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A Simple Transaction I

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Would be kind of cool to have a superhero setting with all the insane stuff that happens in most like marvel and dc.

So a power-scaled Worm quest would be alright for me even though I'm not that interested in Worm itself.

But at the same time I'll rather have something not as commen...
 
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Perhaps a Worm quest that is also the return of Dr. Apocalypse?
 
I sketched out a Dien CYOA a few months ago but it never went anywhere because the answer was always "Dien would just pursue all the worthwhile options simultaneously". But if you'll indulge me, there were a few mechanical ideas that I thought might be cool. They turned out to be too hard to implement all at once for my first CYOA though.

First, you select parts of your build a megaproject before you know what strategy Hunger & Co. will be following. We voted from among several combinations of splitting the party, including sending the Rank 9 teenagers out into the wilds alone. So, after the first selections you are prompted to roll for what the Praehir's party does. Similarly, Dien has to select build options before seeing what kind of Hunger emerges from the Realm of Evening. The foe that emerges would be rolled from some of the build options we were presented (including Broken Kaleidoscope Gisena).

Second, each blurb (in a completed version) would have a measure for how easily it can be liquidated from potential into pure power, in case Dien needs to turn into a jellyfish octopus monster.

Third, Dien has access to Catherine and Etrynome. I had a vague idea that some of the blurbs might come with a risk of alienating Cat, which could be paid off with concessions about letting parts of the Republic persist, or concealing your experimentations, etc. But employing Etrynome's noncombat utility would massively improve your rewards? This was the biggest roadblock for me because it felt like doubling the # of blurbs I'd have to write (which is already not my strongsuit)


...​
You are Dien Bravo, baptized anew by a coruscating aurora of laughably mundane weapons fire as you awake to a galaxy at war. A single implement, piloted by a rudimentary facsimile of a Maker, has braved the protections of your Prison-Tomb for succor against a nascent Praehihr on the warpath. When a patient asks for help, what recourse does a Surgeon have but to apply the knife?

First, Surgeon, heal thyself. Selecting a course of treatment in which to employ the Implement will set you on the path back to coherence, if not full restoration.

Megastructures
[ ] Feeder Suns - The canonical option, Dien repurposed entire solar systems into findross arcologies. The striving of an artificial ecosystem is turned towards restoring a sliver of the Surgeon's might.

[ ] Nebulae Forgeworks - A Foremost equipped with an Ereadhihr can wield the heavens themselves. Reactivate the artisanal workshops of the great Foremost weaponsmiths and retrieve an arsenal of proper weapons rather than the toys littering this fallen age.

[ ] Astral Interstitial Zones - Turn your gaze to the higher realms and establish the laboratories necessary to integrate alien ontologies into a fully restored iteration of the Foremost Surgeon.

[] Armament Flesh Gardens - The little fallen Makers have been playing at imitating the blueprint of surviving Implements. You know the secrets of generating the biosynthetic flesh that housed each Accursed Core; splice a new evolutionary branch into the galaxy and let the new paradigm supplant the old.


Next, roll for Hunger's strategy as he wages war on the Human Sphere:
1-30: Don't Split the Party [Group sticks together]
*31-60: Hammer and Anvil [as in Canon]
61-80: Hammer and Anvil [alternate configuration of 2 teams]
81-100: Questing Rounds [Teenagers go wandering alone]
[Not sure what the mechanical effect of these choices would be??]

Select ## from the available Operating Theaters, each of which represents a facet of the identity of Surgeon. Leveraging Etrynome in a theater will massively improve performance in that theater at the cost of revealing your methods to its pilot. In your current state, the Implement's pilot could range from a distraction to a threat.



Field Hospital – You are not the only Shard to awaken. Collect the waking revenants of your people and cut away the rot and the confusion until they resemble something of their former greatness. Or, harvest them for parts.
[Boost from using Etrynome: ??]
[ ] Event: Least Maker - A small shard limps into your Field Hospital's system, the greater portion of an irrelevant nobody. But a Foremost nobody. At full power, the Maker would have fit several rungs below your lieutenants. As a shard, it may be more useful as spare parts
-[ ] Dissect the Least Maker. Elevate the mundane humans under your command to the level of basic competency and compatibility when commanded to use Foremost technology. Grants a small army of technicians for Laboratory work. [Major] Diplomatic malus with other Foremost Shards. Harvested Spiritual and Biological corpus is almost entirely fungible and may be redeployed or converted to personal power without penalty.
-[ ] Restore the Least Maker to coherence. Receive a Foremost Assistant, a technician of the sixth rung who had (almost) competently manned a Forge-Loom before the sundering. What he lacks in insight and creativity, he makes up for with diligence and eons of practical experience integrating mystical and mundane technology. A massive boon for augmenting the technology of the mundane polities, and a token of your good-will. [Minor] Diplomatic benefit with other Foremost Shards.

[ ] Event: Vice Steward - A miniscule fragment of your Tomb-Prison's Warden arrives seeking help.
-[ ] Heal: grants limited administrator-access when unsealing and repurposing Foremost relics
-[ ] Consume: Receive the status of [Renegade]

Mad Science
-[ ] Event: Seeding Heroes - yeet some Orks into a pressure cooker like one of the Realms (epistolary realm?)

-[ ] Event: Corporeal Bodies for Astral Sovereigns - Astral Sovereigns from the deepest layers of the Astral have Pressure to spare, but struggle to project their influence into the material plane. You can give them what they want, if they are willing to pay for it.

-[ ] Event: Augmentation for Etrynome - Put Cat back in the Robot

-[ ] Event: Gradient manipulation by Mundane Methods - Necessity is the mother of invention and the Astral is difficult to manipulate with mere matter. The humans' rudimentary scrambling in the dirt without the ability to shape the gradient of their own Pressure provides you with an epiphany for integrating Pressure into the comparatively mundane technology available to you today.


[ ] Vizier
-[ ] Political offers for Association \ Empire \ Republic \ Astral Sovereigns \ Voyaging Realm polity in exchange for concession and collaboration
-[ ] Infiltrators / Bioweapons
--[ ] Invasive Meme Complexes
--[ ] Sleeper agents [as canon]
--[ ] Bioterrors
--[ ] Fast-acting population subversion [as canon]

-[ ] Countermeasures & Contingencies in case of personality death
--[ ] Dimensional escape
--[ ] FTL Lifepods
--[ ] Personality Forks

-[ ] Search for other esoteric Powers - Dien recognized the taste of Winter on Hunger's abilities, surely there are other "factions" that could be bargained with. There's an entire cosmology implied by the various magics & dimensions that Dien taps into when preparing for the final battle.


[ ] Attack the Praehir before the gears of Progression can spin up to provide a real threat
[ ] Don't do that


Roll for Hunger's Realm of Evening build (options from canon)
Roll for Hunger's Build coming out of the Realm of Evening with his party
Canon: OaF3 + Mythology Halo
Alt1: Regalia of Strife
Alt 2: Hail the Queen
Alt 3: Piloting Nova
Alt 4: Share the Weight
Alt 5: Broken Kaleidoscope
Note: Sharkey bought like 5 EFB Praxis Techniques, so that's the canon rate of advancement during the War-phase…


[Unwritten section converting blurbs from war-phase into monstrosity points after RoE emergence]
 
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I try to steal some idea of OP ability from this quest and use it in my novel.

But lately I come to conclusion that later ability is too OP and too abstract for the reader.

I guess that is the problem of multiverse level of power.
 
skaro said:
I try to steal some idea of OP ability from this quest and use it in my novel.

But lately I come to conclusion that later ability is too OP and too abstract for the reader.

I guess that is the problem of multiverse level of power.
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Might of Ages maybe? Something along the lines of the heroic 'demon lord' sleeping off their millennium of imprisonment and ending up notably stronger than they went in, rather than static or weaker? So even if the world managed to remain static or even advanced a little while they hibernated, they're at about par with their old level relative to everyone else or stronger, and will have learned some Treachery from their previous defeat.

We know it's relevant against the Ultimate of an Armament, which is relevant to universe-scale opponents. So it's OP, while being situational enough that it's as likely to be setting dressing as not.

Aabcehmu said:
It always feels a bit bad when that happens, yeah, and it stings worse when you put a lot of effort and wordcount into it. For myself, it's just not a version of the setting I'm super interested in?

If you want, I'd be willing to work on something together with you sometime, after I'm done with both of Harold Smith-Stacks and the Unexpected Rendezvous and the Unsealed CYOA.
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That sound cool.
 
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I would like to explore a dramatic lowering of the stakes.

Something like a Magic-The-Gathering quest, the game rather than the setting. Rihaku could do a banging sports-anime thing or even another fantasy setting without the promise of infinite acceleration forever.

I'd still show up and be pleased with another ultra hardcore teeth grit character out to beat the world, tho.
 
Fumbles said:
I would like to explore a dramatic lowering of the stakes.

Something like a Magic-The-Gathering quest, the game rather than the setting. Rihaku could do a banging sports-anime thing or even another fantasy setting without the promise of infinite acceleration forever.

I'd still show up and be pleased with another ultra hardcore teeth grit character out to beat the world, tho.
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Sports manga has shown me these two things are not at odds. Hyper-competitive golf is the foundation of Birdie Wing!
 
Fumbles said:
I would like to explore a dramatic lowering of the stakes.

Something like a Magic-The-Gathering quest, the game rather than the setting. Rihaku could do a banging sports-anime thing or even another fantasy setting without the promise of infinite acceleration forever.

I'd still show up and be pleased with another ultra hardcore teeth grit character out to beat the world, tho.
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I remember there was a Rihaku Nicol Bolas quest once.

An MtG quest would be cool, but I'm not so sure about doing the MtG quest in a card game format, which seems a little not so great for questing purposes.

Imagine how unsatisfactory it would be to brick into 7 lands and lose a plot-critical duel!
 
I think it would be great if the upper powerlevel of the next quest was no greater than that of a starting Combat Class Cursebearer who took the Regalia...
 
The final Day of Paging has come.

As a loyal knight of the band of posting, this is a bittersweet feeling, but I know what I must do. 😤

Also, my favorite opponent in AST is probably Vanreir. That bare win through age and treachery was hype as hell.
 
What if advancement training was modeled through Disco Elysium style thoughts?

Like codify the Hunger vs Vanreir fight leading to Cut Through with one. ("Vanreir's swordfighting was awesome what can I learn from it?")
 
Here's an example of what I'm thinking with advancements as Disco Elysium style thoughts.

Thought: Cut Through(Time: 7 Updates, acceleratable through training actions)

Problem: In spite of the faultline in his spirit, Vanreir was pure. The purity of his spirit, the purity of his technique brought him considerable power. What can you learn from him? How can you divide yourself from your cut?

Solution: You don't. For all your will, you are not Vanreir. Your purpose is vengeance. Your soul is wrath and grief. Your sword is a tool of murder. It is you and you are it. Murder, even if it cannot be murdered.

[Cut Through Mechanical Description goes here]
 
Biggest missed opportunity was fishing or otherwise claiming the Armament Fish. Mondo Bait is a power beyond the mere vagaries of ISH debates

Speaking of which, ISH debates are my biggest nemesis in the thread. Page gang, Sword gang, Gisena gang… all of them were afflicted by ISH minutiae in the end
 
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Foremost.

Despite its hubris, it was an appellation well-deserved.

Hunger, for all the inconceivable progression of months past, still found his power wanting in the face of his enemy's Supreme Grace; his perceptions shorn, cut away by his own hand to avoid being beguiled by her visage; even the screaming fall of his sword-stroke - easily sufficient to rend the lower and higher multiverse entire - not quite a match for her agility. Only the supreme martiality worn deep into his blade, like a groove etched on bone, allowed him to maintain some illusion of parity before the blinding radiance of her talent.

She was an adroit foe, Catherine's doppelgänger, this harkening rebel who had stolen her face and presumed to lessen him by it: perhaps the mightiest his present incarnation had ever faced, and the most stubborn. It chafed him to see Catherine's strength turned against him, to witness reflected in the Maiden's every action his wife's dying litany.

Win. That's all that matters.

Her unremitting blitz continued, foot descending from a high-kick to slice downward upon his shoulder blade; abandoning subtlety he rushed forward in a tackle, pre-empting the strike's momentum to intercept it with greater mass. The eviscerating light of his Blood Halo sliced her defenses to tatters; shorn of her veil the Maiden merely blazed infinitely brighter, destroying brilliance that repulsed his influence comprehensively. One-handed he reflected that light with the semi-matte flat of his blade, bleak brutalist steel pushing through the rays of dawn. The glare could not wound him; he had already cut out his eyes.

At blade's approach the Maiden finally drew forth a hammer of gilt iron, matching steel to steel. And though it shattered irreparably upon contact, its dying burst releashed a pulse of hyper-focused Nullity, rendering his blade and fingers both nerveless and unmoving: temporarily made wholly mundane. The firing pattern of ordinary musculature, no matter how optimized, was a subjective eternity at their speeds.

Nonetheless he pressed onwards, Verschlengorge upon his shoulders roaring as its Devouring Shroud, unleashed at last, drained away her radiance, a maw spooling light more inescapably than any singularity. Seizing the crucial moment Hunger mustered himself, scraping hollow what felt like the last of his Praxis reserves. His right hand disabled, with explosive quickness he struck with his left: a fulsome uppercut to the solar plexus, conceptual core of her inner light and a primary chakra for findross emission. Bone and organ both broke before that hideous strength; rupturing destruction that pulsed outwards to fracture her skeleton into spearlike shards. She sailed away, an unfurling flower, beautiful even when falling.

At last, a telling blow.

Unable to fully direct his strength, the crack of that impact splintered the physical realm around them; arrow of entropy jaunted and slid sideways as locality and electrodynamics came asunder. A triviality - the horrific consequences thereof would unfold too slowly to matter.

The Maiden continued to fly, faultless teeth clenched in pain as her skeleton slowly realigned, ribcage and sternum both flattened by that abrupt pulverization. Struts and casts of findross appearing to delicately brace her broken frame, she coughed once: a soft dainty sound, flecks of blood like rubies in the void.

And yet, she did not seem displeased.

Gracefully Catherine drifted with the impact, allowing the brutality of his strike to carry her far, far away; now performing complicated workings of findross as she flew. Shimmering jewels of reified grace began to appear upon her fingers, each a celestial teardrop so exquisite that even the evening sky seemed as peeling wallpaper in comparison.

She closed her fist and the jewel-lights converged, fusing into a nexus of some unfathomable nature. Fighting exhaustion Hunger prepared to strike again, unwilling to permit the assembly of whatever she'd prepared. But he found his footwork stifled by the nexus' pearlescence, skating askew against a too-smooth sheen now swiftly being lidded over all reality.

Asserting his dominion of space he corrected his position, but by then the Maiden had already maneuvered farther and to his flank, seemingly uninterested in pressing the attack as she continued to feed jewels into her miniature… coalescence.

Ah.

If matters continued as they had, then this mirror-caricature of Catherine would indeed prevail, though it might cost her grievously. And yet what did that matter before the Apocryphal Curse, whose well of foes was unfettered and limitless?

Dien Bravo had been a shattered mote, less the true Surgeon than a single flake of its dermis; young as she was, the Maiden had come against him in full. Likely it was hubris to think he could overwhelm the Foremost unaided, much as he wished her cut down by his own hand. Now Hunger's strength flagged from grotesque exertion in the Praxis, the weight of his wounds only compounding that fatigue.
 
One last time, page gang. Only 2 more. Make it to 2428 and our honor will be intact. We can't falter at the last step.
 
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