A Simple Transaction I

Orm Embar · Jun 11, 2020

So... was that a Tyrant proc? Do we have any additional injuries, scuffs and scrapes on our gear that the Ring of Blood's healing wouldn't wash away? Interesting as the middle of the update is, that opening's concerning. Vote-wise:

[X] Hunter Trio
[X] Cheer up Letrizia

Man, does anybody else miss the halcyon days when we had options without an X% chance of death? This is us right now, just imagine the left sleeve's empty. I can't even regret Bloodmight's victory, not when the rewards were so bloody fascinating. An imprisoned Ringbearer; vali should pick up the phone, because he called it. Anyway, since we passed up getting allies and saved the Arete, we really should build up as much as possible to get Ruling Ring yesterday, if we're going to be rescuing a peer. As for the bonus, I'd like to cheer up Letrizia, she deserves (but would never accept) headpats. Might swap to buffing Gisena since it could improve our chances, though.

Also, for any absolute madmen voting Knight-Commander, the key to a diplomatic victory might lie in the creature's cowardice? It's described as a 'craven giant'; for all its strength and intellect, beneath its armor beats a dishonorable heart similar to the first we slew. Eons of experience, but if you keep rolling the dice of battle, eventually they come up snake-eyes.

Byzantine · Jun 11, 2020

Talace said:
Alternatively, we could pretend to be an emissary from a different Ringbound community so that we can talk to their ring for Diplomatic Ring Reasons.

The ring is the False moon. It is imprisoned.

Rihaku · Jun 11, 2020

Talace said:
Alternatively, we could pretend to be an emissary from a different Ringbound community so that we can talk to their ring for Diplomatic Ring Reasons.

Hm... their Ring is imprisoned and its powers forcibly used for their aggrandizement, so it's unlikely they would want anyone to 'talk' to it!

Talace said:
I'm really feeling the Deathless angle-- maybe we can even try inhabiting a knight's armor while in wraithmode to pretend like we're them?

That probably wouldn't work, no. The answer does not lie in deception!

Byzantine said:
With Scent of Prey we can probably force mage option drops!

Mm, remember the original discussion around Scent of Prey. It can find Offense, Defense, Healing or Utility, more specific options you shouldn't count on.

Orm Embar said:
Also, for any absolute madmen voting Knight-Commander, the key to a diplomatic victory might lie in the creature's cowardice? It's described as a 'craven giant'; for all its strength and intellect, beneath its armor beats a dishonorable heart similar to the first we slew. Eons of experience, but if you keep rolling the dice of battle, eventually they come up snake-eyes.

Perhaps it should not be called craven but prudent! And yet, now that you are here, it is critical not to fall behind on the power scaling curve. More powerful enemies mean not only more picks but more powerful Advancements. The only way out is through!

Byzantine · Jun 11, 2020

...I have to wonder, how would Fairbright respond if we found her? She's stronger than us but depending on where she is we may still be able to lend assistance...

Rihaku said:
Perhaps it should not be called craven but prudent! And yet, now that you are here, it is critical not to fall behind on the power scaling curve. More powerful enemies mean not only more picks but more powerful Advancements. The only way out is through!

If I thought we would pick ideally I could be convinced to take a 10% risk to never have to again. Unfortunately we won't.

Rihaku said:
Mm, remember the original discussion around Scent of Prey. It can find Offense, Defense, Healing or Utility, more specific options you shouldn't count on.

Oh? I believed we could use it to hunt, say, a bunch of hill-eater wurms.

Shard · Jun 11, 2020

Rihaku said:
Perhaps it should not be called craven but prudent! And yet, now that you are here, it is critical not to fall behind on the power scaling curve. More powerful enemies mean not only more picks but more powerful Advancements. The only way out is through!

So max out intimidation, wearing the magus' bloody tattered robes. Use the Ring of Blood to make his blood quail before us, the heartbeat frequency which corresponds to fear.

Rihaku · Jun 11, 2020

Current vote count?

Byzantine said:
If I thought we would pick ideally I could be convinced to take a 10% risk to never have to again. Unfortunately we won't.

A mere 10% risk of death might be a laughable dream if you fail to scale hard enough for the Middle and Inner Temples! Right now the Form of Rage is still strong against these foes. That may not be the case forever.

Anyway, your risk of death is potentially far lower than 10% since thread participation for this vote can reduce your (and Gisena's) death%!

Orm Embar said:
Man, does anybody else miss the halcyon days when we had options without an X% chance of death? This is us right now, just imagine the left sleeve's empty. I can't even regret Bloodmight's victory, not when the rewards were so bloody fascinating. An imprisoned Ringbearer; vali should pick up the phone, because he called it. Anyway, since we passed up getting allies and saved the Arete, we really should build up as much as possible to get Ruling Ring yesterday, if we're going to be rescuing a peer. As for the bonus, I'd like to cheer up Letrizia, she deserves (but would never accept) headpats. Might swap to buffing Gisena since it could improve our chances, though.

If you want Ruling Ring, you need not only the Arete, but also enemies that can drop Preeminences and 4 more picks! Rushing to save up the Arete alone could put you in a bad position...

Orm Embar · Jun 11, 2020

Rihaku said:
Perhaps it should not be called craven but prudent! And yet, now that you are here, it is critical not to fall behind on the power scaling curve. More powerful enemies mean not only more picks but more powerful Advancements. The only way out is through!

Hm... the Outriders are 'only' a 2.07% chance of death after accounting for the Form of Rage, little more than twice the risk from the Trio. The selection of rare advancements sounds nice? Scent's not actually that useful here, I don't think we can spare the Arete to buy it. If only Hunger had a copy of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas to supplement his diplomatic efforts against the Inner Residents!

Byzantine · Jun 11, 2020

Orm Embar said:
Hm... the Outriders are 'only' a 2.07% chance of death after accounting for the Form of Rage, little more than twice the risk from the Trio. The selection of rare advancements sounds nice? Scent's not actually that useful here, I don't think we can spare the Arete to buy it. If only Hunger had a copy of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas to supplement his diplomatic efforts against the Inner Residents!

But check the Gisena death chance!

TwistedJester · Jun 11, 2020

[X] Hunter Trio
[X] Level Up Gisena

I'm done with the risky options unless a extremely pressing need is presented to us as we made this much progress in just a few days.

Projectile · Jun 11, 2020

Rihaku said:
[ ] Knight Legion - A battalion of giant knights, well-armored and organized, their animating intelligences moving in unnatural concert, scything down all in their path not native to the Temple. Far deadlier and more formidable than single knights or even small companies, this fearsome array wields encirclements, flanking maneuvers, suppressive fire and small unit tactics with the fluid organic cunning of a single unifying mind.

*Roughly 300 Knights with a wide variety of weapons and armor types, including some you haven't seen before - scout-type knights, superheavy knights, grappling specialists with barbed armor, offensive lance-wielders with ludicrously oversized weapons, etc. Fight intelligently as if coordinated by a single commander with superhuman multitasking ability and unnatural battlefield awareness.

*2 picks, +.5 Arete
*70% chance of uneventful victory
*5% chance of Gisena injury
*15% chance of major Hunger injury
*10% chance of forced withdrawal (you will not receive the chosen social encounter)

So, it would be remiss to talk about the Knight Commander without talking about the Knight Legion(s?) he commands. They're kinda related.

I had assumed that they were a hivemind, but I guess this dude has "superhuman multitasking abilities and unnatural battlefield awareness". Not that those things are separate.

Either way, we'll probably have to deal with these guys as well, and even if not, taking them out first might weaken the Commander, if he only has two eyes to see with and one mind to think with. At the least, he can't be a commander without anyone to command.

This requires tactics for the knights. Picking them off, as we've been doing, is ideal. Keep it up until they all group together.

Then a Tide of Nullity would be appropriate. Hunger can do a wide bladewind, though I'm not sure if his strength has grown to the point where it's easy for him to get multikills this way. It would be ideal if we could ambush the group as a whole, but it's unlikely.

The diversity of enemies is an issue. Picking off the archers, and any fast-looking dudes, should keep them off of our back (and Gisena's, more importantly).

More importantly, having to do this while the Commander is on us will be excruciating. We might have to hold him off (as best we can) and let Gisena deal with the mooks, if we don't outspeed him enough to do a chase scene. Even if we do, gotta watch out for his ranged attacks.

If they break and scatter... probably better to let them, and focus on the Commander?

Doing this will tank diplomacy chances, obviously, so only do this if it fails or we decide against it.

Byzantine · Jun 11, 2020

Inserted tally

Adhoc vote count started by Byzantine on Jun 11, 2020 at 11:38 PM, finished with 57 posts and 11 votes.

9 people have voted
[X] Hunter Trio
6 people have voted
[X] Level Up Gisena
3 people have voted
[X] Cheer up Letrizia
1 people have voted
[X] Knight-Commander
- Talace
1 people have voted
[X] Inward Focus
- Genesys

vali · Jun 11, 2020

[X] Knight-Commander
[X] Level Up Gisena

Will post more thoughts, strategies, ect... later.

Only thing that jumps out to me so far is 100% chance of Gisena survival. Does the knight have a code of honor that prevents it from hurting women? Could we use her as a human shield? Or is terrified of her magic? Is she just so fast it can't hit her?

There is absolutely something going on here, just need to figure it out.

Addio · Jun 11, 2020

Y'all sure have been busy being suboptimal. In a dungeon of unique loot opportunities but also high danger, the key is to first maximally overlevel, and then mop up the neat traits you want.

Boy, my productivity sure has dwindled from my heyday. Or perhaps not dwindled, but transmogrified, new pathways revealing themselves to my lidded eyes.

Hey, Hunger, you don't know how to proceed? Just ask the False Moon. Give it... a ring.

This took five hours and four of those hours was micromanaging Hunger's increasingly decrepit portrait.
Nice of Rihaku to immediately render my interpretation of the False Moon incorrect right after I finish it thanks although I didn't really invest that much thought into it

Byzantine · Jun 11, 2020

vali said:
[X] Knight-Commander
[X] Level Up Gisena

Will post more thoughts, strategies, ect... later.

Only thing that jumps out to me so far is 100% chance of Gisena survival. Does the knight have a code of honor that prevents it from hurting women? Could we use her as a human shield? Or is terrified of her magic? Is she just so fast it can't hit her?

There is absolutely something going on here, just need to figure it out.

I expect it is less useful.

There is nothing she can do to hurt it in any way, so it will completely ignore her.

George · Jun 11, 2020

[X] Knight-Commander
[X] Level Up Gisena

Given we have a menu here where every choice could kill us, I feel the Knight-Commander offers the best power to death chance ratio. A Defining Advancement and likely access to War domain powers, plus the Rank, should give us breathing room.
As for actually fighting it, I think we need to close to close range to avoid its lance and bow and have Gisena shoot Tides of Nullity above our head while we seek to disturb its footing.

Microwave MKII · Jun 11, 2020

Rihaku said:
"Of course." He patted her gently on the head. "Like you said. We'll take our time. I'm confident we'll finish this century."

HEADPAT!!!!!!!

thanks mr. rihaku

Also whenever you get a Patreon or Ko-fi or equivalent set up and open, Priest and I are absolutely down to pledge, even if it's just a little bit per month! Doesn't matter what the tier rewards are, we've always wondered about some way to send you money to support your work anyway. Lore tidbits are nice though!

[X] Hunter Trio
[X] Level Up Gisena

going with this for now, I'm not opposed to Knight-Commander but waiting to see how diplomacy strategies develop before I commit

Byzantine · Jun 11, 2020

Addio said:
Y'all sure have been busy being suboptimal. In a dungeon of unique loot opportunities but also high danger, the key is to first maximally overlevel, and then mop up the neat traits you want.

I keep trying to steer people down the path of the least-suicidal build vote. It has not worked once.

I'm hoping people finally catch on that we can't keep doing this.

Shard · Jun 11, 2020

[X] Knight-Commander
[X] Level Up Gisena

If we're delving into the temple further, diplo-ing our way past the knight would only be prudent.

Intimidate him with a show of power, an emanation of might such that his blood quails before us. Our Blood Magics is conceptually very difficult to resist or to suppress - Have Gisena activate her Nullity AOE, suppressing additionally the Knight-Commander's resistance to our blood manipulation while weakening the very magics that sustains him. Against a foe of such calibre, that their mere presence would bring you to your knees, would not discretion be the better part of valor?

After all, we do have a base 80% of beating him, so it's not as if he would be wrong. After all, with Deathless brotherhood, could we not implicitly argue that we are his superior?

Orm Embar said:
Hm... the Outriders are 'only' a 2.07% chance of death after accounting for the Form of Rage, little more than twice the risk from the Trio. The selection of rare advancements sounds nice? Scent's not actually that useful here, I don't think we can spare the Arete to buy it. If only Hunger had a copy of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas to supplement his diplomatic efforts against the Inner Residents!

Scent doesn't cost Arete.

George · Jun 11, 2020

Rihaku said:
Given recent events, I'm thinking of finally starting a Patreon.

I'll definitely pledge for lore and character stuff; exclusive voting feels unwise

Byzantine · Jun 11, 2020

Rihaku said:
[ ] Hunger - Scent of Prey. A single drop of blood will set predators to swarming. When hunting a target, gain an instinctual sixth sense for its distance and bearing. Existing knowledge may yield superior accuracy. [2 picks]

-For example, 'Ber,' the human swordsman who wields blue energy and constantly mutters to himself, would yield a more accurate bearing than 'A creature I can kill to develop healing capabilities for Letrizia,' though the latter would at least give you a vague direction.

This is scent, for reference.

It costs 2 picks but no Arete, and could be used to, say, hunt Dreadbeasts. The merchants gave us a description of them, after all.

Projectile · Jun 11, 2020

Shard said:
After all, we do have a base 80% of beating him, so it's not as if he would be wrong. After all, with Deathless brotherhood, could we not implicitly argue that we are his superior?

I've been wanting to see how Doom of the Tyrant procs work, anyway! Let's just get in a position to activate it on this guy and let the Curse do all the work!

Rihaku · Jun 11, 2020

Current vote count? I imagine Hunter Trio is leading but given that you took Bloodmight it may be wise to shore up your power from non-Arete sources (like picks and Rank!) while Form of Rage is still strong.

Orm Embar said:
Hm... the Outriders are 'only' a 2.07% chance of death after accounting for the Form of Rage, little more than twice the risk from the Trio. The selection of rare advancements sounds nice? Scent's not actually that useful here, I don't think we can spare the Arete to buy it. If only Hunger had a copy of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas to supplement his diplomatic efforts against the Inner Residents!

It would certainly be nice to turn them, but discouraging them sufficiently could certainly also work! It would be easier with some more +Charisma...

TwistedJester said:
[X] Hunter Trio
[X] Level Up Gisena

I'm done with the risky options unless a extremely pressing need is presented to us as we made this much progress in just a few days.

There's a pressing need: you're too weak! Right now you're still in an area where the enemies can be overwhelmed with Form of Rage. That may not always be the case, especially the further inside you go! You should get your Form of Rage value from moderately stronger foes while you can!

George said:
[X] Knight-Commander
[X] Level Up Gisena

Given we have a menu here where every choice could kill us, I feel the Knight-Commander offers the best power to death chance ratio. A Defining Advancement and likely access to War domain powers, plus the Rank, should give us breathing room.
As for actually fighting it, I think we need to close to close range to avoid its lance and bow and have Gisena shoot Tides of Nullity above our head while we seek to disturb its footing.

To carry Gisena or not... the eternal question...

Microwave MKII said:
HEADPAT!!!!!!!

thanks mr. rihaku

Also whenever you get a Patreon or Ko-fi or equivalent set up and open, Priest and I are absolutely down to pledge, even if it's just a little bit per month! Doesn't matter what the tier rewards are, we've always wondered about some way to send you money to support your work anyway. Lore tidbits are nice though!

Thanks, it's very appreciated!

Byzantine · Jun 11, 2020

Rihaku said:
Current vote count? I imagine Hunter Trio is leading but given that you took Bloodmight it may be wise to shore up your power from non-Arete sources (like picks and Rank!) while Form of Rage is still strong.

Ya know that doesn't really make sense. Form of rage triples our stats. If we can't beat them with it we might as well just leave because we are far, far too weak.

Byzantine · Jun 11, 2020

Inserted tally

Adhoc vote count started by Byzantine on Jun 11, 2020 at 11:48 PM, finished with 70 posts and 15 votes.

10 people have voted
[X] Hunter Trio
10 people have voted
[X] Level Up Gisena
- Talace
- vali
- George
- Shard
- Byzantine
- Simon_Jester
- drake_azathoth
- Enohthree
- TwistedJester
- Microwave MKII
4 people have voted
[X] Knight-Commander
- Talace
- vali
- George
- Shard
3 people have voted
[X] Cheer up Letrizia
1 people have voted
[X] Inward Focus
- Genesys

LordOfMurder · Jun 11, 2020

Rihaku said:
Awaken now, O Hunger ring; from blackest myth abjure:
thy band once stained, now un-profaned, to shine forevermore;

O Ring of Blood, O Ring of War, thy tide of battle fades;
cast down Their thrones in crimson gloam, unfurling of thine Age!

Is this the ring of the age of might!?

Rihaku said:
Idly he attempted to restore his amputated arm and eye, flushing the area with purifying blood, but while the wounds tingled promisingly, no regeneration was yet to be had. A longer-term project, perhaps.

Sounds like we might eventually be able to heal ourselves with just the ring.

Rihaku said:
"My, hun. You're making my heart pound!"

"I do have that effect on people," he said blandly. "How are you feeling?"

We can rely on Gisena to make witty banter regardless of the situation.

Rihaku said:
you're like a super-juggernaut undead chimera!"

She knows our secret!

Rihaku said:
"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow. "I think someone's been watching too much anime. And that last one's a bit of a stretch. How many zombies actually have super strength of that magnitude?"

"A-am not!" Letrizia huffed. "Those are all in normal movies as well. 'S not my fault I get bored being all alone and waiting here..."

Some bad parenting by Hunger has led to his daughteru being corrupted by all the movies she watches.

Rihaku said:

Hunter Trio

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Not too risky but also pretty bland rewards.

Rihaku said:

Resident Outriders

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Not as dangerous as they look because of the incredibly reliable rage proc percentage but more dangerous for Gisena

Rihaku said:

Knight-Commander

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

The most dangerous option for us because of the 60% chance of devestating complications but Gisena is invincible for some reason?

Rihaku said:

Level Up Gisena

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Gisena's the one fighting with us, might also lead to some insights on how to produce more findross on her part.

Rihaku said:

Cheer up Letrizia

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Daughteru is cute but isn't helpful at the moment.

Rihaku said:

Inward Focus

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Seems unnecessary since we're not leaving at the moment?

Rihaku said:

Undead Chimera 25 Arete, Requires ++++++++++Letrizia

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

The true ultimate pick! Not enough Arete or Zea loyalty though.

Rihaku said:
Given recent events, I'm thinking of finally starting a Patreon.

At last we have unlocked true pay to win!

[X] Resident Outriders
[X] Level Up Gisena

Resident outriders has the best risk versus reward of the options considering the rage proc chances.

A Simple Transaction I

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