Remove ads

[Exalted/SMT] Shard of a Broken Sun

Reader mode
ShadowAngelBeta said:
We'll also probably need Presence to convince them to allow Amu to try. And Occult to help her understand, but that already has 4 dots and 1st excellency.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We only have two dots in occult right now??? And a mere one dot in lore.

and it would be prudent to save the science for when we find a spare reality engine
 
Baughn said:
No, but "Downtime" is just "Any period of time larger than about an hour, during which you aren't busy". There'll be more chances.


Presence, you can't upgrade without Amu's consent. It's all social skills, and personality-based.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Alright. Contrary to canon, but that's not exactly new for this quest.

I'm not comfortable letting in the knock without Amu having a social defense charm she can activate while asleep. She's willpower-tapped, which means she's vulnerable to both mind control and persuasive arguments (in Exalted, it's possible to spend WP points to reject an argument, no matter how reasonable-seeming, because fuck you. The mechanic is frequently abused, but I think it was intended for things like a demon trying to convince Amu to slaughter her family).
That it's a knock instead of a forcible intrusion is encouraging, though, so if the MegaTen-knowing people are convinced that it's someone we can safely allow to communicate with her even then, I can be convinced to vote to let them in. Also, there's a charm that lets her spend motes instead of WP(5 motes per 1 WP, I think) for social defense, but I don't remember how many dots in Integrity it requires.

Helping the charas understand the exaltation may be a good use of our time - getting them to outright trust it could lead to them being unwilling to point out and mitigate our mistakes, but they seem to think we might be outright malevolent instead of alien. Going over what purchases to offer Amu during the next downtime with the charas could be a good idea as well - it might allow us to make the purchases in a shorter period of downtime than would normally be required And I completely forgot that Miki and Su fell asleep too. Wasn't there a point where we could have turned into Dia? I don't know if that would make them more likely to accept us or horrified that we took her place or what. Well, that stuff might be relevant later, so I'll leave it there but crossed out.

We get an XP gain multiplier from our relationship with Amu. So we should probably improve that when we get opportunities. Research into her soul will probably help us know the right things to do for that when it comes up, and it might be a direct research topic.

Would accepting the dream communication damage Amu's willpower regeneration? I'm guessing we can't communicate with or observe the knocker before deciding, but if we can that'd be a good thing to do.
 
[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
- [X] Ways to make the charas more independent.

Because I have unabashedly been pursuing turning Amu into a Primordial, and if this is done right, she might actually come out of this as the Shining Answer, or the otherwise impossible Primordial of Hope. It is a thing, that Could happen, and I Want it to happen. So very much.

[X] Let them in. Potentially risky.

If something can reach Amu's mind behind all these wards, and is actually being Polite about trying to speak to us, I see no reason not to answer. Especially since, if it Was hostile, there's really not anything we could do to prefer to it from barging in if it wanted in.
 
Yup. Craft isn't favored, and we don't have the three weeks it would normally take to get the first dot anyway. Occult and Lore are far more important, as are social skills or combative skills.

It seems like the Charas' Attributes are Amu's + bonuses in the skills and attributes they give bonuses to... and their reduction is only to physical abilities.

Things I can see researching as far as Amu's soul:
- [ ] Ways to make the charas more independent.
* Ways to allow the Charas to rest without their 'eggs'? If this isn't covered by DAP
* Permanency of DAP
* Giving Charas access to Amu's Charms they have the required Ability for
- [ ] Ways to improve the chara/Amu combinations.
* Efficiency of Chara Change willpower consumption, possibly letting motes be used instead
* Ease of Ability/Attribute transfer to core-Amu
* Automatic waiving of partial combination Willpower cost ("auto-success" on Virtue roll)
- [ ] Write-in
* Easier communication with Amu and the Charas, based on the Shard's apparently high "Clarity" (dangit Autochthon)

The world around us could give clues to the upcoming events or more effective applications of Occult/Lore charms. Possibly unlock some equivalent to Thaumaturgy (for non-Exalted players: basically, magic that uses the existing properties of the world and doesn't require any particularly special personal power aside from knowledge - of particular note, Geomancy).

Beam Attack... well, we can probably get ahold of some daggers or something, so unless it's super-exceptional as far as weapons go I wouldn't rely on it as-is. On the other hand, spending motes on it would basically be a (lower-grade/cheaper?) version of Spirit Weapons, so I could see this either way.
 
Cornix Argentus said:
Of the three forces in SMT I can think of that are known for entering a person's mind, two of them are fairly benevolent and at least won't mess around in someone's head without their express permission. The other one, not someone you'd want in your head, and is pretty good at taking on other forms. Personally, I'd say not to let them in, on the reasoning that if it is Igor or his boss, they'll understand why we wouldn't let anyone in under these circumstances. And they could try again tomorrow when Amu isn't mentally exhausted.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Is the hostile dream-communicator able to force their way into dreams?
 
Quantumboost said:
- [ ] Ways to improve the chara/Amu combinations.
* Efficiency of Chara Change willpower consumption, possibly letting motes be used instead
* Ease of Ability/Attribute transfer to core-Amu
* Automatic waiving of partial combination Willpower cost ("auto-success" on Virtue roll)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Also - more than 1 in combo.
 
Quantumboost said:
Yup. Craft isn't favored, and we don't have the three weeks it would normally take to get the first dot anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, Su and Miki have some crafts as favored by they nature...

Miki have Wood and Air, but probably can dip into Water, Magitech, Genesis and even Reality
Su have Water, but probably can do Wood, Air, Earth, Magitech and Genesis
...
None fit Fire sadly. Or maybe both - Miki through moderntech, Su through making of household appliances.

PS. I would ROFL if it would be Su who would learn Craft (Reality)... Because Reality is Home, just BIIIIG.
 
Quantumboost said:
Possibly unlock some equivalent to Thaumaturgy (for non-Exalted players: basically, magic that uses the existing properties of the world and doesn't require any particularly special personal power aside from knowledge - of particular note, Geomancy).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Pretty sure we already have that. It's called "science".
 
al103 said:
Well, Su and Miki have some crafts as favored by they nature...

Miki have Wood and Air, but probably can dip into Water, Magitech, Genesis and even Reality
Su have Water, but probably can do Wood, Air, Earth, Magitech and Genesis
...
None fit Metal sadly. Or maybe both - Miki through moderntech, Su through making of household appliances.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Metal isn't one of them. I think you mean Fire?

I could see Miki favoring Craft (Fire) in applications of decorative ironwork or possibly swordmaking - both are a form of artwork (the latter is only allowed in Japan as artwork, if I recall, due to WW2 concessions). Unsure if that's too much of a stretch. Most of it seems a bit of a stretch though.

But yeah, unless Baughn is houseruling Craft (which there's been no word on or discussion of previously), the first dot of any Ability, including the individual Craft skills, is going to take 3 weeks and 3 experience to learn - whether or not it's favored. Which means Fire, Earth, Magitech, Genesis, and Reality are all out of our near reach. And Exotic Crafts are just not that useful without months of downtime.
PS. I would ROFL if it would be Su who would learn Craft (Reality)... Because Reality is Home, just BIIIIG.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Heehee.
tq343 said:
Pretty sure we already have that. It's called "science".
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Bingo. Science advanced enough to give you cybernetics, longevity cocktails, enlightenment cocaine, and distilled supergold.

And an understanding of dragon lines good enough to build a house that reinforces the local reality.
 
[X] Look into methods of reducing the willpower cost of Amu's beam attack.
[X] Let them in. Potentially risky.

While the other items are no less important, Amu currently has no attacks which won't drain her dry in the process. We need to fix that, a Dawn shouldn't be out after a few shots like that.

As for the other, best to let them in and see what the hell they're on about than to have them slip around us later somehow.
 
An SMT quest. looks intreasting

[X] Look into methods of reducing the willpower cost of Amu's beam attack.
[X] Let them in. Potentially risky.
 
While the other items are no less important, Amu currently has no attacks which won't drain her dry in the process. We need to fix that, a Dawn shouldn't be out after a few shots like that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There's multiple ways to deal with that problem, each with their own opportunity costs. We could convince her to carry weapons, which would be kind of hard until the world actually ends and might damage our relationship, but be otherwise free. We could teach her some scene-length or otherwise mote-efficient Charms (hopefully the looser adherence to the rules will help with the problems I hear Solar Hero Style's canonical versions suffer from, otherwise we might need to go with an essence weapon Charm), which costs xp and has to wait until downtime. Or we could go with yours, which eats into our research time. Personally, I'd prefer to research things relevant to her interests and let the shift from magical girl to warrior happen at its own pace, but I'm an idealist.
As for the other, best to let them in and see what the hell they're on about than to have them slip around us later somehow.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Amu is in an unusually bad position to resist if the knocker is malevolent in some way right now - if we manage to deal with the issue of her friendship lasers being too expensive quickly enough, the next night might be better. Then again, it could be friendly.

How likely are the known factions of dream-communicators to know about Amu right now? How likely is it that the Japanese MIB here have the capability? If it's the JP, they could just be trying to do the debriefing without waking Amu up.
 
Winged One said:
There's multiple ways to deal with that problem, each with their own opportunity costs. We could convince her to carry weapons, which would be kind of hard until the world actually ends and might damage our relationship, but be otherwise free. We could teach her some scene-length or otherwise mote-efficient Charms (hopefully the looser adherence to the rules will help with the problems I hear Solar Hero Style's canonical versions suffer from, otherwise we might need to go with an essence weapon Charm), which costs xp and has to wait until downtime. Or we could go with yours, which eats into our research time. Personally, I'd prefer to research things relevant to her interests and let the shift from magical girl to warrior happen at its own pace, but I'm an idealist.


Amu is in an unusually bad position to resist if the knocker is malevolent in some way right now - if we manage to deal with the issue of her friendship lasers being too expensive quickly enough, the next night might be better. Then again, it could be friendly.

How likely are the known factions of dream-communicators to know about Amu right now? How likely is it that the Japanese MIB here have the capability? If it's the JP, they could just be trying to do the debriefing without waking Amu up.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There aren't really a lot of "Dream communicators" in megaten, and most of them are benign, save for Nyarlahotep, and he wouldn't Knock
 
Alectai said:
There aren't really a lot of "Dream communicators" in megaten, and most of them are benign, save for Nyarlahotep, and he wouldn't Knock
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh, it was Nyarlathotep they were talking about? How often does he impersonate the nicer ones? EDIT: Also, is there a more technical or setting-specific term for them?
 
Putting that aside, there are some things I have consistently noticed.

A) Something about the Exaltation feels Off to Amu, something Wrong, and it's inclining her to naturally look worse on us then it normally would. If something feels "Off", then it's usually not something proper.
B) Amu's Beams seem to Disrupt the world when augmented with our power. Joint-Wounding Technique should Not be doing that.
C) Something happened to Ran as well from close exposure, and something "Very bad" would have happened if Amu fully passed out without de-transforming.

These all Smack that we're missing something, and our integration isn't as clean as we would like. We can't afford to let this state of affairs go on, the Exaltation is not supposed to harm the host, Ever, if it's happening incidentally, then it's because we've missed something important.

- [X] Write-in (Read between the lines, and you may be able to find hidden options.)
-- [X] There is sufficient circumstantial evidence that our presence is causing negative side effects. The results of a single battle should not have been this taxing, even with the usage of a technique like the heart-beam--which also should not have caused the ripples in reality that it did... Finally, simply observing the Demon should not have opened an avenue for it to observe Amu in turn, there are Rules here it seemed that interacted in a negative fashion with your own. Conduct a careful study of the nature of the world as it interacts with Amu, and devise means to reduce the friction. (TL;DR, we're observing the world, but we're focusing on the metaphysics and structure as it interacts with our host, so we can try to avoid breaking something)


[X] Let them in. Potentially risky.
 
[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
- [X] Write-in (Read between the lines, and you may be able to find hidden options.)
-- [X] There is sufficient circumstantial evidence that our presence is causing negative side effects. The results of a single battle should not have been this taxing, even with the usage of a technique like the heart-beam--which also should not have caused the ripples in reality that it did... Finally, simply observing the Demon should not have opened an avenue for it to observe Amu in turn, there are Rules here it seemed that interacted in a negative fashion with your own. Conduct a careful study of the nature of the world as it interacts with Amu, and devise means to reduce the friction.
- [X] Look into methods of reducing the willpower cost of Amu's beam attack.

[X] Let them in. Potentially risky.

Okay, yeah, that's... pretty apparent now, looking back on things. Very worrisome as well.
 
[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
- [X] Write-in (Read between the lines, and you may be able to find hidden options.)
-- [X] There is sufficient circumstantial evidence that our presence is causing negative side effects. The results of a single battle should not have been this taxing, even with the usage of a technique like the heart-beam--which also should not have caused the ripples in reality that it did... Finally, simply observing the Demon should not have opened an avenue for it to observe Amu in turn, there are Rules here it seemed that interacted in a negative fashion with your own. Conduct a careful study of the nature of the world as it interacts with Amu, and devise means to reduce the friction.

[X] Let them in. Potentially risky.
 
Alectai said:
- [X] Write-in (Read between the lines, and you may be able to find hidden options.)
-- [X] There is sufficient circumstantial evidence that our presence is causing negative side effects. The results of a single battle should not have been this taxing, even with the usage of a technique like the heart-beam--which also should not have caused the ripples in reality that it did... Finally, simply observing the Demon should not have opened an avenue for it to observe Amu in turn, there are Rules here it seemed that interacted in a negative fashion with your own. Conduct a careful study of the nature of the world as it interacts with Amu, and devise means to reduce the friction. (TL;DR, we're observing the world, but we're focusing on the metaphysics and structure as it interacts with our host, so we can try to avoid breaking something)


[X] Let them in. Potentially risky.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This.
 
Alright, so the consensus among the MegaTen people is that it's fine if it's not Nyarlathotep, and it's not the sort of thing Nyarlathotep would do, then?

Good catch on the possibility that we might be harming Amu by accident, Alectai. We need to deal with that now. And if we're wrong, we're likely to learn some things anyway, and be able to state with authority that we're not harming her (apart from the giant target on her forehead, but hey).

[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
- [X] There is sufficient circumstantial evidence that our presence is causing negative side effects. The results of a single battle should not have been this taxing, even with the usage of a technique like the heart-beam--which also should not have caused the ripples in reality that it did... Finally, simply observing the Demon should not have opened an avenue for it to observe Amu in turn, there are Rules here it seemed that interacted in a negative fashion with your own. Conduct a careful study of the nature of the world as it interacts with Amu, and devise means to reduce the friction. (TL;DR, we're observing the world, but we're focusing on the metaphysics and structure as it interacts with our host, so we can try to avoid breaking something)

Then:
- [X] Mind/Body interactions. (No immediate results save for information.)
--[x]This multiple laws of physics thing is disturbing. Could it be exploited by an enemy? If so, how can we prevent that?

[X] Let them in. Potentially risky.​
-[X]If possible, do so in a way that will let you, the charas, and/or Amu wake Amu up or expel the visitor if that becomes necessary or desired. Caution, but not paranoia.​
 
Alectai said:
Putting that aside, there are some things I have consistently noticed.

A) Something about the Exaltation feels Off to Amu, something Wrong, and it's inclining her to naturally look worse on us then it normally would. If something feels "Off", then it's usually not something proper.
B) Amu's Beams seem to Disrupt the world when augmented with our power. Joint-Wounding Technique should Not be doing that.
C) Something happened to Ran as well from close exposure, and something "Very bad" would have happened if Amu fully passed out without de-transforming.

These all Smack that we're missing something, and our integration isn't as clean as we would like. We can't afford to let this state of affairs go on, the Exaltation is not supposed to harm the host, Ever, if it's happening incidentally, then it's because we've missed something important.

- [X] Write-in (Read between the lines, and you may be able to find hidden options.)
-- [X] There is sufficient circumstantial evidence that our presence is causing negative side effects. The results of a single battle should not have been this taxing, even with the usage of a technique like the heart-beam--which also should not have caused the ripples in reality that it did... Finally, simply observing the Demon should not have opened an avenue for it to observe Amu in turn, there are Rules here it seemed that interacted in a negative fashion with your own. Conduct a careful study of the nature of the world as it interacts with Amu, and devise means to reduce the friction. (TL;DR, we're observing the world, but we're focusing on the metaphysics and structure as it interacts with our host, so we can try to avoid breaking something)


[X] Let them in. Potentially risky.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
yaaa this
 
[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
- [X] Write-in (Read between the lines, and you may be able to find hidden options.)
-- [X] There is sufficient circumstantial evidence that our presence is causing negative side effects. The results of a single battle should not have been this taxing, even with the usage of a technique like the heart-beam--which also should not have caused the ripples in reality that it did... Finally, simply observing the Demon should not have opened an avenue for it to observe Amu in turn, there are Rules here it seemed that interacted in a negative fashion with your own. Conduct a careful study of the nature of the world as it interacts with Amu, and devise means to reduce the friction.

[X] Let them in. Potentially risky.
 
Alectai said:
Putting that aside, there are some things I have consistently noticed.

A) Something about the Exaltation feels Off to Amu, something Wrong, and it's inclining her to naturally look worse on us then it normally would. If something feels "Off", then it's usually not something proper.
B) Amu's Beams seem to Disrupt the world when augmented with our power. Joint-Wounding Technique should Not be doing that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I've actually explained why, OOC...

Well, maybe not. Calling that an "explanation" might be a bit of an exaggeration. Hmm... it would be possible for you to figure it out, but perhaps only by understanding my usual themes better. Never mind.
C) Something happened to Ran as well from close exposure, and something "Very bad" would have happened if Amu fully passed out without de-transforming.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This one, I feel okay with just telling you, mainly because I already have. It has nothing to do with her exaltation.

Maintaining the transformation costs willpower. If she doesn't have temporary willpower, it costs "permanent" willpower. Dissolving it, however, requires a conscious act on her part.

Dropping all the way to zero is not precisely healthy, and would at least have knocked her into a coma for several days. The effects on Ran would also be unfortunate.
- [X] There is sufficient circumstantial evidence that our presence is causing negative side effects. The results of a single battle should not have been this taxing, even with the usage of a technique like the heart-beam--which also should not have caused the ripples in reality that it did... Finally, simply observing the Demon should not have opened an avenue for it to observe Amu in turn, there are Rules here it seemed that interacted in a negative fashion with your own. Conduct a careful study of the nature of the world as it interacts with Amu, and devise means to reduce the friction. (TL;DR, we're observing the world, but we're focusing on the metaphysics and structure as it interacts with our host, so we can try to avoid breaking something)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
However, figuring out the cause of this one will only take a few minutes, while solving it is very much a long-term project. In this case, you may pick another as well. Or not, if you'd prefer to get started right away.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top