<Talking with Nyimas Kusmayadi>
EarthScorpion: Okay roll me Per + Politics as part of your Infiltration venture. You want successes, because those successes are what you're going to be using to buy Advantages for your control over the Cat School.
Aleph: 5+4+2 stunt+3 Wolf-as-Lamb Style+9 Kimmy ExD {guile, elegant practicality, discerning eye}=23.
Keris rolled 23d10s7c10 =
13 <8; 4; 6; 8; 1;
10; 3; 8; 8; 1; 3; 8; 3; 5; 8; 5; 7; 2;
10; 9; 1; 6; 7> #Infiltration & set-up
EarthScorpion: Okay yeah I need to be home to resolve this because you smashed not only the base difficulty, but also the enhanced one and also the "enhanced plus resolve" secret one.
Aleph: MWAA HAA~
EarthScorpion: OK, 13 successes. You beat the base 4 for the "making nice with the Cat School", you beat the hidden 6 for "yeah you actually beat up one of the worst people who would have been on the team so you de-facto challenged your way on, and you beat the hidden +Resolve thing. Which means that you basically speed-ran your infiltration into a personal meeting with Nyimas Kusmayadi...
EarthScorpion: ... and because she's been doing things to help you get into this position because she wants to butter you up, that means she's already formed that Intimacy of Devotion To Your Needs.
EarthScorpion: Now, before I offer advantages, what's the tenor of the interaction you want with her/your long-term intentions for her? Given that she has a nagging urge to help you - and 4 of your Advantages are auto-spent on "you get to declare what her Major Virtue is, subject to what's already established by her character".
Aleph: Okay, so possible Major Virtues are Ambition, Courage and Loyalty (presumably to the Cat School, or her family, or Meongkota). Ambition is the obvious one and is definitely her Minor Virtue if it isn't her Major. Courage would fit the mould of the Young Mistress in, again, a very predictable way.
Aleph: ... which is why I think I'm going to go the more interesting route and declare that her Major Virtue is in fact Loyalty, and that I'm intending to make her my local Pale Branch, without corrupting her into infernalism (probably).
Aleph: So the tenor of the meeting is presumably that she's seen in this newcomer a woman who might just be able to save the Cat from a defeat at the hands of the Tiger (and from Mahsuri's speech, she knows that Mahsuri is certainly talking a big game vis-a-vis "Make Meongkota Great Again").
EarthScorpion: Okay, and now the two rolls for Simya's alchemy presentation - one for how well she understands the subject, the second for how well she does speaking.
ST rolled 9d10s7c10 =
10 <9;
10; 1; 9; 2; 2;
10;
10;
10> #Simya knows alchemy
ST rolled 3d10s7c10 =
3 <
10; 9; 2> #Simya is awful at talking
Aleph: ... well holy shit. She was in the
zone as Keris explained about her Szorenic drugs and soaked up information better than she possibly ever has before in her entire life, and also pulled off a shockingly good presentation for someone who is awful at social stuff and has no training whatsoever in public speaking.
Aleph: I'm definitely using this later on to boost her confidence.
ST rolled 11d10s7c10 =
9 <3; 3; 7; 9; 7;
10; 5; 6; 7; 8;
10> #Cat Style Feelings Hiding
EarthScorpion: Right. Roll to wrap up your pitch to Nyimas.
Aleph: 5+5+3 Wolf As Lamb+2 stunt=15, not bothering to spend motes on this.
Keris rolled 15d10s7c10 =
6 <6; 4; 3;
10; 5; 2;
10; 4; 6; 8; 4; 9; 3; 1; 6> #Be My Agent, Won't You?
EarthScorpion: That wouldn't have gotten through normally, but between the principle she has and how it reduces her ability to use other principles to defend, it gets through.
<It's not cheating; it's "fighting fair before the match"!>
EarthScorpion: OK, right, so, sabotaging the Tiger School's team. General rules here - the more actions you take, the more fucked up their team is - but also the greater the risk that someone will get suspicious of meddling. Obviously some options will be more suspicious than others, too.
EarthScorpion: So for your first action you're getting one of their key team members drunk. So roll Reaction + Politics for making sure you get the right person.
Aleph: 5+4+3 Social Saboteur+1 {identifying weaknesses}+2 stunt=15.
Keris rolled 15d10s7c10 =
9 <2; 3;
10; 9; 1;
10; 8; 9; 1; 6; 3; 9; 5; 1; 7> #Who To Get Drunk
EarthScorpion: OK, that's a success. A cute girl gets one of them talking, and now she has the name of the particular MA-ist who's also the most susceptible that way - Budi Darmawan is one of the most talented people on their team, but he's historically had a tendency towards drink. He'll be easy to push over the edge.
EarthScorpion: Options for your 4 points of advantages:
- Declare a fact about another weakness in the team (2)
- Learn compromising secrets about a team member (2, MDV penalty when you leverage it)
- Bonus dice for next roll (1 per dice)
- Knowledge about the Tiger School (+1 dice bonus for rolls relating to them for rest of story, up to 3 repurchases)
Aleph: Hmm. Okay.
- Declare a fact about another weakness in the team (2)
- There are some resentments in the team, especially towards the En 2 woman, who's a prodigy from a more minor sub-family of the Tiger school who's shown a lot of wealthier families up with her rapid growth.
- Learn compromising secrets about a team member (2, MDV penalty when you leverage it)
EarthScorpion: OK, so. You have the compromising secret - picked up when wining and dining that loose-mouthed junior - that Natalena Tirrand is not at all happy with Master Wulandari Hartono. Natalena Tirrand is one of the more orthodox Immaculates (as Keris understands it) and the rumour is that Master Wulandari Hartono, the powerful one, trained under some mountain Benarist sage and may be more than a little heterodox as mountain-trained people often are.
Aleph: Neat. Sitting on that for the moment, and going to sabotage someone else's alchemy booster drugs - again chosen to be "someone who's a threat to the Cat school, but also who makes great use of such things so it doesn't look sus".
EarthScorpion: OK, so roll me a contested Subterfuge for you getting in - declare any charms you'd be using to get into the place where they're staying as you do your snooping.
Aleph: Hmm. Just to fill me in; where are the Tiger school staying, and in what sort of accommodation? Keris's first decision is whether she ghosts in as the Predator or walks in as an unremarkable servant.
EarthScorpion: They're staying in accommodation provided by Meongkota as honoured guests of the city for a challenge
Aleph: Hmm. So there probably are servants there.
EarthScorpion: Yes.
Aleph: In that case TED+Elloge stealth for a "background meido" disguise - probably Behind the Role, but she may shift to Unseen Author Assumption if it would better suit the circumstances; they cost the same so it's basically just a matter of whether she's a stagehand or an unremarkable bit part.
EarthScorpion: Roll me Subterfuge, then, for infiltration - and this'll be a two part thing, the second for the "right degree of alchemical sabotage"
Aleph: 5+5+3 Silver Willow+1 {gaining access to a target as a servant or slave}+2 stunt=16.
Keris rolled 16d10s7c10 =
3 <6; 4; 1; 7; 7; 5; 6; 3; 9; 4; 2; 4; 4; 2; 6; 6> #Meido In The Background
Aleph: oh wtf
Aleph: hopefully my charms pick up my slack there
EarthScorpion: Yeah, so because of the Charms, the complication is only that your servant gets turned away and it wastes time - in effect, it's just a regular failure, although time is getting low before they get back from evening prayers. So you're going to need another avenue to get in and you might not have enough time if this one also fails.
Aleph: Hmm. Alright, taking the mote hit to go Predator in through the window using Hidden Predator Camouflage.
EarthScorpion: Ok, roll me Subterfuge for that.
Aleph: Lurking Predator Style this time.
Keris rolled 15d10s7c10 =
14 <7; 9; 8; 2; 8; 7; 9; 3;
10; 2; 8;
10; 7; 7; 7> #Predatoring In Through The Window (x2 from HPC)
Aleph: ... 28 successes?
EarthScorpion: You don't get Advantages from the doubling effect. But you still got a bunch of them, so I'll automatically assign them instead of giving you choices.
Aleph: Sure thing!
EarthScorpion: OK, Keris gets in before anyone gets back, and has full access to their quarters. She doesn't have Rala so she can't speed-read all their correspondence, but she does get quite a bit done even before she gets to the alchemy:
- There's a sleeping woman who looks like she sprained her ankle on the trip here. That indicates they've already reduced the size of their pool of substitutes. (Keris also self-seeds her because she can.)
- With her knowledge of prayers and strips from her training as a Blue Priestess, Keris can ruin some of their prayer strips to weaken their blessings.
- She finds the coolbox where they're storing meat for the tiger. A weak emetic applied to it will make the tiger have a bad night and distract them as they have to look after a tiger being sick all over the floor.
- She has the full notes for the alchemical regimes they're on as overseen by their tournament alchemist. These note are both fascinating research materials for Keris, and also give her +3 dice for sabotaging their drug regimes.
EarthScorpion: So it's now time for your Occult - what end effect are you looking for by fucking with their alchemy and how big a scale?
Aleph: Hmm. Okay. Keris is going to briefly consider tampering with it in a way that would cause heart palpitations and dizziness and fainting, but discard that as far too likely to get someone killed. So instead she's going to mess with their muscle accelerants to basically cause them cramps and spasming muscles that'll mess with their motor control until the acid build-up and so on wear off. Basically just turning a Physique buff into a penalty.
Aleph: (heart palpitations: not to be confused with heart palpatinetions, which is when you shoot someone with lightning to induce cardiac arrest)
EarthScorpion: OK, so that's going to be essentially (if we were doing it in this much detail) a penalty that builds up every time they do a decisive - they tire more quickly, they're off-balance. More successes make it more effective and more subtle. Give me an Occult alchemy roll for the meddling.
Aleph: 15 dice, and I'm gonna throw 5 Kimmy autosux at this as well because this is probably going to be my big thing, and I want it both subtle and effective.
Keris rolled 15d10s7c10+5 =
12 <3; 8; 9; 4; 1; 1; 6; 7; 6;
10; 4; 9; 3; 2; 9> #You Foolishly Left Your Alchemy Supplies Behind Two Locked Doors And Inside A Sealed Carry Case In Your Private Rooms; How Careless Of You
EarthScorpion: Ok yeah, what you've deployed is something from your knowledge of north-western alchemy and what you've doped it with is something which effectively and with very few side effects essentially fools the body into over-doing the anaerobic respiration by constraining the uptake of air essence from the breath. When they're not being active, it's doing nothing much, but effectively what you've done is tricked the people's bodies that they're at the top of a mountain
EarthScorpion: And of course you didn't even dope all of them, just a third or so.
Aleph: ^_^
Aleph: Okay. One major p- oh right, I haven't got the important person drunk yet, have I? I should go do that.
EarthScorpion: Yes. You can intercept them on the way back from prayers and use Go Get It on them
Aleph: Sigh. You know what? Because this whole Venture was offscreen, it's instead going to get revealed during the tournament, Unspoken Plan Guarantee style, as each of the effects kick in and the Tigers suffer and Keris flashes back to what she did to them.
EarthScorpion: ikr
EarthScorpion: it's basically pre-stacking them with complications for the Venture
Aleph: keris ur such a bitch :3
Aleph: the amount she can do in one night is horrifying
EarthScorpion: So roll me for Go Get It
Aleph: "He rolls (Persuasion + Presence), adding the Resources value of whatever he's describing as bonus successes. This includes any potential cost of being caught, so the "value" of illegal drugs includes any bribes necessary to avoid legal action."
EarthScorpion: Yeah so Resources 3 as going on a bender before a tournament when you have a known drinking problem will get you in shit
Aleph: Sweet. Yeah, she's basically gonna flatter the guy as a pretty overawed petani woman and... sigh. Possibly offer to pay for his rounds (using money she's picked up here and there) in exchange for his amazing stories of grand victories in tournaments, etc etc etc. So 5+5+3 Perfumed Smoke+1 {playing off a target's perceived superiority}+2 [+3 Res autosux]=16d+3
Keris rolled 16d10s7c10+3 =
7 <7; 3; 6; 6; 2; 3; 6; 2; 8; 2; 5; 8; 6; 7; 6; 4> #Have A Drink With Me!
ST rolled 8d10s7c10 =
4 <
10; 7; 8; 2; 5; 3; 6; 3> #fight the ol' demon drink
EarthScorpion: Yeah, so, you've just gone and kicked an alcoholic off the wagon with an almighty punt. He needs a drink - he fights better with one in him! - and this is a pretty young woman and this town is going to be theirs in a year or two anyway...
Aleph: tee hee :3
Aleph: Right, for my third and final thing, I'm going to - in general terms, no specifics just yet - Such Sweet Corruption Natalena into cheating with something that'll get her disqualified from the tournament as a fighter if caught so as to show up Wulandari.
Aleph: Right, after some thought, yeah. Keris is going to run into Natalena dressed as a member of the Snake school - possibly even a petani member who's not yet got wira status - and wish her good fortune in her fight against the Cat, and then fail to notice Natalina pickpocketing the poison vial that a Snake stylist is legally allowed to have but a Tiger stylist isn't.
EarthScorpion: OK, so you need first a subterfuge roll for arranging the meeting and getting away with this, and then your Such Sweet Corruption roll for setting up the trigger command.
Aleph: 5+5+3 Wolf-as-Lamb+2 stunt=15
Keris rolled 15d10s7c10 =
10 <
10; 8; 4; 6;
10; 4; 9; 2; 6; 3; 8; 9; 5; 3;
10> #Coincidental Meeting with a Snake
EarthScorpion: OK yeah you set the whole clandestine meeting when you stumble into her perfectly, no one even misses her, and it'll be impossible to even discover you were there without powerful magic.
Aleph: Excellent. And then Persuasion+Presence, 5+5+3 Perfumed Smoke+2 stunt... ehhh, +2 Kimmy autosux just to be sure {poison, curses, undercurrents of dissent, sets them up to suffer worse, talent for temptation, delayed or ongoing harm, this is a very Kimmy plan}= 15[+2]
Keris rolled 15d10s7c10+2 =
9 <2; 3; 9; 1; 6; 8; 2; 3; 2; 3; 7;
10; 7; 9; 2> #Steal The Poison, Show Up Your Rival, Profit
EarthScorpion: And that's a stunt for the ploy. Yeah, so you got her to steal it. Now, what's the trigger you're setting up for what her Such Sweet Corruption is?
Aleph: Getting her to steal the poison (which Keris has brewed) and use it to give herself an advantage in the fight so that she does better than Wulandari and proves the supremacy of the Proper Immaculate Ways (it's fine that she's cheating to do it, she justifies internally, because it's only once to prove that Wulandari's mountain-taught ways are worse and then she'll be a good little Immaculate afterwards - she's just making sure it's a sure thing).
Aleph: What she doesn't know is that the Snake stylist she took the poison from uses a pretty obvious poison with obvious visible symptoms so it's clear she's landed a poisoned hit and can show off her poison-using martial arts and make her opponent freak out and get scared and maybe even forfeit.
Aleph: Such a pity that Tiger stylists aren't meant to use poisons and thus wouldn't have realised that was a possibility because she was just assuming it'd be something subtle to give her an edge.
Aleph: (in the interests of not killing anyone on her own side, Keris has made sure it's not that likely to be fatal, as long as it gets someone treating it quickly)
Aleph: And yeah, I'll leave it at those three sabotages.
Aleph: (
tee hee hee)
<The tournament!>
EarthScorpion: Okay, so. Opening fights. Normally this would be a case of an average of 8 for the Tiger vs 7 for the Cat. However, Keris has juiced the Cat up to an average of 8. Meanwhile the loss of Tiger quality means their baseline is 7, the Tiger are at -1 from tiredness, and 1/3rd of them have a further -2 from the doped potions.
EarthScorpion: So, pools for the first set of matches:
- Tiger: 6, 6, 4
- Cat: 8, 9, 7
ST rolled 6d10s7c10 =
4 <6; 4; 8; 9;
10; 1> #Tiger round 1
ST rolled 8d10s7c10 =
5 <8; 3; 3; 3; 1; 8;
10; 7> #Cat round 1
ST rolled 6d10s7c10 =
2 <2; 6; 9; 8; 3; 4> #Tiger round 2
ST rolled 9d10s7c10 =
5 <1; 9; 7; 7; 3; 6; 7; 7; 4> #Cat round 2
ST rolled 4d10s7c10 =
2 <9; 9; 5; 2> #Tiger round 3
ST rolled 7d10s7c10 =
2 <1; 7; 1; 4; 3; 3; 7> #Cat round 3
Aleph: Yessss. Win, win, draw where I'm very disappointed in the Cat who had a 3-die advantage on their opponent and still didn't come out ahead. Presumably that was an unarmed bout against a talented but inexperienced Cat junior, or something.
ST rolled 8d10s7c10 =
3 <5; 1; 5; 4; 1; 8;
10; 5> #Tiger round 4 (Natalena)
ST rolled 6d10s7c10 =
2 <5; 9; 4; 5; 5; 8> #Cat round 4
ST rolled 9d10s7c10+1 =
4 <4; 5; 8; 5; 8; 8; 3; 3; 1> #Natalena makes her play
ST rolled 7d10s7c10 =
3 <4; 1; 9; 1; 7; 7; 5> #her poor target
EarthScorpion: Are you going to call this out, or rely on someone else seeing it?
Aleph: Hmm. She's going to wait for a moment to see if anyone else notices and speaks up, but if they don't, she'll call it out herself. So I guess roll for someone else to notice it and if not I'll step in.
ST rolled 7d10s7c10 =
0 <1; 5; 2; 6; 1; 1; 1> #Cat Doctor
EarthScorpion: well the Cat doctor literally botched that
Aleph: Ugh. Do I have to do everything myself? 😒
ST rolled 9d10s7c10 =
4 <6;
10; 2; 5; 4; 5;
10; 5; 5> #old man's diagnosis
EarthScorpion: And a Charisma + Performance + stunt from Nyimas.
ST rolled 10d10s7c10 =
5 <7; 3; 1; 2; 1; 8; 4; 5;
10; 9> #clawing comment
ST rolled 7d10s7c10 =
4 <4; 3; 4; 7; 9;
10; 1> #internal refutation
EarthScorpion: Is Keris angry about having the limelight stolen from her?
Aleph: Hmm. Lemme roll Vanity against the Love of Art - since this has all been a very Zana scheme and she doesn't mind not being in the spotlight herself as long as the performance she's conducting is getting attention.
Keris rolled 3d10s7c10 =
0 <5; 1; 1> #Vanity
Keris rolled 4d10s7c10 =
1 <7; 3; 6; 6> #Love of Art
Aleph: Looks like she's cool with it!
<Wyld-Shaping thoughts>
Aleph: Hmm. Okay. Just to check...
Aleph: A handful of algarel - which has an
e, dammit, I always forget that. Lemme go fix my typos.
Aleph: Okay, a handful of algarel in Hell is Res 1, a barrel is Res 2. So I'm looking at Res 3's worth, possibly Res 4 since I'm making it in Creation, not Hell. 2 dots of Potential.
Aleph: I'll probably want about a hundred "Followers", which is also 2 dots of Potential.
Aleph: So I'm looking for 4 dots of Potential, which is "a tidal pool ruled by wyldlife" or "two waypoints' worth of wyld-polluted land". Which I can probably find in the Chosoni highlands. Sweet.
