Trice you have said this. You are still here.Kelenas said:
Alchemical Solutions [Worm/Exalted] Thread 6: Fatal Fires Flagrantly Fry Frantic Friends, Family
- Thread starter Gromweld
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- exalted (white wolf) worm
Try to consider this from Taylor's perspective. Her father tried to murder her & she knows Coil was behind it. Since Lisa recruited him she's complicit. Wouldn't be hard for Taylor to blame her for it.wingnut2292 said:
Taylor noticed the Triumvirate twitch at the mention of Noelle. They somehow knew about it, & if they take Taylor in she's going to know all the horrible things they've done.
Behemoth proved itself unstoppable in its attack, inconvenienced barely by her & even less by the other capes. All its former battles it was toying with them & the moment it got serious the casualties went way up.
Iris is, from her perspective, gone. Probably destroyed if not intercepted by the Simurgh or throw out of orbit.
All of Taylor's hopes of getting additional alchemical castes seem permanently gone(even if they aren't). A lot of of the people she knew, even ones she detested, like Arsmaster & Shadowstalker are dead. Even if she could make more Alchemical she's lost most of the people she had information on.
This is a complete & utter failure from taylor's perspective. Her mission of reviving Autochan appears doomed, she's ineffective against the Endbringers & has caused them to attack out of order & reveal their true power. Her emotional support is wrecked with her father probably heading for the Birdcage if not dead, a lot of friends dead, & all because of her. I seriously think that only not needed to breathe, not need to eat, & her resistant body are all the stands between Taylor & her committing suicide out of impulse. She's going to be in a dark place for a while, wishing probably that she had just stayed dead in that locker so a lot of people had families to go home to.
He was responding to my comment. It's fine if he doesn't comment again.scope said:
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
Alright, I guess I need to hint at things to come to get people out of Depress Mode.
- Iris is not out of the game yet. We'll see him again before 5.1, and he'll be on Earth.
- Death toll so far isn't as high as it seems, and there are survivors at the medical station back on the beach.
- The Cradle is still intact, more Exalts are on the horizon.
- We have the whole world as our playground.
- Autobot's going to be talking to us again shortly.
This is the worst it's going to get until the ultimate climax of the story. The Behemoth Arc has been very hard to write because it's been so damning, so we won't be seeing its like again for a long, long while - my plan was for a five-part story, with this arc being the end of Part 1.
There is hope, there is optimism. This was called the Scenic Route for a reason.
- Iris is not out of the game yet. We'll see him again before 5.1, and he'll be on Earth.
- Death toll so far isn't as high as it seems, and there are survivors at the medical station back on the beach.
- The Cradle is still intact, more Exalts are on the horizon.
- We have the whole world as our playground.
- Autobot's going to be talking to us again shortly.
This is the worst it's going to get until the ultimate climax of the story. The Behemoth Arc has been very hard to write because it's been so damning, so we won't be seeing its like again for a long, long while - my plan was for a five-part story, with this arc being the end of Part 1.
There is hope, there is optimism. This was called the Scenic Route for a reason.
DRES. Lore (Parahumans), Lore (uh News? whatever covers missing persons reports).Gromweld said:
Maybe Medicine or Lore.
"use against the Herokiller"
Yeah, Tattletale would work it out fastest, and this is not a good position to be in.
Problem with this: Parian's costume makes her out to be caucasian, with a white mask and a blonde wig. She's actually Arabic (I think), and plans for her identity reveal to challenge preconceptions and all that jazz.
Awareness, perhaps, to notice their response.
They always call him Krouse, not Francis, AFAICT. I actually had to check that his first name was Francis.
We've been running an Investigation thing which they haven't been resisting. Moved to Presence here. Succeed against Sundancer/Genesis, but I think Ballistic parries (not even spending WP).
Welp. When a Soulsteel Caste has questions for you ....
"Thankfully, the three"
Goddamn.
Awareness. Interesting that they'd respond. We also use Dodge MDV against Alexandria's Investigation attempt (or, on reading further, simply delay?).
Motivation renders this an unacceptable order, perhaps enforced by a Conviction check.
Green Sun Prince Eidolon!
Actually, that kinda fits, but I think I'll stick with my "Green Sun Prince Danny" idea if I ever actually write anything like that.
I had to re-read this to catch that it was Eidolon's arm, and not Behemoth's.
Failed Charisma+Presence (+Intimidation) stuff.
Yay for Shaping defenses.
Melee.
Clarity sign. Melee stuff.
Shit.
War (Swarms) for the directional arrows. Not sure what handles the current stuff beyond Melee. Medicine to understand our Diagnostic Overlay?
War again.
Not a good sign, we'd need to integrate it for several minutes to repair it.
Sounds like a Melee botch.
Feat of Strength (Strength + Athletics + Power Armour).
Medicine. +1 autosuccess, cannot inflict more than one level of lethal damage due to Omnitool. Success.
Her regeneration is enough to outstrip our damage. The knife must be pretty amazing, but I think we all knew that already.
Awareness. Eidolon comes to a shattering realisation. Still a better time for it than canon.
Shit. At least we got some key capes out. I wonder who died in the bloodwave?
Suit out of power. Eep.
Huh. Was everything committed? Did not cancel the Omnitool, or perform absolutely no stunts? Extruding only takes a single mote (unless it counts as being several pieces for some reason).
Alexandria dodges with us.
Huh. Did he not move the locker on purpose? Did we protect it (and perhaps only remove the door because we were touching it)? Is it something Iris was doing?
I don't know that that's quite the appropriate response here, Iris.
Damaaage, maybe with a Crippling effect.
Behemoth can't feel the Locker at all? That's ... really interesting.
Throw (Rocks). Dodge.
Tanky Locker. Throw (Rocks). Dodge.
Looks like Iris was maintaining the Locker against Behemoth's attacks, probably including the earlier one that destroyed Winslow High.
... oh shit. I think I know what he's doing here.
... yep. He pulled in all the energy from nearby - light, kinetic, everything - and focused it on Iris. Probably pulled everything in his full 2000 feet radius.
More damage!
Behemoth's strongest attack only stripped the outer suit. Iris himself is utterly impervious to most things, and I guess that extends to Nowhere Universe interactions. The explosion earlier might have been all that energy bouncing off Iris himself.
... but if you can't destroy it you might be able to get rid of it for good. Still, Iris is more recoverable here than if Behemoth had burrowed away with him, so I'll keep hope.
Still, that [Deja Vu.] is heartwrenching.
I'm not saying metawise there isn't hope. I'm saying from Taylor's position this appears to be a total rout. Everything she did failed, & her mere presence has made things worse. Her own father wants her dead, she trusted Lisa who probably used her as a tool to capture her father. A lot of her friends are dead & because of her the Endbringers stepped up their game & likely the time table of the world's destruction. Whatever the cause, a lot of people won't be going to home With how bad things I literally expect her to attempt to committ suicide & fail cursing her body for not letting her just end it, wishing she had stayed dead in the locker.Gromweld said:
But Being Taylor is Suffering
Khaos
Baguette, wine and cheese
Do you remember when the plan voted for was totally impossible and Gromweld modified it to make it work instead of having Taylor trying to make it work?Kelenas said:
As far as I'm concerned he's not unkind to his players.
That was Behemoth, you know the Hero Killer, where 50% casualties and near TPK aren't unusual in the OTL.
It's one of the problems with the serial format: setting something up like this leaves people on the brink for a couple of days (or weeks, for slower updaters), and lengthy 'downer' arcs stretch out rather than being plowed through to the good parts like you might with a complete novel. Not everyone can or wants to deal with that, so you're stuck in the position of letting readers go or "spoiling" stuff ahead of time (or encouraging readers to come back in a week or two and see if it's picked up enough for them, but not everyone likes doing that either).Gromweld said:
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
On the other hand:wingnut2292 said:
-Behemoth tried to kill us and he failed
-the Triumvirate and the vast majority of the really important capes are still kicking
-Eidolon has had an important epiphany
-Eidolon has discovered a very personal reason for wanting to keep us, in particular, alive
-We displayed incredible leadership during a time of crisis during our first action as a cape
-Iris is retrievable
-Locker destroyed=/=connection to Autochthon severed
It's a simple test, really. Are we still respiring Essence? If yes - we're fine.
As long as we don't completely fuck up the debrief and alienate our allies, the PRT (and Cauldron) are going to be shoving resources in our face going, "Please, help us!" The deal is, we're a snowball. Behemoth tried to get us before we got too much momentum. We took our second breath what...two weeks ago? Three? A month at most.
We're just getting started on our power curve.
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
And considering how much I liked Worm, my comment was meant to be a (sarcastic) praise. Though it seems I didn't communicate that well. Quite many of the Worm quests/fics seem to go "And then Taylor owned everyone without too much trouble", so Gromweld's "Things get really, really dark before they get better" -style is enjoyable (if a bit soul-crushing) for me. *Checks new posts*. And it seems that things will get better (propably), so no complaints from me.megrisvernin said:. Stop blasting the QM. Matching the tone of the original setting is to be praised.
Soul Crushing! We haven't even dealt with the Danny issue.meianmaru said:
- Location
- The end of all things
It would appear that Iris figured out how to escape Behemoth by watching Alexandria get flung around...
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
Gardening is truly the evil that lurks in the hearts of men.wingnut2292 said:
Just look at that wicked, sinful plant!
- Location
- .
Well... that escalated quickly.
[X] Save The Capes
[X] 4xp - Presence
[] 2xp - Socialize (Swarms ●○○)
The most important question has yet to be answered. Did Chubster survive?!
edited to remove Socialize. I reserve the right to sigh heavily if this means we fail a roll next update.
[X] Save The Capes
[X] 4xp - Presence
[] 2xp - Socialize (Swarms ●○○)
The most important question has yet to be answered. Did Chubster survive?!
edited to remove Socialize. I reserve the right to sigh heavily if this means we fail a roll next update.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
The point was that if we can still respire Essence that means that the connection to Autochthon cannot have been severed (because Earth-Bet is not made of Essence) which means that the stuff that people are most concerned about - "oh noes, the cradle is gone! No more vats! No commie robo buddies! Gone forever!" - is simply unfounded.wingnut2292 said:
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
One last thing before I go off to bed - in case you missed what I said earlier, there's a mistake on our current health on the front page.Gromweld said:
We have 10 Health levels total (-0x1, -1x2, -2x5, -4x1, INCAPx1) and have a total of 8 levels of damage. Our -4 and Incap health boxes remain clean, which means we're still at -2 wound penalties.
He's our Familiar. Familiars are sustained by their owners Essence.Carrnage said:
- Location
- .
Grom already said he'll be back on Earth relatively soon. Fear not!Kellanved said:Iris didn't die from this... right? He needs to be recovered.
Stop assuming that people are specificly trying to tell you these things. People talk about relevant stuff in a quest. You can either quit the quest until you finish reading worm, or accept that you will get spoilers. Expecting the entire thread to cater to you when there is a specific spoiler warning in the OP is absurd.BobTheNinja said:
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
Ah. The dice... may... have said you took more damage than I recorded, and I absent-mindedly thought you had four -2 levels. I wanted you guys to see this fight, after all, and it wasn't TOO much damage past that.FunkyEntropy said:
You're at -4 penalties, but I'll convert one of the 'forgotten' damage to bashing to make things easier in the long run.
(Clearly I was lying about going to sleep.)
The Iris of Innovation Intimacy is still red despite being at full dots.
Hm. I think I'll hold back on experience expenditure apart from Presence for now. Let's see what opens up (especially Backgrounds) next round. Most likely we'll get an extra dot (maybe two!) of the Wards background, which is only ~4-8xp, but you never know! There might be something like a "Tactician" or "Endbringer Survivor" background.
[X] Save The Capes
[X] 4xp - Presence
People voting for Presence (Swarms), it's not provided as an option so we can't purchase it.
EDIT: actually, we already have Presence (Swarms 2), so I don't know why people are voting for it -- confusing the "purchased" with "purchasable" lists?
Hm. I think I'll hold back on experience expenditure apart from Presence for now. Let's see what opens up (especially Backgrounds) next round. Most likely we'll get an extra dot (maybe two!) of the Wards background, which is only ~4-8xp, but you never know! There might be something like a "Tactician" or "Endbringer Survivor" background.
[X] Save The Capes
[X] 4xp - Presence
People voting for Presence (Swarms), it's not provided as an option so we can't purchase it.
EDIT: actually, we already have Presence (Swarms 2), so I don't know why people are voting for it -- confusing the "purchased" with "purchasable" lists?