[X] Play Ball with Scott
[X] Help Meria
[X] Look for something new
@Lost Star is "Help Meria" a valid action, or will an opportunity to help be initiated by her?
Btw, y'all, 200 gossamer gives us the cap amount of +10 cohesion & +10 phantasm that our hoard abilities can grant w/ our current wonder. Looking for something new is one of the best ways to acquire new wonder.
[X] Nap and use Dream of Wonder (A nightmare of glowing eyes)
[X] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[X] Look for special dreams
[X] Hunt for your rivals
-[X] The living fire
@Lost Star does the 150 gossamer we gained this month include the bonus from the ring ?
Just read the recent story post. That was delicious.
[X] Nap and use Dream of Wonder (A nightmare of glowing eyes)
[X] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[X] Look for special dreams
[X] Hunt for your rivals
-[X] The living fire
[] Nap and use Dream of Wonder (A nightmare of glowing eyes)
[] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[] Look for special dreams
[] Hunt for your rivals
-[] The living fire
I would prefer a combination of these current plans, as well as a description of how those plans relate to future plans.
[] Nap and use Dream of Wonder (Stardust Wings)
- We're probably going to be stocking up a lot of upgrades before grafting them this time, so the first one we pick doesn't matter very much, but if we do need to do an 'emergency' graft, this is the most likely thing we'd need to graft.
[] Help Meria
- Better do this sooner rather than later, so we can learn how it might effect the dream realm and plan around it.
[] Hunt for your rivals
-[] The nightmare of burning alive
- I'd prefer exploration, but this rival isn't going to magically stop hating us, and is likely to interrupt exploration once he makes another ability for piercing our defenses. He could be making his own version of Cruel Claw, for instance (like "Burn Scar" or "Hellfire").
[X] Nap and use Dream of Wonder (Stardust Wings)
[X] Help Meria
[X] Hunt for your rivals
-[X] The nightmare of burning alive
For those who haven't already; I would recommend looking at the stats page; Lost Star has done some reformatting work, as well as added a bit more information.
Edit: Used tally program workaround for interspersing vote and text.
thought for later: once we're better known and liked among the dream denizens, run for election as mayor of the city and then nom down on the delicious campaign contributions. Which also gets us "experience" when running for election as the next DreamCatcher
Plan: Korkator
[X] Nap and use Dream of Wonder (Stardust Wings)
[X] Help Meria
[X] Hunt for your rivals
-[X] The nightmare of burning alive
This plan, I like this plan. It hits everything I basically want covered right now too, though glut of options we've got is large enough that there will likely always be something else. Still, after this, I plan to vote for more Bounty Hunting...
[X] Nap and use Dream of Wonder (Stardust Wings)
[X] Help Meria
Meria did sculptures. John did drawings. They didn't quite interlap, but if you worked at it a bit, you could. The week was filled with dreams and visions of stardust and flapping wings. John drew what he saw, and the girl parlayed that into something else. They did most of the work at the cafe or a small workshop that Meria had as a student.
The product was going to be something like a series of wings winding together up into the sky. It was a bit abstract, but the way John had taken the time to draw what he had started to dream had given Meria a bit of inspiration. They fashioned a sculpture and John got first hand experience in working on a 3d object. It was a small piece ultimately, mostly a knicknack, but good experience and proof that they could work together.
It was actually a surprisingly fun experience too. Meria was pleasant to work with. She hummed occasionally and didn't mind showing John how she did certain things. They both preferred to work quietly, and she did enjoy the sketches of various things that John had. Most of it was vaguely dream inspired, but the man had tried not to mix it up with real life just in case.
Lately the stuff had verged into rather dreamy and floaty honestly. John's changing mindset had been sort of shifting, and he hadn't realized until he had looked through his old sketches. Working on a solid project grounded what he could do in reality and outside it. There was a very big different from doing something possible in the dream and reality. Some ideas just didn't work as a sculpture.
There was a bit of fun in trying to puzzle out some things anyway. Meria and him had spent most of a day trying to figure out how to make a scene with clouds work without having everything fall apart. In the end they'd had to decide to add a tree to the entire part and then use that as a brace. The mock up of that particular sculpture had looked rather good too.
By the end of the week, the two had a lot of different ideas. Pleasant and whimsical ideas in some areas, terrifying and grim in other areas. Meria liked a lot of skulls and occult symbols, and John didn't mind drawing them when he got ideas about what she wanted. Though playing with bright red paint had made one particular mockup look like a bloodbath, litterally.
Meria had seemed to enjoy the work, and the wing sculpture was hopefully going to sell. To whom and for how much was a bit up in the air to be honest. John wasn't involved in those ideas, but he was going to get half the money if it did. Hopefully it would provide a solid source of income for the girl at least. Something like art was very hard to make a living off of if you weren't famous.
[X] Hunt for your rivals
-[X] The nightmare of burning alive
Finding one of the his rivals was actually easier than he had thought it would have been. Admittedly that was because he was faster than a lot of the things in the dream now. He soared over the dreams with such speed that he could overtake practically anything. He wanted this enemy too. For vengeance mostly. He wasn't one to allow a slight to go against him. The dragon might have been fake, but he still had pride.
The nightmare of burning alive left embers in it's wake. Little bits of fire. The dragon followed them, and found it gathering another boogeyman into itself. Why it did this, the dragon didn't know. He didn't care.
He just soared directly at it, and blasted through it's cage of fire. He inhaled and breathed dreamstuff and stars, and the vision of burning fire flickered as he massacred the boogeymen inside.
For a moment it looked like one reignited, but then he tore it apart with his teeth and swallowed it down. It sizzled and hissed and he laughed breathily.
The enemy wanted to flee. He could feel that in his center. It couldn't though. He was too fast. His wings were too wide. It sent out a lance of fire that brushed against his scales and did little.
In reply, he clawed in in half. The flickering fire that was it's head seemed ready to fight more, but his teeth flashed down again.
Today he was the nightmare. For just a moment he could feel the dreamer's fear and terror, and then bit once more. And swallowed down.
The fire wasn't even spicy. Just a hint of pain and fear. A meal based out of his rivals dream form.
The dragon spent a moment to look at the slowly dying fire around him. It hadn't even been a contest had it? For a moment he felt just a hint of pity, but then he crushed it. This was a being that had wanted to leash nightmares to inflict them on other people.
A good scare in turn was perfectly in line. The dragon huffed, and ignored how he shot a bit of fire. A momentary bit of heartburn, nothing more.
Living Fire
Phantasm: 5
Speed: 5
Cohesion: 50
Nightmare Affinity - Has a pet Boogeyman lv 5
-Has two
Death by Fire - Enemies cannot escape until cohesion half or less.
-Enemies take 1 damage a round while this is active.
Obscuring fire - Boogeyman allies must be targeted before the fire if possible. You take damage equal to their HP minus your wonder when they die.
Reignite - Revives a single Boogeyman.
Boogyman x2
Phantasm: 7
Speed: 7
Cohesion: 10
Jumpscare - The Boogyman deals +½ damage on it's first attack. (Rounded down)
Begin
Dragon uses breath. Boogymans dead. Burn down to 40
Reignite used. Boogyman alive.
Dragon kills Boogyman with teeth. Dragon deals damage to Living Fire. Living Fire down to 24
Living fire deals 4. Dragon at 26.
Dragon deals 16 damage. Living Fire down to 8. Teeth activate again.
AN: Not fond of this chapter, but you really pwned that one.
21 days till tribute.
You have 300 Gossamer.
You have a dream of stardust wings.
Vacation Time! You have two weeks where you don't have to work! You may do Evening actions twice.
Daytime Action
[] Patrol the campus. (You're a security guard for the local college. Your contract doesn't really need you to patrol, but it gets you out of the place.)
[] Nap and use Dream of Wonder (Which upgrade?)
[] Watch the Monitors (Talk with Harold)
[] Play Ball with Scott
Evening Action
[] Hit the local library
[] Hit the local cafe
[] Hit the local bar
[] Go home (Use night action twice)
[] Socialize with someone
Night Action
[] Hunt for Gossamer (Specify a number from 1-7. 1 easy, 7 hardest)
[] Hunt for your rivals
[] Look for something new
[] Visit the dream city and do ____
I LIKEZ IT!
the battle went as expected. we are a dragon, dragons are all about personal power, we went against the minion master after we got ourselves an ability to get rid of the riff-raff, really, it was a very bad matchup for ol' smoky, and i must say, THE REVENGE TASTES SWEET!!!
[X] Hit up the local bar
[X] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[X] Look for something new
[X] Look for something new x2
[X] Graft
-[X] Phantasm 6 -> 10
-[X] Stardust Wings
Edit: Explanation - Look for something new x 2 because WONDER IS REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT AND HARD TO GET
Plus we literally have like 300 gossamer right now, the benefit of which capped out at 200, so we don't need more, might as well spend it, and are not going to spend enough to bottom out.
is this a valid vote?
Can we still use Dream of Wonder or nah?
Lost Star, plz add a section listing graft-able dreams to one of the informational tabs on the front page.
The dragon spent a moment to look at the slowly dying fire around him. It hadn't even been a contest had it? For a moment he felt just a hint of pity, but then he crushed it. This was a being that had wanted to leash nightmares to inflict them on other people.
Needless feuding is still sad, though. There was probably a way to avoid making this person more miserable than they already are, but they made an enemy of themselves, and that's tricky to undo. If we roll our Path of Wisdom upgrades with the coming exploration actions, and get one that can facilitate talking things out, we might have a chance at fixing this before it gets worse.
Imagine; they could get so worked up about us that they throw their life into upgrading their dream form, but in the process die due to lack of self-care, turning their dream-form and the remains of their self into a strong Living Nightmare specifically bent on killing us. A worst-case scenario, but you don't survive to old age by ignoring those.
[...]
[X] Graft
-[X] Phantasm 6 -> 10
-[X] Stardust Wings
[...]
Plus we literally have like 300 gossamer right now, the benefit of which capped out at 200, so we don't need more, might as well spend it, and are not going to spend enough to bottom out.
[...]
Even if Grafting is a free action now, I would prefer we wait until we have enough Gossamer to keep the full Hoard bonus even after tribute; about 350-380 gossamer. (If Grafting isn't a free action, then spending an action per upgrade is horrible action economy, especially when we can afford to wait until we've built up 3-4 special dreams first.)
[] Hit the local cafe
- I don't understand all the differences between library/cafe/bar actions, and so have picked randomly, but I would like to replace this with an action that gets John more physical activity; all the obvious options involve sitting around somewhere (instead of, for instance, helping someone out with normally frantic holiday work).
[] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[] Look for something new
[] Look for something new
- We can finally afford these kinds of actions with unknown but better long-term payoff. Partly for more Wonder, as Umi-san mentions, but mostly for setting details, unlocking our Mystery Boxes, and finding more.
[X] Hit the local cafe
[X] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[X] Look for something new
[X] Look for something new
[X] Graft
-[X] Cohesion 20 -> 30
-[X] Stardust Wings
Edit: Added a Graft action, since Lost Star is letting the mistake slide this time. Chose Cohesion instead of Phantasm in case of abilities that say "If this denizen's Cohesion is twice your Cohesion, you can't attack."
- I don't understand all the differences between library/cafe/bar actions, and so have picked randomly, but I would like to replace this with an action that gets John more physical activity; all the obvious options involve sitting around somewhere (instead of, for instance, helping someone out with normally frantic holiday work).
I understand your reasoning, however:
a) there are still 2-3 weeks until tribute
b) we get 2-3 actions next week to build up gossamer
c) having more phantasm will give us more ability to gain gossamer, i.e. we will be less endangered at lower levels, more likely to win w/o heavy damage
[X] Hit up the local bar
[X] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[X] Look for something new
[X] Look for something new x2
[X] Graft
-[X] Phantasm 6 -> 10
-[X] Stardust Wings
[X] Hit up the local bar
[X] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[X] Look for something new
[X] Look for something new x2
[X] Graft
-[X] Phantasm 6 -> 10
-[X] Stardust Wings
[X] Hit up the local bar
[X] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[X] Look for something new
[X] Look for something new x2
[X] Graft
-[X] Phantasm 6 -> 10
-[X] Stardust Wings
[X] Hit up the local bar
[X] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[X] Look for something new
[X] Look for something new x2
[X] Graft
-[X] Phantasm 6 -> 10
-[X] Stardust Wings
[X] Hit up the local bar
[X] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[X] Look for something new
[X] Look for something new x2
[X] Graft
-[X] Phantasm 6 -> 10
-[X] Stardust Wings
Christmas vacation had the bar nearly empty. It wasn't that big a deal to John, but it did make it rather boring to do anything there. He ended up speaking with the bartender there mostly. The man was sort of like him. Didn't go to college, and had instead landed a decent job after high school.
Unfortunately as far as things to do, this particular place wasn't good at this time. Especially in the mornings. John ended up simply using the walk as exercise and heading back to deal with his dream form.
[X] Go home (Use night action twice)
-[X] Look for something new
[X] Look for something new x2
[X] Graft
-[X] Phantasm 6 -> 10
-[X] Stardust Wings
This time, the question was how deep could the dragon go. Through the dreams and nightmares of the present and then down through the deeper things. To the lingering dreams of ages long since past and beyond them. What would he see? What would exist there, deep, deep in the dream?
The very first notable thing he saw was a moon. Not hanging in the night sky, but instead looming impossibly large. So close and there that he could land on it.
He did, for a time, before strange things started to attempt to attack them. Moon people? Something of the sort. Creatures that were part of the dream of the moon. The abstract notion of aliens on the moon. Ultimately they were of little consequence. He could banish them away with a flick of his talon. Instead the dragon moved on, lacking any reason to investigate more.
Deeper he went. He found a nightmare of focused suffering. A genocide. Sadly, not an uncommon nightmare.
This one was fields of bodies and a conglomeration of nightmares wound together like the corpses in the pit. Blood and rot flooded the ground. The dragon moved on after a moment. There was nothing new there sadly. Humans were monsters to each other far more than you'd think.
The next dream he found was actually rather amusing. It was a dream of gold. Mountains of golden coins flowing down like a waterfall. People were diving into the pile and throwing the coins up into the air. More were grabbing from the pile and running back. Some to families, some to other places. A network of old dreams. The dragon poked around a bit, and finally identified it as something likely caused by a gold rush.
You could spend ages trying to trace history through the dreams, the dragon realized. If you were careful and knew what to look for, you could likely find things from centuries before.
He went deeper though. These were interesting, but not exactly new. He didn't quite know what he was looking for, but he was looking for something.
Then he fell into a room. There was no other word to describe it. At one point he was diving into the dream, and at the next he was thudding into a wooden floor with a surprisingly loud sound. More, he felt it like he had never felt anything else.
He had a moment of disorientation. The dragon shook his head and looked himself over, craning his head this way and that. He shouldn't have been able feel like this. He could feel himself breathing. His muscles twitching and moving. The dragon was a false form, but right now it felt real and as natural as his true body did. Which was frankly incredibly alarming.
"Oh, a visitor. I so rarely get one!" The pleasant male voice made the dragon whip around to look at the place.
He blinked a few times. He was on a wooden platform. Below him were stars stretching endlessly. Above him was a normal looking ceiling, pleasantly lit by a lamp hanging from the center of it. What wasn't pleasant was how it stretched endlessly to the sides. There was a round table with a few chairs around it. Atop it was a rather normal looking candle burning merrily. The fire was dancing atop the wick. As in literally dancing. There was a little figure doing a ballet made out of flame. A few comfortable looking couches dotted the floor, and a large staircase led up the platform to three doors.
The one who had spoke was a generic looking man. Very generic. Short brown hair, eyeglasses, and a pleasent looking vest and shirt combo. He seemed have been reading a book, which he had put down at his side.
"Let me make some tea for you. I wouldn't want to be a poor host." The man got to his feet and moved to the stairs. "Please, have a seat. Well, as best you can. You're a bit big for the chairs." With that statement he moved up them and went in one of the doors before the dragon could get a word edgewise.
Lacking information, or a better option, the dragon moved to the table and settled back on his haunches. He watched the candle do it's little dance for a moment, and the glanced over the room. Nothing had changed. Nothing had shifted. This was a dream, but as dreams went it was far, far to real.
The man came back with a tea set and walked down the stairs gracefully. He set the platter atop the table with a good amount of cheer and poured the dragon a cup. It steamed gently. "On of my favorite. Memories of British tea on a cold and dreary day. Please enjoy."
Warily, the dragon clumsily moved around. He had made the front paws capable of manipulation, but it wasn't particularly fine. He took a sip and found the taste something warm and relaxing. The taste was impossible to describe.
"Now, I'm sure you have so many questions!" The man stated cheerfully. "Unfortunately I can't tell you any of the answers!" Even as he spoke he was grinning.
"Well, that's reassuring." The dragon stated dryly.
"Sorry, those are the rules." The man waggled a finger. "What I can do is offer you a bit of advice. Ask me three questions about yourself or your situation and I will answer them." He shrugged and sipped at his tea.
