A Simple Transaction I
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
- Original
Sorry, the Apocryphal Curse has ruined that adjective for me.
Looks like the bait nearly took us. Not a great continuation to our adventures here.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
To be fair we got got by a boss interrupt, which is what we want to use Rage on anyway. I'd actually consider it a plus if we end up using rage when already retreating at some point, as long as we aren't Tired.
The Winnowing Garden
Rihaku
The Internet
The Winnowing Garden
It did not sit well with him to stay idle while his physical body regenerated, but neither could he afford to take undue risks in this state. He resolved to scout the surrounding area and pick off any isolated knights that presented themselves. If other enemies appeared, he would do his best to withdraw until he had an idea of their capabilities.
The knights were sparsely dotted across these grassy plains, many of them situated in locations of tactical import - hills and fens, caves and groves, wherever a vantage point or natural fortification might present itself. He passed by a gently babbling brook that was, disappointingly, utterly devoid of life. Not that he had a fishing pole at the moment, with Letrizia's supplies beyond the Temple gates.
He wondered what, if anything, the people in here ate. Was it possible to live off the land, did adventurers simply bring their own meals?
Speed and strength having been bolstered by the first knight he felled, and wise now to their tactics, he dispatched further singleton knights without issue, though not without the occasional wound or two. It seemed a somewhat sustainable means of harvesting power without undue risk, though increasing patrols of heavily-armored knights began to appear in the region he frequented, as the hours ticked by and their isolated comrades died. They even attempted to pincer him into an ambush, with a lone knight on a tall hill serving as bait, but he sniffed out the attack when he entered the armored giant's sight and was not immediately pounced upon.
Tedious and increasingly risky. His enemies were no strategic geniuses, but neither were they fools. They had some basic conception of cause and effect, the ability to organize and call reinforcements as they fell. Should this continue he had little doubt this region of the Temple would be swarming with the things, and who knew if there was any limit to their number, to say nothing of greater escalations.
With that in mind, he called it a night and withdrew, but was intercepted along the way by an enormous burrowing wurm-creature, its titanic length erupting from the green earth in a world-sundering burst of noise and motion, tides of heaving pitch-black loam, shattered-stone shrapnel in a furious geyser as it snapped at him. Its quadruply-segmented jaw, thick with stone-cracking fangs, was mercifully slower than the wind-light mass of his spirit body; though the heaving bulk of its follow-through, like an onrushing train, caught him out with its whiplash speed. He was thrown back and away, cratering the hard earth as he landed, vision gone blurry for a moment as fragments of his spirit-corpus lost coherence and dispersed. And then, quick as it'd come, it was gone, disappeared beneath the earth once more.
Like a bomb going off the worm had appeared: sudden destruction and chaos to be followed by a long, ear-ringing aftermath of tense silence. Now that he was attuned to it, he could hear the mountainous rumble of its passage beneath, gliding smoothly through dirt and stone, circling about its intended prey. How much strength, how much sheer force of momentum, was required to move so effortlessly through the solid earth?
Would this be the one, this nameless, eyeless beast? Would it force out the power he'd pledged, not hours ago, to forsake except in direst extremity?
No. It would not be here, not now, not to this overgrown muckraker. He ran, sprinting for the antechamber, pounding footfalls alerting the beast to his location as he moved. Coming across a rocky hill, he climbed it, pacing across its length as if undecided as to his next destination.
There. The rumbling of its movements had paused. Some might take it that the pursuer had given up. He knew it for what it was. Unnatural stillness, like a serpent coiled to spring. Waiting to ensure its target would not spook or startle before it committed to the attack. The Tyrant had been fond of movements such as this. One did not spring the trap until the bait was claimed.
He closed his eyes, became still and silent, attuned to the world around him, the whorls and eddies of Pressure as it twisted the skeins of chance, bringing the physical world in alignment with his wishes. The ring of power blazed on his hand, crimson light like an anglerfish lure, enticing the creature's avarice, its hunger. Now, he prodded it. Strike now and fill the gnawing emptiness within.
And so it did, thunderous blast of roaring sound as its jaws swallowed earth and sky, the hill given way in a instant, plunged within the monster's gullet. But he was already gone, sprung away in that final moment, now attached like a limpet to the creature's side, running down its length, splitting its carapace with the Forebear's Blade to carve himself a crevice. A makeshift warren, cut into the monster's absurdly thick armor, within which he could withstand the awesome pressures of the creature's movement underground. Inside he climbed, as sun and sky disappeared, his world become a blind narrow place of heat and abrading force, this subterranean ocean where errant stone and branch passed with speed enough to splinter limbs and shatter bone.
But ensconced in its armor he felt none of that, and steadily cut himself further in, a fell-handed excavator cleaving the outer crust to the treasures secreted within. At last he reached a vein, springy flesh yielding tenderly to the Forebear's Blade, and where he struck huge gouts of acid spat outwards and at him, the monster's pressurized digestive juices or perhaps merely its blood. The Evening Sky wrapped around him, he stubbornly cut onwards, even as the outer boundary of his spirit-flesh began to waver and burn away. Before long he reached a pocket of empty air, esophageal flesh coated with mucus, and tucked himself inside, the stars of his cloak his only light. By their illumination he ran, up and through the monster's digestive tunnel, instincts guiding him to an organ of greater import. Acid dribbled off his form, coating his footsteps as he ran. There was pain but he ignored the pain, easy to do in this body of wraith-flesh.
There. A cluster of nerve endings, synapses as thick as his fist, sheltered within a calcite growth of hardened stone. Thickly spooled nerves radiated from the organ, spiraling into the creature's musculature, wrapped densely around translucent reservoirs of bright green acid. It pulsed steadily in time to the wurm's movements, part action, part potential, part heartbeat.
Likely not the only such organ in a beast of this length, but he only needed the one. Marshaling his energies he struck down with the Forebear's Blade, attacking mind and spirit more than flesh, and at this the wurm jerked, twisting and tunneling in a futile attempt to dislodge what was already within. Again and again he stabbed downwards; each steady, gruesome blow left a wound leaking pale-white soul matter out into nothingness. The wurm convulsed, acid ducts widening, mucus flooding the tunnel in an attempt to sweep him free, drown him out, but it was too slow by far. He attacked unrelentingly, drawing upon his uttermost reserves of energy, and by the time he was knee-deep in mucus half a dozen soul-fraying wounds were buried in its nerve cluster. Positioning himself sideways against its esophagus-wall, he continued to run, occasionally striking out with another fell blow as his energies recovered.
Its primitive mind and soul bled dry by his onslaught, the creature did not last long. For all its towering physical might, it was, in the end, only a worm, and though the force of it spirit was unusually bountiful, still it had no way to stem the bleeding, no means to replenish what his attacks irrevocably stole. Eventually it ground to a slow, shuddering halt, meters-thick layers of muscle twitching and undulating stupidly, its intellect utterly banished, dispersed into the aether by the Forebear's cruel power. Unable now to control or regulate its internal functions, it was a helplessly breathing corpse, meat to the slaughter. He decoupled Blade from belt and began the bloody work.
---
[X] Pick Off Stragglers with [X] Brute Force has won.
Did Hunger use the power gained from killing various isolated knights before fighting the wurm?
[ ] No. [Cost - 2 Arete] Choose 4 picks below. Hunger is grievously wounded, hanging on to his spirit form by the barest tether of ghostly life.
[ ] Yes, Obviously. Choose 3 picks below. Gain 1 Echo of the Forebear. Hunger is badly wounded, having less than half his spiritual corpus remaining.
---
Choose 3, or 4 if No was chosen. You have 6.35 Arete.
[ ] Forebear's Blade - Echo of the Forebear - Cloud-shadow of the Forebear's might.
Legendary strength and speed, and the resilience to exert them. Can be taken multiple times. [+Might, +Agility]
[ ] Evening Sky - Opalescence - The soft light of evening before which all attacks falter.
Improves defensive parameters. [+Protection]
[ ] The Ring of Power - Dominion: Life - 2 Arete
A ring of power does not exert influence casually. It has its own will, its own preferences, and if that will should be inseparable from its owner's, its sway thereby shall be greater for it.
Select a domain of influence. While acting within its domain, [Ring of Power] effects are substantially less taxing and more potent; the effects of this can be abstracted as follows: treat the owner's Rank as if it somewhat* higher for related actions. You may select this advancement multiple times, choosing a different domain each time. If multiple domains apply, their bonuses do not compound.
Life - Applies to the manipulation, augmentation, or restoration of biology or life-force.
*+0.5 if Low, +.25 if Mid, +.1 if High.
--- 2-pick options ---
[ ] Feat: Apex - +.2 Astral Rank (2 picks) - Who is King? Who else but he who suffers the Tyrant's Doom?
[ ] The Ring of Power - Gardener's Hallow (7 Arete, 2 picks) - Unto this land, I give my blood.
By infusing vegetation or livestock with his blood, the wielder may impart upon it supernatural properties. These range from the basic (consuming this fruit grants you an Echo of the Forebear) to the incredible (consuming this cow awakens your full Astral Rank from your Defensive Rank and removes the Defensive Rank penalty) to the spectacular (consuming this fish ignites a meta-singularity of findross within you; should you survive then you may theoretically wield the True Quintessence). Similar effects don't stack.
All efforts beyond the basic take considerable amounts of time, effort, and unique resources to cultivate. These can be lessened via the other advancements of the Ring of Blood, especially its Chief Dominion and pre-requisites.
--- 3-pick options ---
[ ] Forebear's Blade - Dreadnought's Bearing (7 Arete, 3 picks) - The best defense is the Forebear's bearing.
Requires Undying Echo. Gain +++++++Constitution, +Protection. Gain 50% resistance to the Tired Condition, stacking multiplicatively with other sources of resistance, and 25% resistance to the Exhausted Condition. If you have, or later purchase, the [Iron Curtain] Advancement, you receive its benefits permanently rather than needing to activate them, and may choose to Ignore Exotic Attacks via a Constitution check rather than Deflecting them.
Choose:
Sharp of Eye - Regrow your eye. ++Wits, +Cha. You now have depth perception, making ranged attacks more effective. You may take options that require two eyes; there are surprisingly many.
Rune King - You may not regrow or replace your eye by any means. +Int, +Wisdom, Apply the effects of [To Shatter Heaven] to all magics you learn from now on.
[ ] Forebear's Blade - Ruinous Valor (3 picks) - Where he advanced, so did the tide of entire wars, the shock of his blade like a hurled epicenter, the trail of his passage but wasteland and rubble.
[+++++Strength]
Power of Ruin now scales upwards depending on your Strength.
Choose:
Einhander - You may not regrow or replace your left arm by any means. Substantially reduces the cost and increases the range of special attacks made with the Forebear's Blade. This Advancement grants Might instead of Strength (+Might = +Str, +Con).
Zweihander - Regrow your left arm. Your barehanded strikes now carry the full destructive power of the Forebear's Blade.
If Einhander is taken, unlocks One Arm Fury.
If Zweihander is taken, unlocks Martial Stances: Forebear's Blade
--- 4-pick options ---
[ ] Hunger - Stranglethorn (4 picks)
Age and treachery made flesh.
The might of beasts is not the only province of the ring Hunger. It bears witness to a deeper and elder power as well, the strength of root and stem that bleeds life from the earth itself to thrust upwards towards heaven. The might of oaks, ancient and thousand-ringed, which crumbles stone and blunts steel, which repels the wind and absorbs the tide, which stands unscathed even in the face of heat and fury. That juggernaut stubbornness like a gnarled fist: the power to push through problems with patient, unyielding strength, to break them down and see them crushed beneath you.
Defining Advancement - You may currently have no more than three Defining Advancements.
Increase by 20% the value of all Rank +s
Double the value of Strength and Constitution +s
Double the value of Willpower +s
Reduce by 20% the value of Agility +s
Establishment: By committing meaningful resources towards a given context, and staking out a solid position, you slowly but increasingly accrue power and influence within that context, becoming ever-more inescapable and impossible to dislodge.
--- 0-pick options ---
I hope you remember what these do! They're quite good.
[ ] Undying Vanguard [5 Arete]
[ ] A Thousand Cuts [7 Arete]
---
What now to do?
[ ] Keep Up Momentum - You got lucky. You won't always perform so well. Now is the time to seize the moment and capitalize on these gains by slaughtering all who come before you. Though you may be wounded, the greater portion of your power still slumbers, locked away in the event that you need it. [+Increased % chance of finding enemies you can handle, +0.5 Arete]
[ ] Retreat to the Antechamber - You got lucky. Now stop gambling. Besides, you want to show Gisena your cool new... whatever.
It did not sit well with him to stay idle while his physical body regenerated, but neither could he afford to take undue risks in this state. He resolved to scout the surrounding area and pick off any isolated knights that presented themselves. If other enemies appeared, he would do his best to withdraw until he had an idea of their capabilities.
The knights were sparsely dotted across these grassy plains, many of them situated in locations of tactical import - hills and fens, caves and groves, wherever a vantage point or natural fortification might present itself. He passed by a gently babbling brook that was, disappointingly, utterly devoid of life. Not that he had a fishing pole at the moment, with Letrizia's supplies beyond the Temple gates.
He wondered what, if anything, the people in here ate. Was it possible to live off the land, did adventurers simply bring their own meals?
Speed and strength having been bolstered by the first knight he felled, and wise now to their tactics, he dispatched further singleton knights without issue, though not without the occasional wound or two. It seemed a somewhat sustainable means of harvesting power without undue risk, though increasing patrols of heavily-armored knights began to appear in the region he frequented, as the hours ticked by and their isolated comrades died. They even attempted to pincer him into an ambush, with a lone knight on a tall hill serving as bait, but he sniffed out the attack when he entered the armored giant's sight and was not immediately pounced upon.
Tedious and increasingly risky. His enemies were no strategic geniuses, but neither were they fools. They had some basic conception of cause and effect, the ability to organize and call reinforcements as they fell. Should this continue he had little doubt this region of the Temple would be swarming with the things, and who knew if there was any limit to their number, to say nothing of greater escalations.
With that in mind, he called it a night and withdrew, but was intercepted along the way by an enormous burrowing wurm-creature, its titanic length erupting from the green earth in a world-sundering burst of noise and motion, tides of heaving pitch-black loam, shattered-stone shrapnel in a furious geyser as it snapped at him. Its quadruply-segmented jaw, thick with stone-cracking fangs, was mercifully slower than the wind-light mass of his spirit body; though the heaving bulk of its follow-through, like an onrushing train, caught him out with its whiplash speed. He was thrown back and away, cratering the hard earth as he landed, vision gone blurry for a moment as fragments of his spirit-corpus lost coherence and dispersed. And then, quick as it'd come, it was gone, disappeared beneath the earth once more.
Like a bomb going off the worm had appeared: sudden destruction and chaos to be followed by a long, ear-ringing aftermath of tense silence. Now that he was attuned to it, he could hear the mountainous rumble of its passage beneath, gliding smoothly through dirt and stone, circling about its intended prey. How much strength, how much sheer force of momentum, was required to move so effortlessly through the solid earth?
Would this be the one, this nameless, eyeless beast? Would it force out the power he'd pledged, not hours ago, to forsake except in direst extremity?
No. It would not be here, not now, not to this overgrown muckraker. He ran, sprinting for the antechamber, pounding footfalls alerting the beast to his location as he moved. Coming across a rocky hill, he climbed it, pacing across its length as if undecided as to his next destination.
There. The rumbling of its movements had paused. Some might take it that the pursuer had given up. He knew it for what it was. Unnatural stillness, like a serpent coiled to spring. Waiting to ensure its target would not spook or startle before it committed to the attack. The Tyrant had been fond of movements such as this. One did not spring the trap until the bait was claimed.
He closed his eyes, became still and silent, attuned to the world around him, the whorls and eddies of Pressure as it twisted the skeins of chance, bringing the physical world in alignment with his wishes. The ring of power blazed on his hand, crimson light like an anglerfish lure, enticing the creature's avarice, its hunger. Now, he prodded it. Strike now and fill the gnawing emptiness within.
And so it did, thunderous blast of roaring sound as its jaws swallowed earth and sky, the hill given way in a instant, plunged within the monster's gullet. But he was already gone, sprung away in that final moment, now attached like a limpet to the creature's side, running down its length, splitting its carapace with the Forebear's Blade to carve himself a crevice. A makeshift warren, cut into the monster's absurdly thick armor, within which he could withstand the awesome pressures of the creature's movement underground. Inside he climbed, as sun and sky disappeared, his world become a blind narrow place of heat and abrading force, this subterranean ocean where errant stone and branch passed with speed enough to splinter limbs and shatter bone.
But ensconced in its armor he felt none of that, and steadily cut himself further in, a fell-handed excavator cleaving the outer crust to the treasures secreted within. At last he reached a vein, springy flesh yielding tenderly to the Forebear's Blade, and where he struck huge gouts of acid spat outwards and at him, the monster's pressurized digestive juices or perhaps merely its blood. The Evening Sky wrapped around him, he stubbornly cut onwards, even as the outer boundary of his spirit-flesh began to waver and burn away. Before long he reached a pocket of empty air, esophageal flesh coated with mucus, and tucked himself inside, the stars of his cloak his only light. By their illumination he ran, up and through the monster's digestive tunnel, instincts guiding him to an organ of greater import. Acid dribbled off his form, coating his footsteps as he ran. There was pain but he ignored the pain, easy to do in this body of wraith-flesh.
There. A cluster of nerve endings, synapses as thick as his fist, sheltered within a calcite growth of hardened stone. Thickly spooled nerves radiated from the organ, spiraling into the creature's musculature, wrapped densely around translucent reservoirs of bright green acid. It pulsed steadily in time to the wurm's movements, part action, part potential, part heartbeat.
Likely not the only such organ in a beast of this length, but he only needed the one. Marshaling his energies he struck down with the Forebear's Blade, attacking mind and spirit more than flesh, and at this the wurm jerked, twisting and tunneling in a futile attempt to dislodge what was already within. Again and again he stabbed downwards; each steady, gruesome blow left a wound leaking pale-white soul matter out into nothingness. The wurm convulsed, acid ducts widening, mucus flooding the tunnel in an attempt to sweep him free, drown him out, but it was too slow by far. He attacked unrelentingly, drawing upon his uttermost reserves of energy, and by the time he was knee-deep in mucus half a dozen soul-fraying wounds were buried in its nerve cluster. Positioning himself sideways against its esophagus-wall, he continued to run, occasionally striking out with another fell blow as his energies recovered.
Its primitive mind and soul bled dry by his onslaught, the creature did not last long. For all its towering physical might, it was, in the end, only a worm, and though the force of it spirit was unusually bountiful, still it had no way to stem the bleeding, no means to replenish what his attacks irrevocably stole. Eventually it ground to a slow, shuddering halt, meters-thick layers of muscle twitching and undulating stupidly, its intellect utterly banished, dispersed into the aether by the Forebear's cruel power. Unable now to control or regulate its internal functions, it was a helplessly breathing corpse, meat to the slaughter. He decoupled Blade from belt and began the bloody work.
---
[X] Pick Off Stragglers with [X] Brute Force has won.
Did Hunger use the power gained from killing various isolated knights before fighting the wurm?
[ ] No. [Cost - 2 Arete] Choose 4 picks below. Hunger is grievously wounded, hanging on to his spirit form by the barest tether of ghostly life.
[ ] Yes, Obviously. Choose 3 picks below. Gain 1 Echo of the Forebear. Hunger is badly wounded, having less than half his spiritual corpus remaining.
---
Choose 3, or 4 if No was chosen. You have 6.35 Arete.
[ ] Forebear's Blade - Echo of the Forebear - Cloud-shadow of the Forebear's might.
Legendary strength and speed, and the resilience to exert them. Can be taken multiple times. [+Might, +Agility]
[ ] Evening Sky - Opalescence - The soft light of evening before which all attacks falter.
Improves defensive parameters. [+Protection]
[ ] The Ring of Power - Dominion: Life - 2 Arete
A ring of power does not exert influence casually. It has its own will, its own preferences, and if that will should be inseparable from its owner's, its sway thereby shall be greater for it.
Select a domain of influence. While acting within its domain, [Ring of Power] effects are substantially less taxing and more potent; the effects of this can be abstracted as follows: treat the owner's Rank as if it somewhat* higher for related actions. You may select this advancement multiple times, choosing a different domain each time. If multiple domains apply, their bonuses do not compound.
Life - Applies to the manipulation, augmentation, or restoration of biology or life-force.
*+0.5 if Low, +.25 if Mid, +.1 if High.
--- 2-pick options ---
[ ] Feat: Apex - +.2 Astral Rank (2 picks) - Who is King? Who else but he who suffers the Tyrant's Doom?
[ ] The Ring of Power - Gardener's Hallow (7 Arete, 2 picks) - Unto this land, I give my blood.
By infusing vegetation or livestock with his blood, the wielder may impart upon it supernatural properties. These range from the basic (consuming this fruit grants you an Echo of the Forebear) to the incredible (consuming this cow awakens your full Astral Rank from your Defensive Rank and removes the Defensive Rank penalty) to the spectacular (consuming this fish ignites a meta-singularity of findross within you; should you survive then you may theoretically wield the True Quintessence). Similar effects don't stack.
All efforts beyond the basic take considerable amounts of time, effort, and unique resources to cultivate. These can be lessened via the other advancements of the Ring of Blood, especially its Chief Dominion and pre-requisites.
--- 3-pick options ---
[ ] Forebear's Blade - Dreadnought's Bearing (7 Arete, 3 picks) - The best defense is the Forebear's bearing.
Requires Undying Echo. Gain +++++++Constitution, +Protection. Gain 50% resistance to the Tired Condition, stacking multiplicatively with other sources of resistance, and 25% resistance to the Exhausted Condition. If you have, or later purchase, the [Iron Curtain] Advancement, you receive its benefits permanently rather than needing to activate them, and may choose to Ignore Exotic Attacks via a Constitution check rather than Deflecting them.
Choose:
Sharp of Eye - Regrow your eye. ++Wits, +Cha. You now have depth perception, making ranged attacks more effective. You may take options that require two eyes; there are surprisingly many.
Rune King - You may not regrow or replace your eye by any means. +Int, +Wisdom, Apply the effects of [To Shatter Heaven] to all magics you learn from now on.
[ ] Forebear's Blade - Ruinous Valor (3 picks) - Where he advanced, so did the tide of entire wars, the shock of his blade like a hurled epicenter, the trail of his passage but wasteland and rubble.
[+++++Strength]
Power of Ruin now scales upwards depending on your Strength.
Choose:
Einhander - You may not regrow or replace your left arm by any means. Substantially reduces the cost and increases the range of special attacks made with the Forebear's Blade. This Advancement grants Might instead of Strength (+Might = +Str, +Con).
Zweihander - Regrow your left arm. Your barehanded strikes now carry the full destructive power of the Forebear's Blade.
If Einhander is taken, unlocks One Arm Fury.
If Zweihander is taken, unlocks Martial Stances: Forebear's Blade
--- 4-pick options ---
[ ] Hunger - Stranglethorn (4 picks)
Age and treachery made flesh.
The might of beasts is not the only province of the ring Hunger. It bears witness to a deeper and elder power as well, the strength of root and stem that bleeds life from the earth itself to thrust upwards towards heaven. The might of oaks, ancient and thousand-ringed, which crumbles stone and blunts steel, which repels the wind and absorbs the tide, which stands unscathed even in the face of heat and fury. That juggernaut stubbornness like a gnarled fist: the power to push through problems with patient, unyielding strength, to break them down and see them crushed beneath you.
Defining Advancement - You may currently have no more than three Defining Advancements.
Increase by 20% the value of all Rank +s
Double the value of Strength and Constitution +s
Double the value of Willpower +s
Reduce by 20% the value of Agility +s
Establishment: By committing meaningful resources towards a given context, and staking out a solid position, you slowly but increasingly accrue power and influence within that context, becoming ever-more inescapable and impossible to dislodge.
--- 0-pick options ---
I hope you remember what these do! They're quite good.
[ ] Undying Vanguard [5 Arete]
[ ] A Thousand Cuts [7 Arete]
---
What now to do?
[ ] Keep Up Momentum - You got lucky. You won't always perform so well. Now is the time to seize the moment and capitalize on these gains by slaughtering all who come before you. Though you may be wounded, the greater portion of your power still slumbers, locked away in the event that you need it. [+Increased % chance of finding enemies you can handle, +0.5 Arete]
[ ] Retreat to the Antechamber - You got lucky. Now stop gambling. Besides, you want to show Gisena your cool new... whatever.
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- Location
- Rivendell
This is good. This is very good.
Rihaku
The Internet
You guys got really lucky here, you were 2% off from triggering Form of Rage and I'm not sure if Hunger would be sufficiently motivated to reliably enter Rage for a random monster that has otherwise no bearing on his life. You rolled high on the encounter table but also rolled high for your execution in combat, which is pretty much the best possible outcome.
I'm tempted by Dreadnought's Bearing (Rune King), but also by Stranglethorn+Undying Vanguard.
TwistedJester
Tired Lurker King
- Location
- Hell
Thank fucking god, I thought for a second there we were done when the Worm thing showed up.
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
Those choices.
I want everything. Darn, I'll have to consider this carefully.
I want everything. Darn, I'll have to consider this carefully.
- Location
- Pindorama
[X] No
[X] Hunger - Stranglethorn
[X] Undying Vanguard
[X] Retreat to the Antechamber
Two Arete for Stranglethorn? Sign me the fuck up. If this works retoractively, we'd basically be at 4.9 rank immediately. Plus Doubled CON is extremely synergistic with Vanguard. This is great.
[X] Hunger - Stranglethorn
[X] Undying Vanguard
[X] Retreat to the Antechamber
Two Arete for Stranglethorn? Sign me the fuck up. If this works retoractively, we'd basically be at 4.9 rank immediately. Plus Doubled CON is extremely synergistic with Vanguard. This is great.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
My immediate instinctive reaction is to go for:
[X] Yes, Obviously.
[X] Forebear's Blade - Dreadnought's Bearing
-[X] Sharp of Eye
[X] A Thousand Cuts [7 Arete]
[X] Keep Up Momentum
This keeps us at relatively good health while picking up a dumb amount of defensive power, then grabbing a hella strong offensive power to go with it.
Dreadnought's Bearing naturally synergizes with Form of Rage in multiple ways - the ludicrous defenses get multiplied still further, while both Tired and Exhausted are strongly mitigated.
Sharp of Eye, on the other hand, fits well with Thousand Cuts, and generally puts our hero on a path to recovery. With these choices, we're in a strong position to keep pressing forward and making ludicrous gains.
[X] Yes, Obviously.
[X] Forebear's Blade - Dreadnought's Bearing
-[X] Sharp of Eye
[X] A Thousand Cuts [7 Arete]
[X] Keep Up Momentum
This keeps us at relatively good health while picking up a dumb amount of defensive power, then grabbing a hella strong offensive power to go with it.
Dreadnought's Bearing naturally synergizes with Form of Rage in multiple ways - the ludicrous defenses get multiplied still further, while both Tired and Exhausted are strongly mitigated.
Sharp of Eye, on the other hand, fits well with Thousand Cuts, and generally puts our hero on a path to recovery. With these choices, we're in a strong position to keep pressing forward and making ludicrous gains.
Genesys
(Discrete Mokona)
- Location
- California
Dreadnought's Bearing costs 7 Arete + 3 picks though so we can't grab cuts with it
Talace
It must be raining somewhere else!
[X] No
[X] Hunger - Stranglethorn
[X] Undying Vanguard
[X] Retreat to the Antechamber
2 Arete is a remarkably small price to pay for Stranglethorn, Undying Vanguard makes sense with Retreat to the Antechamber since we can check in on the Hunger Squad and we are closer overall to the entrance.
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Rihaku
The Internet
It affects all future Rank +s, your present Rank is not affected. Your present +Strength and +Con are, however.
Well if it works one time, best to keep up momentum! Gotta maintain the hot streak!
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
Okay, so I think we can all agree we're getting Stranglethorn. Because fuck yes. That costs us 2 arete, putting us at 4.25. We can reach 5 before the vote closes. Therefore, should we take Undying Vanguard, as it costs no picks, or save the Arete?
[X] No
[X] Hunger - Stranglethorn
[X] Undying Vanguard
[X] Retreat to the Antechamber
I choose to take it.
[X] No
[X] Hunger - Stranglethorn
[X] Undying Vanguard
[X] Retreat to the Antechamber
I choose to take it.
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
[x]Yes Obviously
[x]Retreat to the Antechamber
Not sure buildwise at the moment
[]Opalescence+Thousand Cuts+Feat:Apex
Gets us rank and a good chunk of the original Forbidden Build, only need Iridescence to complete the setup
[x]Retreat to the Antechamber
Not sure buildwise at the moment
[]Opalescence+Thousand Cuts+Feat:Apex
Gets us rank and a good chunk of the original Forbidden Build, only need Iridescence to complete the setup
[X] No
[X] Hunger - Stranglethorn
[X] Undying Vanguard
[X] Retreat to the Antechamber
edit
Ignore that calculation.
[X] Hunger - Stranglethorn
[X] Undying Vanguard
[X] Retreat to the Antechamber
edit
Ignore that calculation.
Last edited:
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
And the 20% boost to rank!
Actually, @Rihaku: how does that 20% increase to rank boosts work. Is it only future boosts or does it apply to past ones?
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
Analyzing our options.
I'm not sure this helps in combat? Could we use biological augmentation to boost ourselves in battle? If so, this is a great pick.
Rank is rank. It's good, but not inspired.
Oh man, I love this. I wish we could get it with Dominion:Life, but we don't have that much Arete. This is amazing long term but also doesn't help us clear the Temple of the False Moon, which means we may have to skip it, even though it's utterly amazing at many things: Empowering ourselves, empowering allies, giving us a way to advance that isn't fighting things, and probably many more besides.
Seven Constitution. Seven. And Protection. And our choice of finally healing one of Hunger's injuries or getting To Shatter Heaven on all magics forever. Gosh this is crazy. I don't see how we can afford to pass this up. I think this is my pick.
Seen it before. Might be good with Thousand Cuts, but we have better choices this particular vote.
Seen it before. If this applies retroactively... Dreadnought's Bearing has competition.
More hard choices. We get increased chances of positive encounters, and Arete. Vs not takings risks when we already won.
I'm not sure this helps in combat? Could we use biological augmentation to boost ourselves in battle? If so, this is a great pick.
Rank is rank. It's good, but not inspired.
Oh man, I love this. I wish we could get it with Dominion:Life, but we don't have that much Arete. This is amazing long term but also doesn't help us clear the Temple of the False Moon, which means we may have to skip it, even though it's utterly amazing at many things: Empowering ourselves, empowering allies, giving us a way to advance that isn't fighting things, and probably many more besides.
Seven Constitution. Seven. And Protection. And our choice of finally healing one of Hunger's injuries or getting To Shatter Heaven on all magics forever. Gosh this is crazy. I don't see how we can afford to pass this up. I think this is my pick.
Seen it before. Might be good with Thousand Cuts, but we have better choices this particular vote.
Seen it before. If this applies retroactively... Dreadnought's Bearing has competition.
More hard choices. We get increased chances of positive encounters, and Arete. Vs not takings risks when we already won.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Welp, that's what I get for voting based off instinct at midnight mere minutes after an update comes out!
Mm, we really should go for a 3 or 4 pick, since the power scales up dramatically as the number of picks a choice costs increases, but if we take the defensively oriented choice we'd be left with no real usable offence.
So, since we'd probably end up retreating to the Antechamber either way, the value of Stranglethorn skyrockets. Just sleep it off, return to our normal form at full health, then press on tomorrow far swoler than before.
Undying Vanguard would be the cherry on top, since I do want to see more Gisena.
So, basically:
[X] No
[X] Hunger - Stranglethorn
[X] Undying Vanguard
[X] Retreat to the Antechamber
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Projectile
Thinking of Rabbits
- Location
- USA
Ho boy, praise the dice gods. We won a Rage fight without Rage.
Picks... No only if we get Stranglethorn. But Stranglethorn is sooo good. Or we could get our arm back. Or our eye back!
Watch out, world, Hunger now has that most mystical of powers, depth perception! Now he can aim without moving the world so that his flailing hits!
Life is my least favorite dominion, but would go amazingly well with Gardener's Hallow, which is super strong as expected but wacky and not super appropriate to the current situation.
Now a-
[X] No
[X] Hunger - Stranglethorn
[X] Retreat to the Antechamber
Picks... No only if we get Stranglethorn. But Stranglethorn is sooo good. Or we could get our arm back. Or our eye back!
Watch out, world, Hunger now has that most mystical of powers, depth perception! Now he can aim without moving the world so that his flailing hits!
Life is my least favorite dominion, but would go amazingly well with Gardener's Hallow, which is super strong as expected but wacky and not super appropriate to the current situation.
Now a-
Oh dang, they are? Gotta leap on this. Of course, I'm sleepy as heck right now, so I'll revisit this impulse in the morning. Will think about Vanguard, too. Night all. <3
[X] No
[X] Hunger - Stranglethorn
[X] Retreat to the Antechamber
- Location
- Pindorama
So we definitely want it as early as possible; especially since we choose to reserve Once and Future. The value over time of that thing is going to be amazing.
See above.
That's from Undying Echo, which we already took. The 5 Arete is just for the companion power-up. Which is still great, in my opinion.