The Guang family is gone, their holding destroyed and their members slaughtered.
Guang Li, the only survivor has fled to the Verdant Flames sect, where he is now an outer disciple. Utilizing the Guang bloodline he has summoned you, his ancestors to help him on his path of vengeance.
He would advance in cultivation, find out what happened to his family and achieve vengeance for their deaths.
So long as you can keep him form dying to the first young master he encounters of course.
Should I start another Quest when I already have 4 projects? No, probably not but this idea won't leave my head and I've been experiencing writers block recently and I've found that starting something new is helpful with it.
Anyways, welcome, this is the first time I've done a Riot quest so I hope you'll enjoy. I'm not sure exactly how many players are going to participate (although from my experience Riot quest draw a lot of people in) so I've been conservative with my numbers, if I judge that they are too high for the number of players I will likely adjust them a little.
Also I need like 5 posts reserved so hold posting for a minute or two.
"I've done it… I've finally done it!" a rather plain boy exclaimed as sweat and gunk covered his body and cloths.
He didn't seem to care as he jumped up and down in his excitement, letting the impurities expelled in his breakthrough spill into the even plainer room he was in.
It was several minutes before the young boy seemed to remember his currant predicaments and hurried to clean himself using the water from a basin prepared beforehand.
When he was as clean as he could reasonably get, the boy turned to his self-appointed task once more.
"Okay, if I remember right the Qi should go like this and then like that and then spread through my entire body" with a look of determination and concentration on his face, the boy began twisting his Qi in patterns half remembered before finally letting out an "ahaa!" sound as you and your fellows were tugged -ever so gently- one step closer into the physical realm.
Of course, one step out of a million was nothing but it was enough, enough for the boy -and only the boy- to look upon the shades that you were. Enough for you to influence him through the power of your blood.
At your appearance the boy fell to the ground Kowtowing "honored ancestors, this humble Guang Li begs for your support. The Guang family is gone, our killers free to glut themselves on our corpses, grant me your aid so I may acquire the power to avenge our line."
There was no response, no response you could have given for you were not far enough on the path to the physical realm for anything like sound to be possible for you to emit. But you didn't have to.
You too felt the rage at your bloodline destruction and so you answered the call and were dragged one step even closer to the realm of the living.
But who where you?
[ ] The old, the infirm, the wise.
You were the ghost of an elder, old and gray, your time at the land of the living has given you wisdom beyond your fellows.
When picking a wisdom action roll 2d6 instead of 1d6.
Guang Li starting attributes are weighted toward Intelligence and wisdom.
[ ] The broken, the sorrow, the wrath.
You were the restless ghost, the one who died unfulfilled, the one who was killed with regrets the innocent killed at the hand of a murderer. You have been born into this world with anger in your heart and it will never fade.
When picking a Wrath action roll 2d6 instead of 1d6.
Guang Li starting attributes are weighted toward strength and dexterity.
[ ] The young, the lifeful, the Qi.
You were a child, a teenager, so full of life, so full of promise, all of it cut short by cruel fate, you died without regret, without anger and your youthfulness has carried though to the realm of the dead. You are more connected with the living, more aligned with the energy of life itself.
When picking a Qi action roll 2d6 instead of 1d6.
Guang Li starting attributes are weighted toward constitution and perception.
"Thank you oh honored ancestors, for answering my call" the Boy have yet to rise from his supplication as he bowed toward his ancestors' spirits. "After the destruction of the family hold, I fled here, to the Verdant Flames Sect and has been accepted as outer disciple, as far as I can tell no one else has survived but you would know more about this then me, honored ancestors."
The boy was right, through the connection of your bloodline, all the knowledge accrued by the family members was available to you, including who was currently alive who perished and joined with the collective. Except… except for some reason that reservoir of knowledge was muddy and sluggish. knowledge that should have been at your fingertips requiring active effort to claw even the barest hint.
You frown, did the boy foolishness cause this… or was it merely your enemy action, a way to strike at your family beyond the realm of the living.
Unknowing of your thoughts the boy continued on "In three months' time, the sect will test all outer disciples and expel those it deems unworthy and untalented."
"Honored ancestors, I possess no resources, no backing and little talent, if I am expelled from the sect my journey of cultivation -and the chance for vengeance- would end. I implore you to help me!"
Event tracker.
Time: 3 turns.
Type: threshold, combat.
Description: the sect is going to test it's outer disciples, their cultivation and skills. Those found unworthy would be expelled with the rest allowed to stay in the outer sect. those who prove talented beyond their peers would see their status advance.
Failure: expelled from the sect. end of quest.
Successes: remain in the outer sect.
Welcome to Ancestor ghosts, in this quest you'll be playing as the ancestors of Guang Li as he tries to advance in his cultivation, find out what happed to his family and gain vengeance.
The main way time is going to pass is between events, whenever on event is done, another will be put on the event tracker, you won't have information on all of them, some would actually be completely hidden with you needing to take action to reveal them.
Every event will have a timer, which shows how many turns before it occurs. It has a type which determines how it is resolved (for example combat means, combat rolls would occur and threshold means that a certain point must be reached in your cultivation/skills) an event may have more then than one type and that means it judges successes based on either both of them or one of them.
Every turn, Guang Li will pick 3 action to do (in time you will have a way to affect this) and every player may pick an action from the list and then roll according to the type of ancestor he chose (1d6 for action no tin your category and 2d6 for action in your category) you roll by posting and then hitting edit on that post and clicking roll dice on the bottom of the post.
There are two types of action, progress and DC. Progress actions are easy your roll total is added to the shared progress count and when that count reaches a certain number it resolves and you gain its effect.
Dc actions are different (and there is currently only one) here the rolls aren't added up but rather every roll is checked against the DC, if its higher or equal the action passed if its lower than it failed. For every failure the next player gains a +1 to his roll until the action passes but be warned that rolling too low against the dc may have negative consequences.
Guang Li starts out with 6 different attributes and 4 skills (certain action may or may not unlock new ones). The six attributes are Strength, dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence and perception these attributes add a modifier to his roll (and only his rolls at this time) the modifier is determined by taking the score-10 and dividing it in 2 (basically how DnD dos it).
The skills are different, every skill level adds a d10 to Guang rolls (and if his skill is 0 or there is no skill relevant to the action, he only gets his attribute modifier).
The four skills are the following.
Combat- this is the skill for combat. And it covers everything about it.
Cultivation- this is the skill for cultivation, gathering Qi, condensing it or refining body is using this skill.
Breakthrough- this skill is for breaking through bottlenecks, realms and basically anything that has a Dc in cultivation. (think of cultivation as the skill for progression type action and this for Dc type action) this skill is difficult and so has a higher progress requirement to advance.
Fellowship- this is the social skill; any social challenge or encounter uses this skill.
Currently you have 2 types of cultivation available (Techniuqlly 3) Qi cultivation and body refining. Both cost Qi (which you must gather) and give benefits. Body refining is separated into 8 sections, each representing refining a different part of the body and each give a different benefit as well as having different costs (completing the entire Tier gives an additional benefit).
Qi cultivation on the other hand, only has a single path forward. Currently you are in the Qi condensation great realm. This realm is divided to 9 stages each of which is then further divide to 4 phases, low, mid, high and peak, each phase gives +1 to all attributes and going up a stage gives an additional +5 Qi reserve limit and +5 Hp.
You may only attempt go up a stage when you have reached the high phase of your current stage, this will require a breakthrough roll but well get to that when we get there.
Lastly, we have meridians. Each one you unlock (beyond the first which you started with), gives you a +0.1 multiplayer to gathering Qi. (So, if you had 11 meridians opened every time you would gain 1 Qi you would actually gain 2).
Qi reserve [10/20]
Guang Li actions.
[X] Cultivate (Wis)- condense Qi in his Dantian.
[X] Work for the sect (Variable)- grunt work (Con).
[X] Train (Int)- combat.
Wisdom.
[ ] Map Guang Li body [0/100]. Reduced progress needed to refine the body.
[ ] Map Guang Li spiritual roots. [0/50]. Unlock actions and gain knowledge.
[ ] Scout the meridian blockages [0/50]. Reduce the DC needed to clear meridians.
[ ] Look for knowledge about the verdant flames sect test [0/25]. Reveal basic requirements for the passing the test.
[ ] Teach Guang Li.
-[ ] Cultivation. [0/25]. Raise the cultivation skill to 2.
-[ ] Combat. [0/25]. Raise the combat skill to 2.
-[ ] Breakthrough [0/50]. Raise the breakthrough skill to 1.
-[ ] Fellowship [0/25]. Raise the fellowship skill to 2.
[ ] Seek knowledge from the collective.
-[ ] Knowledge of alchemy [0/50]. Unlock Alchemy actions.
-[ ] Knowledge of refining [0/50]. Unlock refining actions.
-[ ] Knowledge Of Qi [0/100]. Unlock advanced Qi actions.
-[ ] Knowledge of the bloodline [0/250]. Unlock bloodline actions.
-[ ] Knowledge of your demise [0/500]. Knowledge about the slaughter.
[ ] Refine the bloodlust. [0/100]. Unlock more wrath options.
[ ] Look to the stars for hidden knowledge of the future [0/500]. Reveal the event in the event track.
Wrath.
[ ] Screams of death- nothing more than restless ghosts wailing of their death, diffuse and weak, it is nonetheless the best way for the ancestor ghosts to directly attack their enemies. The result depends on the final roll.
[ ] Restless anger- infuse the anger of your demise into Guang Li body and soul and let him push beyond his limits at a cost. [0/10] +1 to all of Guang actions this turn per completion of this action. -1 Hp per time taken.
Qi.
[ ] Gather Qi [0/3]. Gain 1 Qi. (every 3 points of progress here give 1 point of Qi).
[ ] Condense Qi in Guang Li Dantian. Cost 1 Qi per time taken [0/50]. Advance to QC 1 Mid.
[ ] Refin Guang body. variable cost.
-[ ] Refine his skin. Cost 1 Qi per time taken [0/20]. Refined skin (+1 Constitution).
-[ ] Refine his muscles. Cost 1 Qi per time taken [0/20]. Refined muscles I (+1 Strength).
-[ ] Refine his blood. Cost 1 Qi per time taken [0/40]. Refined blood (+1 Constitution, +1 Dexterity).
-[ ] Refine his nerves. Cost 1 Qi per time taken [0/40]. Refined nerves (+1 Dexterity).
-[ ] Refine his senses. Cost 1 Qi per time taken [0/40]. Refined sense I (+1 Perception).
-[ ] Refine his organs. Cost 2 Qi per time taken [0/60]. Refined organs (+1 Constitution, slight toxic resistance).
-[ ] Refine his Bones. Cost 2 Qi per time taken [0/60]. Refined bones (+1 Constitution, reduced injury rolls).
-[ ] Refine his mind. Cost 3 Qi per time taken [0/100]. Refined mind (+1 Intelligence. increased comprehension speed).
[ ] Clear a meridian acupoint. Cost 5 Qi per attempt DC 10 (15/20/25) [1/670 Cleared]. +1 open meridian.
Lecadia
Ulvlar
The Meddler
KreenWarrior
Shard
Uhtread
Random Reader
KNakamura
Rotekian
Mortenkam
blankmask
WGDragoon
O N I O N
Esprit
Aria the Mage
Omniext
random_npc
KSn5Ynoh
Ghost in the sun
Seventeen
RookDeSuit
banelord
The Well Wisher
lebaker
DiscordOxymoron
DareDaemon
Clockmosis
SomeDude134
WhoTheHeckity
Redikai
Dinfinity
[X] The young, the lifeful, the Qi.
[X] Condense Qi in Guang Li Dantian. Cost 1 Qi per time taken [0/50]. Advance to QC 1 Mid. Lets get Guang some qi to Advance.
At the moment we don't have a good idea how many ghosts we have available for option selection. As a result it is difficult to determine how expensive our options are. We generate 3.5/7 progress on average per ghost.
Let's assess the options.
Wisdom
[ ] Map Guang Li body [0/100]. Reduced progress needed to refine the body.
~15-29 ghost turns. A notable amount of effort. A good long term move for getting Body Refining going in a decent time frame.
[ ] Map Guang Li spiritual roots. [0/50]. Unlock actions and gain knowledge.
~8-15 ghost turns. More mysterious in terms of reward, but I would expect this to benefit spiritual cultivation in some way. Spiritual roots often effect things like elemental affinity. It would be good to know if Guang Li is better at chucking fireballs or ice shards, but right at the moment he doesn't have the Qi to be worrying about it.
[ ] Scout the meridian blockages [0/50]. Reduce the DC needed to clear meridians.
~8-15 ghost turns. Reducing the DC makes it easier to justify investing in meridian clearing. The benefits of which are fewer actions spent generating Qi and thus fewer ghosts stuck with Qi generation duty. I expect Qi shortage to be a major bottleneck on pursuing cultivation. Consequently this action is a good mid-term target.
[ ] Look for knowledge about the verdant flames sect test [0/25]. Reveal basic requirements for the passing the test.
~4-8 ghost turns. Ideally we get this done asap so we can more sensibly distribute actions. What we know about the test so far is that it is a combat test. So we might guess that raising combat skill is the way forward. Knowing if there are unexpected requirements and having a better idea what level of combat skill is required would be nice.
[ ] Teach Guang Li.
All these actions increase the number of d10s Guang Li rolls. As he is more effective than a ghost they are all quite beneficial to raise in the short term.
-[ ] Cultivation. [0/25]. Raise the cultivation skill to 2.
~4-8 ghost turns. In the short term this would have a greater impact on Qi generation than meridian clearning, provided Guang Li chooses to gather Qi.
-[ ] Combat. [0/25]. Raise the combat skill to 2.
~4-8 ghost turns. We have a combat test coming up and this is combat skill. Raising it is probably the safest short term option.
-[ ] Breakthrough [0/50]. Raise the breakthrough skill to 1.
~8-15 ghost turns. The long term training option. Not a priority right at the moment.
-[ ] Fellowship [0/25]. Raise the fellowship skill to 2.
~4-8 ghost turns. If we make it through the combat test, being able to get along with fellow sect members could be important for Guang Li.
[ ] Seek knowledge from the collective.
These all seem like long term advantages that won't help Guang Li pass the test. I'm not inclined to worry about them until we have explored more of the foundational options.
[ ] Refine the bloodlust. [0/100]. Unlock more wrath options.
~15-29 ghost turns. There isn't a lot we can do with Wrath at the moment so it makes sense for Wrath voters to pursue this.
[ ] Look to the stars for hidden knowledge of the future [0/500]. Reveal the event in the event track.
~72-143 ghost terns. Expensive. We'll need a lot of ghosts for it to be worth pursue over more concrete options. On the other hand if knowing about the event is beneficial enough, it may well still be worth it.
Wrath.
[ ] Screams of death- nothing more than restless ghosts wailing of their death, diffuse and weak, it is nonetheless the best way for the ancestor ghosts to directly attack their enemies. The result depends on the final roll.
Might be relevant on the turn of the combat test. We probably don't need to worry about it until then.
[ ] Restless anger- infuse the anger of your demise into Guang Li body and soul and let him push beyond his limits at a cost. [0/10] +1 to all of Guang actions this turn per completion of this action. -1 Hp per time taken.
I'm not sure how much HP is available to spend and it is the option most likely to get Guang Li killed. I presume that this can allow Guang Li to go from 1d10 to 1d10+1 being the equivalent of +2 to an attribute. The emergency option.
Qi.
[ ] Gather Qi [0/3]. Gain 1 Qi. (every 3 points of progress here give 1 point of Qi).
~1-2 Qi per Ghost turn. Boring but important in order to enable the other options in this section.
[ ] Condense Qi in Guang Li Dantian. Cost 1 Qi per time taken [0/50]. Advance to QC 1 Mid.
The cultivation option that Guang Li is pursuing this turn. At a guess we are looking at it taking Guang Li ~10 turns on average for Guang Li to advance on his own absent any aid. That may be 7 turns too long.
[ ] Refin Guang body. variable cost.
Because attribute increases are devided by 2 in order to determine the bonus they provide. We probably want to think of these benefits in 2s. As a result this feels like a painful amount of effort for marginal progress. Raising skill provides much heftier benefits at the present moment, but may drop off.
[ ] Clear a meridian acupoint. Cost 5 Qi per attempt DC 10 (15/20/25) [1/670 Cleared]. +1 open meridian.
At 5 Qi per attempt, the DC is too high to pursue this at the moment. As this action is a Qi hog and only provides marginal bonus Qi per step, it seems like it will be a hard sell to get this started.
At the moment we don't have a good idea how many ghosts we have available for option selection. As a result it is difficult to determine how expensive our options are.
To peal down the curtain a little, I balanced the initial challenge with 20-30 players in mind, Riot quests are known to attract more active voters and I wasn't sure how many people would actually participate and decided that adjusting down would be far better than adjusting up in the case balance adjustments must be made.
[X] The broken, the sorrow, the wrath.
[X] Restless anger- infuse the anger of your demise into Guang Li body and soul and let him push beyond his limits at a cost. [0/10] +1 to all of Guang actions this turn per completion of this action. -1 Hp per time taken.
dang, only got 5 out of 10
