Dueling Fate
- Thread starter KreenWarrior
- Start date
- Pronouns
- He/It/Argh!
I don't think we need that cultivation rank up, but I might be underestimating the Hand.
I'd really like to ask Bai Ping about this.
I guess double combat training this turn would be okay (, as then we can wrestle the next croc we find).
I'm fine with a social sail, that most certainly will not involve shenanigans, with Captain Yang either this turn or next turn.
Could be nice to do it this turn as a relax.
I'd really like to ask Bai Ping about this.
I guess double combat training this turn would be okay (, as then we can wrestle the next croc we find).
I'm fine with a social sail, that most certainly will not involve shenanigans, with Captain Yang either this turn or next turn.
Could be nice to do it this turn as a relax.
Sparring is done to half of our health, so if Lind gets taken out in his first match there might not be a second.
Anyway, I think taking the sailing action is fine to take this turn as any good rewards might shift our priorities.
[X] Plan: Special Event
-[] Captain Yang has invited you back aboard his ship to sail the seas outside the sect while the port readies his supplies. All Three Actions will be used on this encounter – Rewards (???) – Available for two plans.
If a former member of the sect say the opportunity is worthwhile it probably is.
-[] Captain Yang has invited you back aboard his ship to sail the seas outside the sect while the port readies his supplies. All Three Actions will be used on this encounter – Rewards (???) – Available for two plans.
If a former member of the sect say the opportunity is worthwhile it probably is.
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Plan: Special Event
No reason not to tbh
No reason not to tbh
- Location
- Earth
[X] Plan: Special Event
- Location
- United Kingdom
[X] Plan: Special Event
Presumably we'll get some gains here, so it's better to see what they are now so we can take them into account over the two weeks afterwards.
And as far as upping our fighting style goes, I think I'd rather spend those on socials or hunting? Getting an ally to help with the hunt is worth more than another style rank, and talking to Bai beforehand makes it more likely he'd accept such a team up.
Presumably we'll get some gains here, so it's better to see what they are now so we can take them into account over the two weeks afterwards.
And as far as upping our fighting style goes, I think I'd rather spend those on socials or hunting? Getting an ally to help with the hunt is worth more than another style rank, and talking to Bai beforehand makes it more likely he'd accept such a team up.
Thanks. We rolled 8 dice and got 5 successes; you are now at 13/30 Mid Consecration.
Also addressed a bunch of lingering problems with the sheet. Should be relatively alright now, I think.
Also addressed a bunch of lingering problems with the sheet. Should be relatively alright now, I think.
DangerKitty
shoddy writter
- Location
- lala land
[X] Plan: Special Event
Ahoy mateys!
With the cultivation boost we can now actually hit mid consecration in one action using the mudpots. I think we have to roll slightly above average but it is possible!
Ahoy mateys!
With the cultivation boost we can now actually hit mid consecration in one action using the mudpots. I think we have to roll slightly above average but it is possible!
- Pronouns
- He/It/Argh!
I think we can do both. But more importantly, I think someone is going to need to finish it off in melee, and I can't see that being Bai.
[X] Plan: Special Event
WhoTheHeckity
But no one ever asks HowTheHeckity
- Location
- Murica 🦅
[X] Plan: Special Event
-[X] Captain Yang has invited you back aboard his ship to sail the seas outside the sect while the port readies his supplies. All Three Actions will be used on this encounter – Rewards (???) – Available for two plans.
-[X] Captain Yang has invited you back aboard his ship to sail the seas outside the sect while the port readies his supplies. All Three Actions will be used on this encounter – Rewards (???) – Available for two plans.
[X] Plan: Special Event
- Location
- United Kingdom
I'm more concerned about the time costs. If we can then both is good, otherwise I'd rather get the ally.
- Pronouns
- He/It/Argh!
I think we get 2 plans a week. We have 3 weeks left. So 18 actions until deadline.
Looks like we are going sailing, so that leaves 15 actions.
Getting Valiant Champion up should only take 2 actions, but likely not both in the same plan.
Socialing Bai Ping should be 1 action. Maybe 2 if we think we need more rapport before he'll help us.
Coursing River Arrow up should be 1 action.
Next cultivation rank will take 1 or 2 actions.
All that training will only take 6 actions. So we can get all that done in one week.
If that seems like too much training: the Hand attacks with 7 dice and defends with 9.
Coursing River Arrow allows us to attack with 6, but we only have 4 on melee attack. 3 (+1 automatic, effectively 5) for defence.
Bai Ping's Shadow Banishing Song attacked for 9, but while it will likely be stronger next time we see it, I'm not sure he can sustain it long.
While it looks like the Team Up bonus gives +2, we will still struggle in melee against the Hand.
Increasing Valiant Champion style should give us at least one more melee attack dice, and maybe even a defence die (as Unarmed Combat rolls on defence too). Extra defence dice helps our armour survive.
Increasing Coursing River Arrow should be +1 die for ranged attacks. Probably decent damage too.
Increasing Cultivation Rank is harder to estimate. The +1 Str/Wil could be +1 to attack dice, or +0 to spiritual defence. Then it depends on whether we get to choose a point and where we put it, but we can roughly approximate it as half a point towards either offensive or defensive rolls. Which is why I think that training the combat style is more productive.
Vote closed
Sailing Away
- Location
- Australia
Few earn the trust and privileges that employ by a sect carries. How many can be trusted with the treasures, materials, and equipment that any cultivator would crave? Even further, how many can be trusted to defend it?
You had no idea that Captain Yang was so involved with the sect until Chanying told you a couple of days ago. The man had been tight-lipped at the best of times, and you hadn't bothered to open the cargo he had been carrying. Life at sea had been exhausting. What time wasn't above deck had been down below, trying to get as much sleep or rest as possible among dozens of other sailors. Sailors that spent as much time trying to gamble away their salaries or duties as they did sleep. You'd quickly learned not to play after sitting at the table one day and spending the rest of it in the Crow's Nest nursing a queasy stomach and battling the winds.
You heft the small bag on your shoulder, passing through the town to the docks that Captain Yang told you he'd be staying at. You nod at a few of your fellows, already awake in the morning. Vijaya Paranthapa leading two other students in a series of stretches that your body baulks at the thought of attempting. You pick up a sweet bun from one of the local vendors as you pass, the scent making your stomach growl as you tear into it. Shao Suyin had been away and with the combined absences of the pair of you and Liu Zhiqiang the stew that had been eternally burning had become a charred mess on your return. Something your growling stomach had been less than pleased to see.
You scarf down the first, savouring the sugar which drips from the bread and tantalises your tongue. Sweets were not something in heavy supply in the frigid north. Meat, and whatever vegetables anyone managed to supply from down south were about the only things that existed.
You turn back and buy another five before you keep moving.
The scent of fish and sea salt begins to linger in the air as you make out a series of masts and sails looming over a bundle of wooden boxes and pallets. You step down from the paved road, feet hitting hard wood with a dull thunk. The docks are quiet, sailors sleeping below deck or those that are awake quietly milling about the top. Time on shore is treasured relaxation before hard weeks of work that lie ahead. At the far end of the dock you see two marlins gently swaying with the morning breeze as the sail flickers in the wind.
Captain Yang is seated in front of the ship, feet up on another chair as he lowers a map to stare at you when you arrive. Weather beaten, scarred skin contorts into a smile as he folds the map up and rests it on his lap. "Took you long enough!" He barks rising to his feet, coat dragging along the wooden floor of the deck.
"Thank you for the letter, honoured elder." You say, bowing, as you pull the bag from your shoulder.
"Honoured Elder eh?" The captain asks, laughing uproariously as he claps you on the back. "It's Captain Yang kid, I left the sect decades ago."
He walks onto the ship, and you follow. The Qīnghé is old. When you first stepped foot on it before you joined the sect you'd assumed the boat was all the captain had been able to afford. Now as you step off the plank and walk onto the ship for the second time you see different. The wooden floorboards weathered and cracked, the hammocks underneath fraying at the seams. Now you can tell different. The sails are new, and the wooden mast, a dark oak, is aged yet polished so you can see the shadow of your own reflection as you pass by. The Qīnghé is old, but it has been well cared for.
And as you look around, some familiar faces smile or nod in your direction.
Except one.
You see someone wearing the same robes as you, staring at you with her head cocked to the side, a pained expression marring her features.
"I didn't know you were taking another, Captain."
You think you've seen her before. Auburn hair, trailing in the wind on the day that you first arrived at the sect, and the day that The Ghost had met you when you were cycling, she had been one of those cycling with the class. Beyond that however, you don't know her at all. Her skin has the early stages of the same weathering of Captain Yang, hands littered with pale white scars. The sign of one used to dealing with scrapes and cuts.
"It's fine Qian Xia," the Captain says waving her off. "Lind, meet Xia. Xia, meet Lind."
You nod at her but she doesn't return the favour crossing her arms as her eyes narrow in the direction of the captain.
"You're happy bringing one that licks at the Emperor's heels along with you?"
The captain raises an eyebrow before peering at you. You feel the feather-weight touch of spiritual perception aimed in your direction. Under his examination his previous smile morphs into a frown before he shrugs and looks back at Xia.
"The boy's earned his keep before, what he's done since joining the sect is his business. If there's a problem, you can get off the ship." He says before he turns to you. "Same spot as last time, we'll be setting sail in a couple of hours."
You watch him leave, slamming the door to the captain's quarters leaving you and Qian Xia staring at each other, while the rest of those on deck do their best to avoid the two of you.
As you look at her scowl you remember the unfathomable expression of Senior Shirong the day you accepted The Ghost's offer. Shao Suyin had even flinched when you told of her what happened. Beyond that you'd kept to your own person, and the wilds were free of those who didn't judge you for your choices. The crocodile which had stared you down the other day didn't care how you fought, or how you cycled.
It just wanted to kill you, and you could respect that.
You bow to Qian Xia once more, then spin on your heel and head downstairs to the resting quarters, throwing your bag on the same hammock you'd rested on last time.
Or you would have if a hand didn't snatch it out of the air. The man sits up, staring at the satchel before he looks up at you.
"Lind."
The first time you'd travelled with Captain Yang someone had to show you how to tie the knots and scale the netting of the ship. That same man stares back at you, before tossing your bag onto the hammock beside him as you'd planned.
"You seem different." Sun Feng says, tipping the bottle in his other hand towards you before he takes a swig. "You've already Consecrated?"
"A little." You tell him. "I'm not complete yet."
And you had been able to tell that when you had rested yesterday. Impurities still lingering in your body, less than before, yet still blocking you, dampening your mind and spirit.
"You were a part of the sect as well?"
He laughs, deep and boisterous as he puts the bottle down. "The better question is asking how many of us weren't part of the sect before Yang got his hands on us. But yes, five long years working day in and day out, seeking my path."
You step around the bottle as you take a seat on your hammock, rocking up and down now your weight has been added to it.
You remember the first time you'd been offered the bottle on the floor, after a hard day at sea. It had tasted of a job well done. Of acceptance among the crew. There's a reason you don't drink it yet.
Not until the work is done.
"We'll be visiting a few spots known to the sect." Sun Feng says as he lays back down on the hammock and stares at the ceiling. "You'll be on the midday shift with me once we head out to sea. It'll be a skeleton crew of old sect members, those that were happy to come along anyways. If they have any advice, I'd suggest you listen. You never know what comes in handy."
You watch as Qian Xia descends the steps and is quickly swept up by one of the other crew members, taken across to the other side of the room. Before long you hear the sound of a bell, followed by the swift rising of some of the men and women who rise from below deck and take their places. Before long you feel the pull of the boat losing its anchor, swaying heavier as you finally begin to head out to sea.
"Until we get started." Sun Feng says, eyes closed. "How many things in the Sect have already tried to kill you?"
A few other members of the crew nearby sit up, as you're roped into telling them of the night of the fire and the Hand that still eludes you.
By the time you step foot on the deck the sun is harshly shining down overhead, the wooden boards are darkened from the waves crashing against the boat and Captain Yang is at the wheel, his cape billowing in the wind as he shouts orders to his men. His men which now includes you. You move over to a loose knot, deft fingers quickly tying it together. As you stand on the edge of the ship you see darkened figures lurking underneath, some almost the size of the ship, hovering there under your gaze until they disappear as quickly as you lay eyes on them.
"The river empties here!" Yang roars from the steering wheel as he sees you pause. "Everything in these waters feeds off Qi as much as you do. We've ways of dealing with such things! Now work the ropes!"
What follows is busy work, work which had run you ragged the last time you'd done it. Now that you've been at the sect you find yourself keeping pace much easier than you did before. There's no set space to be on a shift, you've been tasked to check the rope and that is what you do. Dancing through the rest of your fellow crew to check for any signs of fraying or for knots which are beginning to loosen as together you wage war on the sea. A knife in your hand to saw away at the ropes, a bundle of rope resting on your hip with layers upon layers bundled nearby.
Insight 4 + Perception 0 (Sight 1)
5d10 - 5,3,6,9,2 - One Success
As the sails start being raised, you spy another dark shadow in the water at the rear of the ship. This time it does not disappear. You continue your work and return a few moments later. It remains trailing just behind. You can't quite make out what it is, but you're being followed.
"Something's following us!" You cry out.
"Ware below!" The Captain calls out. All around you, the pace picks up. Near you, you notice that your fellow aspirant has grabbed a harpoon from the rack and is approaching the stern. What do you do?
What do you do?
[] Qian Xia has the right idea. You will grab a harpoon and seek to spear the beast before it can attack.
[] You see that one of the lines near you is fouled, preventing one of the sails from deploying properly. If you can get to it, the extra speed might pull you out of range of whatever is hunting you.
[] While not a fishing boat, you recall the crew using chum to fish on your journey. Perhaps if you can locate something to throw in the water as bait, you might distract whatever is lurking?
[] Write-in
You had no idea that Captain Yang was so involved with the sect until Chanying told you a couple of days ago. The man had been tight-lipped at the best of times, and you hadn't bothered to open the cargo he had been carrying. Life at sea had been exhausting. What time wasn't above deck had been down below, trying to get as much sleep or rest as possible among dozens of other sailors. Sailors that spent as much time trying to gamble away their salaries or duties as they did sleep. You'd quickly learned not to play after sitting at the table one day and spending the rest of it in the Crow's Nest nursing a queasy stomach and battling the winds.
You heft the small bag on your shoulder, passing through the town to the docks that Captain Yang told you he'd be staying at. You nod at a few of your fellows, already awake in the morning. Vijaya Paranthapa leading two other students in a series of stretches that your body baulks at the thought of attempting. You pick up a sweet bun from one of the local vendors as you pass, the scent making your stomach growl as you tear into it. Shao Suyin had been away and with the combined absences of the pair of you and Liu Zhiqiang the stew that had been eternally burning had become a charred mess on your return. Something your growling stomach had been less than pleased to see.
You scarf down the first, savouring the sugar which drips from the bread and tantalises your tongue. Sweets were not something in heavy supply in the frigid north. Meat, and whatever vegetables anyone managed to supply from down south were about the only things that existed.
You turn back and buy another five before you keep moving.
The scent of fish and sea salt begins to linger in the air as you make out a series of masts and sails looming over a bundle of wooden boxes and pallets. You step down from the paved road, feet hitting hard wood with a dull thunk. The docks are quiet, sailors sleeping below deck or those that are awake quietly milling about the top. Time on shore is treasured relaxation before hard weeks of work that lie ahead. At the far end of the dock you see two marlins gently swaying with the morning breeze as the sail flickers in the wind.
Captain Yang is seated in front of the ship, feet up on another chair as he lowers a map to stare at you when you arrive. Weather beaten, scarred skin contorts into a smile as he folds the map up and rests it on his lap. "Took you long enough!" He barks rising to his feet, coat dragging along the wooden floor of the deck.
"Thank you for the letter, honoured elder." You say, bowing, as you pull the bag from your shoulder.
"Honoured Elder eh?" The captain asks, laughing uproariously as he claps you on the back. "It's Captain Yang kid, I left the sect decades ago."
He walks onto the ship, and you follow. The Qīnghé is old. When you first stepped foot on it before you joined the sect you'd assumed the boat was all the captain had been able to afford. Now as you step off the plank and walk onto the ship for the second time you see different. The wooden floorboards weathered and cracked, the hammocks underneath fraying at the seams. Now you can tell different. The sails are new, and the wooden mast, a dark oak, is aged yet polished so you can see the shadow of your own reflection as you pass by. The Qīnghé is old, but it has been well cared for.
And as you look around, some familiar faces smile or nod in your direction.
Except one.
You see someone wearing the same robes as you, staring at you with her head cocked to the side, a pained expression marring her features.
"I didn't know you were taking another, Captain."
You think you've seen her before. Auburn hair, trailing in the wind on the day that you first arrived at the sect, and the day that The Ghost had met you when you were cycling, she had been one of those cycling with the class. Beyond that however, you don't know her at all. Her skin has the early stages of the same weathering of Captain Yang, hands littered with pale white scars. The sign of one used to dealing with scrapes and cuts.
"It's fine Qian Xia," the Captain says waving her off. "Lind, meet Xia. Xia, meet Lind."
You nod at her but she doesn't return the favour crossing her arms as her eyes narrow in the direction of the captain.
"You're happy bringing one that licks at the Emperor's heels along with you?"
The captain raises an eyebrow before peering at you. You feel the feather-weight touch of spiritual perception aimed in your direction. Under his examination his previous smile morphs into a frown before he shrugs and looks back at Xia.
"The boy's earned his keep before, what he's done since joining the sect is his business. If there's a problem, you can get off the ship." He says before he turns to you. "Same spot as last time, we'll be setting sail in a couple of hours."
You watch him leave, slamming the door to the captain's quarters leaving you and Qian Xia staring at each other, while the rest of those on deck do their best to avoid the two of you.
As you look at her scowl you remember the unfathomable expression of Senior Shirong the day you accepted The Ghost's offer. Shao Suyin had even flinched when you told of her what happened. Beyond that you'd kept to your own person, and the wilds were free of those who didn't judge you for your choices. The crocodile which had stared you down the other day didn't care how you fought, or how you cycled.
It just wanted to kill you, and you could respect that.
You bow to Qian Xia once more, then spin on your heel and head downstairs to the resting quarters, throwing your bag on the same hammock you'd rested on last time.
Or you would have if a hand didn't snatch it out of the air. The man sits up, staring at the satchel before he looks up at you.
"Lind."
The first time you'd travelled with Captain Yang someone had to show you how to tie the knots and scale the netting of the ship. That same man stares back at you, before tossing your bag onto the hammock beside him as you'd planned.
"You seem different." Sun Feng says, tipping the bottle in his other hand towards you before he takes a swig. "You've already Consecrated?"
"A little." You tell him. "I'm not complete yet."
And you had been able to tell that when you had rested yesterday. Impurities still lingering in your body, less than before, yet still blocking you, dampening your mind and spirit.
"You were a part of the sect as well?"
He laughs, deep and boisterous as he puts the bottle down. "The better question is asking how many of us weren't part of the sect before Yang got his hands on us. But yes, five long years working day in and day out, seeking my path."
You step around the bottle as you take a seat on your hammock, rocking up and down now your weight has been added to it.
You remember the first time you'd been offered the bottle on the floor, after a hard day at sea. It had tasted of a job well done. Of acceptance among the crew. There's a reason you don't drink it yet.
Not until the work is done.
"We'll be visiting a few spots known to the sect." Sun Feng says as he lays back down on the hammock and stares at the ceiling. "You'll be on the midday shift with me once we head out to sea. It'll be a skeleton crew of old sect members, those that were happy to come along anyways. If they have any advice, I'd suggest you listen. You never know what comes in handy."
You watch as Qian Xia descends the steps and is quickly swept up by one of the other crew members, taken across to the other side of the room. Before long you hear the sound of a bell, followed by the swift rising of some of the men and women who rise from below deck and take their places. Before long you feel the pull of the boat losing its anchor, swaying heavier as you finally begin to head out to sea.
"Until we get started." Sun Feng says, eyes closed. "How many things in the Sect have already tried to kill you?"
A few other members of the crew nearby sit up, as you're roped into telling them of the night of the fire and the Hand that still eludes you.
By the time you step foot on the deck the sun is harshly shining down overhead, the wooden boards are darkened from the waves crashing against the boat and Captain Yang is at the wheel, his cape billowing in the wind as he shouts orders to his men. His men which now includes you. You move over to a loose knot, deft fingers quickly tying it together. As you stand on the edge of the ship you see darkened figures lurking underneath, some almost the size of the ship, hovering there under your gaze until they disappear as quickly as you lay eyes on them.
"The river empties here!" Yang roars from the steering wheel as he sees you pause. "Everything in these waters feeds off Qi as much as you do. We've ways of dealing with such things! Now work the ropes!"
What follows is busy work, work which had run you ragged the last time you'd done it. Now that you've been at the sect you find yourself keeping pace much easier than you did before. There's no set space to be on a shift, you've been tasked to check the rope and that is what you do. Dancing through the rest of your fellow crew to check for any signs of fraying or for knots which are beginning to loosen as together you wage war on the sea. A knife in your hand to saw away at the ropes, a bundle of rope resting on your hip with layers upon layers bundled nearby.
Insight 4 + Perception 0 (Sight 1)
5d10 - 5,3,6,9,2 - One Success
As the sails start being raised, you spy another dark shadow in the water at the rear of the ship. This time it does not disappear. You continue your work and return a few moments later. It remains trailing just behind. You can't quite make out what it is, but you're being followed.
"Something's following us!" You cry out.
"Ware below!" The Captain calls out. All around you, the pace picks up. Near you, you notice that your fellow aspirant has grabbed a harpoon from the rack and is approaching the stern. What do you do?
What do you do?
[] Qian Xia has the right idea. You will grab a harpoon and seek to spear the beast before it can attack.
[] You see that one of the lines near you is fouled, preventing one of the sails from deploying properly. If you can get to it, the extra speed might pull you out of range of whatever is hunting you.
[] While not a fishing boat, you recall the crew using chum to fish on your journey. Perhaps if you can locate something to throw in the water as bait, you might distract whatever is lurking?
[] Write-in
Last edited:
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
@KreenWarrior @Wynter Is our ranged tech usable with harpoons or is it archery only?
- Location
- Australia
Looking at the description, I'd say you can. Good spot.
- Location
- United States
Do we need to add it to the harpoon vote or do we automatically use applicable abilities?
[X] Qian Xia has the right idea. You will grab a harpoon and seek to spear the beast before it can attack.