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
We could just take a shot at Sun, and see if we can land a respectable shot on her before we fall. Going after Dharitri is based on the idea that she's a softer target than Liling, and that if we can push her hard enough we can push her out of her comfort zone and gain tactical info for Meizhen.
Yeah, that's a pretty solid summary.
Now for a big post on my thoughts on the whole thing.
First is a thing, Liling needs blood to do the buff thing, but her blood works fine.
"Ha, you know… It really is too bad you're with the snake," Sun Liling replied, her features lighting with a feral grin, even as she slashed her fingers across her right forearm, drawing a spray of blood.
Then everything went mad.
Gan Guangli charged with a bellow of righteous fury, light blazing ftom his forearms as a pair of heavy iron gauntlets appeared, studded with spikes longer than Ling Qi's knives. They looked more like something that would be used to batter down gates than something to be worn, and the impression was only reinforced by the explosion of dust and the tremor that exploded outward as he slammed a ham sized fist into the ground where Lu Feng had been standing a moment ago. In the same instant, Sun Liling became little more than a red blur, dark armor spreading across her her limbs and torso in the bare second it took her to cross the distance to Cai Renxiang, her grinning face vanishing behind the toothy maw of the demonic visage that formed her helmet.
From the Thunderdome Redux.
Second obviously is the assumptions I have going into this, which basically fall into a couple of groups.
The first group is those assumptions about Sun Liling herself, based on previous encounters.
The first of these is that she either concedes the initiative or looses it in most of her fights, and her outright losing it is unlikely considering her pedigree and that she literally conceded it in our chase fight.
40/43 Qi
Whatever else might have been said next was silenced as a white streak of light flashed across the field, cutting between the posturing groups, aimed at the narrow faced and nervous boy standing at Kang Zihao's left side. In an instant the son of the imperial guard moved, bringing up his gleaming silver shield to deflect the projectile.
This is Thunderdome Redux, though given this is essentially attacking from surprise based on the vote I don't think it counts and am including it merely for thoroughness.
"Your gettin it," Sun Liling replied lightly. "Honor isn't built to favor the weak, but you got one thing wrong."
"What's that?" Ling Qi replied, tense as her thoughts raced on what best to do.
"Even the most hidebound noble in Celestial Peaks wouldn't frown at this," the crimson princess drawled. "You're too good for that, and you might as well have spat in my face with that lil' stunt at my fort. The fact is, you're a pain in the ass, but with that pretty dress o' yours, you're a menace. So take your first shot, run or whatever. I want to get this started."
Crimson Princess Interrupt. In the following update she lets Ling Qi do her thing, then goes to stab her.
"It is my honor to face the princess of the west," the handsome boy said, offering a low bow as the arena's formations began to glow and shimmer.
Sun Liling's expression didn't change as she rolled her shoulders, loosening up in preparation for the match. "Yeah, it is. Let me give ya my condolences," she drawled as the stone arena faded and shifted into rolling golden sand dunes around them. "Nothin' personal going in," her tone was flat and cold.
The boy grimaced and straightened up as the terrain solidified. "As you say, princess."
Outside the bubble of altered reality which took up the arena, Sect Head Yuan's cane rapped once against the stones, and the resulting clap of thunder served as the starting signal. In an instant, a straight edged sword appeared in Hei Boqin's hand, as he began to backpedal, a layer of metallic qi spreading to . At the same time, the air in front of him distorted and from it sprang a massive boar, three meters at the shoulder, with tusks as long as a man's arm. The beasts hide glinted in the bright desert light, formed of overlapping plates of burnished bronze colored metal. It's hooved legs were already churning sand as it launched itself in a full charge down the slope of the dune, where the Sun Princess still stood.
For a moment, the red haired girl didn't move, leaving her arms crossed under her chest as her opponents spirit beast charged toward her, but then, in an instant, she moved. The force of her motion sent up a muffled boom, the sand cratering where she had stood, and in her hands, a trailing ribbon of crimson liquid hardened, taking the form of her barbed spear. Her slipper clad feet touched down lightly on the charging boars back as she used the beast as a springboard to launch herself at Hei Boquin, crimson gauntlets and bracers forming rapidly up her arms.
Even as she sprang upward though, the boar let out a piteous squeal of agony as a five sharp stakes of wood erupted from the sand beneath its feet, driving it into the air, legs kicking uselessly even as they stabbed into its less armored underbelly. From the sands beneath the impaled beast, Sun Liling's spirit, the scantily clad Dhartiri emerged, immaculate and smiling beatifically as the blood poured down her upraised arm, whose smooth, caramel flesh flowed smoothly into the thorny claw of wood which dug deep into the boars gut.
Her match vs Hei Boquin.
Shen Hu's forward foot dug into the mud, and the rich earth at his feet shattered in his wake as he launched himself forward, bubbling mud and marsh reeds pouring from his shoulders even as glittering diamond claws grew to encase his outstretched fingertips. The crimson princess merely grinned in the face of the charge though, her green eyes gleaming with open bloodlust. Blood gushed from her palms, crawling up her limbs to form gauntlet and vambrace, even as her terrible black barbed spear took shape. Even as her own feet launched her backward, she drew her arm back, and in the blink of an eye launched the spear, screaming through the air like a newly launched arrow.
In her match vs Shen Hu, though here the real indication is that Lanhua is being expressed first by all indications.
The second assumption is that Sun Liling does not always express Dharitri(plant lady) immediately.
Everything felt slightly unreal to Ling Qi. Her previous battles had never seemed quite so… beyond human in scope, but now, watching Sun Liling, now fully encased in demonic red armor, it's helm a triumvirate of fanged faces, wielding her spear with impossible skill even as another pair of skeletal arms formed, on her shoulders, already wielding vicious, jagged edged blades clashing with what seemed like a living star, Cai Renxiang barely even visible within her corona of light save as a vague winged figure unleashing scorching arcs of burning light with every sweep of the dark blade in her hands, while flitting through the sky, shockwaves erupting each time she fell upon Sun Liling like meteor.
Things were growing more hectic as well, Sun Liling's voice snapped out something garbled in a language Ling Qi didn't understand, and bloody mist streamed from her back, solidifying into the tall and willowy form of a beautiful bronze skinned woman in… scant red silk scarves and nothing else, Ling Qi felt qi begin to exude from the the captivating form of the spirit and her mist shimmered, growing warm around the woman as flowers began to bloom at her feet, it was an oddly captivating scene…
Redux, Dharitri expressed in the second round.
Reactivating art suite
24/60
Use wellspring pill
34/60
Ling Qi continues escape
Reactivting CG and OwS
28/60 Qi
Uses one wellspring pill 38/60 qi
Dex 6 + Stealth 6 + EPC 2 + Robe 2 + Slipper 2+OwS+Environment 2+Ally 3. 26 dice +2 auto(SCS)
3 7 10 5 7 7 8 7 3 1 6 7 2 7 1 1 9 1 2 1 8 5 5 9 8 9. 13 successes. 15 total
Sun Liling Tracking
Wits+Survival+Passive+Sahasrara, Ama-Kala+Blood+Pulse Tracking-SCS-distance. 25 dice. +2 auto
9 1 7 10 7 9 5 9 4 10 6 6 7 1 5 1 2 6 2 5 3 5 4 5 7. 9 successes. 11 total.
Dhartiri Tracking
Wits+Survival+Passive+Threads of Life+Blood so Sweet-SCS. 30 dice. +2 cultivation auto.
8 1 1 3 4 5 3 10 9 7 2 10 9 5 3 6 9 2 5 8 8 8 9 7 9 3 6 3 3 6. 13 success. 15 total
Tie, defender succeeds
It isn't clear when Dharitri is expressed, appearing some time after the flurry dance.
For a moment, the red haired girl didn't move, leaving her arms crossed under her chest as her opponents spirit beast charged toward her, but then, in an instant, she moved. The force of her motion sent up a muffled boom, the sand cratering where she had stood, and in her hands, a trailing ribbon of crimson liquid hardened, taking the form of her barbed spear. Her slipper clad feet touched down lightly on the charging boars back as she used the beast as a springboard to launch herself at Hei Boquin, crimson gauntlets and bracers forming rapidly up her arms.
Even as she sprang upward though, the boar let out a piteous squeal of agony as a five sharp stakes of wood erupted from the sand beneath its feet, driving it into the air, legs kicking uselessly even as they stabbed into its less armored underbelly. From the sands beneath the impaled beast, Sun Liling's spirit, the scantily clad Dhartiri emerged, immaculate and smiling beatifically as the blood poured down her upraised arm, whose smooth, caramel flesh flowed smoothly into the thorny claw of wood which dug deep into the boars gut.
Here it seems like she expressed Dharitri on round one, in her turn when she paused momentarily.
It was not content merely charging though, as the tree Sun Liling had landed on tilted drunkenly, the soil at its roots softing as grasping muddy hands rose to clutch at the girls limbs. She laughed, launching herself from the branch, her voice now distorted, reverberating within the fanged maw of the three faced demonic helm that now covered her head. "You've made another mistake, you know!" She exclaimed, bloody mist erupting from channels all across her armor as she spun gracefully through the air, avoiding the grasping hands and launched spikes of crystal as easily as Ling Qi herself had, if not moreso.
Ling Qi felt it then, a ripple of disquieting qi that spread outward from the now fallen tree that Sun Liling had stood upon. The very air shimmered with it… or perhaps something else. Brightly colored flowers bloomed from now swiftly rotting bark, and spread outward, devouring grass and soil alike in a multichromatic carpet. It reached Lanhua's thick, trunk-like feet only a few seconds later, despite the beasts alarmed step backward.
Here is where Dharitri is expressed, after the first round exchange.
The third assumption is that Sun Liling has scary perfect damage. This is reasonable due to, again, her pedigree. The logs from the Princess Interrupt are kinda hard to parse, but here they are.
Ling Qi
Mist
Manipulation 5 + Expression 6 + Flute 2 + Pin 2 + tech 2+First Strike 5+specialty 1. 23 dice
2 4 10 8 10 5 6 8 3 1 3 3 8 8 7 10 9 2 1 3 1 9 3. 10 successes
Sun Liling
Resolve+Resilience+Equip/Passive+Sahasrara, Ama-Kala. 30 dice
1 6 9 8 10 5 3 7 10 8 10 6 8 6 3 4 3 7 10 6 6 2 10 3 7 9 9 2 9 9. 16 successes
59/60 qi
Sun Liling
Dex+Spear+Equip/Passive+Red Thorn Heartseeker-mist. 32 dice +4 cultivation auto
3 3 5 2 10 9 2 9 5 9 4 3 2 8 5 5 8 7 7 9 1 7 4 8 9 3 1 9 3 2 5 5. 13 successes. 17 total
Ling Qi
Dex 6 + Dodge 6 + Robe 4 + TRF 3 + CG 6 + Activation 3+Projectile 3 = 31 Dice
8 5 6 7 2 10 4 7 2 2 4 9 10 3 2 7 5 9 8 6 4 4 9 8 9 10 7 8 4 7 2. 16 successes
1 damage dealt, additional four damage due to technique. Armor Piercing negates armor. 2 damage is perfect, two damage ignores qi negation. Physical Defense Penalized by three, Speed penalized by 2.
56/60 qi
[*][*][X][X][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
Ling Qi Attempts to stealth
Dex 6 + Stealth 6 + EPC 2 + Robe 2 + Slipper 2+OwS+Mist 2. 23 dice
8 8 9 6 2 7 9 8 3 10 5 9 10 6 2 8 1 7 9 5 9 7 9. 15 successes
54/60
Sun Liling Perception
Wits+Composure+Passive+Sahasrara, Ama-Kala+Blood. 25 dice. +2 auto
10 3 7 3 1 10 3 3 4 2 6 2 3 8 5 7 6 7 1 5 9 8 1 10 8. 10 successes. 12 total
Ling Qi escaping
Dex 6 + Stealth 6 + EPC 2 + Robe 2 + Slipper 2+OwS+Environment 2. 23 dice +2 auto(SCS)+1 auto(Lazy Minx)
1 4 6 1 10 8 5 2 5 3 2 2 1 1 5 7 7 9 9 8 8 10 5. 9 successes. 12 total
Sun Liling Searching
Wits+Survival+Passive+Sahasrara, Ama-Kala+Blood+Pulse Tracking-SCS. 27 dice. +2 auto
7 8 2 5 9 4 2 5 8 8 6 8 9 7 9 5 7 7 4 9 1 1 7 3 6 7 5. 14 successes. 16 total
Rerolling failed stealth
6 6 5 5 1 6 7 1 8 10 3 2 6 10 3 6 10 8 7 8 7 3 8. 10 successes. 13 total
50/60 qi (CG+OwS+FS)
Sun Liling Attacks
Dex+Spear+Equip/Passive+Scarlet Devil Armament+Flower Goddess' Dance. 35 dice. +4 cultivation auto
8 7 9 2 3 2 4 10 3 1 6 9 2 4 7 7 10 7 5 8 4 8 10 10 5 9 5 7 10 1 5 7 9 3 1. 18 successes. 22 total
Second attack
10 9 8 6 9 6 5 5 4 4 9 8 4 1 6 8 6 4 9 9 5 5 2 2 5 3 5 4 4 8 2 5 6 10 10. 12 successes. 16 total
Third Attack
3 2 3 2 1 8 7 10 2 3 1 4 8 2 6 5 8 7 4 3 8 1 3 5 2 8 8 10 7 4 2 10 6 6 1. 16 total.
Ling Qi defends
Dex 6 + Dodge 6 + Robe 4 + TRF 3 + CG 6 +TRD 3+Activation 2 = 30 Dice
1 6 9 1 4 7 6 6 7 8 10 10 7 10 1 8 9 8 2 4 7 4 4 9 3 10 10 10 10 3. 17 successes.
First Attack connects. 5 damage +2 additional perfect damage. Piercing negates armor. Formless Shade negates one perfect damage. 15 qi from TRD negates remaining damage. Aggravated damage downgraded to lethal by TRD.
35/60 qi
[*][*][X][X][X][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
The second group of assumptions is about how Ling Qi plus friends compares to Sun Liling plus friends, also based on previous information, though less concretely because we don't know Sun Liling perfectly.
The first assumption is that Ling Qi can actually survive, and still be in a state to do things, after the first round if she uses at least three techs from TRF. This is extrapolation based on four things; the first is how we did against Ji Rong, the second is the various types of damage negation and mitigation Ling Qi has in TRF, and then the third is looking at how Shen Hu did, and the fourth is how TRF did in the chase and likely progression on both parties.
The second assumption is that the Horror and Zhengui, if expressed on Ling Qi's turn, will act after Sun Liling in the first round due to initiative numbers. Zhengui is a bit slow in initiative, and the Horror is basically just outclassed in this fight beyond being a healpole.
The third assumption is that Dharitri can be taken down with Ling Qi's known techniques. We don't really have any measure on her abilities, beyond surviving a bite from Cui in Thunderdome Redux, but her behavior indicates sitting there and taking it is not her best mode of combat.
The fourth assumption is that after Dharitri is defeated, Ling Qi can actually disengage using flight and her stealth and SCS as needed.
Now with my engineering organizational urges appeased, here's my actual thoughts on a plan, which follows Erebeal's basic summary and also draws a lot from TehChron's own plan and other suggestions from the thread. (It might actually just end up being identical, and if so whoops, sorry about that).
Below is how I would write out the plan text in vote form:
To survive to use your arts, you will have to use as much of Thousand Ring Fortress as possible before Liling acts, expressing Zhengui and the Horror as you do. Withstand her first hit while beginning to sing the Soul Serenade and using PLR's Festival for another layer of defense as your brother heals you and the Horror uses its abilities. When Dharitri reveals herself some time after the first exchange, the Horror and Zhengui are to occupy the spirit and heal either Zhengui or yourself, and you will use Renxiang's card on Sun Liling. Even if the dispelling of her armor fails, the power of the technique will let you hit Dharitri with a Hoarfrost Caress empowered by the card and Argent Current's Pressure Crack. At this point use the Forgotten Vale Melody and keep fighting till Dharitri is defeated, reusing the card as needed on Sun Liling or Dharitri, occasionally making shots at Sun if an opening presents itself. Once Dharitri is defeated, disengage from Sun and heal, to come at her with renewed TRF and your best attacks. The purpose here is to tease out secrets from the western princess, and if you can survive them, defeat her.
(I hate these turn order plans with a burning passion.
@yrsillar can we do away with them in the sequel please?)
To unpack the suitcase, my round order is like this:
Round 1
Ling Qi should be using TRU+HRA+TRD, and expressing the Horror and Zhengui.
Sun will have her first turn attack, which Ling Qi should survive.
The Horror completes TRF, Zhengui begins to heal with his Ash techniques.
Round 2
At this point it is down to making distance and using IPF+GCD+SEA to bait out Dharitri while the Horror tries to stay alive and everyone else piles onto Liling.
If/when Dharitri shows herself, is when our spirits switch to her.
Round 3
Use the Cai card on Sun and PC to attack Dharitri with HC.
At this point time is running out due to health damage from Sun, only somewhat mitigated by healing and TRF.
Round 4
Whatever drops out of TRF, and FVM.
From here on it's just a repeat of round 3 because we literally have no other arts to use which are actually relevant beyond AE.
Round 5+
Disengage, heal, reassess what's up and then buff everything back up to reengage Liling.
There might be other arts we could do, like using Lunatic Whirl on Dharitri, but I doubt it. If someone else wants to expand upon this, feel free.
