Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
It definitely play well with Teamwork, because TRU means that Zhengui will float, as he cannot be affected by gravitational effect that would move him. That is definitely how it works.
Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
LucidProp
Pocky Eating MafiaDoka
I don't know about you, but this sounds like the perfect time for a Turtle Air Strike to make its debut!
Hmm, maybe. What's gravity's cultivation level?
Reminder that any assumption that we can use Cai's card to mess up Sun and potentially win would also imply that Renxiang herself could wreck Sun.
Like, getting a respectable hit in? Maybe. Hitting her hard enough to actually threaten her? Implies Renxiang could use the same strategy to one or two shot Sun. And I'm not convinced Renxiang is that powerful.
Like, getting a respectable hit in? Maybe. Hitting her hard enough to actually threaten her? Implies Renxiang could use the same strategy to one or two shot Sun. And I'm not convinced Renxiang is that powerful.
In a fight, CRX would lose because she doesn't have a counter to dharithri regen. We on the other hand have FVM.
[jk] have a bone mouse go up her pants
Distraction!
Distraction!
As long as it takes for her arms to cut her loose
Oh yeah, those things!
did anyone ever rechecked our inventory for useful crap we were saving for this epic showdown?
did anyone ever rechecked our inventory for useful crap we were saving for this epic showdown?
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
We probably can't actually touch her with those, I think. our current archery dice are around -15/-20 our music dice, and we are probably going to have difficulty tagging her with those. I... guess it could be doable later if we manage to debuff her?
Have we dealt with her blood flow sensing perception art? Turn our blood into ice or something?
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
WRT Flying: How good of a flier is Sun Liling, exactly? I know we saw her at least float here:
Then again we don't see her flying very often, so even if she can do it outside that attack sequence I doubt that it's free for her. Really I think whether we fly or not depends on if it's more inconvenient for Sun Liling than it is for us, and I think that it actually is. The one area we might have an advantage in is absolute Qi reserve size, so if Sun wants to burn Qi to chase us to the air that mutual Qi spending probably benefits us to some degree (especially since SL's perfect damage probably means Qi is not our relevant hp stat in this battle, wheras I think Qi is most definitely SL's relevant hp stat against us.)
Sun could choose to engage the Horror or Zhengui on the ground, but I think her grudge works to our advantage here; she may not realize the danger of us pivoting to Dhalatiri and leave her spirit to fight our minions on the ground for a turn or two. Once we have our defenses fully up after turns 1-2 or so, we can start the sequence of CaiTech+Pressure Crack+Hoarfrost Caress, and our efficacy with this sequence is not really impaired by us being in the air at the time. On the contrary, it means Sun Liling's ability to respond and support her spirit from farther away may be limited; we're better at engaging in the medium ranges. Pressure Crack can work on allies up to 40 meters away, and I think it's the most constrained of the techs we would use.
So, in conclusion, I think that the Horror->tank up->gank Dhalitiri plan, and probably the whole fight really can only be improved by us being in the air for the duration.
Then again we don't see her flying very often, so even if she can do it outside that attack sequence I doubt that it's free for her. Really I think whether we fly or not depends on if it's more inconvenient for Sun Liling than it is for us, and I think that it actually is. The one area we might have an advantage in is absolute Qi reserve size, so if Sun wants to burn Qi to chase us to the air that mutual Qi spending probably benefits us to some degree (especially since SL's perfect damage probably means Qi is not our relevant hp stat in this battle, wheras I think Qi is most definitely SL's relevant hp stat against us.)
Sun could choose to engage the Horror or Zhengui on the ground, but I think her grudge works to our advantage here; she may not realize the danger of us pivoting to Dhalatiri and leave her spirit to fight our minions on the ground for a turn or two. Once we have our defenses fully up after turns 1-2 or so, we can start the sequence of CaiTech+Pressure Crack+Hoarfrost Caress, and our efficacy with this sequence is not really impaired by us being in the air at the time. On the contrary, it means Sun Liling's ability to respond and support her spirit from farther away may be limited; we're better at engaging in the medium ranges. Pressure Crack can work on allies up to 40 meters away, and I think it's the most constrained of the techs we would use.
So, in conclusion, I think that the Horror->tank up->gank Dhalitiri plan, and probably the whole fight really can only be improved by us being in the air for the duration.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
The way to deal with that is not get cut.
There's really no way to stop it other than to stop her drawing blood in the first place (unlikely barring first turn full TRF being sufficient) or to crush Dhartiri and hope that most of her perception boosts come from there(a pretty reasonable assumption given the mountain ambush)
This is especially true because the technique has Renxiang's autos when she uses it, so it's stronger than the version we throw out. Also, I choose to believe that it's the original version of the tech that we saw, so she can use it literally every turn as an instant that same-turn buffs her spiritual attacks while she strips off enemy defenses. Cai Renxiang can juggle-debuff multiple enemy defense techniques, searing them out of the enemy's rotation completely.
It's totally fucking broken. And here we thought our arts were high quality. Turns out they're children's toys.
Shadows don't have blood and it's a disgrace to all Darkness cultivators that Ling Qi hasn't realized this simple truth.
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- Location
- Canada
No way we can beat gravity. Remember that whole legend thing about the world being made of Uber-Spirits or something? It probably has, like, a million autos on everything in the empire 'cept maybe Grandma Snek.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
So... my vague thoughts:
- We do whatever "nuke Dhartiri" plan people manage to figure out. While we're at it, we retreat into the sky to a degree, to force her to either use ranged attacks or fly. It won't matter much, but every little bit counts.
- As soon as we're done burning down the herbs, we pop CRX's dispel on her, then start loading on the music techs while she's vulnerable.
- If it looks like we're going to go down without taking out the plant, we pop CRX's dispel anyway. Letting her know if that's likely to work has value all its own.
- We do whatever "nuke Dhartiri" plan people manage to figure out. While we're at it, we retreat into the sky to a degree, to force her to either use ranged attacks or fly. It won't matter much, but every little bit counts.
- As soon as we're done burning down the herbs, we pop CRX's dispel on her, then start loading on the music techs while she's vulnerable.
- If it looks like we're going to go down without taking out the plant, we pop CRX's dispel anyway. Letting her know if that's likely to work has value all its own.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
Trying to see what kind of utter bulshit Xin could give us if we are correct and @yrsillar does intend to have her giving us a last little pick me up. While a new art as a reward is probably the best longer term reward, especially if it's one that's actually ducal quality :drool: (please AC/FZ fusion but better), if it were not for the successes needed I would think something like "get us SCS7 ready for next fight", to follow the Shao/Shenhua/Suzhen tradition.
I mean,
Sable Crescent Step with Xin (SCS): Talent 6 + Stones 45 + Xin 500 + Xin's Wonderland Site 500 + EPC 25 + Sixiang 10+ Pills 30 + Spine 4 + Xin's Wonderland Time Acceleration 2800 = 3920 dice+ 30 autos
1/2th of the successes to Qi, Physical and Spiritual cultivation
That's how it works right? We are totally getting SCS8
I mean,
Sable Crescent Step with Xin (SCS): Talent 6 + Stones 45 + Xin 500 + Xin's Wonderland Site 500 + EPC 25 + Sixiang 10+ Pills 30 + Spine 4 + Xin's Wonderland Time Acceleration 2800 = 3920 dice+ 30 autos
1/2th of the successes to Qi, Physical and Spiritual cultivation
That's how it works right? We are totally getting SCS8
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My feeling is that if we flew up high like we did against Chu it would greatly impair her ability to hurt us.
However, if we're close enough to hurt her (<50m) she can probably jump up to stab us without much difficulty.
'Nuke Dhartiri' sounds more like an aspiration than a plan to me.
Jump good!
I will always love that samurai jack episode.
Lingqi: sixiang! Critique her fugly human form! little bro! EAT.
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An interesting distinction
Mind clarifying what constitutes a "plan" by your definition, then?
My position on the Sun plans is that they basically work like this:
- Step 1: get all our defenses up and try not to die
- Step 2: if we're still alive, roll those dice and see if we can score some cool kid points by attacking
- Location
- CA
The flying plan has a lot of merit to it, since we expect a Gae Bulg opener. Against Shen Hu, the spear did fairly low damage, though likely has a high + to hit, so it has low DV or bonus damage. We might be able to tank through a few of them with the TRF suite and DWV soaking any damage that gets through. The main problem with this strategy is that we still haven't actually found a method to hurt her, though we can sustain flight + full defensive suite for a fairly long time as long as we aren't taking damage.
Targeting Dharitri actually meets the 'method to hurt her' really well, because she is likely to be a lot less durable than Liling. From their previous fights, however, Dharitri tends to hang back until the opponent's been rendered a non-threat, which makes that a bit difficult. Part of the advantage of staying on the ground, ironically, is that it plays into the trap Dharitri is likely to set, which will probably cause her to reveal herself sooner than she would otherwise.
Another method which could draw out Dharitri would be to force Liling's tracking prowess to be used. While we've thrown around using an escape talisman to do so, using One with Shadow should also work. It also has the nice side effect of not having mildly cowardly optics, as we are obviously attempting to be the stealthy stealth specialist we so obviously are.
Targeting Dharitri actually meets the 'method to hurt her' really well, because she is likely to be a lot less durable than Liling. From their previous fights, however, Dharitri tends to hang back until the opponent's been rendered a non-threat, which makes that a bit difficult. Part of the advantage of staying on the ground, ironically, is that it plays into the trap Dharitri is likely to set, which will probably cause her to reveal herself sooner than she would otherwise.
Another method which could draw out Dharitri would be to force Liling's tracking prowess to be used. While we've thrown around using an escape talisman to do so, using One with Shadow should also work. It also has the nice side effect of not having mildly cowardly optics, as we are obviously attempting to be the stealthy stealth specialist we so obviously are.
A visit to the library
- Location
- Required Location
A visit to the library
There were many advantages to being born into an ancient ducal house, Bai Meizhen pondered as she sat in her rooms in the vast Bai tent construction. The vast political power,for one, that came with such a position, and the material wealth of course. Every day millions of mortals rose from their shacks and shelters and set about a day of laboring to sustain the Bai and fill their vast treasuries. Each day dozens of lesser Clans set about their task of administrating and protecting Bai holdings and their people and thousands of cultivators worked in the clan workshops to fulfill the more esoteric needs of the Bai clan.
However, the one advantage that an ancient ducal house had over lesser ancient houses and the younger ducal houses was history. History separated a truly great clan from all the pretenders, no matter the titles and sobriquets they so gaudily adorned themselves with. For a member of the Eight Great Clans of Bai, everyone of their actions was steeped in history and history was power.
Over the course of their more than thirty millennia of existence, more than three dozen white stage cultivators had shaped the Clans of Bai and the Thousand Lake province. Many later ascended into godhood; joining into the unimaginable war behind the veil, yet still, each ascended ancestor increased the value of the province that raised them and gifted their clan with boons and favors.
Every white clan leader and ascended ancestor had left their mark on the people and the landscape of the Thousand Lakes province, some dedicating their lives to eliminate a specific threat or terrifying beast or spirit of old, some forged the ancient pacts that bound the clans to the land, its spirits and the people, some added to the powerful arsenal of weapons and devices locked securely in the vaults of the Clans of Bai and others again dedicated their lives to studying and understanding the land and the people itself to make them more useful to their masters.
Knowledge was a power unto itself and few other things proved the veracity of this proverb more than a Bai Library, Bai Meizhen mused as she summoned hers from her dimensional rings. A Bai Library was thing of death and fear and a promise of chronic and sustained cruelty: A Bai Library was a library of venom. Hers was contained in a box, four hand spans wide, two in height and two again in width. She opened the box and the compartments slid out presenting the many corked vials in their differently colored segments.
Toxicology was a precise and unforgiving art but when it came to venoms, the scions of the Eight Great Clans of Bai, truly stood upon the shoulders of giants. The box was divided into several differently colored segments arrayed around a central mixing bowl. The vials within the segments contained the various components necessary for creating the desired venom. The vials itself were shatter proof and vastly increased the lifespans of the ingredients within. The corks were precisely tuned dispensers only ever allowing what amounted to one dose of the vials contents to be dispensed at once.
The Library functioned as thus: The Bai Clan member chose a carrier fluid, that helped introduce the venom to the targets system and then added components from the Library, freely adjust the lethality and the effects of the venom to their liking. Lethality, numbness or loss of control of the nervous system, internal damage ranging from nonexistent to extremely aggravated, hallucinogenic or ones that caused a deep sleep but little else, the variety of options was incredible. As long as the Bai took care to only select one vial from each colored segment and did not add more than one dose of any vial to the central mixing bowl, they were guaranteed a concoction with the desired effect and did not need to worry about any undue interaction between the components or any undesired side effects.
The newly created venom could then be applied to any weapon the clan member desired or be absorbed by their qi, allowing the member to use the venom in all of their venom based arts. The Library was a prime contributor to the Bai Clans reputation, unparalleled in the Empire, of diverse and precise venoms and poisons.
Bai Meizhen selected the base fluid first. She chose Cui's very own venom as the base. No other ingredient in her possession could match the speed of Cui's venom when it came to affecting the target. The next options were also easily selected, a component to deprive the target of their vision and their sense of hearing. She wanted to take away Kang Zihao's senses and introduce a feeling of vulnerability while allowing him to retain the ability to feel everything that was happening to him. The next vial contained a slightly altered combat drug used boost the body's endurance and stamina and cognitive function. The numbing effect, dulling the users sense of pain, had been carefully removed, the highly addictive nature of the drug and its life span shortening side effects had not. Kang Zihao would need to be as fit as possible to endure the suffering to come after all.
Two more components and she would have used all segments of her Library. She chose a component that would make his movements sluggish and cause random spasms in his musculature. She wanted to see him crawl and writhe at her feet and thus chose this over any venom that would paralyze parts or the entirety of his body. The final addition would introduce pain. Twenty-seven different options made the teal colored segment easily the largest in her Library and provided a gradient ranging from a slowly building migraine that took month to properly clear out of the system to instant crippling pain that defied description by any mortal tongue.
Carefully she removed the tiny vial from its compartment before hesitating. She wanted to use this venom. Kang Zihao had insulted her, insulted her Clan, had his subordinates mock her mother's execution and tried to kill Ling Qi. "Ling Qi!" she mouthed softly.
She felt no remorse or hesitation when she thought of the torture she would inflict on the boy in the coming match. She reveled in it, enjoyed the mixture of spite and Schadenfreude and the cruelty that condensed like acid in her soul and drip by drip started to burn away the stain of dishonor the Kang had cast upon her. This would not be enough of course. She had sworn to kill him and intended to follow up on her word. Honor and the Clan demanded it after all. Still, as she rolled the vial in her hand, she hesitated. Ling Qi would be watching and while she had long accepted and embraced the part of her Bai disposition that people found vengeful, cruel and sadistic, she struggled with the idea of Ling Qi seeing her this way.
Ling Qi's face, her eyes filled with disgust and fear flashed through her mind before she managed to suppress it. An unwelcome memory. Honor demanded that she inflicted torments upon the spawn of Kang, whenever she would be able to, before finally killing him as she had sworn. She knew this. She wanted this. An ancient part of her, tugged at her qi and soul. Vicious and cruel it seemed to hiss furiously at her, her writhing at the thought of staying her hand. Her eyes, she remembered the revulsion in Ling Qis eyes as she looked at her. She could not go through this another time.
Maybe she ought to use a slightly less excruciating venom?
Soft footsteps shook her from her musings and a few seconds later the door to her chambers slid open, allowing her revered aunt to step into the room.
"Niece" Bai Suzhen greeted her softly. Her appearance had not changed from the time she had stepped into the ring to face the Duchess of the Emerald Seas. Her face set into an emotionless mask, her eyes like steel bulwarks hiding the contents of her thoughts.
"Revered Aunt" Bai Meizhen replied, bowing deeply.
"I see, you are preparing for your match against the scion of Kang?" Her aunts steely eyes took in the mixture in the bowl and the vial in her hand, understanding the situation in a moment "A more personal bout than I anticipated. What did the young Kang do to warrant this treatment? "
"I have informed the clan leader of the issue and have been given permission to proceed." Meizhen evaded.
"I did not ask if you had the backing of the clan in this matter. I asked, what the young Kang did do to warrant this response." Bai Suzhen 's displeasure did not show on her face, neither did her voice change in any way and still Bai Meizhen felt any possibility of defiance drain away in front of her aunts presence. She bowed deeply and continued.
"Forgive me, venerated aunt. The spawn of Kang has sullied the clans honor by cowardly ambushing me and an ally after I had fought the Princess Sun. He and his craven subordinates have mocked the clans standing, have ridiculed our clan's traditions and slandered our history."
"And?" The pressure on qi did not diminish as her aunt gestured for her to continue.
"And Kang Zihao, through the mouth of his subordinates, pointed to the death of Bai Meilien as the well deserved result of our so called arrogance."
Some complex emotion flickered in the eyes of her aunt, too brief for Meizhen to recognize.
"I understand. This is truly a deed that demands the most extreme retribution. You will kill him for this insolence" Bai Suzhen stated, again leaving Meizhen no room to even consider anything but complying with her aunts ironclad decree.
"I have already sworn that his life will end at my hand. I cannot act as long as we are being supervised by the sect but I will not forget what he did. Fighting him tomorrow will allow me to give him a taste of what is to come."
"Yet I saw you hesitate, niece". There was no dangerous undertone to her aunt's even, dispassionate voice. There was no inquisitive inflection demanding to know why her niece seemed to shirk her responsibilities and shy away from avenging the dishonor rendered to their clan. Meizhen did not shudder.
"The death of Kang Zihao is assured. I am committed to this." She answered with a boldness of conviction that surprised even her." I was merely wondering how a show of excess retribution in an official, formal show match would influence how my peers perceive me and how this would influence my standing among them. I fear I might be a little foolish in this matter."
Bai Suzhen was not impressed with her reasoning and again she seemed to take in the entire situation at once and saw the true reason of why she had questioned her actions. And for whom.
"Yes. I do think you are being foolish. Taking the feelings of an outsider into account, no matter how well regarded she is by you, when acting to avenge an insult cast upon the honor of the clan is a childish squeamishness I did not expect from you. I would not expect this from any true Daughter of Bai. "
Meizhens insides froze and she bowed in shame. Self-hatred welled up in her. Her weakness had embarrassed her in front of the one person she admired the most.
"But, I do not fault you for this foolishness overmuch. You are still so young, Meizhen. Youth, little one, is the time for foolish indulgences and I am glad you found the opportunity and the people to indulge yourself. Even it takes the shape of this excessive kindness." Suzhen finished, a hint of fondness entering her voice as she lightly rested her hand on her niece's shoulder.
Warmth and relief spread through Meizhen and she raised her head, looking at her aunt in reverence. "I thank you for words, revered Aunt. I will strive to rid myself of my childish foolishness and I will bring…"
"Nonsense!" The older Bai interrupted Bai Meizhen's stream of reassurances. The corners of her lips rising almost imperceptibly "I promised to let you indulge and thus indulge you shall. This is my will. In fact, I shall support you in this foolishness." She waved her hand, a large cabinet, easily standing 2 meters tall, three meters wide and a meter deep, materialized from her dimensional rings.
"Let us peruse my Library. I'm sure that we will find a solution for your predicament. Though I do wonder young Meizhen, have you ever considered that your "friend", Suzhen seemed to still struggle with the concept," might not win her match?"
"Ling Qi will win", Meizhen replied with absolute certainty before she could stop herself, "I… What I meant is that…" She paused and looked at her aunt, whose features did not betray any emotion at seeing her niece disgrace herself so pathetically. She steeled herself and began anew. "It is the result of my observations and interactions with Baroness Ling that leads me to believe that she will most likely win her match."
"Your trust is endearing. I hope it is not misplaced. I will look forward to the victory of your friend then. However," she gestured for Meizhen to join her in front of her unfolding Library. Tens of thousands of vials gleamed maliciously. "let us assume that your friend does lose or is wounded or is otherwise unable to view the match. In those circumstances, there would be no need for the restraint you have decided to limit yourself to, would there?" Like some ancient evil rising from the bottom of a deep, dark lake, bloodlust began to seep into her qi. More and more, purer and purer it emanated from the elder Bai until finally, for the first time in the conversation her impassive expression changed.
"There would be no reason, revered Aunt", Meizhen replied and the snake deep inside her, ancient and vicious rejoiced at the prospect of exacting brutal revenge on her foes. Her qi took on a fell note as it coursed through her body, first languid and sluggish then faster and ever more caustic, as it fed of the bloodthirsty energy, until it finally arranged her elfin features into a mirror of the mask of almost transcendental cruelty that adorned her aunts face "There would be no reason to hold back at all."
"Then, my dearest niece let us create two sets of venom." Bai Suzhen said, and turned back towards the vials contained within her Library.
The night before the battle of the best eight outer sect disciples of the Argent sect, two women bonded over planning to torture a young man to the very limits of sanity and beyond.
Okay, tbh this should not have been posted yet. It is riddled with spelling mistakes, formating mistakes and awkward phrasing. I just panicked when I saw that the vote was closed. I wanted this to be out before the next update. Meizhen is such a character. We saw her in her imperious and bitchy full Bai modo and we saw her weeping and clinging to her cousin for emotional support for weeks after her crush rejected her. Writing Bai Suzhen is also weird since we have had barely any lines from her. She is in like two scenes and has a bit of background fluff but that is it. It is hard to get in their heads.
Then there was this whole introduction and the library thing. That wasnt planned at all and i think it shows. I originally just wanted a scene where the Bais bond over poisoning the everloving crap out of KZ. That was all. Then things got a bit out of control.
I wanted something that shows that Meizhen wants to really, really, really hurt KZ, a lot, but she is also afraid of showing her darker side to LQ, we have seen this in the quest before and I wanted to see how her aunt would react to something like that. So I wanted something that shows her mixing her venom for the coming fight and being unsure how far she can go. Then I remembered the many different venoms Meizhen has used in the quest, from paralyzing Fan Yu to offscreen torturing that ilusion worm to death or ambushing those YR minions and even that green glowy thing she did not use against her last opponent.
So I thought hey, Meizhen must have either have a lot of arts that produce venoms for all these different situations, thus taking up a lot of her meridians or she has a box with different poisons lying arround and an art that lets her absorb a few different specialized venoms and substitute them in, in her normal attack arts. So then I projected this idea on the whole clan and bam now I had a situation where the Bai Clan hands out like these Fisher-Price Babbys first poisoneer kit to their members. wtf
I will likely cut the whole thing to size and rewrite the more awkward stuff. Likely get rid of the boxes and find something that more smoothly transitions into the dialogue scene. I just wanted something out before we hear about the result of Bai v Kang.
Then there was this whole introduction and the library thing. That wasnt planned at all and i think it shows. I originally just wanted a scene where the Bais bond over poisoning the everloving crap out of KZ. That was all. Then things got a bit out of control.
I wanted something that shows that Meizhen wants to really, really, really hurt KZ, a lot, but she is also afraid of showing her darker side to LQ, we have seen this in the quest before and I wanted to see how her aunt would react to something like that. So I wanted something that shows her mixing her venom for the coming fight and being unsure how far she can go. Then I remembered the many different venoms Meizhen has used in the quest, from paralyzing Fan Yu to offscreen torturing that ilusion worm to death or ambushing those YR minions and even that green glowy thing she did not use against her last opponent.
So I thought hey, Meizhen must have either have a lot of arts that produce venoms for all these different situations, thus taking up a lot of her meridians or she has a box with different poisons lying arround and an art that lets her absorb a few different specialized venoms and substitute them in, in her normal attack arts. So then I projected this idea on the whole clan and bam now I had a situation where the Bai Clan hands out like these Fisher-Price Babbys first poisoneer kit to their members. wtf
I will likely cut the whole thing to size and rewrite the more awkward stuff. Likely get rid of the boxes and find something that more smoothly transitions into the dialogue scene. I just wanted something out before we hear about the result of Bai v Kang.