Watsonian answer: Yes and no. Numbers have power in Pact because people give them power; as an intensely spiritual being you're aware enough of the phenomenon that you don't lend your strength unless you actually mean to do so.
Doyalist answer: Most of those bonuses are buried in the upgrade tree.
3, 4, 7, 12, 13, 40, and sometimes 1000. Significant numbers, but they mean different things: invoking the number 13 might just not be the right kind of metaphysically significant that applies in this situation.
[X] Attempting to bind it to your congregation in one way or another (Bind Spirit Check)
I-It's Not Like I Like You or Anything!: +1 point
I Can Show You the World: +1 point
In the end, you decide to try to forge the tree into some sort of weapon. A strong ficus - blessed with Arete's divine might - its branches are rife with power and you hope to turn that to your aims. Reaching in the aether, while you can rest your hand against its trunk, you begin by exploring its circumference, the layers of bark falling away beneath your palm.
Young; strong; green in way you rarely see. It reminds you of the goblins who once copulated in the mud, and as your knowledge of the plant grows, so too does your confidence in your plan. 'Yes,' you think happily. 'This could work quite well.'
Pouring your power into the plant, you begin by weaving a binding to condense its spiritual presence. Unfortunately, something contests your control. Forcing itself against your working with sharp, piercing motions, you start to stagger under the unexpected assault, feeling like someone's stabbed you in the chest.
"Oh," you murmur quietly, feeling blood soak into your robes. That's because someone has.
A long, clawed hand terminating in a set of claws, the limb extends from the trunk of the tree and passes through two of your ribs. Stumbling backwards as the wiry fingers are dislodged with a squelch, you immediately blanket the area with your presence and are rewarded with an anguished scream.
"Haaaa," something cries, the flesh sloughing away from its fingers. Coiling up like stubbly, black snakes, you begin to feel somewhat confident, until a shape slides free of the tree.
Thin; skeletal; her hair like strands of kelp - she barrels at you across the sludge, numb to the ravages of your aura, and as her hand reaches out for you neck, you suddenly find yourself pushed to the ground.
"Errrgh," you gurgle desperately, your arms struggling to fend her off. Unable to pry her loose, despite the nails tearing free from their beds, you give once last thrash of your legs and find your corporeal body falling still.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Dispersion: 19 Charshel (roll) - 30 (3 wounds) vs DC 19 (last wound) = failure, you die
'...Denial.' You scream, the noise echoing through the aether. 'Reconstitution.'
Like an odd blending of echoes pulling against themselves, the presence that is your soul tries to tie itself together. A thin, lingering mist that gently curls like smoke in the breeze, the fragments soon begin to swirl; however, it doesn't seem to be of use.
Slowly at first - and then with increasing speed - your soul pushes itself aside, the effort only forcing yourself farther apart.
'...Failure,' you're forced to concede, a mournful note in your voice. 'Ext...'
You don't finish the thought.
Game Over
AN: so yeah, that happened. Sorry about the wait between updates, but I wasn't sure how I wanted to play things. When the numbers came up and we were looking at a game over, I gave some serious thought about fudging the roll, but it felt like such a cop-out. Combined with a bit of writer's block that was making this hard to continue, I decided to take some time off and let it percolate in my head. Anyway, here's the final chapter in the story of Charshel: you died and were devoured by Arete's newborn progeny. There might be a sequal as we continue from another character; however, I want to give the possibility more thought, while I write up precisely how to start it. I'm thinking about doing a bit of character creation to give you a more personal stake. You know, let you pick from various traits, and then take things somewhere from there. I'm not sure, yet - gotta see how I want to stat it. Anyway, if I do, I'll either continue it here or post a link in the thread. In the meantime, keep an eye out, and I hope you had fun playing. Until next time.
AN: so yeah, that happened. Sorry about the wait between updates, but I wasn't sure how I wanted to play things. When the numbers came up and we were looking at a game over, I gave some serious thought about fudging the roll, but it felt like such a cop-out. Combined with a bit of writer's block that was making this hard to continue, I decided to take some time off and let it percolate in my head. Anyway, here's the final chapter in the story of Charshel: you died and were devoured by Arete's newborn progeny. There might be a sequal as we continue from another character; however, I want to give the possibility more thought, while I write up precisely how to start it. I'm thinking about doing a bit of character creation to give you a more personal stake. You know, let you pick from various traits, and then take things somewhere from there. I'm not sure, yet - gotta see how I want to stat it. Anyway, if I do, I'll either continue it here or post a link in the thread. In the meantime, keep an eye out, and I hope you had fun playing. Until next time.
Hey, law of averages says it has to happen some time. Really, it's surprising such game overs are so rare. Not a satisfying experience within a single quest, but one that builds just a little more tension in every other quest we join.
On a less philosophical note,I agree that It might indeed have been better to just start with us already escaping the abyss or as some kind of being already in the world. More actual Revy/BL that way.
Hey, law of averages says it has to happen some time. Really, it's surprising such game overs are so rare. Not a satisfying experience within a single quest, but one that builds just a little more tension in every other quest we join.
On a less philosophical note,I agree that It might indeed have been better to just start with us already escaping the abyss or as some kind of being already in the world. More actual Revy/BL that way.
That's because most QM's probably fudge the rolls. Going into this, I wanted to play it straight and if you died, that's just what happened. Not only did that keep things honest on my end, but it worked well with the theme of the setting. Anyway, bad rolls happen and when they do you just go back and write up another character. In that respect, my author note was about a month old, and I'd like to think that a sequal isn't so much in the cards, but expected. I don't know when I'll start posting, but I've been going through my notes, and I've started setting things up for the next round. Personally? I'm kind of excited. I like to think anything that comes after can only build upon the world we've created.
Honestly, you did the right thing. The quest scene has this culture where people see social penalties or drama for failure as the only option. Having people actually die when killed is fine, even great. Now we can move on and try and do better next time instead of getting salty.
I feel like this actually reduces tension in any potential future quests. And before anyone claims that I'm just being salty, we died to an option that had no indication of danger, nor did we have any option to avoid that danger once it became apparent. Now that I know that can happen, I figure that we may as well just go for highest-risk-highest-reward options next time, because if we can die to seemingly low-risk-unknown-reward options, what's the point of taking them?
That or just, I don't know, turtle up and don't take any risks. Which is boring, but at least we won't run into rocks-fall-everyone-dies.
Honestly, you did the right thing. The quest scene has this culture where people see social penalties or drama for failure as the only option. Having people actually die when killed is fine, even great. Now we can move on and try and do better next time instead of getting salty.
I feel like this actually reduces tension in any potential future quests. And before anyone claims that I'm just being salty, we died to an option that had no indication of danger, nor did we have any option to avoid that danger once it became apparent. Now that I know that can happen, I figure that we may as well just go for highest-risk-highest-reward options next time, because if we can die to seemingly low-risk-unknown-reward options, what's the point of taking them?
That or just, I don't know, turtle up and don't take any risks. Which is boring, but at least we won't run into rocks-fall-everyone-dies.
Just death from a completely innocous option with no interrupt is pretty screwy. I would not be surprised if we died to the dragon or got eaten diving in the dangerous waters.
But a tree we've mainly seen being a fruit supply?
Seriously? It's a cursed, gnarled ficus in an evil swamp that was the focus of a blood magic ritual. Not only has it been literally fed by the bloodthirsty, rapine leavings of a goblin horde, but the choice was explicitly to 'Bind it.' You can't bind an inanimate object. There was always some sort of spirit there and the thread voted to attack it. It fought back.
Seriously? It's a cursed, gnarled ficus in an evil swamp that was the focus of a blood magic ritual. Not only has it been literally fed by the bloodthirsty, rapine leavings of a goblin horde, but the choice was explicitly to 'Bind it.' You can't bind an inanimate object. There was always something there and the thread voted to attack it. It fought back.
I imagine there's a minor amount of salt at being outfought by a tree.
Charshel was an interesting character but his power progression in terms of what skills he could buy was such that he couldn't fight his way out of the proverbial paper bag.
(That said, flip the order of two of the rolls by the tree and he wins that combat.)
Seriously? It's a cursed, gnarled ficus in an evil swamp that was the focus of a blood magic ritual. Not only has it been literally fed by the bloodthirsty, rapine leavings of a goblin horde, but the choice was explicitly to 'Bind it.' You can't bind an inanimate object. There was always some sort of spirit there and the thread voted to attack it. It fought back.
I imagine there's a minor amount of salt at being outfought by a tree.
Charshel was an interesting character but his power progression in terms of what skills he could buy was such that he couldn't fight his way out of the proverbial paper bag.
(That said, flip the order of two of the rolls by the tree and he wins that combat.)
Technically, you got out-fought by a dryad. Literally, Arete's cast-off Divinity. After all, it's only demonic forces which truly destroy, everything else merely alters the world. Still, I take your point.
Seriously? It's a cursed, gnarled ficus in an evil swamp that was the focus of a blood magic ritual. Not only has it been literally fed by the bloodthirsty, rapine leavings of a goblin horde, but the choice was explicitly to 'Bind it.' You can't bind an inanimate object. There was always some sort of spirit there and the thread voted to attack it. It fought back.
Technically, you got out-fought by a dryad. Literally, Arete's cast-off Divinity. After all, it's only demonic forces which truly destroy, everything else merely alters the world. Still, I take your point.
It'd give an IC excuse to keep the connection to Revy (literally ate Charshell, which steals personal power and such because you are literally turning it into you), keeps a continuity between the quests, and keeps the story progressing.
You could even keep the same thread and just change the character sheet. You wouldn't even need to change the name of the title.
It'd give an IC excuse to keep the connection to Revy (literally ate Charshell, which steals personal power and such because you are literally turning it into you), keeps a continuity between the quests, and keeps the story progressing.
You could even keep the same thread and just change the character sheet. You wouldn't even need to change the name of the title.
Canonically, Charshel is still somewhat alive. After all, Revy's got that shard of his soul even if it's not really sentient. Heh, maybe I should do a few Omake titled Charshel is Halping.
Canonically, Charshel is still somewhat alive. After all, Revy's got that shard of his soul even if it's not really sentient. Heh, maybe I should do a few Omake titled Charshel is Halping.
