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.
I am a bit confused, for my omake I wanted a personal skill, not a treasure of some sort. So I guess I am a bit curious about this event and just want to know if he does have that skill I wanted or if the beast superseded it.
Hektor Sarantapechos. Truly excellent progress, as expected as the son of an Elder. 8th Heavenstage reached. Was sent out to assist a city beset by ghosts. A Blood Path cultivator ghost attacked him, and nearly killed him. His mother rushed out to save him, exorcising the Blood Path ghost. Badly wounded, will take years to recover.
[X]Plan Strike while the Iron is hot
-[X] Agree with Proposal - Jingshen Clan will begin raiding Blood Cannibal Sect. You will gain no Wealth this turn.
-[X] Raiding - The Battleblood Cannibal Sect
-[X] Hunt An Enemy - Child Corpse Gulper
For our personal action, I am fine with either hunting down child corpse gulper, weakening the battleblood sect or aiding the oasis rebels, all of them move towards my goal of damaging the cannibals.
Usually, but it depends. The more beasts, the less you'll be able to maintain, and the lower their realms will be. You won't have like ten beasts of the same Heavenstage.
"Man, what's something the Clan would send [character] to do, or at least a mission they'd plausibly accept. Ok, what are the problems that arise? What tools do they have to resolve it?"
[FATE ROLL]
If you roll a 1 and explode it into another 1 without any lifesaving treasures, your various techniques, items, beasts, etc, don't matter.
But if you roll like, a 12 and risk being wounded I think about it.
'Ok, so [character] is facing bandits who are primarily good at ambushing. But they recently picked up a magical mirror for detection. So the wound is pretty light.'
On the margins, cool things and stuff your character owns does help. If you're unlucky enough, it won't.
Does spending a long time in a major realm of cultivation give you any bonuses to survival for being virtually unassailable by others of your major realm?
Not really, though it would if you were a Righteous Clan competing against other Righteous factions who have rules about interacting with one another's juniors. A couple posts ago an angry Nascent Soul horribly murdered a bunch of Foundation Building disciples.
Advancing cultivation is nice too but does cultivation have any affect on fate rolls as well?
Or is it just the higher your cultivation the bigger of an impact you are allowed to have kn the big picture and it doesnt affect fate at all, cus there is always someone stronger?
You don't know. Maybe Jingshen Clan will still be happy to leave the offer open next turn. Maybe they won't. From Manuel's point of view - probably not.
I am a bit confused, for my omake I wanted a personal skill, not a treasure of some sort. So I guess I am a bit curious about this event and just want to know if he does have that skill I wanted or if the beast superseded it.
110% honesty - there were 20 characters, 42 total rolls, and a lot of material to cover over to ensure I was giving at least vaguely applicable scenarios. I just made a mistake on this one - it's why I'm reforming the Good Seed system (see the Good Seed infopost for more info) administratively to make it easier on me so I make less mistakes.
If you have a particular skill you wrote in, keep it. I'm not going to be hardnosed about these things in Turn 1 while I was refining and rejiggering systems.
I didn't actually detail it. Probably the remnant of a Core Formation cultivator - a Core Formation ghost would have roughly Foundation Building strength.
110% honesty - there were 20 characters, 42 total rolls, and a lot of material to cover over to ensure I was giving at least vaguely applicable scenarios. I just made a mistake on this one - it's why I'm reforming the Good Seed system (see the Good Seed infopost for more info) administratively to make it easier on me so I make less mistakes.
If you have a particular skill you wrote in, keep it. I'm not going to be hardnosed about these things in Turn 1 while I was refining and rejiggering systems.
Thanks for the response, about what I thought was the case. I do get the roll bloat that you are suffering and understand why this might have happened.
Also would it be helpful on your end if the people making good seeds outlined their end point in Heavenstep stage?
They say the first kill is the hardest. For Min, it came perhaps a little too easily.
It was supposed to be a simple mission to the Xin Kingdom. Find the reason why peasants are frequently disappearing from some backcountry little mortal village. A low ranking Spirit Beast was the most likely culprit.
"A good opportunity he said, go out and see the world a bit, a Disciple of the Third Heavenstage would benefit from a tussle with a Four Wind Boar or the like" Minervina chants, not for the first time in this journey. If the hoary old elder she was imitating could hear her tone.... well honestly she wasn't sure what he would do but it wouldn't be anything good.
Her grousing only gets louder when she finds the mangled body of the peasant girl.
This, she swiftly concludes, was not the work of any spirit beast. The body had been neatly butchered, like a prize lamb on festival day. You could see the fine cuts had to be the result of a very sharp blade.
A cursory investigation of the surroundings and .... yes, here it was. The remains of a cookfire and the stringy parts of the poor waifs leg muscles left to rot.
Her 'low level Spirit Beast' was actually a cannibal cultivator. "Maybe we really are cursed by the heavens?"
From the trail and his choice of victims she deduced he was most likely alone and at the lower end of the Qi Cultivating Realm. Greater Cultivators would benefit little from such sparse and weak prey.
She wondered what he was doing out here. A rogue perhaps? Driven to depravity by his lack of resources. Or maybe a peer on his own mission from the bloody handed cannibals of the neighboring sect.
'I suppose it doesn't matter in the end. All I have to do is kill him.'
Direct confrontation would be a mistake, but that had never been the plan in any case. She returned to the village, partially to send a recovery party for the poor girls remains but mostly to double-check the details of their water supply.
This was the Organ Meat Desert after all and water was more precious than gold or diamonds to these people. Like most of these small communities the locals relied on a single massive communal cistern, fed by a small underground spring. Fetching water was a daily chore in every household.
"The headman says he takes a victim every 7 days. Going by the state of the corpse I have 3 days until he culls the next one. Just enough."
She talked to herself more and more lately, perhaps because she didnt have anyone else left to chat with....
Shrugging off her melancholy she pulled out her mortar and pestle and started the mix. Her original plan should still work. "I suppose I'm lucky its a cannibal rather than a bandit or something. I can rely on him to take his medicine."
Pearlescent Silversteel Tea was the rather cheerful name for this particularly unpleasant brew. Rich in Yang energies wrangled from desert sunflowers it would give the drinker a very pleasant little lift. Until they tried to cultivate at least, then the heavy metals and other less pleasant ingredients would weigh down the victims meridians and make them tear themselves apart under the pressure.
It wasn't the most lethal concoction she could choose. It was reliable against Qi Cultivators, of dubious value against a Foundation level foe and she had heard rumors some Core Formation Elders drank it as a pleasant start to winter mornings. It was perfect for this task because it was harmless to mortals and what was more, it would linger in a mortals fleshy tissues for days after consumption.
Of course she questioned the morality of what she was doing. But scouring the surrounding desert for a lone barbarian who didn't want to be found was a fools game and she wasn't some gallant sword slinger in any case. Better this community lose only one more member to this predator she decided as she covertly added the completed tea to the villages water supply.
After that it was simply a matter of waiting and throwing in another kettle of the deadly tea each dawn and dusk. The hue and cry went up on the 3rd day. A farmers boy was late from his chores. Right on schedule.
Minerva joined one of the search parties of course but they weren't the first to find bodies. The boys mother was. Her wailing led them to the butcher site.
The killer was still in a cultivating pose, serene next to his grotesque cooking fire apart from a frozen look of horror on his face. As she had calculated, the remnants of the tea in the farm boys veins had still been potent.
Mia though, had eyes only for the boy and his mother. She saw her own grief at her fathers violent passing reflected back at her. 'Has vengeance made me so callous?' She ponders before approaching the mourning woman. "What was his name?" She asks.
In the end, its the boys name she engraves on her heart as she returns to the Clan. Its his pale face she sees as she spends her bonus Contribution points on attending Elder Manuels lectures.
Little Wan Chung. My first murder.
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First Omake for my good seed. Mostly written before the update, but its good to see that poisoning rogue cultivators is clearly her destiny! I didn't intend her to be quite so grim, but its kind of developed that way as I wrote it.
Bonus if I get one will be to Cultivation Speed from attending our MC Nascent Souls lectures.
[] Insurgency Preparations
-[ ] Agree with Proposal - Jingshen Clan will begin raiding Blood Cannibal Sect. You will gain no Wealth this turn.
-[ ] Intrigue (Blood Cannibal Sect) - You should learn about another clan entirely. Spend Spirit Stones like water in the plains and find out everything you can. Strengths. Weaknesses, places to strike, rebels, and so on and so forth.
-[ ] Hunt for a Replacement - Look for a new candidate to replace Ioannes Vatatzes. If successful, you may be able to save several precious Lifespan Treasures.
we're not going to be able to strike down the Cannibals this turn. There's too much they can do and we're not in any position to press an advantage. Moreover, hiding Child Corpse Eater is an act deliberately intended to draw our own resources out in order to hunt him.
This is foolishness. Let's lean on the Jingshen clan to relieve pressure off the Oasis Rebels and in turn provide openings for our own Intrigue efforts to get a good hard look on who's tard wrangling the Cannibals.
Finding a replacement for Vatatzes let's us save on valuable life extending treasures for when we're raising up potential Nascent Soul Elders to help pas out the ranks of the Elders and leaves us in a good position to go full ham on the Cannibals next turn.
The Jingshen are no friends of ours, and knowledge bought with their blood is a fair trade I'd say.
All combined, this should prove sufficient for us to know what the Cannibals are capable and take appropriate measures to hard counter them, leaning into the Clans strengths so as to deal a proper gutting wound to.the Cannibal Sect and throw them off our back before the Bees become ascendant and the Trials come for us again.
Edit:
Additionally, if we set Vatatzes up to be replaced, he can engage in something far more reckless during the campaign due to having his affairs set in order. Which means a sacrifice of a hero unit comes onto the table as something we can ostensibly afford to eat the blowback of any tricks the Cannibals might try to pull once pressed
Magnus Centenius - Attained 5th Heavenstage, bottlenecked. Took on a mission to assist a small mortal city beset by a non-magical plague. Managed to derive a cure of some sort.
I changed my Omake to say 5th heaven stage. I feel like I got some of the most average rolls possible, but that bottleneck hurts. My poor guy is already 50 and stuck at 5th stage
Ilias Barallis - Sent to spy on Cannibal Sect after failure of first major mission. Cultivation progress almost non-existent due to what follows. Caught and tortured by the Cannibal Sect for two years escaped. Badly scarred, fell back to 1st Heavenstage. Investigation shows no use of Ilias to infiltrate the Clan. Managed to re-attain the 3rd Heavenstage.
Oh Lordy, my boys not been having a good time with this start to the quest. Don't worry though, his good nature will not be snuffed out by a measles two years under the tender mercy of the Cannibal Sect.
I do have question though. Is Ilias no longer able to work as an infiltrator for the clan right now, or is he now permanently disqualified from that sort of work?
Hmm not certain about doing intrigue against the cannibals Chron given how we got fucked the last time we tried it and you and Alectai just theorized that they have an intrigue spec guy. Like it just feels like putting our hand in the blender again cause while it maybe that we just flunked the roll last time I'm not sure I want to bet on rolling better this time
Kinda agree with what notte is saying
My main suggestion would be either Increase Wealth or Train Disciples, mainly because as it is, we can probably use this turn as a sort of breather, in order to prepare for the 100 year trials
Okay! It kind of escalated from a nap to a sleep but I'm back now and looking at the situation.
We can certainly afford the Jingshen Clan's raiding with the economic bounty we just experienced, and we want to keep the pressure up on the Blood Cannibals as well while we prepare to hit them. The question then becomes "Should we spend our time scouting the enemy" or "Should we spend our time preparing to strike first."
And given how the enemy just apparently revealed some absurd blood-scrying method, getting caught in another trap like that would be devastating, so I'm inclined to stick with gathering intelligence and taking advantage of the Jingshen Clan's advance to tease out the enemy's moves and understand where the barb is. To that end, I think Chron's plan is sound--making sure that we have a replacement for our Master at Arms ready to go means we can risk using him more aggressively in the upcoming conflict.
The fact of the matter is, for people who are getting cold feet? We can't afford to let the possibility of the Enemy having a bullshit name-bound blood scrying method stop us from figuring out how the fuck they did that. It's likely that Manuel will have some suggestions on how to handle this now that the potential threat has been revealed, and he is also pretty sharp at the Intrigue thing.
Now with that said, I'm going to get started working on Rina's new adventures!
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Hektor Sarantapechos 2 - Deadly encounters of the fifth kind
Hektor Sarantapechos had not even arrived at his destination, yet he could feel the Yin Aura of plague, disease and misery emanating from the city over a day's travel away. Since achieving the Eighth Heavenstage and his bloodline awakening to the Gilded Bones level, he has needed a way to test his newfound strength as well as reaffirm his conviction and beliefs. He was currently 54 years old and would soon reach the ninth Heavenstage where he would be preparing to forge his first Dao Pillar and while his conviction was strong, he was not yet sure what, exactly, his first Dao would be. It also didn't hurt that taking a mission from the Contribution Points Board would allow him to earn some resources alongside experience – Even as the son of an Elder the clan treated all fairly and he wouldn't just be given things without earning them!
The mission he had taken this time was to investigate a plague of ghosts that had infested Cactus Flower city, the home of a minor clan that paid their dues to the Clan often and reliably. Some weeks ago ghosts had started to terrorise the populace and they had called for aid from their Golden Devil rulers.
Upon arrival, it became clear that the city was in a dire state; the gates were unmanned and all the stores and homes where boarded shut with whatever spare items the locals had at hand. Hektor wandered the city for a while longer, before heading to the Mo Hua clans' compound in the centre of the city. He was welcomed and hosted by them as they explained the situation to him. Their strongest cultivator was the clan head, who was only in the fifth Heavenstage, and was unable to find the source of the ghosts and not even capable of facing some of the stronger ones.
Having learned what he could from the Mo Hua clan, Hektor headed to where the first sightings of the ghosts had come about. There was a well in the northern side of the city where the Yin Aura was thicker than anywhere else. He remained there until nightfall and was rewarded by the sight of many long dead souls rising from the ground around him, presumably aiming to terrorise and consume what remained of the city's population.
Hektor had made a decision a long time ago, right after the Hundred-Year Trial, that he would become both Spear and Shield of the clan and he would be a terrible shield if he allowed these ghosts to continue as they were.
Unlimbering his spear and shield from where he had carried them for travel, Hektor settled into the first stance of his personal battle skill, Heaven Piercing Spear. Directing his energies through the meridians of his body, his Bronzesign glowing brightly in the gloomy night, the might of his spear fell upon the first ghost and returned it to a peaceful rest. Hektor was able to easily deal with all the ghosts that came out of the well that night, the strongest only being equivalent to a normal sixth Heavenstage cultivator.
Come the morning sun, no more ghosts rose from the well, their ectoplasmic remains scattered to the winds. Knowing that the root of the problem lay deep beneath the city, Hektor jumped down the well, stabbing his spear into the side to arrest his momentum when he neared the bottom, before splashing into .
'It seems that there is a forgotten catacomb beneath this city' Hektor mused to himself upon seeing the skull lined walls some distance from the side of the reservoir he fell into. How the city inspectors had missed it he was unsure, though his eyesight and spiritual senses were far beyond a mortals so that might be part of it.
A series of tunnels led deeper into the earth, and Hektor found various half formed ghosts that he quickly dispatched along the way. He started to run into stronger ghosts as he found the path levelling out though, and soon came to a large room, empty save for the altar in the centre with a large, half open coffin next to it. A desiccated corpse lay over the coffin, presumably the person who tried to open it but was eaten by whatever lay inside.
Suddenly the room was bathed in red light and hordes of ghosts filled every position possible. A red ghost floated out of the coffin, emanating an aura of bloodthirst and hunger, as well as pressure beyond the Qi Condensation stage. This ghosts awakening must have been the impetus for all the other ghosts that plagued the city, Hektor realised. He also noted just how much danger he was in, and prepared to unleash the full might of his Heave Piercing Spear and Impenetrable Bronze Shield lest he die cold and alone, deep beneath Cactus Flower City.
The red ghost opened its eyes and took in Hektor's appearance. "A Golden Devil, all alone for me to snack on? It must be my lucky day!" Seemingly without a care for Hektor's spear that was already thrusting towards its head – tip glowing bright bronze with the full power of Hektor's will to survive behind it – the ghost flew towards him faster than anything Hektor had faced before, pressure from a power above Qi Condensation pushing down on him. The spear flew fast and true even through the pressure, and struck the ghost in the shoulder, blowing ectoplasm far across the room. Hektor traded this blow for a wound of his own, as the ghost's bloody claws ripped across his body, shredding his armour and the bronze skin beneath – his bloodline the only reason he was not ripped in two.
Hitting the wall behind him, Hektor's spear fell from his hands as he drew upon all his remaining energy to empower the Impenetrable Bronze Shield, forming a barrier of bronze light ahead of him. The red ghost let loose a roar as it drew the spilled ectoplasm back into it, Hektor's attack doing barely any lasting damage, and it struck the barrier with its claws time and time again. The shield held strong though, providing Hektor enough time to reach into a pouch and draw forth a jade pendant that his mother had gifted to him. He shattered the pendant and held on for dear life, utilising all his remaining energy to empower the barrier of light that was beginning to break down under the powerful ghosts assault.
He endured strike after strike, his shield holding though he had only dregs of energy and willpower left. Hektor's mind drifted back in time, to the defining moments of his life. His mother teaching him how to cultivate, surviving the Hundred-Year Trial, the Grand Elders and others lectures that had helped him decide on his path. He would endure. He would become the shield of the clan that he might protect them from all danger. He would become the spear that annihilates their enemies. This ghost would not end him in the catacombs of some backwater city, not like this.
So he held on. His shield and barrier developed crack after crack, their bronze glow diminishing further with every strike by the now greatly enraged ghost. Yet they did not break. Then it was over. The ghost had stopped its assault because it no longer existed.
Through the bronze light of his almost failed barrier, a far stronger, purer and brighter bronze glow washed over him, revitalising his Yang energies and annihilating all the Yin ghosts that filled the cave. His mother had arrived, and the power of her Yang aspected Core Formation easily removed all ghosts from existence. Safe in the presence of his mother, Hektor collapsed and succumbed to the wounds that covered his chest.
Hektor faced a mighty challenge (poor dice rolls) and survived! Though not without injury… @occipitallobe can the bonuses please go toward healing his wounds cultivation?
Oh Lordy, my boys not been having a good time with this start to the quest. Don't worry though, his good nature will not be snuffed out by a measles two years under the tender mercy of the Cannibal Sect.
I do have question though. Is Ilias no longer able to work as an infiltrator for the clan right now, or is he now permanently disqualified from that sort of work?
He can definitely still infiltrate - though they probably won't send him into Cannibal territory for awhile. Plenty of spying work to do on all neighbours, and that's not even mentioning the vassals!
I changed my Omake to say 5th heaven stage. I feel like I got some of the most average rolls possible, but that bottleneck hurts. My poor guy is already 50 and stuck at 5th stage
First Omake for my good seed. Mostly written before the update, but its good to see that poisoning rogue cultivators is clearly her destiny! I didn't intend her to be quite so grim, but its kind of developed that way as I wrote it.
Bonus if I get one will be to Cultivation Speed from attending our MC Nascent Souls lectures.
As an aside, I really enjoy all these omake. It's nice to have 'relentless old monster who has to be fine treating people as disposable in the service of a higher end' alongside a bunch of diverse and interesting characters he's, y'know, doing it for.
Hmm not certain about doing intrigue against the cannibals Chron given how we got fucked the last time we tried it and you and Alectai just theorized that they have an intrigue spec guy. Like it just feels like putting our hand in the blender again cause while it maybe that we just flunked the roll last time I'm not sure I want to bet on rolling better this time
Youd have a point if that blender weren't proactive and fully capable of screwing us back so long as we couldn't get a bead on it in order to take it off the board before it screws with us again
Compared to the other members of his clan, Amaranth Castellanos's Bronze has always been pitifully weak. Even someone who hadn't reached the first level of Qi Condensation could shrug off a ten foot fall easily, while Amaranth would have bled for the same. For them, a punch might crack stone, while Amaranth would crack first.
For many, that wouldn't be an issue, as they would just dedicate their efforts outside of tempering their body. However, Amaranth was stubborn. He enjoyed the path of physical combat, of trading blows with an opponent with your fists, even if he lacked that crucial advantage over others that his clan had. That being said, stubbornness can only go so far, and he was looked down on for foolishly hanging on to a role that he was unsuited for. He tried his best to ignore that, but he still felt a deep envy when he looked at others who could replicate what he did with far less effort.
One day, Amaranth was headed with a caravan to another kingdom when some members of the Blood Cannibal sect attacked. Thankfully, the guards were sufficient to hold them off, but not without several casualties. When he saw the Blood Cannibals absorb the life-force from the fallen guards, he felt a strange resonance in his body and faintly felt an urge to join in on the slaughter, but was immediately repulsed by the thought of having anything to do with those monsters. The rest of the trip went comparatively normally.
Now that Amaranth has joined the sect and finally become a cultivator, he's excited to go into combat to contribute to his sect!
Overall High Concept: My initial idea was of a character who didn't have their Good Seed bonus unlocked yet for whatever reason, and after giving the Blood Demon path a look-through, it turned into this. When Amaranth finally discovers that he could improve his constitution which had hindered him for so long, he'll almost certainly heavily lean to only killing the enemies of the sect, but the temptation to slaughter unrestrictedly will probably exist to some extent due to his old envy and the instincts of his constitution, suppressed by disgust it may be. (Ofc that route would end up with him being quickly put down.) We'll see how that ends up.
Good Seed Bonus: Variant Bronze Bloodline - Bloodsoaked Bronze Body: The initial bonuses from the Blood of Bronze is vastly diminished compared to a typical member of your clan. Your body naturally strengthens the more people you kill, but you must physically touch the blood to fully absorb the power. Stronger foes result in greater gains. Unlike the Path of the Blood Demon, this doesn't strengthen your spiritual cultivation.
Current Status as of start of Turn Seventeen: 316 years old. King-class Cultivator, currently in Single Pillar Stage 3.
Unorthodox Bonuses:
10th Heavenstage - Body Purification: +9 Impact. Impurities are expunged, considerably increasing strength, speed, and toughness. Body is far better at having Qi channeled through it, undoubtably useful for a body cultivator.
11th Heavenstage - Qi Purification: +4 Impact. Gains Pure Qi that flows through a Pure Body, which is twice as potent per unit compared to ordinary Qi. This allows for more powerful techniques to be used. Notably, Amaranth used this to enhance the techniques he redirected back at his opponents.
12th Heavenstage - Soul Purification: Purified Soul grants passive resistance to soul attacks and Dao effects, a large boost to ALL soul arts, and improves cultivation speed by 1.5x in Nascent Soul. Without this, Manuel's lectures wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly.
13th Heavenstage - Dao Purification: Dao is purified in the same manner that forming a Core requires, permitting one to follow the Single Pillar path, which contains many benefits. When unleashed, Dao Emanations automatically overwhelm anyone in Foundation Establishment without an appropriate countermeasure, and with the right matchup, may even crack Cores.
The Single Pillar Path:
Stage 1 (Enormity of Heaven and Earth): Dao Emanations, normally restricted to those within Nascent Soul, can be employed a full two Great Realms earlier. As such, the vast majority of individuals within the same Realm have no answer to them, which makes their use assure victory. For this reason, Amaranth tends to hold external manifestations back during spars, preferring to instead use them to enhance his techniques.
Stage 2 (Heaven Above): Grants increased Dao benefits. A Single Pillar adept at this stage may extend the reach of their Emanation to hundreds of kilometers, granting them the broad-spanning strategic influence of someone in Core Formation on the battlefield. The cultivator's Dao is less offensive to the Heavens, and can spread more rapidly. When fighting a great deal of foes, Amaranth often uses this to impose his [Consumption] over a vast range, draining strength and vitality from those present on the night of bloodstained roses to fuel his own rampage. To those inside, the sky grows dark and cloudy, the earth is swirled with mists, while a full moon stained a crimson hue gazes down on the lands.
Single Pillar 3 (Earth Below): Grants more powerful Dao effects usable by the cultivator in their immediate surroundings. These abilities are short ranged, but the impact is incredible compared to the prior stages, comparable to a full-fledged Nascent Soul using their Dao effects at range. In short, true [Dao Magic] can be performed at this level of the Pillar's development, with a significantly higher degree of refinement in interpretations of the overarching Dao. While Amaranth could previously use his Dao to do things like consume the sounds he makes, at this stage he can even consume his sense of presence, making him significantly harder to detect for targets. If something can abstractly be described as being performed by consuming some property of reality or another, it may be possible for Amaranth himself to perform.
Impact: +26 (Invincible under Core Formation. If Emanations are used, can conditionally clash with and defeat Core Formation enemies.) -Toad Foot Boots:Allow him to jump much higher than he otherwise would be able to, and land safely. One boot was destroyed during his tribulation. The second was destroyed in his duel with Rashni Voidheart. -Sticky Toad Saliva Droplet:Allows him to stick and slow down foes in the same realm and even allow fighting Early Foundation Establishment. Consumed. -Hungering Fist:A self developed technique that allows him to absorb the Qi of enemies with his constitution at a highly accelerated rate. It has been developed to also permit the absorption of the qi of techniques and to fire them back on the attacker. Used as the foundation of a new style. -Mist-Command Pendant: A pendant that allows him to control mists, allowing him to sneak around and strike from concealment. It is also useful for escaping from dangerous situations. Consumed. —Subsumed into the still developing Art, the Decoherence Shroud.
-Arm and Foot of Living Flame: These replacement limbs let him use fire techniques with far more effectiveness, as even a portion of the body of a Fire Spirit is much more conducive towards such things than one of a human. -First Principle of Annihilation: After his mind, heart and body were rended into by Rashni's Dao-Sorcery of Annihilation, Amaranth was finally able to use his understanding of the cycle of Consumption to grasp some comprehension of Rashni's techniques. He can now, at great risk to himself, apply the property of Annihilation to his limbs of flames, bypassing the defenses of enemies to directly erase the part it contacts.
-Grand Stirring Gravity Technique: A secret cooking technique that allows Amaranth to twist the gravitational forces in a small area to stir soups, stews, and any number of dishes, just as well as the innards of his foes. -Admixture Technique: A more advanced cooking technique that permits Amaranth to fuse things together, from ingredients to improve one's cooking, to life itself with nonliving or living objects. A chair might be combined with a horse, or a bird with a man, or a sword with the aforementioned chair, each combination taking on unusual unique characteristics of both progenitors. If Amaranth could break a thing, he can likely fuse it with another thing.
Tribulation Treasures: 0 Life-Saving Treasures: Two Current Maximum Lifespan: 500 years. (1000 years is the highest you can extend your lifespan to within Foundation Establishment.)
Turn Two Fate: Served in a support role against a Core Formation Bandit by providing Qi to a Core Formation Elder. The kill sprayed blood all over Amaranth which his constitution absorbed, resulting in a meteoric rise in cultivation to the Ninth Heavenstage. However, his cultivation is shaky, and cannot currently advance. Turn Three Fate: 3 Turns away from the 10th Heavenstage. Was contracted to kill many toads. One had eaten a large magical boot filled with Spirit Stones, and fused with the item to form something new. When the toad was killed it granted a pair of Toad-Foot Boots in the shape of flippers, allowing Amaranth to jump many times his height and land safely. Turn Four Fate: Entered the Qiguai Secret Realm. Upon first entering, was challenged by a 10th Heavenstage cultivator, who promptly beat him badly, robbed him of his gains and Wounded him. He managed to find an excellent treasure. An ancient Battle-Trained Thousand-Tongue Toad found him, drawn by the aura of his magical boots. It gifted him with a Sticky Toad Saliva Droplet. A powerful treasure allowing him to stick and slow down anyone in the same realm, and would even allow him to temporarily fight an enemy in Early Foundation Establishment. After this, a series of other cultivators chased him, Badly Wounding him, willing to kill a Golden Devil for the luck boost. They hunted him down like an animal, and at the very last were about to kill him. Without his Infernal Eagle Pendant, he would have surely died, but at least managed to escape from the Qiguai Secret Realm with his life, losing his Pendant. Turn Five Fate: Who does not know of the Burning Bronze Demon, the igniter of his own bloodline, the first to stand against impossible odds fist to fist? Who can gainsay what he has done? Who can heal his crippled body? (Healed but then immediately Crippled. Consumed his own bloodline with a forbidden art in a crucial moment in order to delay multiple Foundation Experts for thirty seconds. Without his efforts, the Miracle at Pleuron, which had to thread through a needle to slay that Core Elder, would surely not have gone nearly as well.)
Turn Six Fate: Healed, and cultivated. To say Amaranth was not famous after his deeds at Pleuron would be a lie, but it took many years for him to recover. After a decade, he pursued his cultivation with incredible vigour, but made only ordinary progress. With few adventures and the like to speak of, he was bent on making up the time he had lost. Turn Seven Fate: Hunted by bandits for a year, he trapped them and killed them, seizing a Mist-Command Pendant (+1 Impact) from the leader, allowing him to summon mists to hide within or escape through. Turn Eight Fate: Amaranth blazed into glory. There was little other way to say it. None knew what he discovered in the Xin Kingdom, but he left a man in the 10th Heavenstage, and returned with the heads of three Cannibals, as well as a cultivation of the 12th. (+80 cultivation years.) Radiating power, he slew more and more Dervishes, and in the end merely puttered out - at the end of the raid he found no particularly amazing kills, nothing absurd or ridiculous, his moment to shine having since passed. Turn Nine Fate: Amaranth had a rather ordinary time at the Fearless Line, if it could be called that. Whether other men fought great battles, he was put in the rear-guard, and found himself stoically cleaning up the messes of others. Several attacks by genius talents from the Saber Palace left a great rent in their lines, and he was consequently forced to rescue mortals who should've been safeguarded many times, taking blows and moving out of position to do so. While he survived without incident, there were many close calls, and despite his work he was constantly taunted by the Saber Palace talents for not fighting in the front-line. Turn Ten Fate: Amaranth faced down the Trials as he had done before, and found himself almost wounded. Using his treasure in a fit of paranoia to avoid it, he stood at the very edge of the 13th Heavenstage. Turn Eleven Fate: Through some obscene stroke of luck, our Clan gained multiple Kings in a single decade. This is a statistical anomaly of such an extreme level that many believe foul play to be involved in our fate. Nevertheless, let it be known that Amaranth succeeded in his endeavors, though perhaps not as perfectly as the last two.
While he successfully endured the tribulation and forged a single unified pillar, near the end of the ordeal, Amaranth's entire right arm and his right foot were destroyed, along with a chunk of his upper chest. He survived thanks to the same sort of priceless treasures which enable anyone to take on a Thirteenth Heavenstage tribulation with a chance of victory. Fastening some hastily-forged prosthetics, Amaranth rushed to Hong Xuan to participate in the mission, having heard of how undermanned it was and wishing to test out his bizarre new powers for himself.
His role in Demetrius' plan was simple: eat. Once Xiuying cut the fire spirit into pieces, he would consume said pieces while it was unable to effectively fight back, killing the monster and feeding his eldritch appetite for a time. This almost worked, but not quite: Xiuying, badly injured as she was, didn't quite cut deep enough - not all of the pieces were cleanly separated, and Amaranth could only take in less than a quarter of the spirit's mass before it reformed and fled. From this power, he grew himself an arm and foot of living flame, useful for all sorts of fire techniques. (+2 Impact)
Current Objective: To destroy the enemies of the Clan, as Amaranth usually does— though this time, not in open warfare, but to search out saboteurs lurking in captured cities and fortresses, waiting for their moment to strike at the Golden Devil Clan.
It isn't his typical style, but he wanted to learn how to use his Emanations in a less obvious manner instead of what they easily lend to, so this seemed like a good choice.
Amaranth is also looking to Teach some Juniors. While age isn't backing him against the wall anymore, he's still keenly aware of his own mortality, so he's looking to pass some of his knowledge down. He doesn't really have a proper clan behind him, as the Castellanos are strewn all over the place, so he'll have to search them out himself.
A/N: This is my first fanwork ever, so it's pretty trash. I'm thinking of expanding out that caravan visit to a full omake soon, because right now it's very outline-y. There's also very good odds that I'll give up on this entirely and this'll be in my cringe flashbacks in the future, but we'll see how it goes. I'm genuinely tempted to wipe this off the face of the internet before anyone sees it, but if I don't plunge into the water I'll never improve anyway. (EDIT: Turns out that I didn't abandon this idea. Nice. For my first omake, I expanded out the caravan visit.)
The Long Recovery - 2100 words (Tribulation Treasure. Also picking up Tribulation Treasures for Turn 7 and 8, since I did enough threadmarking to not feel bad doing so.)
We have an unknown opponent capable of setting up deep strike ambushes to arrange for a Nascent Soul to foil a subtle operation.
Going in blindly with a loud assault is a fantastic way to ask for that luck modifier to screw us over completely.
Throwing caution to the wind is for when you hold a decisive advantage.
Warfare lives or dies off intelligence, and eschewing that for the sake of yoloing ourselves blindly when we cant afford the attrition is so far past suboptimal play that I'm amazed folks are even entertaining the thought lol.
[X] Insurgency Preparations
-[X] Agree with Proposal - Jingshen Clan will begin raiding Blood Cannibal Sect. You will gain no Wealth this turn.
-[X] Intrigue (Blood Cannibal Sect) - You should learn about another clan entirely. Spend Spirit Stones like water in the plains and find out everything you can. Strengths. Weaknesses, places to strike, rebels, and so on and so forth.
-[X] Hunt for a Replacement - Look for a new candidate to replace Ioannes Vatatzes. If successful, you may be able to save several precious Lifespan Treasures.
And that's why I'm electing to pay off the Righteous Cultivators to do so this turn. It just so happens to also serve as a distraction for us to get our own intrigue ops in so that we can know what to expect when we actually do throw ourselves against the Cannibals next turn.
