That's where the long-range archery arts com into play. Unlike with a normal arrow or a mid-range art, they make the arrow speed so fast that the arget is essentially stationary, or they allow you to shoot homing arrows. So the qi is never wasted on shots that miss without a clash or because of a heavily penalized clash.
The limitation you are looking for would be that, as Ling Qi was taught, they require long-range perception arts to perceive and lock onto the target, which would probably have extra qi cost.
I also think that as the level increases, the qi cost must go seriously up. You cannot really justify a light-speed arrow shot from some kilometers away to do the same damage for the same qi that a sword strike at close quarters.
Not just perception arts, but both a long range art to even be able to send arrows miles+ away and a perception art to negate the heavy penalty you would get from doing so. Also, yeah, obviously it would still cost more for the same damage, so melee would have much higher damage.
All three of those advantages are the same advantage: the archer can attack from range. In order for an attack at range to be viable at all the archer needs to have picked up a ranged archery art. If a guy with a sword wants to attack from range, he can pick up a ranged attack art (i.e. Ji Rong's hadoken). He then enjoys all three of the advantages you describe. If the short ranged archery art is equal to the sword art and the long ranged archery art is equal to the long range art, both the archer and the sword + hadoken (or whatever) guy will be on a level playing field.
The balance isn't "archery vs. sword." It's "short range tech + long range tech vs. short range tech + long range tech."
In reality the arts will not be identical but as long as they're roughly equivalent there's no game balance issues. If the sword guy wants to pass up on the fireball and double down on sword arts, then he will be better in melee than the archer. This won't be because archery is inherently weaker on an art for art basis, but because he's more focused on melee. He will then suffer from the disadvantage of not being able to attack at range, but again it isn't a game balance issue: it's a choice made in his build.
Archery that is done without a short range enabling archery art should indeed be weaker in close range than a melee art. But an archer picking up a single tech that allows him to fight at parity with a single tech sword fighter is no more OP than a sword fighter with a single long range tech that hits as hard as a single tech archer.
It's probably easier to stack multiple melee arts than it is to stack multiple short range archery arts, but as I said I think that is balanced by the fact that the archer is single-weapon dependent.
Different weapons have different strength and weaknesses, and those strenghts and weaknesses are reflected in the arts you can use with them, as the arts are there to magnify those.
Like a melee weapon needs a melee art to be powerful, a ranged weapon needs a range art to be powerful.... but a ranged art with a melee weapon will be less suited than a ranged art with a ranged weapon, and a melee art with a ranged weapon less suited than a melee art with a melee weapon. That lack of suitability will be reflected in its potency.
"Cultivator magic" doesn't actually change this as its not about negating suitability, but enhancing it. While you can cheat to some degree, the effort needed for such cheating would replace the effort needed to make the suitability even better.
Different weapons have different strength and weaknesses, and those strenghts and weaknesses are reflected in the arts you can use with them, as the arts are there to magnify those.
Like a melee weapon needs a melee art to be powerful, a ranged weapon needs a range art to be useful.... but a ranged art with a melee weapon will be less suited than a ranged art with a ranged weapon, and a melee art with a ranged weapon less suited than a melee art with a melee weapon. That lack of suitability will be reflected in its potency.
"Cultivator magic" doesn't actually change this as its not about negating suitability, but enhancing it. While you can cheat to some degree, the effort needed for such cheating would replace the effort needed to make the suitability even better.
Sure, there are thematic reasons to nerf short range archery. I was arguing against the claim that game balance dictated a nerf to short range archery.
The thematic nerf IMO would be something like keeping archery competitive at damage dealing but not getting the defensive buffs that melee arts usually accrue.
The problem is not in needing to train Power from scratch. That is a bother, sure, but in the grand scheme of things one more Mastery to train isn't the biggest deal.
The problem is that the things that if we want to boost AE, we have to invest in spiritual attack, rather then the much-more-build-fitting music. We already see the antisynergy even with our single music art: physical melee attacks via FVM don't benefit from spiritual boosts. And it will get FAR worse as we go. What happens if we get a music art that boosts our defenses? What about a utility art, like, say, summoning? (It should be noted here that despite being a summoning art among other things, the summoning component of AE does not benefit from spiritual attack.) None of that would work with Spiritual attack boosts, but it WOULD work with boost to music.
Now, if you don't want to go Bard!Qi, then I can understand it - but if we are going for a music build, we shouldn't be going for AE.
Short term optimas. Important when we are deliberately without complete information.
Observe the following:
-Early FVM was a purely spiritual debuff with damage over time. There was no physical melee attack component, and we have seen a lot of railing against picking up physical melee arts because they would be antisynergy via exposing your location and interrupting the song.
-Mid FVM like we have now spawns a Thunder meridian physical melee shockwave attack. Our lack of physical melee arts is now antisynergy, because we now have an ideal attack mode while doing flute solos hidden in mist(and to top it off, its a mid range melee attack so you can hit them without exposing your location), but have no arts to reinforce it until we finally got around to learning Argent Current.
-Early FVM relied upon hearing on opponents, so Argent Storm's Deafen effect is antisynergy.
-After Zeqing's assistance with epiphany, now it ignores physical hearing ability and being Deaf is a nasty ass debuff which stacks on all of our other debuffs and makes our debuffs even easier to land.
It would be POSSIBLE for Green FVM to further expand its repertoire to use Power + Expression. Its however nearly certain that supporting arts to buff spiritual attacks like we've been looking for would be making use of Power themselves.
So dismissing Power when we know it's basically used for all spiritual attacks is foolhardy. The odds of not needing any Power in the future is dramatically low due to our focus on spiritual attack debuffs.
Power and Resilience are of the weaker initial masteries for commoner cultivators, since they are likely to start out with a physical weapon, as even KNOWING about pure spirit attacks is hard.
If anything Power is a better mastery than any individual physical melee weapons, as it's going to apply to a lot more possible arts.
A funny observation however: Lower quality arts like FZ and FSA seem to be much more focused. They do one simple thing, use one simple skillset, and basically everything they do supports this skillset. What you see at their first level is what they're also doing at their last level, just harder.
Higher quality arts like FVM and SCS seem to be more schizophrenic early on, each time you improve it your entire previous optimization strategy had gone down the drain, and a new paradigm emerges(though strengths are maintained, your dumpstats can become useful later).
For FVM especially it was only in late yellow that we actually saw the full range of what it does(or maybe not, we'll know after breakthrough).
So a 'richer' art, then takes more time to show its chops because the synergy is too powerful to grant early on.
Abyssal Exhalation is VERY clearly a broad art, it had nasty debuffs and summons, but much like Early FVM it takes a whole bunch of setup time and really doesn't hurt that much.
Did you even read the post you quoted? I spent the first paragraph talking about how picking up the power mastery isn't especially a problem, and the rest of the post discussing how the actual problem was Spiritual (which people have repeatedly suggested we pick up boosts for) isn't nearly as good a match for a music build as actually buffing music directly. So your post doesn't address my post, at all.
So a 'richer' art, then takes more time to show its chops because the synergy is too powerful to grant early on.
Abyssal Exhalation is VERY clearly a broad art, it had nasty debuffs and summons, but much like Early FVM it takes a whole bunch of setup time and really doesn't hurt that much.
Which is more evidence that AE is poorly suited to us, I should note. In most combats, we aren't going to have time for a SECOND art with a long setup time.
I asked yrsillar whether or not music arts actually gave passive bonuses to other music arts.
The answer is they don't necessarily do so. However, we can specifically search for music arts that give a passive a bonus to other music arts but it's a tradeoff. An art that gives a bonus to all other music arts gives fewer dice.
This does interesting things to the generalist vs. specialist argument. You can get higher numbers of dice by stacking arts that give bonuses to what the art does instead of stacking arts that give bonuses to Music in general.
If you have a specific role you want to fulfill you take arts that support that specific role at the cost of not being as good outside of that specialization. If you wants to do a lot of different things you spec into a tool like "music" to try and compensate for being a generalist.
I suspect you can do the same "bonus to all X arts" thing with any element, like "all darkness arts", etc.
Calculating the mix that gives best possible bonus would require knowing how big the bonuses were, how many arts we're going to learn and how many different types of arts you're going to need. Needless to say, we can't do this. I don't think yrsillar would balance the game such that one playstyle was non-viable though, they would just be different experiences.
So, this may be less "solving a problem with WoG" and more "throwing fuel on the fire" but there it is.
On a brighter note, I think our need for an art to use with our hands-free Flying Sword(which will likely eventually take over from flute AND arrows as our main source of damage because damage is the only thing it's good for and it conflicts with nothing) means the whole question is probably on hold until after the tournament, when we can respec and maybe look at a broader selection of arts in the Inner Sect. We aren't going to have time to train two arts up to tournament standards, so we can't replace any of our other techniques and still have a good art for the sword. General +melee arts like AC give the worst bonuses, and if attacking is the only thing the sword does we want it to be good at it, and synergize with our build. Spiritual Sneak Attack Sword art, maybe?
yrsillar, I have a question about an assumption being made in the current discussion. The assumption
is that all music arts will give a passive bonus to all other music arts. Which I guess is considered synonymous with an art that uses expression? So basically with 4 arts, a music-melee, music-buff, music-debuff and music-healing would all get +4 dice to all clashes. Is this valid?
Just a quick follow up, if we do look for arts that way it's a tradeoff, right? We don't just get the exact same quality art AND it gives a passive buff to music arts for free?
I asked yrsillar whether or not music arts actually gave passive bonuses to other music arts.
The answer is they don't necessarily do so. However, we can specifically search for music arts that give a passive a bonus to other music arts but it's a tradeoff. An art that gives a bonus to all other music arts gives fewer dice.
This does interesting things to the generalist vs. specialist argument. You can get higher numbers of dice by stacking arts that give bonuses to what the art does instead of stacking arts that give bonuses to Music in general.
If you have a specific role you want to fulfill you take arts that support that specific role at the cost of not being as good outside of that specialization. If you wants to do a lot of different things you spec into a tool like "music" to try and compensate for being a generalist.
I suspect you can do the same "bonus to all X arts" thing with any element, like "all darkness arts", etc.
Calculating the mix that gives best possible bonus would require knowing how big the bonuses were, how many arts we're going to learn and how many different types of arts you're going to need. Needless to say, we can't do this. I don't think yrsillar would balance the game such that one playstyle was non-viable though, they would just be different experiences.
So, this may be less "solving a problem with WoG" and more "throwing fuel on the fire" but there it is.
On a brighter note, I think our need for an art to use with our hands-free Flying Sword(which will likely eventually take over from flute AND arrows as our main source of damage because damage is the only thing it's good for and it conflicts with nothing) means the whole question is probably on hold until after the tournament, when we can respec and maybe look at a broader selection of arts in the Inner Sect. We aren't going to have time to train two arts up to tournament standards, so we can't replace any of our other techniques and still have a good art for the sword. General +melee arts like AC give the worst bonuses, and if attacking is the only thing the sword does we want it to be good at it, and synergize with our build. Spiritual Sneak Attack Sword art, maybe?
This probably nixes the idea that all of Xiulan's arts have passives buffing Fire arts. And probably explains why most people aren't running 30 dice all the time everywhere at our level. Some just prefer worse passives for stronger actives.
Not to say that Xiulan doesn't have arts buffing Fire, but just it's probably less than what we expected.
This is Xianxia, I think which weapon you use matters less and less as you climb higher up the ladder. And there are probably sword arts that let you slice something kilometers away.
Short term optimas. Important when we are deliberately without complete information.
Observe the following:
-Early FVM was a purely spiritual debuff with damage over time. There was no physical melee attack component, and we have seen a lot of railing against picking up physical melee arts because they would be antisynergy via exposing your location and interrupting the song.
-Mid FVM like we have now spawns a Thunder meridian physical melee shockwave attack. Our lack of physical melee arts is now antisynergy, because we now have an ideal attack mode while doing flute solos hidden in mist(and to top it off, its a mid range melee attack so you can hit them without exposing your location), but have no arts to reinforce it until we finally got around to learning Argent Current.
-Early FVM relied upon hearing on opponents, so Argent Storm's Deafen effect is antisynergy.
-After Zeqing's assistance with epiphany, now it ignores physical hearing ability and being Deaf is a nasty ass debuff which stacks on all of our other debuffs and makes our debuffs even easier to land.
It would be POSSIBLE for Green FVM to further expand its repertoire to use Power + Expression. Its however nearly certain that supporting arts to buff spiritual attacks like we've been looking for would be making use of Power themselves.
So dismissing Power when we know it's basically used for all spiritual attacks is foolhardy. The odds of not needing any Power in the future is dramatically low due to our focus on spiritual attack debuffs.
Power and Resilience are of the weaker initial masteries for commoner cultivators, since they are likely to start out with a physical weapon, as even KNOWING about pure spirit attacks is hard.
If anything Power is a better mastery than any individual physical melee weapons, as it's going to apply to a lot more possible arts.
A funny observation however: Lower quality arts like FZ and FSA seem to be much more focused. They do one simple thing, use one simple skillset, and basically everything they do supports this skillset. What you see at their first level is what they're also doing at their last level, just harder.
Higher quality arts like FVM and SCS seem to be more schizophrenic early on, each time you improve it your entire previous optimization strategy had gone down the drain, and a new paradigm emerges(though strengths are maintained, your dumpstats can become useful later).
For FVM especially it was only in late yellow that we actually saw the full range of what it does(or maybe not, we'll know after breakthrough).
So a 'richer' art, then takes more time to show its chops because the synergy is too powerful to grant early on.
Abyssal Exhalation is VERY clearly a broad art, it had nasty debuffs and summons, but much like Early FVM it takes a whole bunch of setup time and really doesn't hurt that much.
Look, I completely agree that SCS and FVM are both broad high-quality arts that had trouble finding their legs early on. I made a lot of arguments for this, and I consider AE to be the same, and that it won't truly find its leg and be a mainstay of our build before AE4.... but once it will, it will be incredibly good to us.
However, can you not change the past and all-around debate in bad faith when making that argument?
Early FVM was the reason I and many others wanted a physical melee art over a range one, because we had confirmation that we could still use melee unarmed attacks while playing FVM... and we had confirmation FVM would pick up sounds attacks later on. This didn't come as a surprise to us, and a lot of the push for ASA was both because it would be useful right then as we could use it with FVM unnarmed, but that because while we were sure we couldn't use archery with sound attacks, there was hope it would be melee blasts (like they were). We learned AC week 32... and got the sound blasts week 30. There was no 'big period of time' there from one to the next.
Power, like resilience, probably need a special art to unlock it... but it's also straightforward "this is what cultivator do" dreams. Most of Xiulan's arts use either +fire or +power, because she is all spiritual fire and manage to stack everything together, though obviously she also probably has more conditional bonus from specific arts. Xiulan is not the only one we have seen who use elemental attacks, and Ling Qi herself view on immortals was "throw lightning at each others".
I believe Power will be useful, and it will hopefully be needed for some kind of hybrid arts or even with arts that help our other arts, but your whole argument not only contradict what actually happened previously in the quest, but doesn't actually engage with PS's own argument at all. That's irritating.
TL;DR: AE will be awesome, but please don't debate in bad faith.
This probably nixes the idea that all of Xiulan's arts have passives buffing Fire arts. And probably explains why most people aren't running 30 dice all the time everywhere at our level. Some just prefer worse passives for stronger actives.
Not to say that Xiulan doesn't have arts buffing Fire, but just it's probably less than what we expected.
Probably more, tbh. Xiulan is a specialist in both element and role, and she is also offensive specialist. All three are the kind of arts that give the most passive dice. I could see her defensive arts purposefuly made to give +fire and her offensive dice to give +power, and nothing we have seen of her indicate otherwise.
People aren't running 30 dice all the time at our level... because we haven't seen anyone at our level. That would be 'Gan Guangli', btw, or maybe KZ. Han Jian just broke through to late silver a couple of week ago, so he is 9 weeks behind us cultivation wise. Likewise, Ling Qi has 3 arts mastered to the limit of her cultivation and 3 others just a level behind, and 3 others to a lesser degree.
Other late yellows around us probably have 6 arts or so totals, and maybe only Han Jian, Gan Guangli and KZ even have 1 mastered to the limit of their cultivation. Well, JR could, too.
The reason Ling Qi is running around with 27-35 archery dice is because she currently have 2 arts an inch below mastered to the limit of late silver, and 1 other that's in early silver, all working together to enhance archery. We are a over-achiever, there.... but our actual competitors are, too.
- [X] Use From Inventory: 3RSS, 1YSS, Highsun Pill, Skyblood Pill
- [X] Buy and Use: Channel Cleansing Pill (2), Heavy Rains Pill (10), Clear Wind Pill (2), White Hart Elixir (6), Bright Sky Pill (2), Soaring Spirits Pill (6), Vigorous Sapling Pill (2), second wood pill (6), Bear Marrow Elixir (4), Bear's Heartsblood Elixir (10), Steady Growth Pill (8), Sturdy Oak Pill (18)
- [X] Restock Restoratives: 1 Wellspring Pill (3)
- [X] Total Spending: 13 (stones) + 76 (medicines) + 3 (restorative) = 92 RSS
- [X] Overflow : Physical
- [X] Grinning Moon Blessing : AE
- [X] Hire a tutor
-- [X] Stamina / TRF
-- [X] Archery / FSA
--[X] Train at the vent with Su Ling
---[X] Heart Meridian
---[X] Work on formations with Li Suyin, working on a project with your friend will be fun
--- [X] Give the pen (from Renshu's base) to Suyin if we haven't already
--[X] Explore and Train with Golden Fields
---[X] FZ
--[X] Train with Meizhen
---[X] Spine Meridian
- [X] Take a job
-- [X] Appease the Forest
--[X] Cai Renxiang is going to help you get your mothers legal troubles worked out, and give you a crash course on basic law to boot.
---[X] During the breaks in tutoring, mention to Cai you've been looking for "the fourth" Argent Art, which you suspect is Heavens/Earth.
- [X] Gan Guangli is planning retaliation against Liling's raiders, you've been invited to participate.
- [X] You need escape contingencies. Start working on that.
Improved senses were a detriment in some cases, Ling Qi thought, trying not to grimace as she walked the dirt path that wound between the fields on the outskirts of the town at the base of the mountain. The scent of the goats grazing in the rocky field to her right, and it wasn't the worst she passed so far. As bad as the city streets could be, Ling Qi had always preferred them to fields and farms.
She could still remember the first time she had stolen a chicken. The vicious little monster had clawed her arms to ribbons before she was able to wring its neck. No, she much preferred picking pockets to rustling livestock. Yet she was out here, among the mundane fields around the town, heading toward the cultivator farms that were further out. The note from the tutor she had hired said that they would meet out here, so Ling Qi had little choice but to to walk quickly, and try not to linger near the more recently fertilized fields.
At least the scenery got more interesting once she passed the mortals fields by. Livestock grew more exotic and colorful and even the plants were more unique, a riot of color compared to the endless brown and green that had come before. Still, she continued on south, were the land began to rise in hills and the variety of plants changed. Ahead of her stretched entire hillsides covered in dark green and deep red hummocks of plant life, grown in curved but orderly rows.
Tea fields, Ling Qi mused. She supposed they must need a lot of it, given how popular the stuff seemed to be. She peered around as she walked, searching for her tutor. There were plenty of people scattered around. Men and women in tough coarse clothing, wide straw hats granting them shade from the sun. The vast majority were only a step into first realm, with a handful at the second step.
It made it rather easy to search out who she was looking for. After all, the potent aura of a third realm cultivator stood out like a bonfire. The young woman's attire also made her stand out. Where the other field workers wore coarse and shapeless clothing, she wore clinging emerald green dress, plain and unembroidered, with a mantle of what seemed to be living flowers worn over her shoulders. Her face was concealed by a rose colored veil, but her hair was put up into an elaborate arrangement, held together by, what again, looked to be living flowers.
To make her presence stand out even more obviously, she was riding sidesaddle on the back of a three tailed red fox the size of a small horse, which carried her at a sedate pace through the lanes between the rows of tea plants. One hand rested on the foxes neck, but the other was held out as she walked, and there was a faint sparkle in the air as something fell from her hands. As she grew closer, LIng Qi could feel the heavy, vital qi infusing the earth as she passed, and she imagined that she could see the plants swelling in her wake, seeming healthier and more robust.
The girl looked up as she approached, and stopped, waiting patiently for Ling Qi to cover the remaining distance, while observing her serenely. Once she had reached a polite distance, Ling Qi stopped and bowed formally. "Would you be Senior Sect Sister Bian Ya?"
"I am," the girl replied, her voice light and lilting. "You would be the Junior who requested assistance then?" she asked her mantle rustling as the flowers shifted of their own accord. The fox she was mounted on briefly sniffed the air as she spoke, before making a low whuffing sound and turning up its snout, the gesture seemed contemptuous to her.
Ling Qi eyed her mount warily, but bowed a little lower. "Your Junior Sister greets you, Senior Sister Bian."
"I am glad to see you are punctual, rise and walk with me, if you would," the girl replied, patting her mount on the neck. "I would like to complete my morning stroll."
Ling Qi straightened up and hurried to follow as the fox turned in the lane between the tea plants to resume their walk, falling in just a but behind. "May I ask what you are doing, Senior Sister?" She asked, observing the mixed flows of wood and wind leaving the girls outstretched hand. Now that she was closer, she could see the scattering of vibrant qi was being thrown far indeed, falling over the plants like a light spring rain even hundreds of meters away.
"Bringing health to the fields," The girl said lightly, not turning around as she spoke. "It is Outer Sect work, I know, but I do not find it unpleasant." The girl raised her free hand and waved, drawing Ling Qi's gaze to where she was looking. At the edge of the field, several young, men struggled with a heavy totem on a sledge dragging it uphill. It was sweaty, dirty work, Ling Qi could see. "The scenery is not unpleasant either," Bian Ya added, as if reading her thoughts. "The Inner Sect can be a tad stuffy at times."
"Senior Sister knows best I am sure," Ling Qi mumbled averting her eyes, ignoring the heat that she felt rising on her cheeks. She really should be better than this by now. "I understand the use of Wood Qi for your task, but what are the wind flows accomplishing?" She hurried to ask, changing the subject.
"Does not the wind carry seeds to their destination?" The older girl asked? "Conceptually, weaving the two together only makes sense, if you wish to scatter the effects of your Wood Qi wide and far," the girls airy tone became briefly more serious. "I admit, the odd combination you requested was almost passed over. I am no archer, nor is wood a common element among those who are."
"I was a little worried about that," Ling Qi admitted, watching the girls back and her mounts flicking tails. "Thousand Ring Fortress has saved me several times though, and it doesn't feel right to leave it behind, while I master my other arts."
"Wood, or at least it's Yang aspect, is solid and dependable like that," Bian Ya replied, turning her head to look over her shoulder. "You are from a common background?"
"I am," Ling Qi replied, a bit of defiance entering her tone as she met the older disciples gaze.
"Nothing wrong with experimenting then," she replied, seemingly taking no notice. "I may not be an archer, but I do have some insights on Wind to share which may be of use, that is why I chose to accept your request after all."
Ling Qi was glad that she had good luck with tutors so far. She hurried her pace a bit, not wanting to fall behind as the girl in front of her began to speak in an idle tone. Describing her insights into the elements which Ling Qi had asked for.
Unlike her previous tutor, there was no explosive training or tests of endurance. The girl seemed to take a more theoretical approach, inviting Ling Qi to speak her own thoughts as they discussed the vagaries of wind and wood qi. Bian Ya continued to trek across the fields as they did, occasionally pausing to chat with a group of workers. This was occasionally uncomfortable when the older girl got into a bout of playful flirtation with a particularly handsome farmhand, but Ling Qi endured.
They didn't cultivate at all that first day, but somehow Ling Qi was fine with that, she left the fields feeling as she had gained a greater understanding of the elements her arts used, and that would speed her private cultivation later.
Sadly, that would have to wait, as she had other tasks to take care of. Namely, she had to get down to the market. It was beyond time that she take countermeasures against her enemies. Or rather, made sure that she couldn't be cornered so easily again. Su Ling had given her the name of a trader she thought trustworthy, and Ling Qi had asked her to pass a message about what she was looking for. She didn't want to do her shopping openly this time. Hopefully her friends contact would come through.
The shops name didn't exactly fill her with confidence though.
"I've compiled only the best items for your eyes, Miss Ling. I assure you of that," The smiling young man behind the counter assured her, an easy grin on his pudgy face.
She trusted Su Ling's recommendation, that girl did not trust easily. She could recognize the grudging compliments the rough girl had given as the equivalent to high praise from anyone else. All the same, it was a little hard to take someone who used the moniker 'Fatty' seriously. It wasn't exactly inaccurate, the boy did carry a fair bit of extra weight, and his soft, round features gave him a non threatening air. It made her wonder at his self image, if he could reach early silver and still look like that. "...If that is the case, why do I just have a list of prices for half the things I asked for? I don't think I want to spend this much without seeing the product."
Fatty Hao, overall boss of several small shops in the market area, and fellow first year disciple gave a serious nod. "Well, as much as it pains me to say, a list is the best I can do. Those items are beyond the skills of an outer sect disciple," he replied cheerfully, leaning on the counter in front of her. "Or at least what they're willing to sell. Escape Talismans are no cheap thing to acquire!"
Ling Qi frowned at the list, the cheapest talisman on there was three hundred red stones, at only one use and with a range limit of half a kilometer, it seemed like way too much. "How am I supposed to know this is legitimate if I can't even see them first?"
He laughed. "Miss Ling, your mistrust wounds me. Do you really think I would cheat you, when you are so high in the esteem of so many very frightening people?" He asked, eyebrows rising high. "Why, a word from Lady Cai, and everything my family has built would be gone in an instant!" He seemed surprisingly sanguine about that.
As much as those prices pained her, her own knowledge of formations told her that it probably wasn't undue. Transportation formations were hideously complex and required many spirit stones to power, even when placed in a fixed location, anything meant to transport any significant number of people a more than a few kilometers was beyond any but the wealthiest or most skilled people. Something that could do the same while being portable was obviously even more expensive, even if it could only move one person
"...I suppose that's fine, if it can be delivered quickly," Ling Qi allowed, after thinking on it for a minute.
"No more than a few days from your order, I assure you Miss Ling," the rotund boy replied. "Now, in regard to your other requests, I've brought some examples of the work a few of my partners have done. Highest quality of course…"
Escape Talismans
As consumables, the following items do not take up an accessory slot.
Soaring Charm: A woven bracelet with the shape of a bird picked out among its threads in jade. Upon being broken, transports the user up to half a kilometer in any direction. Landing accuracy improved by knowledge of destination, injury may occur if user is unfamiliar with target location. 300 Red Stones
Black-White Orb: A clay sphere that fits in the palm of one's hand painted half black and half white. Upon being crushed, transports the user up to one kilometer in any direction. User buffered from harmful landings. 500 Red Stones
Scarlet Thread: A length of formation inscribed cord meant to be worn around the wrist. Upon breaking, the user is transported up to one kilometer in any direction, and gains a two success bonus to stealth against all attempts to perceive them, remote or otherwise, for one hour. User buffered from harmful landings. 800 Red Stones
Anti Scrying Talismans(Consumable)
Misty Lake Charm: Attempts to remotely view or use divination upon the user suffer a six die penalty for two hours upon use. 30 Red Stones
Obfuscation Charm: Attempts to remotely view or use divination upon the user suffer a three die penalty for six hours. 20 red Stones
Blinding Fate Charm: Attempts to remotely view or use divination upon the user suffer a two success penalty for up to four hours. 50 Red Stones
GM Note: Consumables boosts do not stack with each other, but do stack with equipment
Anti Scrying Talismans(Accessories)
Void Stone Stud: An ear stud made from specially treated diamond and silver. Provides a three die bonus to stealth attempts as well as penalizing remote viewing and divination attempts against the user by three dice. 70 Red Stones
Band of Occlusion: A thin fragile ring of white gold, studded with three tiny amethysts. Provides a two die bonus to spiritual defense and stealth. Penalizes all remote viewing and divination attempts on the user by four dice. 100 Red Stones
Eye Fogging Pin: a small white jade hairpin with an ornament in the shape of a lotus flower. Penalizes remote viewing and vdivination attempts against the user by five dice. 70 Red Stones
Weekly Income minus Pill expenditure: 104 Red Stones
[] Shopping Plan
With the her shopping done, the first part of Ling Qi's plans was done. Of course, that had been the only concrete part of her plans. There were no templates for transportation formations in the archive, and she did not feel confident trying to build one from scratch herself, from what she understood that could take months to manage given her resources. Instead, Ling Qi focused on finding places where she could hide or escape, ravines, crevices and other pieces of difficult terrain that her movement art would allow her to bypass with ease while leaving pursuers hopefully stumped.
She also, for the first time, took an interest in the enforcers, learning their patrol routes and schedules with the same detail that she had learned the patterns of the various forms of security in Tonghou. For rather opposite purposes of course. After all, the law was on her side now.
Current Meridians: Heart x2
Needed Meridians: Heart(5)
Max Level: 5
The evolution of the emerald seas wind arts focusing on the fleetness and encompassing nature of wind. Grants the user and their followers fleetness of foot and quickness of action.
Passive Effects:
-Provides five additional dice to all projectile weapon attacks.
-Provides five additional dice to defense against projectile attacks.
-Increases the initiative of the user and all allies within eighty meters by three
-Increases the speed of the user and allies within eighty meters by four
-Increases maximum range of all projectiles to forty meters if less
Active Effects
Against the Wind: oo
Cost: 6 Qi
On a successful clash reduces the dice pool of enemies within eighty meters by four for the next four turns. In addition enemy speed is reduced by five and initiative is reduced by two. Effect persists after enemies leave range. Effect may be used without a weapon attack
Encircling Winds: ooo
Cost 6 Qi
The user grants allies alacrity and and accuracy, perfecting their timing to strike in an encircled foes weakness. Grants a five die bonus to the attack of all allies when targeting a singular foe, designated at activation. Each consecutive attack gains a stacking damage bonus of one, to the maximum of their weapons DV. The user may combine this skill with a projectile attack of their own, in which case they are included in the bonuses.This effect lasts four turns, though the stack resets each turn.
Shielding Gale: oo
Cost: 5 Qi
Instant
The user releases a sudden pulse of qi in an expanding spiral around themselves, kicking up furious winds. Provides five dice of defense against projectile attacks targeted at allies or the user within sixty meters, which lasts two turns. As a secondary effect, on a successful clash, all enemies within ten meters of the user are pushed back twenty meters, suffering a DV 1 attack.
On the Wind: ooo
Cost 7 Qi
Instant
The user guides the wind to bolster her allies movements, granting an additional eight speed and two initiative to the user and allies within eighty meters for three turns. In addition speed or initiative dampening effects of three dots or lower are dispelled on a successful clash. The user receives a four die bonus on this dispel clash
Fleeting Strike: ooo
Cost 8 Qi
The users command of the wind surges into a mighty gale, driving back onrushing foes and enabling escape. The user makes a projectile attack with a five die bonus against a foe within eighty meters. On a successful hit, regardless of whether damage is dealt, the target is pushed backward sixty meters, along with any other enemies under the effect of Against the Wind. This motion must be away from the user and their allies. If completing the push becomes impossible due to obstacles, the target suffers four damage(armor, negation and other forms of defense apply.) The push may be resisted with a four success Strength test.
LIng Qi did not let her work on developing escape routes get in the way of training though. She continued to work with Xiulan and the others in the afternoons and Meizhen in the evenings, working to improve her arts and unlock further meridians. There was no repeat of her singular failure this week, with the aid of a highsun pill, she returned to opening her channels with ease, the excess from her cycling settling into her bones and muscles, pushing her closer to the absolute peak of second realm.
Her work on the successor to her very first art came to its conclusion as well as she mastered the final exercises of the art. She could now create a gust of wind powerful enough to send an enemy flying far away, beyond the meagre pushback of her earlier techniques. The dummy she had used to practice on end up smashed to splinters against the mountainside. What was better, it could catch a whole group and force them away if she tagged them with the arts first technique before hand.
If only her other training was so easy.
Ling Qi stifled a sigh as she turned the page of the massive tome in front of her. The book, if one could call the mammoth slab of parchment and leather that, probably weighed half as much as she did. It would probably take a strong mortal just to lift the hateful thing.
Perhaps that was to be expected of something titled, 'Unabridged History of Financial Regulation of the Modern Age.' Page after page of tax codes and contract laws had been branded into her thoughts. She saw numbers and tables when her eyes were closed. Even worse, this was not merely a record of current laws, no. This book was about the evolution of those laws over the last thousand years, and had page upon page of scholarly dissertation upon each and every change as well as its effects current and projected.
"Have you completed the introduction to credit law?" Her tormentor asked blithely.
Ling Qi looked up, suppressing the glower that wanted to surface, and met Cai Renxiang's steady, unshakeable gaze. The heiress was seated behind a heavy desk, working through a stack of letters and papers half the size of the monster on the table in front of Ling Qi. The brush in her hand continued its motion across the paper in front of her as she waited for Ling Qi to respond.
At first Ling Qi had been nervous about entering the powerful girls home, worried that she would give offense. That feeling had faded within a day or two. The heiress' living quarters were as rigid and regimented as the girl herself. Everything was arranged to perfection within, Ling Qi had not seen a single thing that was not actively in use out of place since coming here. Even the flower arrangements and other decorations had an angular, geometric feel to them.
"Almost," she replied grudgingly, glancing down at the precise, tiny text in the book open on the table in front of her.
Cai Renxiang observed her for a moment, the brush in her hand briefly pausing. "Do you require assistance with a passage?" She asked, not unkindly.
LIng Qi rubbed the bridge of her nose for a moment, as she glanced from the book to her notes, already turning into a hefty sheaf themselves. "...Not right now, no," she admitted. "I just needed to pause for a minute. There is a lot here to absorb."
"You are doing well," Cai Renxiang said after a moment, making Ling Qi feel childish, as if she were back at home, wanting praise and a treat for doing her sums. "You took in the essentials of filing and interacting with ministry bureaucracy quite quickly."
Ling Qi grimaced at the minutae she had already memorized, forms and files and types of address. "Why is that all so complicated anyway? I thought knowing etiquette for nobility would be enough, but now there's this whole other," Ling Qi gestured at the weighty tome, searching for a word. "This whole… culture and language to learn."
The other girl glanced at the tiny window of her study and then set her brush carefully down. "You are not wrong," She replied, interlacing her fingers together in front of her face as she continued to observe Ling Qi. "The Ministries are a necessity of our society. While the right to rule rises from personal prowess and enlightenment… those abilities do not always lend themselves to administration."
Ling Qi glanced down at the book in front of her, and the discussion on Emperor Yi's decrees about revising the standards of record keeping for lenders, and the massive upheaval it had caused as millions of debts were rendered invalid. "...I guess I can understand that. So the ministries are there so the nobility can focus on cultivation and war, huh?"
"That is oversimplifying things somewhat," Cai Renxiang replied, a touch of dryness to her tone. "They also serve as an honorable occupation and place to slowly seek advancement among the lower class of cultivators, as well as a place for the less martially inclined scions of the lower and middle nobility," she returned quickly to a lecturing tone.
"That makes sense," Ling Qi mused. "I guess even among cultivators not everyone wants to fight," she continued thoughtfully. "Still… don't they end up conflicting with lords a lot? What's to stop someone from just overriding them whenever they want? The strong rule after all."
"Tradition carries a strength of its own," Cai replied smoothly. "To treat ones ministers poorly is to court the disapproval of one's peers, and while any titled cultivator outranks any but the highest members of the various Ministries, they do have their own strength, and their own methods of leverage." Shaking her head, Cai Renxiang plucked her brush back out of its holder. "The Ministry of Law in particular, as most venerable of the Ministries, is not lightly crossed. Mastery of law may be far more deadly than mastery of blade or fist under the proper circumstances."
Ling Qi considered her own mastery of music then Xin's words about choosing ways and concepts, and wondered just how metaphorical the heiress was being. "I guess I better get reading then," she said grudgingly, turning back to the book. "Ten thousand strikes to become a master, huh?" she mused under her breath.
"Far more than that sadly," Cai Renxiang answered without looking up from her work. "Let me know when you have completed the introduction, and I shall help you find the appropriate statues under which you may file your request for investigation."
Ling Qi turned her eyes back to the tome in front of her. She had asked for this. She had no right to complain she knew. After all, she could have asked Cai to write the front letter and fill in the proper forms for her. She had wanted to do it herself though, and now here she was.
At least once she was done reviewing the introduction, she could just flip through the actual laws. She had never been happier to see a table of contents.
AN: So much going on in this one, I might need three parts.
I think we'd be okay with the Soaring Charm, because in the same action we did take time to get familiar with locations to transport to. The Band of Occlusion provides some neat bonuses if I had to pick one talisman, but I could see the argument for any of the three. Consumables for anti divination seem useless.
It's interesting, the more we hang out with CRX it seems that CRX is getting something out of our interactions aside from the somewhat clinical investment into a future vassel it started out as. I think Cai is secretly comeing to enjoy the times Ling Qi's polite deference slips and she street rats it up with her speech and mannerism.
"Wood, or at least it's Yang aspect, is solid and dependable like that," Bian Ya replied, turning her head to look over her shoulder. "You are from a common background?"
"I am," Ling Qi replied, a bit of defiance entering her tone as she met the older disciples gaze.
I.e. commoner cultivators start with nothing. Experimenting with a mix of meridians, elements and strategies is not frivolous as it would be for even low nobility, because they start with nothing but what fortune throws into their laps, and no knowledge to plan the big picture strategy passed down by their predecessors, as low level or incomplete arts are misleading as hell.
Soaring Charm: A woven bracelet with the shape of a bird picked out among its threads in jade. Upon being broken, transports the user up to half a kilometer in any direction. Landing accuracy improved by knowledge of destination, injury may occur if user is unfamiliar with target location. 300 Red Stones
Black-White Orb: A clay sphere that fits in the palm of one's hand painted half black and half white. Upon being crushed, transports the user up to one kilometer in any direction. User buffered from harmful landings. 500 Red Stones
Scarlet Thread: A length of formation inscribed cord meant to be worn around the wrist. Upon breaking, the user is transported up to one kilometer in any direction, and gains a two success bonus to stealth against all attempts to perceive them, remote or otherwise, for one hour. User buffered from harmful landings. 800 Red Stones
Band of Occlusion: A thin fragile ring of white gold, studded with three tiny amethysts. Provides a two die bonus to spiritual defense and stealth. Penalizes all remote viewing and divination attempts on the user by four dice. 100 Red Stones
Fleeting Strike: ooo
Cost 8 Qi
The users command of the wind surges into a mighty gale, driving back onrushing foes and enabling escape. The user makes a projectile attack with a five die bonus against a foe within eighty meters. On a successful hit, regardless of whether damage is dealt, the target is pushed backward sixty meters, along with any other enemies under the effect of Against the Wind. This motion must be away from the user and their allies. If completing the push becomes impossible due to obstacles, the target suffers four damage(armor, negation and other forms of defense apply.)
And this one here is a major sea change. You could shove a whole army away with this. ...and it works with our flute. We could blast an entire formation away with an epic flute solo. Derp its not a projectile
It's interesting, the more we hang out with CRX it seems that CRX is getting something out of our interactions aside from the somewhat clinical investment into a future vassel it started out as. I think Cai is secretly comeing to enjoy the times Ling Qi's polite deference slips and she street rats it up with her speech and mannerism.
Passive Effects:
-Provides fourfive additional dice to all projectile weapon attacks.
-Provides five additional dice to defense against projectile attacks.
-Increases the initiative of the user and all allies within eighty meters by three
-Increases the speed of the user and allies within eighty meters by twofour
-Increases maximum range of all projectiles to forty meters if less
Active Effects
Against the Wind: oo
Cost: 6 Qi
On a successful clash reduces the dice pool of enemies within eighty meters by four for the next four turns. In addition enemy speed is reduced by five and initiative is reduced by two. Effect persists after enemies leave range. Effect may be used without a weapon attack.
Encircling Winds: ooo
Cost 6 Qi
The user grants allies alacrity and and accuracy, perfecting their timing to strike in an encircled foes weakness. Grants a five die bonus to the attack of all allies when targeting a singular foe, designated at activation. Each consecutive attack gains a stacking damage bonus of one, to the maximum of their weapons DV. The user may combine this skill with a projectile attack of their own, in which case they are included in the bonuses. This effect lasts threefour turns, though the stack resets each turn.
Shielding Gale: oo
Cost: 5 Qi
Instant
The user releases a sudden pulse of qi in an expanding spiral around themselves, kicking up furious winds. Provides five dice of defense against projectile attacks targeted at allies or the user within sixty meters, which lasts two turns. As a secondary effect, on a successful clash, all enemies within ten meters of the user are pushed back twenty meters, suffering a DV 1 attack.
On the Wind: ooo
Cost 7 Qi
Instant
The user guides the wind to bolster her allies movements, granting an additional eight speed and two initiative to the user and allies within eighty meters for three turns. In addition speed or initiative dampening effects of three dots or lower are dispelled on a successful clash. The user receives a four die bonus on this dispel clash.
Fleeting Strike: ooo
Cost 8 Qi
The users command of the wind surges into a mighty gale, driving back onrushing foes and enabling escape. The user makes a projectile attack with a five die bonus against a foe within eighty meters. On a successful hit, regardless of whether damage is dealt, the target is pushed backward sixty meters, along with any other enemies under the effect of Against the Wind. This motion must be away from the user and their allies. If completing the push becomes impossible due to obstacles, the target suffers four damage(armor, negation and other forms of defense apply.)
