Firstly, if you have questions about Good Seeds and the like please read here. If that doesn't answer your question please ping me in thread, or on Discord.
If you write a new Good Seed, or write an omake, please update the spreadsheet if you have access.
If you do not have access, please ping a collaborator (Swordomatic, Alectai, Quest, TehChron, Insane-Not-Crazy, Humbaba, ReaderOfFate, Kaboomatic, no., BungieONI) letting them know what you want and they will update the spreadsheet here. To gain access, you will need a gmail account of some kind. Throwaway emails are fine (I'm using one for the spreadsheet), but to gain access it's as simple as sending me either your email via PM, via DM in Discord, or just in Discord's #spreadsheet-requests channel.
This is mandatory. If a Good Seed does not record their omake by pinging collabs (or just requesting access and editing things themselves - this is the preferred option), I won't give out awards. If a new Good Seed is not recorded here, they won't advance. By doing this it makes the whole thing manageable for me - it's gotten pretty unwieldy!
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Omake Writer Instructions:
There are four fields you need to fill out.
Omake Link, which is just a link to your first omake for the turn. This makes it easier for me to read them as I do the update - without this it's tough to know off the bat which omake were written this turn, and to properly
Requested Bonus, which is your requested bonus for your omake. You can leave it up to me if you like. You can see more info in the Good Seed infopost here.
Cultivation Aims. For those following unorthodox paths - higher than 9th Heavenstage or later than 7th Dao Pillar paths. Please put in what you are aiming for before you break through. I have left it as 'default'. If you do not edit it, I'll go with that.
Turn Notes - Do you want to do something specific? Enter a Secret Realm? Help the Clan out in some way? If you have something specific you want to accomplish on this turn, put it in turn notes so I can adjust your Fate around it.
All other fields are for QM use to record character information to properly run the flow of the game.
Shrill sounds reverberated through the air, shaking the skies and cracking the dull adobe which made up the nameless village, baking under the sun.
A red tinged breeze followed in the wake of the notes, a haze of death which seized the soul with terror, reverberating deeply. Smooth and breathless exhalation, the mortals and Qi Condensation Cultivators that had been sent to investigate this tiny community were seized; the sensation and urge to step into the groove puppeted them, coordinated them, the strength of one who had formed a Dao Pillar in truth.
The beat set in, a set of smooth sounds that elegantly, hungrily, drowned out everything else in the world. Demonic Tunes played by a Core Formation Blood Path Cultivator. Dozens of feet stamped. Arms swung. Accompanied by screams of terror and grunts of effort and the shattering of fragile bodies that crunched against obstacles in the way of a mad dance.
Bloody crimson filled the air, carried by the jam upon the wind, enhancing and enriching the music that took ever greater shape and sharpness and reality as life itself mixed into the beat and made it truly come to life amidst the terror of death. A necessary spice to go along with…
"The Devil's Music?"
Amidst the audience was one who's steps were slightly off. Against which there was a dissonant beat. A discord, introduced by the tempered physique meant to master the reverberations of Qi that was music and demonic guided in turn by a haunting, foreboding sense of familiarity.
Aretaphila Myia stumbled in recognition, faint stories from her few memories of her mother lurching to the forefront, and the blonde Golden Devil leveled a glare at the worn mesas which provided this small encampment with its shelter from the cruel desert winds.
A single figure stood upon the tallest one, dressed in pressed robes that formed a smoothly angled profile. The wind did not ruffle him, nor cramp his style as the blood tinge drowned out even the ever present sand in the air. A crimson mist reflecting the light of the sun upon the brass instrument which so absorbed his focus.
The man winked at her as Aretaphila stared, giving lie to the assumption.
Once more she knew fear.
A.N. There we go, 300+ Words regrettably. Hoping to get a Life-Extending Treasure for this. Hopefully to count towards my Turn 8 quota since I didn't get a chance to make that work earlier.
Gaius Antonius Omake # 25: Searching for Companionship
"I'm not doing this."
"Come on, just give it a try!"
"I'm too busy, there's no time."
"Sooner or later, there will have to be time." Jiang Li said, putting his hands on his hips. "You need to learn to budget your time."
"I think I'm budgeting it very well, considering what I'm trying to do." Gaius retorted, crossing his arms and leaning back against a wall. "What's with all this sudden interest, anyway?"
"It's about your emotional health, man." Jiang Li shot back. "You can't burn the candle at both ends forever, who knows how long that's sustainable?"
"This schedule isn't both ends, it's just one end. It's not that hard." The taller man insisted. "Really, you don't have to worry about me, I'm okay." He smiled.
"Alright, if you say so. One day though, you'll have to give someone the time of day." Jiang Li conceded, defeated once more.
Soon after, the two friends went their separate ways, leaving the marketplace to go about their own business. Gaius left for the market, whilst Jiang Li rounded a corner and sat at a table with two others, both of whom had the look of someone who'd been eavesdropping.
"Still no luck, huh?" Diana asked, crossing her legs and sipping some kind of expensive cocktail. "I'm telling you, it's not gonna work."
"It can and it must!" Jiang Li declared, taking the remaining empty chair. He propped up his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers together. "We're going to pull this off, it's for his own damn good."
Across from him, Xie Chin groaned. "He's so emotionally dishonest though. There's just no way to force this; he'll figure it out on his own in about 300 years."
"No way, I'm not backing down yet, there's a lot of stuff left to try." Jiang Li refuted. "Gaius desperately needs to loosen up; we're getting him to date somebody."
----
After scrapping many elaborate tricks and schemes, the trio eventually settled for something simpler: good old fashioned collusion. One of the three would introduce Gaius to someone and try to push him and the other person to hit it off. If that one failed, another one would try. Hopefully if they rotated, Gaius wouldn't catch on.
The first at bat was Xie Chin, who brought along a friend of her's named Camilla. A nice lady, very enthusiastic and open, she blew right through Gaius' half-hearted awkwardness and began to spend time with him fairly often. Xie Chin proclaimed her victory to the others upon seeing the bubbly girl drag Gaius along to an art museum with her elbow twined with his(well, more like his wrist).
Indeed, it seemed as if that cunning beauty had created a happy couple with the greatest of ease, only for those hopes to be thoroughly deflated.
"Can we take a break?" Gaius finally asked, after an entire hour of trying to rouse himself to speak.
"What do you mean? Do you not like fowl hunting?" Camilla asked, lowering her bow and turning to speak to her ostensible boyfriend.
"Nah, it's interesting enough. I mean like... from this courting stuff. I know you're not supposed to acknowledge it directly but like... I don't know, I only have so much emotional energy in the day, and all that." The tall man looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'd rather just hang out as two people without this obligation of it being a thing, you know? I can't let my cultivation be hindered by inner turmoil."
"...Ah. Okay..." The girl replied, the two falling into an ominous silence. "I'll, uh, see you around...".
The message was clear, even if Gaius wouldn't say it outright: he found Camilla's romantic affection exhausting, and didn't want to devote himself so heavily to any one person right now. As Camilla sobbed into her chest the next day, Xie Chin bitterly accepted defeat.
Subject: Camilla. Time before failure: 13 days, 10 hours.
----
"Okay, that was a miserable failure, and now Camilla is mad at me for encouraging her to act on that crush." Xie Chin said bitterly, glowering at her co-conspirators. The three of them silently pondered for a minute, drinking their tea.
"I'll go next." Jiang Li spoke up with a cheeky grin. "I know Gaius better than anyone, I've got the perfect girl for him."
"Somehow I'm not entirely confident in that..." Diana muttered quietly into her cup.
----
Three weeks after things had been settled with Camilla, Jiang Li introduced Gaius to Julia. Unlike Xie Chen, he made sure the two run into each other repeatedly, rather than directly encouraging them to become mutually involved. Julia was a serious, studious girl who wasn't particularly demonstrative and knew when to give people their space. No matter how you sliced it, the two made for a good match.
This endeavor bore fruit for a lot longer than the last one. Occasionally the two could be seen holding hands together, and the conspirators had confirmed that each had visited the other's house at least once. They weren't particularly affectionate in public, but there was a quiet solidarity the two shared at all times. Indeed, Gaius didn't seem to be rejecting Julia in any sense at all.
The problem was actually the opposite: she seemed to be getting exasperated with him. The two would often engage in metaphysical and philosophical debate togehter, nerd shit to the nth degree that Jiang Li couldn't comprehend at all. What he did understand, however, was that Julia seemed to find Gaius' ideas and his stubbornness about said ideas infuriating. Oh dear.
A Dao mismatch. How many times had love been destroyed by that cruel twist of fate? Alas, it claimed another victim today, as Julia eventually left Gaius over an argument over 'the meaning of fulfillment' or something along those lines.
Subject: Julia. Time before failure: 29 days, 3 hours.
----
"Okay, I was wrong too."
"And?"
"And I lose the bet..." Jiangi Li pouted, forking over a few low-grade spirit stones to Diana. "Damnit, couldn't they have waited another day before the breakup? I was just 21 hours short!"
As their friend sulked into his wine, Diana was furiously taking notes, narrowing down a long list of potential subjects.
"I'm surprised to see you caring this much all of a sudden." Xie Chin noted, intrigued.
"What can I say? I want to win." Diana smirked back.
----
An entire month an a half later, Diana introduced Gaius to a man named Marcus. This man was very straightforward and emotionally undemanding; he would take things as slowly as he needed to, and never got excessively involved in anything. This meant that he could bring Gaius into engaging conversations with ease without overwhelming him, and soon the two were seen doing things together at least once a week. Things had gone down with wild and shocking success.
There was just one problem: No one could actually tell if they were dating or not. The certainly never kissed. Sometimes they hugged, but held it a bit longer than appropriate for a platonic embrace. They sat very close together, but never outright in each other's lap. Were they just very private about things? Was one of them oblivious? Were they both oblivious? Were they just friends? The trio of manipulative friends were completely unsure about the situation, thus putting their strategy in a state of limbo for the forseeable future.
The conspirators despaired and turned to drink. Well, more drink than usual. At least if this attempt failed they could begin the rotation again, but without knowing whether or not it had succeeded, they couldn't continue, because they would risk destroying a genuine relationship. And they couldn't ask Gaius about it either, or they would give the whole thing away! Gaius wasn't stupid, the big man already seemed to have some suspicions; they had to act delicately. This was a true stalemate: the game was over.
Subject: Marcus. Time before failure: ???
----
As three friends seethed, two other friends(really, that was actually all they were) laughed. The first was Gaius, and the other was a fellow clansman; tall, if not as extreme as The Seeker's height, and brawny, with his hair styled into come kind of complex fluffy mass that Gaius usually couldn't comprehend.
"I still can't believe we've strung them along for this long!" Marcus laughed, slapping his knee. "You're a mean guy, you really are."
"Oh come on now. They started this, I'm just fighting back." Gaius replied with a smirk. "They just don't get how much I really do need the time."
The other man sighed and hung his head. "I can sympathize with their frustration, at least. It's tough being a prodigy, but it seems like it's tough being friends with one too."
"It's not that it's tough. I don't know if it's a hard way to live because I don't know any other way. Right now I feel like if I don't go all out, I'll burst into flames. There's an endless energy inside me and it has to be used as much as I can manage." Gaius explained, gesticulating with his hands a bit to punctuate his point. He showed more passion now, thinking and talking about cultivating, than he did when the two did anything fun together.
Marcus pouted, reaching out and gently taking hold of Gaius' hand. "You know, I really would date you if you asked."
"I know. Maybe someday." Gaius smiled sadly, patting his fake boyfriend's hand.
To some, an arrangement like this might seem completely deranged. After all, if you want to be with someone, why not just be with them? The fact of the matter simply was that Gaius didn't have enough room in his heart or mind right now. The sheer exhilarating desire to follow the path of The Seeker had swallowed him whole, and it was a pleasant existence so far. This lack of room did not bring him any despair, because living as The Seeker required not contemplating leaving that very path. Madness? Perhaps, but Gaius found purpose and meaning in it, so being mad was fine.
Keep the path open. No matter what you do, don't feel anything or get involved in anything that could put an obstacle in the way. Alienating, but if that was enough to dissuade Gaius, what kind of Cultivator would he be?
More stuff from the backlog, this one set way back, a couple years before Gaius reached the Ninth Heavenstage. I'm not too proud of this one, I wanted some character-driven comedy but it ended up a bit dull I think. Still, wordcount is wordcount.
"...and with the War ongoing, Lady Minervina and Lady Rina have been assigned to defend Three Frog City. Legate Muyi, you're the only Foundation Establishment cultivator the Clan can spare to help guard the Caravan."
"Understood. You may go."
With a wave of his hand, Muyi dismissed the Clan courier who brought him his latest orders and focused his full attention on the merchant that was leading the Caravan he found within the War Camp on his Legion's resupply attempt.
"Lord Fulong, i have a way of suppressing my cultivation so that none can tell it's exact strength beyond what Realm i have reached. I believe that if i do so, we should be able to scare away most Foundation Establishment Cultivators and below. That should be sufficient for our trip since the contents of the Caravan would be worthless to a Core Foundation Cultivator.
However, doing so will put me into a meditative state where I will not be able to respond to anything unless I break the technique. As such, I suggest bringing along some of the Qi cultivators within this War Camp to help you deal with lesser threats."
As the merchant stuttered out his thanks, Muyi heaved himself into the largest wagon and sank into a meditative pose. Reaching within, he allowed the Darkness to flow out of the constraints he placed on it and allow it to engulf him. For those watching him with their Qi Sense, it would appear as if a once clear pond was mired with muck, concealing it's depths till all that remained was a dark puddle.
Within the Darkness there was no sound, no light as well as a sense of utter stillness. All that could be sensed were the pinpricks of Qi from those around Muyi, the glowing bronze ones that were Clan and the myriad specks that were OTHERS.
Exhale
An unknown amount of time passed before the presence of Qi that glowed a sullen red appeared within the Darkness. A slight nudge sent a tendril from the Cloud of bronze specks that were Clan to intercept them appearing as if two groups of fireflies were colliding.
Inhale
The bronze cloud that was Clan was at first collision almost overwhelmed by the cloud that was Blood.A sudden dimming of bronze that indicate the dire straits the Clan cultivators were in before a burst of gold that somehow brought within the Darkness the chime of a bell enveloped the cloud of Blood Qi. When the radiance faded, none was left beyond the dimming bronze specks that were brought back to the greater cloud by the Chime that was Aretaphila.
Exhale
As if that was an agreed upon signal, wave after wave of Blood Qi swarmed at the Cloud that was Clan. And without hesitation, tendrils of bronze surged forth to stand against them causing the Great Cloud to diminish and shrink in size.
Inhale
And yet despite the attacks, despite its diminished size, the Clan stood strong. It's young heroes proving their mettle against the foe, the bright flaring of their Qi as they fought off the foes brought to Muyi's mind the names of the Clan's Future.
Exhale
The sole Bronze Qi speck that was confronted by a ominous Blood grain that lashed out at it with what must have been deadly blows. Muyi watched as the speck that was Diomedes tempered itself beneath the blows before erupting with a fury that sent the Blood grain scurrying off.
Inhale
Perhaps news of the Caravan finally reached the Cannibals, for the raids that followed each were led by similar glowing Blood grains, leaving Muyi no recourse but to dispatch the reddish-bronze Qi speck that was Aliki to face them. Three times did she sortie and three times did she returned victorious crushing the First, slaying the Second and driving off the Third.
Exhale
The Cloud of Bronze was naught but dregs when a great wave of Blood qi surged forth like the tide. Before Muyi could break out of the Darkness, he felt a flare of flame-tinted Bronze as the Sun that was Wei Feng flung itself into the Blood Tide. As the Cloud that was Clan moved away, the Sun that was Wei Feng shone, drawing the Blood Tide around him and forcing them to throw themselves at him to dim his radiance.
Just before the battle left the range of his Qi sense, Muyi felt Wei Feng's radiance dim to near extinction before it gave one last defiant flare.
Inhale
That seemed to be the last of the Cannibal raids and Muyi experienced another Eon within the Darkness before the presence of two glowing stars came within range, allowing him to determine the approach of two Foundation Establishment Cultivators at the Great Circle Stage. The lack of Cannibal blood Qi telling him that they were bandits hoping to be the oriole to the Clan's Cicada and the Cannibals' Mantis.
Exhale
Gripping the Darkness with his will and forcing it back under control, Muyi let his Dao burst from within, catching the two intruders in it's reach before they could react. Exiting the wagon he was in, he called forth his eager weapon as it bayed for blood and strode out to confront two bandits.
The sudden burst of the Golden Devil's Dao presence caught Guzdan by surprise. Exchanging wary glances with Little Tessica, they both fell into defensive stances as the Dao presence fell on them, making it feel as if they were burdened with weighted clothing.
Before they could figure out what exactly the Dao presence was constraining them from, the Golden Devil's nebulous existence seemed to solidify, the presence of a Foundation Establishment cultivator of unknown realm turning into that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator in the Mid Stage.
"Cheh. It's just a Mid Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator! It didn't need the two of us to raid this caravan, just you with your Great Circle realm would have been enough. Oh well, just means i can get some easy money!"
"Don't be overconfident Little Tessica, we would be facing The Witch Of Poison or The False Nascent. They're both cultivators of that strength. If it is either one of them, the two of us might need to flee immediately to survive."
Even as he chided Little Tessica, Guzdan focused most of his senses on the approaching cultivator before letting out a small sigh of relief as a Golden Devil holding a Ji stepped within sight. Exchanging another glance with Little Tessica, this time one of glee at striking the motherlode, Guzdan felt a smirk appear on his lips as he greeted the Golden Devil.
"If it isn't the Golden Devil's Devouring Willow! Tales of your Stand against the invaders have spread throughout the desert! As a sign of appreciation for your courage, my companion and I would be willing to leave without slaughtering any of your clansmen if you provide us with 75% of the Caravan's riches."
"I'm afraid I've had to decline your offer. There is only one result for those who chose to rob our caravans, Death."
"Sigh..It seems that you let your reputation go to your head if you think that you can face two cultivators at the Great Circle by YOURSELF!"
At the same time as his shout, Guzdan's fingers moved on the zither he carried playing out a screeching wail that Guzdan knew would cause his opponent's Qi to erupt internally. To his shock, nothing seemed to happen beyond the echoes of his wail fading into silence.
Panicking slightly, Guzdan exchanged yet another glance with Little Tessica before he strummed his zither furiously amidst the low chanting of Little Tessica's Yin Spells. No matter how he channeled his Qi into his fingers and his zither, none of his attacks seemed to work against the Devouring Willow who was now lunging at him with his Ji.
Left with no choice, Guzdan flung his zither up to block the lunge as he lept backwards, his heart shattering as his prized zither was first pierced and then shattered by the Ji. In a smooth flowing motion, the Golden Devil's left palm sent Little Tessica sprawling with bone crushing force as her child body prevented her from moving with the same speed he had against the Golden Devil's blows.
"It's useless. Beneath my Dao, no Qi abilities are usable. Of course that goes for me as well, we can only fight as mortals do. I believe that my skill with my Ji is superior to your skill with brawling. The only way for this to end is for you both to either kill me or flee out of the range of my Dao, which do you pick? "
Guzdan knew himself well, his skills with the physical aspects of cultivating had always been low. It was why he chose the esoteric path of Sound cultivation. Without any further hesitation, he turned his back and fled.
If what he said is true, then we are all bound to mortal abilities and there's no way he can kill Little Tessica and get to me in time before I flee out of range even if Little Tessica has the strength of a child. To bad for her, but it looks like inviting her on this raid was the right choice afte-
Guzdan's thoughts and attempt to flee was interrupted by a sudden burst of pain through his torso. Looking down, he found to his horror a Ji going right through him before a sudden sense of weakness brought him low.
As his sight started to dim and the taste of blood started to fill his mouth, he heard as if far off in the distance….
"GUZDAN!"
A shout of rage and despair from Little Tessica as well as a matter-of-fact statement from the Golden Devil.
"I said before, the only result that awaits those who choose to rob our caravans is Death. And just because I mentioned fleeing out of my range allows for one to escape my Dao's effects, that doesn't mean i'll allow you to do so."
"YOU KILLED HIM! I'll KILL YOU! EVEN IF IT TAKES ME A HUNDRED YEARS, I"ll KILL YOU AND EVERYONE YOU LOVE!"
As the darkness started closing in, Guzdan couldn't help but wonder…
Why do you sound so angry Little Tessica? Weren't we both just using each other? Flashes of them laughing, drinking after a successful raid and of a thousand and one little joys filled his head as Guzdan felt Death's approaching presence.
You were pretty though before you lost your body...that...was...my...fault……….
Hmm it looks like it was a blessing in disguise that my mission was changed to the Caravan one without me realizing. The results of the Fate Roll was pretty damn inspiring considering i managed to churn this out in a Day.
Since i was going to write about the Caravan mission, i made sure to include the GS results of my fellow Caravan missiongoers! Except all done via Qi senses. Also, i really like how the two foes he faced and their specialties really allowed me to expand more on what Muyi's Dao can do while giving a reasonable reason on how he was able to win against two cultivators at the Great Circle realm.
Forcing two Qi focused cultivators to brawl like mortals sounds like a decent reason! @Humbaba threadmark please! Also for the immortal Wei Feng. PRAISE THE SUN!
Oh also, when i was doing some research, i stumbled across what the Willow represent in Chinese culture/feng shui. And beyond it being more female inclined, the other traits all fit Muyi to a tee. Excellent for a Wuxia/Xianxia style title
In China, Willow is a symbol of immortality and rebirth.
Gaius woke up with a gasp, covered in sweat, precisely at 6 AM, and rolled out of bed, frantaically crawling toward his desk like a rabid animal. Eyes wide and inhumanly focused, The Seeker dragged himself into his chair and prepared a chunk of charcoal and a piece of parchment. He immediately began to inscribe his thoughts ino text, working as hard as he could to get it all out before any of the night's revelations could fade.
What is cultivation, exactly? Moreover, is it intelligently designed?
Indeed, cultivation has discreet stages, but how much of this system was designed from the ground up by some heavenly will, and how much is merely the laws of physics, substances rushing from high pressure areas to low pressure ones?
What is Qi Condensation? Simple enough; it is to take in qi from the environment and forcibly expand the dantian, a metaphysical organ which exists in both physical and spiritual form. As the spiritual part of the dantian is stretched out, it reacts by producing more qi, a process which is measured in Heavenstages. When the dantian is filled, the qi begins to spill out and saturate the body. Should Qi Condensation be maintained, then the qi will fill the bones and muscles, then the circulatory system, then the spinal column and finally the brain, which is the most resistant to saturation of all - the most "high-pressure". These are the Olympian Keystones. Again it must be asked; is this not just a vessel beng filled? Many theorize that this was the only form of qi use which the very first prehistoric cultivators of the Turtle World were aware of, taking in qi one day and then using it the next, rarely cultivating enough to go up more than a few Heavenstages.
What is Foundation Establishment? Even more simple: a new form of condensation. The qi in the dantian is compressed into a pillar, allowing it to be filled up all over again, then compressed into another pillar, and so on. Simply put, the essense of the qi is repeatedly squeezed into a smaller shape to make more room. While the presence of a powerful Dao to shape the pillars and protect against Heavenly Tribulation is needed, was this always the case or was its necessity itself shaped by the heavens' judgement? Pillar-building may not have always been a philosophical and ritualistic practice; it may have originated merely as a much more efficient way to store and produce qi.
What is Core Formation? More compression. The pillars are fused into a single larger pillar, which then takes physical form as a new organ; a reactor of sorts with a capacity vastly outstripping the dantian. As more qi is poured into the core, it is forced to become more solid, thus increasing its own qi production. This continues until the core is so solid, so full, so dense that it can take no more, and it breaks. In this sense, a core is simply the fused piller of a Great Circle Foundation Establishment Cultivator, brought into the physical layer of reality and further reinforced and built upon.
What is Nascent Soul? This is far less understood. Nascent Soul Cultivators are rare enough that scientific study is difficult, but the process essentially involved breaking one's core, thus releasing all of the stored energy, and using it to give rise to a secondary soul. This in effect gives one a degree of limited power over creation itself, namely the ability to unravel it, in addition to unfathomable raw power. How then, does this soul generate such immense qi? Perhaps it has a tiny dantian of its own? These details are unknown to the people of the Virtuous Flipper Region, and thus the facts stop here.
Perhaps there is a purely scientific explanation behind the mysteries of the Nascent Soul stage, but as far as we can tell, there appears to be a clear deliniation between the stages up to Core Formation and Nascent Soul, with the former being increasingly efficient means of qi production and the latter being wholly mystical in nature. Perhaps the stages up to Core Formation are a biological process which the heavens later codified and restricted, and Nascent Soul is something new entirely, some ritual which, without the participation of the heavens, would not be possible.
Finally finished, the Legionairre put aside his implement and took a deep breath. "What in the world did I write this out for?" Gaius wondered, stroking his chin. "This is the same stuff everyone thinks about, and I'm not even a Soul Cultivator. Am I missing something?"
He got up and filed his newest piece of writing away one of many huge piles. Shuffling into the washroom, he began to wash his face, trying to run the remaining drowsiness out of his eyes. "What are you trying to tell me?" Gaius asked the mirror. "That was extremely common analysis. Is it a starting point? Am I to contemplate the divide between the physical and the mystical?" He continued to wonder aloud to no avail. His reflection in the tempered glass gazed back at him and offered no assistance in the matter.
With a weary sigh, The Seeker stripped off his nightclothes, revealing his chiseled physique, marked here and there with small scars from particularly deep wounds that even the healing of a Cultivator couldn't completely erase. Stepping into his bathtub and flash-heating it with a burst of qi, Gaius noted that he was out of clean water and would need to instruct a Junior to get him some more.
Stepping into the bath, he continued contemplating his recent revelations. "Is it a message from The Seeker that is me, The Seeker that is God, or The Seeker that I will be?" He lathered his body as he ran through the options. If it was from The God, then he had no hope to unravel it from his lowly station. If it was from The Self, then it was something already on his subconscious mind. If it was from The Future, then it was most likey some kind of instruction. He nodded to himself as he began to wet and scrub his unruly hair into order. Best to consider the meaning behind the Core-Nascent division in his writing and philosophy for the near future, just to be safe.
Gaius got out of the bath, lazily blowing the moisture off with more qi. Wasteful, perhaps, but Gaius wasn't present of mind enough to bother with such menial tasks yet. He'd also wasted too much time today; he was about five minutes behind schedule and he'd have to go a tiny bit faster in the rest of the day's tasks to make up for it.
A simple one this time. If you're wondering what the massive piles of parchment and scrolls in Gaius' bedroom are, a lot of it is this - Gaius getting visions in his dreams and writing down the first thing that comes to mind. A lot of the time it's nonsense, but he's very thorough and fastidious about doing this because he believes he is sending messages to himself.
An interesting thought experiment: if you're the oracle of a god, and that god is one you created, is that any different from just being mad?
The negotiations had of course gone as well as could've been expected. The minutiae would be sorted by the Council, and even now much effort was being expended
One of the most frustrating things about fighting in Nascent Soul was the sheer amount of Qi it expended. Unless he used some of the most valuable Spirit Stones the Clan had, it took years to recover from a single fight, slowly absorbing Qi from a range of inferior Spirit Stones to bring himself back up to peak condition. Of course, he had the wealth necessary to do so in an instant if need be, but it was better spent in emergencies.
For now, he simply absorbed Qi, and followed the trend of the world.
There was wealth beyond his expectations in Cannibal lands. Senselessly large amounts of wealth, Spirit mines uncollapsed, ancient herb forests unburnt. He didn't quite know what to make of it, but he could feel something peculiar, an interplay of forces beyond his grasp but not beyond his understanding. The Curse was still there, the ancient fury of the Heaven unrestrained, it simply... did not find them. Could not. He could only hope that Heaven's Shadow was veiling them as a sign of increased power, and not a sign of desperation as it came to an end.
Tisamenos entered. Manuel smiled. Despite being a cultivator with less talent than Manuel had possessed at his age - and being slightly cowardly and not truly suited for combat - Tisamenos was a useful assistant. A reflection of the absurd crop of juniors that had arisen over the last century and a half, and by studying him he could perhaps understand the shape of the age rising up in the world.
"Please, leave the reports. Thank you, Tisamenos. You may take a half-day, please give my condolences to your niece."
Manuel had received reports from across the Great Battlefield on this matter, calling in a few favours, spending a small but useful amount of money. The signs all pointed to his Clan's talents not being the only ones. Oh, they were perhaps the greatest talents - nobody else had risen through the Thirteenth Heavenstage, and even those following orthodox paths were immensely powerful compared to previous generations, but...
A crop of talents had arisen everywhere. Previously, ascending through the Tenth Heavenstage was rare and the Eleventh completely unheard of, nowadays it was happening more and more. He had not lived through what was called a Great Era before, but they were theorised to be eras in which Heaven had some form of luck, or fate, or other energy bottled up that needed to be released, and was consequently sent across the world, giving rise to a crop of rare and powerful talents. Notably, the Clan had never benefited from Great Eras before - each one had been a major period of decline and decay for the Clan as their ordinary talents were dominated by the geniuses of other powers, territory and population falling as they suffered.
He flipped through the reports on his desk. These were more pieces to the puzzle.
-------------------------------
Jin Fulong, Caravanner of the Dauntless Battleaxes - Mission Report:
To whom it may concern. Our caravan left south, carrying a massive cargo of arrays, approximately six percent of those needed for the war effort's additional deployments. We were undermanned and repeatedly attacked, but made our way there in good order, delivering the entire cargo of arrays.
Before I deliver my overall mission breakdown, there are four cultivators of note I would like to commend. Three in Qi Condensation, one in Foundation Establishment.
Aliki Floros was the first Qi Condensation cultivator. Three powerful Cannibals she saved the caravan from, and prevented us from having to deploy more dangerous measures. Those three killed sixty-two other Qi Condensation cultivators, and left us in dire straights.
Diomedes Cestus fought a powerful soul cultivator, one who caused him to be lured away from the caravan. She swept our forces and broke formations with ease, and had she not died I suspect we would have lost the caravan there to the ambush that followed.
Thirdly, Wei Feng was left behind, but I have come to understand that the largest attack came to him, and he defeated a small army of Cannibal raiders defending the village of Seven Dunes Well. Perhaps not crucial for us, but to save a village is no small feat.
Lastly, Jin Muyi slew one Foundation cultivator and disembodied another, both in realms above him. As by that point our three Foundation guards had all been disabled prior to his intervention in the battle, without him the caravan would've fallen entirely.
I would deem this mission a Success, though it is frightening to realise that we were balanced on a knife's-edge. I would recommend a 10-15% increased allocation of forces to missions with similar profiles in future as I believe it will substantially lower the failure rate.
- Jin Fulong
-------------------------------
Mayor Fei Pailalogos of Three Frog City...
...writes to you, lordly cultivators.
I am in awe that you would send such exalted cultivators to the defense of our humble city, yet I feel I must write and thank you. While we have little enough wealth of our own, know that the tales of what has been done will resonate forevermore in the ears and hearts of every single citizen of our city.
I am minded to say that while I am no military man, there are the five who stood in defense of the city in the final siege.
At the end of the siege, the Cannibal filth had decided to simply assault the walls, hoping to overwhelm the defenders by forcing them to break up and defend our citizenry. This tactic succeeded, for the most part, and the cultivators defending were scattered and frustrated.
I must be minded to mention the Corpse Poison King, as he is named here. Lord Centenius was instrumental in holding back attack after attack, though I fear no plays about his feats will be written. A fearsome figure, and one that mothers threaten their children with even as they thank him in a whisper.
As the walls fell, the Cannibals rushed in.
As the first breach occurred, it was Maria who drove them back, and her deeds are well-compiled - if somewhat exaggerated - in the play 'The Four Romances and Three Battles of Lady Maria'. I fear the playwright has somewhat overwrought prose, and I am unaware of the existence of two torrid love triangles centring on the lady, but it is a popular thing. When Lord Centenius rushed forth with his poisons, many held back, unable to commit fully to the wall. She was able to hold until the remainder of the battle was cleaned up, and I suspect half of the Dog Quarter only exists today because of her.
Lords Yan and Zeno accomplished marvellous deeds, pushing back enemies in the Laying Foundation stage as I understand it is called. Seeing men who blur and move beyond the speed of eyesight stopped by cultivators not at their level time and time again is a most impressive deed, and had they not held the day many would've been lost. Lord Zeno was in fact wounded after Lord Yan's battle, but this has not stopped a popular romance novel written of the love between the two - in which Lord Yan strikes out to slay enemies above his realm for wounding his lover, no matter the risk to his life - taking the hearts of many of the city's women.
Under ordinary circumstances I might ban such scurrilous texts such as those that besmirch the Lord and Lady Cultivators, but the city desperately needs morale, and as its mayor I hope you forgive me for holding it together as best I know how.
Lastly is Lady Callista. I think things might have gone worse for her had she been outnumbered, but she fought and badly wounded an enemy cultivator who's very presence shook me to my bones. I could not even see the battle, but she was losing at first - and then she did something, and the feeling was gone, and we were uplifted. She drove off an enemy I believed who was named Core-something, though he left behind an arm. Apparently such an arm is a powerful artifact, and several Golden Devils after the battle carved it into the foundation of a new defensive array.
To my mind this has been a Great Success, and apparently the arm itself sears the blood itself of any Cannibals who might approach us within the walls.
------------------------------- A thanks to Grand Elder Konstantinos
I am surprised at the quality of the cultivators sent to us. After all, we are hardly the greatest of the great, here in the Xin Kingdom.
Two Foundation experts, and successes on successes.
I welcomed the varied experts into my home after Dervish Yu Yuling was driven off, though he remains at large. In the Great Circle of Foundation Establishment, he will prove a scourge on my kingdom yet I will hunt him down all the same.
The Ninth Prince, as he terms himself, is a delightful young man with a sense of humour as esoteric as it is witty. He pretends to be a buffoon, but deep beneath is a sense of the theatrical that demands buffoonery. I wish I had him on one of my stages, but alas, we have mortals for such things. Wu Wushan had destroyed several caravans, and killed two of my own in Foundation Establishment. Such evil genius deserves to be cut off.
Demetrius Ceres saved my great grand-niece, taken as she was for some grand sacrifice.
Gaius Antonius demands reparation. He took a tremendous amount of Qi from us, and while it can be replenished in a few years, it is no small thing. I do not hold it against him personally, but surely we are due recompense?
Alas for poor Xiao Yingzi, facing down Wu Luoshan, the father and master of Wu Wushan. A swordmaster without peer, and a trapmaster of no small skill.
Still, set an assassin to kill one, and while Xiao Yingzi failed, Syntyche Theophylaktos slew Wu Luoshan as he fled, striking from ambush. One to drive the prey before them, another to strike.
Savvas crippled the third-in-command of the Dervishes, no small feat.
Young Paulus was a peculiarity I mention only due to his luck, as you will see in the attached letter.
Amaranth Castellanos slew and killed and butchered, and below Foundation Establishment he was desperately feared. His intervention prevented a raid entering the lands of Water, and saved no doubt many lives.
Lastly is the Slaughter in the Sands, the Witch of Poison, Minervina Barda. Perhaps alone she did as much as all others combined, and where she trod Dervishes did not. I am in Core Formation myself, yet I would not lightly try to slay her. As frightening as the woman is, I am thankful she was sent. Not only did we push back the Dervish raids, so many of them were slain we of the Xin Kingdom should be able to clean up the remainder with little assistance. A Great Success in every sense of the phrase.
A success and then two great successes. Yeah that was a good overall result for our organization sure... but was it worth taking off the time from our future potential growth?
I don't think so. The stronger our talents grow the better long term result. These are the people we are trying to have replace our main guy after all. They can't do that unless they grow stronger.
We ended a war to the knife against an ostensible peer power at what was potentially our weakest and most vulnerable moment in so dominating a fashion that the rest of the setting was caught completely flat footed
And in time to have a full turn of downtime to consolidate our gains in preparation for the normal centennial bout of one sided mass slaughter and death at our expense
This Thornberry-tier levels of smashing, frankly speaking lol
I don´t know if I should be happy of my success or disturbed that the Three Frog City civilians think Zeno has eyes for anyone else, but Alexandria? Either way it was a good update and it was nice to see Manuel with a more hopeful outlook.
Great Circle (7th Pillar) - 340 (Required to break through. Bottleneck - the seven pillars must be aligned perfectly in order to be able to fuse into a core. Reaching Great Circle is much easier than aligning one's pillars in preparation to break through. You cannot realign your pillars once you reach Great Circle, so the Bottleneck is spending more time and effort smoothing your way to a Core)
True Dao Pillars (8th pillar) - 588 (Offers tremendous benefits in future realms. Creating 8 Pillars allows one to break through with relative ease, the Heavens easing your path. Incredibly difficult. 8 Dao pillars offer a substantial and permanent boost to one's luck.)
... Minervina Barda is actually close to being our first Core Formation Good Seed, isn't she. Wow.
She's 37 Cultivation-equivalent years away from reaching the Great Circle level.
After that? It's all Tribulation Boosts and cultivating for Tribulation, in order to safely break through into Core Formation.
Depending on how many Tribulation Boosts a Golden Devil clan member needs in order to successfully go from Foundation Establishment to Core Formation -- for instance, it may just be the same as Conventional Heavenstage if you are a Conventional Foundation Establishment person; i.e. just one -- it could be as soon as in two turns.
37 Cultivation-equivalent years over the course of 2 turns? Combined with picking up a Tribulation Boost, or 2 if need be? And Minervina could attempt to enter Core Formation in the tail-end of Turn 10. (Currently, Turn 8 has basically just come to a close.)
Xiao Yi/Jin Muyi is getting on in there at 5-Pillar, 235 age equivalent. He's a hundred years too early -- literally! 7-Pillar is 340-years-equivalent hehehehe -- but he's getting close. And then there's Rina, at year 333 out of 'literally a question mark.' Who knows how close or far she is.
This is the power of the orthodox path, it seems. Though even for an orthodox cultivator, to reach Core Formation after 200 years of cultivating? Not bad. Not bad at all, I think. That's still pretty damn young in fact. ((Although, amusingly, Child Corpse Gulper was younger himself. The 'benefits' of being Blood Path and a Heaven-defying Talent. And being used as a cats' paw by the Divine Sabers I think was one of our theories about him.))
Of course, who knows whether you want to enter Core Formation at the start or in the middle of a harvesting turn. On the one hand, you are at the bottom of the bracket. On the other hand, you hang out with the literal Elders of the Clan -- who are all goddamn veterans (more or less) and you are more valued and more protected. The stakes are higher for losing one of you, so more is invested in you. Also, it may be easier to die off as a Foundation Establishment rather than a Core Formation, because of all those factors.
"Oh wow, you got really fucked up pretty badly." Was the first thing that Huoying said to her best friend when they were reunited after Xiuying's foray into the Secret realm. "What the hell happened in there?!"
"I met the Anti-Noodle Brigade," Xiuying answered nonchalantly.
"...What!? That tells me nothing! Give me details. Now!"
"Bwah! Stop shaking me! I'm injured, remember!"
"Oh sorry! My bad my bad!"
"It's fine it's fine."
After being manhandled by Huoying, Xiuying proceeded to tell her best friend about her adventures in the Qi Guai Secret Realm.
It had been about a week after Xiuying's departure from the Secret Realm. She had obtained both good and bad fortune during her time there. Not only did she find a sheaf of One thousand-year Spirit Wheat that helped advance her cultivation to the ninth heavenstage, but she had also received a fragment of Sword Intent that was surely sent to her by Xiuying's master, Jiang Chen Ten Meti.
However, soon afterwards, Xiuying had been ambushed by a group of Yuan Clan cultivators who called themselves the Anti-Noodle Brigade who sought to kill Xiuying for being a noodle vendor of all things. She had ended up being beaten up by the group before escaping them twice, using up her precious "I am not here" charms given to her by her master. After escaping the group the second time, Xiuying had been aided by a group made up of her noodle wagon regulars and was able to safely leave the Qiguai Secret Realm without incurring any more injuries beyond those that she received from two rather vicious beatings.
Her regulars had helped her to the nearest hospital and paid from her treatment in exchange for lifetime passes for free noodles at her food wagon which Xiuying was more than happy to agree to. After receiving basic treatment to ensure that her injuries would not worsen or heal improperly, Xiuying had sent a message out to her best friend informing her that she was back from the Secret Realm. When Huoying found out that Xiuying was resting in a hospital, she was naturally worried for her best friend's well-being, a worry that was more than justified after seeing Xiuying's medical diagnosis.
The beating that Xiuying had received the second time had been very brutal. Her right eye had some kind of strange mist technique blown into it, resulting in Xiuying losing her depth perception with foreign qi preventing it from recovering quickly. The same foreign qi was also clogging up her qi channels, making it harder for her to use her qi effectively. A lot of her internal organs had been damaged severely, greatly hampering Xiuying's day to day life, and it was only by luck that none of it was permanent. The bones in her left arm had been practically shattered and it was only through the skill of the surgeon that it was pieced back together so that her arm could be set and allowed to heal properly.
"Don't worry, Huoying! I'm fine. Really. I'll heal up in no time flat." Xiuying said cheerfully, seemingly nonplussed about her condition. The bandages and the strong scent of various herbal remedies that filled the room said otherwise, "I'm alive and stronger and that's what really matters."
Huoying rolled her eyes and prodded a spot on Xiuying's leg, causing the girl to hiss in pain. "Yeah, and any cultivation gains you got in the Secret Realm will be wasted since you'll be spending god knows how long healing up from your injuries." Indeed, according to the doctor that had examined Xiuying, the foreign qi in her system was greatly hindering Xiuying's healing. Though it would not put her life in danger, it was estimated that it would take at least a decade of effort on Xiuying's part to expel the foreign qi from her body, allowing it to heal completely and safely. She would not be able to cultivate effectively during this time.
"...I still managed to absorb a fragment of Sword Intent from my master."
"There is that, I suppose." For Huoying, Xiuying's master, Jiang Chen Ten Meti, was a swordmaster whose strength and skill was something that Huoying aspired to. Ironic since it was Jiang who had killed her previous self and forced her to regress back to her younger weaker self. A fragment of Sword Intent from that man was no small thing. It was definitely a priceless treasure in Huoying's eyes. "In any case, since you aren't going anywhere for the time being, is there anything you want me to help you with?"
"Ah! Yeah, I almost forgot! Can you help me with a couple of letters to my family? I missed sending the last couple of letters and since I'm kinda immobile right now, I need you to write for me."
"Sure, sure. Writing a letter should be no problem whatsoever for this Huoying." With that, Huoying pulled out a set of parchment and quill to start writing out Xiuying's letters to her family. Ever since Xiuying left her village, she made sure to send letters to her mortal family every couple of months if she could help it. Though it had been a very long time since she saw her family in person, Xiuying still received letters about how her family had grown and what things have been happening in Xiuying's home village. "Okay, I can start whenever you're ready."
"Alright right then. Please write down what I'm about to say...Okay, dear beloved family…"
…
Huo Ya Zhen, Fire Duck Town was a small town located in the core territories of the Golden Devil clan. It was a picturesque town with a long history, having survived several Trials and Blood Cannibal raids. It was well-known across Golden Devil Territory for two things - its many doctors that ensured that any visiting patient will make a full recovery and its status as a gourmet retreat, where one can taste delicacies or stuff themselves silly to complete satisfaction.
It was this town that Xiuying, after barely recovering enough to leave the hospital, decided to stay in order to recuperate from her many injuries. Though outwardly she appeared fine, her body was still wracked with pain from all her internal injuries, and her ability to use her qi was hampered by the foreign qi that was still in her system. Only continued treatment and time would allow her to fully recover from the beatings she had received back in the Qiguai Secret Realm.
Regrettably, Huoying was unable to join her as she had her own duties to the clan to attend to. The red-haired warrior did however pay for her stay in Fire Duck Town as well as a food vendor permit so that Xiuying could continue doing what she loved while recovering. There were two things that Xiuying loved the most in this world and those were the Principle Art of Cutting and being a noodle chef.
However, unbeknownst to Xiuying, the food scene in Fire Duck Town was incredibly intense. With so many restaurants, cafes, pubs and food stalls crammed into a single town, the competition between them all was fierce. Fights often broke out between rival stalls over the best spots in town as well as duels between restaurants over contracts with the best supplier. It was said that in the past these fights were so ferocious that they left hundreds of wounded every day to the point where they had to bring in a large number of doctors to Fire Duck Town in order to treat everyone.
To bring about the end of violence in the town, the lord of Fire Duck Town implemented a new law - The Food War Law. The law made it so that two parties could settle their debate or argument through a formal duel of their culinary prowess. While normally such a law would have been ignored by cultivators, it was by chance that a loose Core Formation elder who followed the Dao of cooking was visiting the town. Interested in the idea of Food War, the elder decided to stay in the town, enforcing the law and making sure that no one would try to circumvent it. The elder also ensured that things such as family status or power could not be used to unfairly win a cooking duel.
No longer able to simply beat each other up to resolve their arguments, the cultivators followed the law and began to challenge each other in cooking duels. As decades passed by, the idea of Food War duels became ingrained in the culture of Fire Duck town and long after the core formation elder left to continue pursuing their dao, the people continued to use cooking duels to resolve their differences.
In the present day, Food Wars, or "Shokugeki" as it came to be called by some strange foreigner, became both a tourist attraction and a tradition in Fire Duck Town. Every day, dozens of Shokugeki would occur on the streets and in the kitchen of the many restaurants of Fire Duck Town. For duels between famous restaurants, master chefs, or powerful families, the Kitchen Stadium, a giant cooking arena built for the sole purpose of Food Wars, was where such high-profile Shokugeki would take place. To one day cook in Cooking Stadium became the dream of many budding chefs and cooks in Fire Duck Town.
And thanks to Huoying who had obtained a prime spot for Xiuying's noodle wagon that many had been eyeing up until Huoying simply walked in and used their considerable contribution points to buy, Xiuying would soon discover just how serious Fire Duck Town took the art of cooking.
I was a little easier-going than I would've been ordinarily, plus there were two utterly exceptional rolls there.
The Mission system is going to remain fairly similar, but I'm about to put up a post to describe my little tweaks along with the Missions for the upcoming turn.
Lastly is the Slaughter in the Sands, the Witch of Poison, Minervina Barda. Perhaps alone she did as much as all others combined, and where she trod Dervishes did not. I am in Core Formation myself, yet I would not lightly try to slay her. As frightening as the woman is, I am thankful she was sent. Not only did we push back the Dervish raids, so many of them were slain we of the Xin Kingdom should be able to clean up the remainder with little assistance. A Great Success in every sense of the phrase.
Haha, I think I am going to have to add an Alias/Title list to Min's status page. Excellent update.
I am really sold on the Help the Clan mechanic, it really gets across the idea that a Clan/Sect has to carefully balance the progress of its talented Juniors versus the immediate crisis of today. The fact we can still assist with the missions without going all in on a Help The Clan action is also appreciated.
This is more a post outlining how Missions will work from now on from a mechanical perspective, preceding the Turn 9 Missions.
Missions are designed to do three things.
(1) Make it easier to tie characters into stories together.
(2) Give people a sense of pride and accomplishment over what their Good Seeds can accomplish collectively in the sense it'll make a real difference for the Clan
(3) Rubber-band people's development - once you reach the tier of being impactful, you can Aid the Clan and forfeit all Fate roll bonuses in return for helping the Clan more. This helps prevent runaway growth at the top end as people are invested in the success of the Clan.
I don't like to give out specific numbers, but both Rina Callista and Minervina Barda rolled very well this turn. Instead of rocketing even further ahead of the pack, they ensured a city was saved (and fortified) and helped relations with the Xin Kingdom considerable.
On the whole, the system is a success.
What I want to do from a gameplay perspective is make it more obvious what the rewards are for success, and what the punishments are for failure.
I also want to make more tiers of success and failure - missions were originally fail/success/great success, but I want people to be able to think both 'wow, that sounds like a cool thing for my Good Seed to do' and 'damn, the Clan really needs someone to go save those orphans.'.
Each Mission has two tiers. Qi Condensation & Foundation Establishment. Successes in one do not impact the other, and vice versa. Qi Condensation juniors might save the city from a nighttime raid stealing an artifact, but they won't prevent it being levelled by the besieging army. The Foundation experts won't intercept the raiders (as they're all off doing other important things), but to them falls the task of saving the city. This means Qi Condensation players will always be meaningful when it comes to the task they're assigned and you can't have a single Foundation expert take over all the Qi tasks.
Each Mission will have five Outcomes per tier, corresponding to Disaster, Moderate Failure, Bare Success, Moderate Success, and Triumph. You'll have a rough notion of what those outcomes are in each mission and tier before you sign up for a Mission. Not every Outcome will be written in exacting detail, it might just be 'here is what disaster looks like and here is what triumph looks like', but you should be able to puzzle it out fairly easily.
Help the Clan is still restricted to those with an effective strength of Mid Foundation Establishment or above.
Not every Outcome will be written in exacting detail, it might just be 'here is what disaster looks like and here is what triumph looks like', but you should be able to puzzle it out fairly easily.
And I'm assuming that while Disaster would still have negative Consequences for the Good Seeds, Triumphs would wind up flowing purely back into the Clans own larger efforts instead?
Oh holy crap. So, I stumbled upon this after the site came back online, and have since then binged Rina's story chapters. I'm moving onto the others but this is a very big and daunting quest. Any recommendations about the order I should read the side stories at?
Missions are now available on the Omake Rewards sheet!
Select a Mission for your Good Seed (or don't, and get a more generic Fate). This turn we'll be starting out with three, and they're all more generic. For now, if a Legion-leading Good Seed picks a mission, their Legion can just come along. In future I'll look to have specific Missions headed by Good Seeds to really make the story work, but for now it'll be the more basic version.
-------------------------------------
Welcome to the public terminal of the Contribution Points Board, Legionnaire.
Select mission... finding past missions relevant to your present power and skillset for research purposes...
Three missions found. Listing follows. Please note all information is private, and must not be released to outsiders.
Apoikía Bucephalus:
So many new lands have been opened. While some would consider the mass migration and colonisation by the Golden Devils an ill thing, the simple truth is this. Hundreds of generations of Blood Path horror is not easily undone, and the people of the former Cannibal lands will not easily take to different ways, despite their victimization. Rather than mix with the former Cannibals in their empty cities, the decision has been made to construct Apoikía, colony-cities from which the Golden Devils will exert control over the nearby resources and land. For the former mortal inhabitants this means little enough, only that their new rulers will rarely live with them. As the numbers of the Devils rise sufficiently to constrict Blood Path rebels even if they are permitted within the walls of the Apoikía, this great separation will slowly end, and the mortal lands will be tamed more properly. For now, though, building up populations who are used to destruction and Blood Path methods to be able to consume one another is considered unwise, especially with the many Blood Path legacies and traps that Sun Diaxing will have left in his former lands.
Qi Condensation cultivators will help found the new Apoikía Buchephalus, named after the timely manifestation of a Kataphraktoi formation late in the war. A juncture of trade and for immigration, the passing through of the Stork Bloodline Clans will be a great opportunity to help learn about them, as well as ensure a lack of banditry in the area. Success would mean a bonus to relations with the Stork Bloodline Clans, while a Failure might have them be weaker as they are targeted by bandits, as well as less grateful to their new overlords.
Foundation Establishment cultivators will range further afield, hunting down the many Blood Path criminals who remain. While they will be based at Buchephalus, their key task will be to hunt down the Seven Great Bandits of the region, each of whom has destroyed towns in their own right. Success would mean a major boost to commerce and growth in both the Apoikía and the Stork Bloodline Clans, Failure would mean the Storks would see generations of stymied growth.
The Song Empire:
It is not the end, but as the Strength Purity Sect redeploys desperately in terror and confusion, they accept aid even from the Golden Devils. Array-masters and their guards are sent to the Song Empire, a front once closed that has been reopened.
Qi Condensation cultivators will attempt to hold the Fearless Line, and slay raiders who attempt to pass. Success would mean saving tens of thousands of mortal lives, while a Failure might have a minor breakout in the back lines that would take several Foundation Establishment cultivators to quell.
Foundation Establishment cultivators will attempt to save He Jian City, most desperately under attack and at risk of falling. Success would mean weeks of breathing room on the Song Empire for the Strength Purity Sect, and a relationship boost. Failure would mean the fall of the city, the destruction of a Golden Devil relief force, and contempt from our erstwhile Righteous Path allies.
Parakoimomenos's Merchants:
While others act openly, some spy in the shadows. The most cunning are sent to the Jingshen Clan, seeking to spy and thieve, and ever so often assassinate. As the Jingshen continue their single-minded focus on a plan that might see them gain hegemony in the Desert, the Clan must seek to know what they can about the progress of this plan.
Qi Condensation cultivators will attempt to spy on Jingshen cities and preparations, working together to assess their level of wealth and power. Success would mean information on Jingshen military readiness, while a Failure would mean the death of many spies in the Jingshen Clan.
Foundation Establishment cultivators will attempt to sneak into a Spirit Mine that has had a powerful Drill artifact used upon it, and attempt to sabotage the drill. Success would mean the loss of months of income for the Jingshen, buying ever-more time until their plan can come to completion. Failure would mean that several assets who gave us that information would be exposed and killed, making it harder to sabotage the Jingshen in future.
And I'm assuming that while Disaster would still have negative Consequences for the Good Seeds, Triumphs would wind up flowing purely back into the Clans own larger efforts instead?
Good Seeds can't negatively contribute to a Mission - I might make that clearer. Broadly it's a consequence of not assigning enough people (or having bad enough rolls) to a particular Mission.
Roughly speaking, Mission difficulty is scaled to the number of people engaging in Missions and their power levels. The intention is if you assign precisely one-third of all Good Seeds power to each Mission, you'll squeak out a Success each time.
If the cultivators are unbalanced, this changes, and of course Aid the Clan can change this equation substantially.
Oh holy crap. So, I stumbled upon this after the site came back online, and have since then binged Rina's story chapters. I'm moving onto the others but this is a very big and daunting quest. Any recommendations about the order I should read the side stories at?
Oh holy crap. So, I stumbled upon this after the site came back online, and have since then binged Rina's story chapters. I'm moving onto the others but this is a very big and daunting quest. Any recommendations about the order I should read the side stories at?
Kaboomatic's Ninth Prince is my absolute favorite character to read about. He's... he's just such an awesome character. Bombastic and hammy and good-hearted! A prince of the Naag from the Fifth Turle Sea, he has come to righteously kick butt and chew bubble gum. And he's all out of bubble gum.
Mochinator's Xiao Yi -- now having renamed himself as Jin Muyi, after the Miracle at Pleuron transformed him into a human-plant-hybrid being -- is another.
Katana1515's Minervina Barda is a witch. No, really, she basically is one! She's a poison-mistress.
BungieONI's Ferenike is another I would recommend, as occipitallobe did. She's more legionnaire-focused now, I think, it's been a while.
I've not kept up with the characters as much as I would like, but... those guys are among my top favorites.
Rough-equivalent-ish 'how old does the average cultivator reach this level at?' eyeballing this, and...
... Minervina Barda is actually close to being our first Core Formation Good Seed, isn't she. Wow.
She's 37 Cultivation-equivalent years away from reaching the Great Circle level.
After that? It's all Tribulation Boosts and cultivating for Tribulation, in order to safely break through into Core Formation.
Depending on how many Tribulation Boosts a Golden Devil clan member needs in order to successfully go from Foundation Establishment to Core Formation -- for instance, it may just be the same as Conventional Heavenstage if you are a Conventional Foundation Establishment person; i.e. just one -- it could be as soon as in two turns.
37 Cultivation-equivalent years over the course of 2 turns? Combined with picking up a Tribulation Boost, or 2 if need be? And Minervina could attempt to enter Core Formation in the tail-end of Turn 10. (Currently, Turn 8 has basically just come to a close.)
By the looks of things Minervina might have even hit Great Circle this turn if I hadn't used my Fate and Omake bonus on the Help The Clan action. No regrets about it, but the 'Slaughter in the Sands' is probably going to focus on her own advancement for the next 3 turns. While being the first to hit Core Formation would be amazing, I currently have my eye on trying for 8 Pillars. The rough plan is to stock up on LSTs and hit the 2 FB compatible Secret Realm options in turns 10 and 11. If we find good fortune, then we press on for the Bonus Pillar, if not, then I suppose I can pivot back to an Orthodox breakthrough.
Mochinator's Xiao Yi -- now having renamed himself as Jin Muyi, after the Miracle at Pleuron transformed him into a human-plant-hybrid being -- is another.
Thanks! I really appreciate this since i wasn't the best at the start. The fact that someone is willing to read through all of it to know the GS i came up with really makes me happy.
Lastly is the Slaughter in the Sands, the Witch of Poison, Minervina Barda. Perhaps alone she did as much as all others combined, and where she trod Dervishes did not. I am in Core Formation myself, yet I would not lightly try to slay her. As frightening as the woman is, I am thankful she was sent.
once again Minervina shows off how how scary she is even in a crowded field, seriously I think most of the high level seeds save Rina were there and you still did more work
I must be minded to mention the Corpse Poison King, as he is named here. Lord Centenius was instrumental in holding back attack after attack, though I fear no plays about his feats will be written. A fearsome figure, and one that mothers threaten their children with even as they thank him in a whisper.
So I'm the scary boogie man that will come do horrible things in the dark? Maybe I should lean into that. I kind of expected this when I started down the path of poisons
I have to do that too. Minervina may have more titles, but my title has King in it, your still just a witch for now(see next turn when you get called a Goddess of poisons
7-Pillar is 340-years-equivalent hehehehe -- but he's getting close. And then there's Rina, at year 333 out of 'literally a question mark.' Who knows how close or far she is. 
