Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

[Thor's Twin]

Also, if we are look for more arts I would like to reiterate bloodbending.

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I wonder what the blood bending art would do in regards to Sun Liling's blood armor and weapon. Would the art see those as acceptable targets to be used on, or would the Qi animating the blood repel the ability to influence it?

 

[Grosstoad]

Also happened at the end of the ambush, right before Lady Cai saved us.

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I think that one was specifically mentioned as the Art fading as it was not maintained.

 

[Karugus]

[X] Buy a Life Essence Salve (12 Red Spirit Stones) and 3 Wellspring Pills (9 Red Spirit Stones)
[X] The finer details of spirits and binding

 

[Mr.rodent]

Before we go crazy on arts along consider that out arts may affect what type of pokemon we can get. As well as other effects

Just a theory but the arts effect the user in subtle ways ( Argent makes people more eccentric doesn't it? Or at least enhances qualities of that person )

Then we have our sorrowful melody , our inner world right now is a place of mist rolling mountains , glades and nighttime thus making it more attractive to spirits who would find that place relaxing or comforting to stay in. Maybe even just attracted to us in general.

Say we add bloodbending then suddenly our inner world starts to get more red... water and lakes turn red and the area becomes less attractive to certain spirits. Not to mention liling uses a blood knight blood bending ability and Bai finds it distasteful (comment about her family going full native )

 

[mrttao]

Also happened at the end of the ambush, right before Lady Cai saved us.

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Yes. it was an opposed roll, we won it several times. but the last one we lost so the mist dispersed

 

[Thor's Twin]

Then we have our sorrowful melody , our inner world right now is a place of mist rolling mountains , glades and nighttime thus making it more attractive to spirits who would find that place relaxing or comforting to stay in. Maybe even just attracted to us in general.

Say we add bloodbending then suddenly our inner world starts to get more red... water and lakes turn red and the area becomes less attractive to certain spirits. Not to mention liling uses a blood knight blood bending ability and Bai finds it distasteful (comment about her family going full native )

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Hey, I made an omake about this! Anyway, here is my take on the whole, what do spirits like and what type of spirits are we attracting. The art that is being called blood bending is merely the sensing and influencing of others through the medium of blood, primarily because blood contains mostly water. This would align our meridians with water, and it is the elemental alignment of our meridians that most dramatically affects the elemental alignment that we are perceived as having. I don't think that the Crimson art that we are talking about will make us distasteful to other spirits or to Meizhen, because this art is found in the first level of a highly regarded Sect in the empire (It is highly regarded, otherwise families from all over the empire wouldn't have come here).

The fact that Sun Liling has gone native with her art indicates to me that it is an art founded and based around the native culture of the provinces Sun Liling comes from. This would mean that the art is not native to the Empire and is not going to be a traditional Imperial art, hence the distaste from Meizhen who is from the central province and from a clan that has existed inside the empire for over a millennium.

 

[mrttao]

Before we go crazy on arts along consider that out arts may affect what type of pokemon we can get. As well as other effects

Just a theory but the arts effect the user in subtle ways ( Argent makes people more eccentric doesn't it? Or at least enhances qualities of that person )

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We also got some elemental bonuses on breakthrough which i think were because of arts pursued.

 

[mrttao]

Say we add bloodbending then suddenly our inner world starts to get more red... water and lakes turn red and the area becomes less attractive to certain spirits. Not to mention liling uses a blood knight blood bending ability and Bai finds it distasteful (comment about her family going full native )

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You are displaying this as a negative. it might be less attractive for some spirits, but more attractive to other spirits.

Also, Bai doesn't detest the abilities, she has an inherited from her family enemy and is just using any insult to throw at her.

Also, our blood bending would be different than hers (different art types). We would be getting support arts, that heal and buff allies. (and debuff enemies, and sense enemies)
Sun's ability uses it to make weapons and armor that poison. It looks like a different path.
And our choice would be an empire art acquired from an empire sect. rather than an art taken from the barbarians.

anyways, its an enormously useful tool in terms of both sensory ability, buffs, debuffs, and injury mitigation. Passing on it because we think blood bending is evil seems nonsensical.

 

[TheLastOne]

Yes. it was an opposed roll, we won it several times. but the last one we lost so the mist dispersed

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And it will keep happening. It's great against people weaker then us, good against people stronger then us, but it's going to be more and more unreliable punching up.

We've also seen enough of it's progression to know how it will grow. I expect the next level to make Dissonance in the Night an instant on the round we activate Mist of the Vale, and the last level to make Starlight Elegy instant with Mist of the Vale, plus some ultimate technique that sacrifices the mist to do something big and landscapey.

Like, it's just a guess, but I expect that to be the pattern.

 

[Kyr'am]

Well then. Let's... try not to cross Xuan Shi, shall we? Other than that, I love how Bai Meizhen is starting to open up around us -- I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes.

[X] Buy a Life Essence Salve (12 Red Spirit Stones) and 3 Wellspring Pills (9 Red Spirit Stones)
[X] Meizhen's thoughts on cultivation goals for the second realm

Not entirely sure about purchases, but this seems best at first glance. As for the discussion, I would say that knowing what we should be aiming for is the most useful, given that we can shape our planning around it.

Cai probably has high talent as well as decent recourses due to only being 3 generations down from her OP as fuck clan head. Who is the youngest white cultivator in empire.

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I thought it was her mother who was the youngest White cultivator?

EDIT: On checking the Dramatis Personae threadmark, it says that she's a third generation cultivator but her mother is the Duchess, meaning that unless I'm misinterpreting it one (or more) of her grandparents was the first cultivator in the family, but her mother was the one to reach White super young.

 

[Yun]

Hmm I think of of our biggest weaknesses right now are large blowback abilities that disperse our mist leaving us fucked. What's a good counter for that?

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Obviously we need to bind a vicious Moon Bunny to unleash upon our foes right as the mist disperses allowing them a glimpse of the terror they're up against!

 

[yrsillar]

Well then. Let's... try not to cross Xuan Shi, shall we? Other than that, I love how Bai Meizhen is starting to open up around us -- I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes.


I thought it was her mother who was the youngest White cultivator?

EDIT: On checking the Dramatis Personae threadmark, it says that she's a third generation cultivator but her mother is the Duchess, meaning that unless I'm misinterpreting it one (or more) of her grandparents was the first cultivator in the family, but her mother was the one to reach White super young.

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This is correct

 

[Mr.rodent]

Passing on it because we think blood bending is evil seems nonsensical.

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I never said that, I simply stated we should talk about the possible pros and cons before that.

You make several good points but one point about the spirits I have to question, the type of spirits attracted to blood don't sound very cuddly to me D

Also a point I was trying to bring up was will the art effect us personality wise , (any arts really) like would we be more bloodthirsty, more analytical , would a fire art make us more temperamental . These things

 

[vali]

... has anyone brought up the idea of letting Han Jian and his crew borrow our archive pass?

Unlike the Vent, the archive pass is ours and ours alone, so we can lend it out without pissing off our friends. We don't visit the archive all that often, and we live close to Xuilan, so not having the pass on us is only a minor inconvenience. And lastly, it insures that Han and crew won't jump us during training one day and just take the pass.

It's possible that Han will one day refuse to give it back, or that someone will jump Han and take it, or even that Han and his friends already have all the arts they need and wouldn't be interested in a pass. But it still seems worth exploring.

 

[Kyr'am]

This is correct

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Good to know -- thanks for the confirmation.

Presumably, this means that Cai Renxiang should have pretty high talent, unless genetics (or any other sort of pseudo genetic inheritance children of cultivators might get) plays no part in it.

Anyway, it's 2 AM here so I'll have to continue discussing this after I get some sleep.

 

[Thor's Twin]

It's possible that Han will one day refuse to give it back, or that someone will jump Han and take it, or even that Han and his friends already have all the arts they need and wouldn't be interested in a pass. But it still seems worth exploring.

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I'm more considering informing them about the tokens. It would be of great help to the 4 of them to know what the tokens do and how they operate. I don't think any of them are particularly well versed in formations and they didn't have the archive pass to help them, so them getting to use these resources would be a major help.

 

[TheLastOne]

... has anyone brought up the idea of letting Han Jian and his crew borrow our archive pass?

Unlike the Vent, the archive pass is ours and ours alone, so we can lend it out without pissing off our friends. We don't visit the archive all that often, and we live close to Xuilan, so not having the pass on us is only a minor inconvenience. And lastly, it insures that Han and crew won't jump us during training one day and just take the pass.

It's possible that Han will one day refuse to give it back, or that someone will jump Han and take it, or even that Han and his friends already have all the arts they need and wouldn't be interested in a pass. But it still seems worth exploring.

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We've talked about lending it out, but we need to grab at least a few first floor arts to form the basis of our strength first. It's too risky not to have it right now, and complex plans...

We're about to cultivate really heavily.

 

[mc2rpg]

Letting Suyin borrow the archive pass should be firmly off the table now. Having it stolen from her would be practically guaranteed the moment anyone found out.

 

[Alectai]

Obviously we need to bind a vicious Moon Bunny to unleash upon our foes right as the mist disperses allowing them a glimpse of the terror they're up against!

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I would be 1,000% okay with a lunar bunny spirit.

Doubly so if they're still potentially impressive! After all, one normally doesn't consider rats impressive, but then you get stuff like Bebe from Coiling Dragon who's an absolute monster.

Especially once he gets his Innate Divine Ability.

Godeater is so unfair.

 

[vali]

We've talked about lending it out, but we need to grab at least a few first floor arts to form the basis of our strength first. It's too risky not to have it right now, and complex plans...

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Well since we live right next to Xuilan lending it out and getting it back should be really easy and convenient. Between that and helping them with the tokens I think we could keep them as our friends without giving away the vent.

 

[Thor's Twin]

I would be 1,000% okay with a lunar bunny spirit.

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We would just have to avoid anyone with a holy hand grenade.

On a more serious topic, What treasures await us behind those bronze doors? It's probably something that is going to dramatically help yellow cultivators and is probably more valuable than the Argent Vent, which was able to be accessed by Red level Cultivators. Could it be valuable arts, valuable pills, a valuable argent soul vent, An Immortals Cave? Who knows, but I can't wait to find out!

 

[Mr.rodent]

Also consider the tokens might not be good in the long run for hans group as fan yu didn't pass the test... so 3/4 wold have the token info and it would just add another dash on fan yus shit list /insecurities while Han jian is doing his best to keep the group together and make sure everyone gets strong together. (He's probably super stressed right now. 14yr old kid trying to be a leader while trying to make up for past mistakes.)

As for the pass, let's get our own arts first. Then consider li suyin or su ling instead.

Han and the others all have family arts they are working on +spirit training with their pokemon + Argent soul + physical . Other arts might interest them but they aren't us, they have lesser talent and need to spend more time training the arts they do have just to keep up

 

[TheLastOne]

Well since we live right next to Xuilan lending it out and getting it back should be really easy and convenient. Between that and helping them with the tokens I think we could keep them as our friends without giving away the vent.

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Going so far as to arrange sharing would be at least an action. We don't have the free action in the near future.

 

[Shadell]

[X] Buy a Life Essence Salve (12 Red Spirit Stones)
[X] Meizhen's thoughts on cultivation goals for the second realm

Every option is tempting, but I think we have a lot of alternatives (helping Gu with spirit stuff stands out, just asking Han Jian or asking later) for pets. Politics is vaguest, and probably less immediately useful and the tournament seems pretty straightforward now (and may have just gotten shaken up with Ji Rong getting punished hard).

That, and it's messing with our relationship with Gu. We need to talk to her about this mess.

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Agreed. Being more proactive to help out with things she needs (doing a job together/getting a pet) would be solid, but also getting her read on the situation with everyone and sharing a worry about losing our friends would be both adorable and helpful.

3 Starlight Elixir: Adds 5 dice to the cultivation of combat arts. In addition use of the pill triggers a single bonus physical cultivation roll, which receives a 3 die bonus.

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This is good. We should tell Han Jian and his group about this ASAP. If they haven't noticed, it's nice from us, costs nothing and is quite helpful. If they have, it humanizes us for taking so long to notice, and accidentally shows us being nicer than they are to us. It's also effectively +2 net actions, since we get 3 'free' physical training actions from this and only lost 1 action to get it. It's a pity that we're losing the ability to double-dip this with Argent Elixer, as getting this earlier would likely have us done with AS by now.

As for training. The vent gives us 5 AS points. That brings us to 93. Argent Elixer gives 1/3rd of our art successes to AS training. Physical, with 20 dice give something like 6-8 successes to AS, potentially finishing it. SCS should almost certainly do it as well.

Socially, while we got 2 items off our agenda this week, the cost is that Han Jian is moving further into crisis. Part of this looks to be nothing, but part of this looks to be our breakthrough to silver stirring up latent issues. Note that Xiulan also moved a bit away from us here. I'd suggest we hit Gu and Han both next week, asking Gu Xiulan what's wrong and trying to shore up support there for when we do talk to Han Jian. Even if we don't want to keep this social link, we should confront things, because there's a difference between drifting apart and an ugly breakup and the latter can cost us actions down the line.

 

[Arkeus]

Also, who is pumped for AS 5 the next cultivation week! We only need 12 more successes, and with the 5 autos, that brings it down to 7, easily manageable with a single AS cultivation action and an Argent Elixir

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That's easily achievable by cultivating two arts and physical. Last time we picked an art out of the archive, we also retroactively cultivated it that week, so an archive search, sable step, and physical cultivation should easily add up to more then the 21 successes needed.

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We didn't retroactively cultivated the art, but @yrsillar confirmed that's how it worked currently.

And yeah, drinking one of our new fancy Elixir, archive and SCS training and Argent Elixir is enough to get us to AS5. We can train EPC this turn.

Yeah, using Starlight for only one or two arts would be a huge waste. +5 isn't much... +10 is okay.... +15 is almost like getting another cultivation action that turn.

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Starlight is just a bit better than Argent Elixir when it comes to combat art. good, but nothing to dream about. It's the single extra physical that's nice. Doesn't work like sable light pill though.

And it will keep happening. It's great against people weaker then us, good against people stronger then us, but it's going to be more and more unreliable punching up.

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Well, our dice with it are pretty damn low too currently, that will get better fast. Also, it can only be contested with AoE techs, which isn't easy.

Letting Suyin borrow the archive pass should be firmly off the table now. Having it stolen from her would be practically guaranteed the moment anyone found out.

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Not for long, honestly. She is fast approaching combat viability. Also, giving her a Qi card might help a lot if we get a good escape art for her. So if she decides to go to the archive at night and leave at night, CG and Trackless escape should be enough for her safety.