these below:
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[ ] Tyrfing - Mighty Tyrfing, Godslayer, Wretched Blade. While a near-peerless weapon on its own, the blade becomes deadlier in every respect against opponents more powerful than oneself. The magnitude of this effect is so great that the wielder would be capable of posing a credible offensive threat to a planet-shattering foe, even if they themselves would struggle to destroy a large island. It also grants nigh-immunity to all curses less powerful than its own; any hostile magics insufficient to affect an entire world can be shrugged off without much issue. The weapon is cursed such that it must slay a sentient being each time it is drawn.
Doubles the wielder's Physical Attack stat after all modifiers. 80% unconditional Armor penetration. Ignore Slashing Resistance. Ignore Physical Defense 50%. Ignore Physical Damage Immunity. +500% Fire and Darkness damage. +100% Lifesteal. +80% Mana Regeneration. Tireless Wielder. Reflects Damage Taken 150%. Cuts Magic as if Physical. Counter Curse: Hostile magics will be responded to by a random Curse of the 10th Tier.
World Item protections. Additionally, wielder is immune to magics of the 9th Tier and below, or of comparable power. Wielder possess 90% resistance to hostile magics of the 10th and Over-Tiers.
Godslayer: Becomes massively more effective in battle against those stronger than the wielder.
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[ ] Jewel of Clouds and Mist - A simple, yet powerful, crowning focus for any regalia.
The wielder becomes 10% better in every respect. Intellect, mana reserves, judgement, good looks, physical parameters, charm, perceptiveness, spell power, and more are affected. Even parameters that should be static are improved - range, duration, effectiveness in all forms even for spells as broad as Wish Upon A Star. This increases the wielder's Level Cap to 110 while they bear the Jewel. Your character will be Level 110 if selected, roughly doubling their overall power in conjunction with the Jewel's other benefits.
World Item protections. Additionally, wielder is always considered to be under heavy cover for purposes of stealth or avoiding notice, should they so desire.
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[ ] Carnwennan - Subtle Carnwennan, blade-brother to Excalibur, its shadowed twin. If the wielder is a martial or magic-focused character, they gain the full skills and (where better) parameters of a specialized Level 100 rogue in addition to their normal capabilities. If the wielder is already a specialized rogue, the hidden power of this blade is unlocked: True Invisibility, which may contest and usually overcome even 'absolute' divinations like True Seeing. With such a tool one might hide even from self-proclaimed gods.
+900% Sneak Attack Damage. Critical Sneak Attack. Ignore Sneak Attack Immunity. Ignore Critical Hit Immunity. Absolute Initiative. +50% Agility. +20% Physical Attack, Physical Defense, Resist and Special. +200% Cold and Poison Damage. Wielder Absorbs Darkness Damage. +60% Lifesteal, +80% Manasteal. Covert Operative / True Invisibility.
World Item Protections. Additionally, the dagger automatically counters hostile temporal magics in the character's vicinity, and drains the mana used in their casting for its wielder.
-[ ] Pillars of Creation [12 Cerulean Obols] - Req. Solitary Pillar. Your entire YGGDRASIL Guild Base, including intact NPCs, is transported alongside you. Your Guild is only slightly weaker than the likes of Ainz Ool Gown. Though your core NPC levels may be comparable to theirs, you cannot match their arsenal of World Items. Your Guild Base does possess one World Item which vastly enhances its defensibility and economic productivity, which you may customize within reason. The layout, features, and overall aesthetic of your Guild Base may also be designed, so long as it does not surpass the Great Tomb of Nazarick in power or utility overall.
You receive up to twelve level 100 NPCs who are steadfastly loyal to you. You also receive hundreds of low-level servitor NPCs, and your Guild Base has the capability to deploy tens of thousands of mid-level combatants, each the equal of a seasoned adventurer, if mobilized for war.
[ ] Perchance to Dream [1 Radiant Electrum] - You receive a Lunar Exaltation*. This is potential unbound in nearly its purest form; with time and ambition you could surpass very nearly any foe, though cosmos-transcending power may take millennia to achieve.
In the interim, your baseline parameters are improved to those of a Lunar Exalt during character generation, if lower, and you possess a broad array of Attribute-boosting Charms and shapeshifting Knacks that grant substantial versatility in everyday life. In raw proactive power you are no match for the First Sword or Solitary Pillar with your Exalt capabilities alone, but defensively you can endure or evade virtually any conceivable attack you are aware of.
*This is a Late 2E Exaltation, with the highest potential described capabilities at Essence 10. You may also choose an [Exalted vs WoD] Exaltation with the Essence cap removed, or even a 3E Exaltation if you so desire. Regardless, if you are a Sorceror you may perform 3E Workings.
[ ] Ninefold [2 Radiant Electrum] - The Archetype.
You may switch at will between nine sets of supernatural abilities, each tied to a particular Attribute. The abilities are generic, almost surpassingly so, but in their conjunction arise infinite possibilities. The sets are as follows:
Strength - Immense physical might, capable of shattering Asia in a single blow. Durability sufficient to withstand many such blows. Fine control sufficient to prevent this might from inconveniencing daily life. Unaffected by problems of insufficient leverage, force distribution or the like.
Dexterity - Super-speed capable of reaching .01c (roughly 3,000 kilometers per second) and reflexes to match. Acts as temporal acceleration (no super-strength or amplified damage to self/others, falling works properly, etc) but does not actually manipulate time, thus cannot be countered by foreign temporal paradigms and the like.
Constitution - Arbitrary near-instantaneous shapeshifting into any form within the bounds of conventional humanity. Damage of any form is automatically shifted away, granting eternal youth, effective immortality and invulnerability to most forms of physical harm, including deprivation, toxins and disease. Should the user not shift back, the form they assume is maintained across power-set changes. For example, a character may take on gargantuan stature via this set before engaging in a grappling contest via Strength, or slight and modest stature before infiltrating a compound via Dexterity.
Intelligence - The character becomes a scientific and technological genius of staggering ability. Given modest resources and modern infrastructure, they could produce within hours objects that exceed current technology (numerically, as well as in the sense of 'achieving impossibilities') to the same degree that current technology exceeds that of the Renaissance; and, within weeks, that of the Stone Age. Somewhat less revolutionary in realms with high levels of baseline technology, but rarely useless.
This genius applies also to most magic systems that rely on formal, abstract reasoning to progress.
Wisdom - The character becomes exceptionally proficient in three mundane professions of their choice, as if they had trained with optimal methods for a human lifetime. They emit a powerful anti-magic field that suppresses all supernatural phenomena, potent enough to reduce a nation-leveling archmage to the level of a novice. The character may slowly alter their skill choices with time and focused concentration. The character may elect to reduce the emission range of the field so as to spare allies.
Wits - The character may manifest powerful telekinetic constructs with precision equivalent to the human hand, strength/durability two orders of magnitude below that of the Strength set, and speed two orders of magnitude below that of the Dexterity set. Constructs emerge from the character's body and have a maximum range of two kilometers. The character benefits from mental acceleration sufficient to control their full-speed constructs as if controlling their own body. The character is aware of events within the vicinity of their constructs as if they were physically present at that point. They process this additional sensory data quickly and without complications.
Charisma - The character may mind control any being insufficiently resistant. Willpower in immense quantities or powerful defenses relevant against supernatural mental influence are typically necessary. Fully controlled individuals act according to the spirit of commands, partially resistant ones may act according to the letter.
Luck - The character may amplify the supernatural powers of another to an outrageous degree, allowing the target to contest a potent demigod within their area of specialty. This is a large, flat bonus to parameters; sufficiently powerful targets may not notice a qualitative difference. The target has no trouble controlling this new power, unless the character wants them to…
Willpower - Massively augments the character's defenses against mental and spiritual tampering, hostile precognition and the like. Perfectly defeats and retroactively undoes virtually any such effect. This set will be automatically activated for an instant if pertinent, immediately overcoming such attacks before switching back.
The Ninefold Archetype offers immediate defensive and destructive power far beyond that of the other options - many hundreds of times faster and stronger than even a combat-focused Solitary Pillar, if only in separation.
However, its future scaling is modest, and somewhat unreliable.
[ ] Shattering [1 Radiant Electrum] - Qualitatively improves the fundamental nature of a previously selected option. This boost equates to about a 70% upgrade in total performance, though it offers access to effects that may otherwise be inaccessible for the option in question.
Examples:
First Sword - You have access to a Supreme Manifestation analogue, placing you roughly on par with Ishida Koji as of his duel with Heathcliff. This doesn't come with negative mental effects.
Solitary Pillar - You now possess two World Items instead of one, and your baseline build can be as potent as the Paladin of Pure Silver.
Perchance to Dream - Increase your starting Essence by 1 and your starting Charms by 10 (or an equivalent amount of Experience). You gain a unique and mighty anima power that's reflective of your nature and interests. A warrior might gain the ability to use physical Excellencies for free during combat, while a magus may gain the potential to access unprecedented Wyld Sorceries that rival the Solar Circle of Adamant.
Body Armor - Your armor grants an additional +20% to All Attributes and expands your reservoirs of supernatural energy by double.
Ninefold - You may manifest a second Attribute set at 70% of its full strength. Combine Wits and Intelligence to build hypertech at speed, or Strength and Dexterity for terrifying might. Strength and Constitution to become nigh-unkillable, and so on.
[ ] Orbs of Kalym [1 Radiant Electrum] - An Artifact of unimaginable potential, these threefold semi-material orbs represent the refracted totality of a once-transcendent being, fractured now like light through a prism into a three-dimensional form you can personally wield. By studying the orbs and integrating them into your psyche, you may amplify their powers and unlock greater abilities.
The Sapphire Orb - The Sapphire Orb, wholly material, grants hydrokinesis and cryokinesis of impressive precision and city-leveling power, sufficient to raise an eighty-story tsunami, or freeze one into the form of a Michelangelo. You may swap positions with the Sapphire Orb at any time.
The Ruby Orb - The Ruby Orb, an impressionist delusion, compounds your passions and makes them infectious. You will feel in all things more strongly and powerfully than before. As you feel, so too will others, any time this reciprocity would be convenient for you. Camaraderie towards others will be returned in kind, but one-sided venom will not become mutual unless you desire to provoke a foe. This effect bypasses all but the most comprehensive defenses against mental intrusion.
You may detonate the orb to mentally enfeeble all within a two-kilometer radius: any so affected will see their intelligence plummet, such that a world-spanning genius be reduced to the level of a base mammal, and those of average intellect instantly slain. Orbs detonated regenerate slowly over the course of two months.
The Emerald Orb - The unthinkable Emerald Orb grants you telekinetic control over the Orbs of Kalym within two kilometers. You may feed the Orb the bodies of your slain foes; it will refactor a portion of their mental and physical capabilities for you, granting you a small percentage of those attributes. Attributes so gained diminish asymptotically towards those of the highest exemplar of each Attribute you have so consumed. If the strongest being you've fed it had STR 100, you are unlikely to ever exceed STR 100 by this method.
Once per week, you may fuse with the Orb for an hour to become a being of pure spirit and four spatial dimensions, rendering you undetectable and wholly permeable to those without specialized or supernatural senses.
A being who learns to merge fully with all three Orbs might regain the unshed glory of the Colossus Kalym, before which worlds entire were as marbles in its outstretched palm.
[ ] The Pocketwatch [1 or 2 Radiant Electrum] - This gold-chrome pocketwatch is merely a mental abstraction of the power gifted you: the power to try again. By rewinding its hands you may turn back time itself, retaining your skills and memories alone as all else is reverted to just as it was back then. However, this power's limits are sharp and very much concrete.
You may live the same span of time again, but only
once again for each given period of time. This is no time loop, merely a second try. Nor may you revert time to before the moment you finalize your choices here. However, your powers over time are not constrained only to this application - with practice and ingenuity you may eventually discover how to manipulate the aging of yourself and others, send foes forward in time to a period where your rule is law, or even pause time for a span that you may act unimpeded.
For an additional Electrum, you may loosen the first limit, allowing you to relive the same stretch of time for up to a thousand repetitions. Access to Savor the Moment, Enter the Infinite or The Professor will greatly accelerate your mastery of the Pocketwatch's alternate functions.
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All powers granted herein synergize fully to a reasonable extent. If you benefit from the Cardinal System and slay a host of monsters with the power of the Sapphire Orb, for example, you may both gain XP from the slaying and absorb their corpses with the Emerald Orb. Similarly, if you possess the Emerald Orb and a Lunar Exaltation, Attributes augmented via the Emerald Orb will increase the dice-caps for your Lunar Excellencies. And, of course, in a desperate scenario you can use Quintessence to spam as many Perfect Defenses as you can literally afford.
Have you finalized your decisions? Well then. Good fortune to you. I pray you shall avoid the procession, and emerge from your completed purpose mostly intact. What more can one ask of this uncompromising reality?
