Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

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Complete control is best bet, we get money and loyal Clan members, the Righteous Path gets more troops that they need immediately, everyone wins except Bloodpath, but they have it coming.
Given most of the Jingshen are wealth based "Throw expensive treasures at the enemy until they die" type fighters i'd imagine the Blood Path would at least get a nice meal out of this too.
 
Not sure about the other choices, but personally I feel like Control and Blood of Silver are almost mandatory, a larger Clan made stronger in the more important Realms.
 
[ ] Plan: Aggressive Expansion is Just a Number
-[ ] War (SB)
-[ ] Manuel - Weaken An Enemy (SB)
-[ ] Kleisthenes - Tend to Diplomacy
-[ ] The Strength Purity Diplomatic Expedition (Major Purchase - costs 2 Purchases)
-[ ] Assault Gravity Itself (Major Purchase - costs 2 Purchases)
-[ ] The Four Families
-[ ] The Blood of Silver (20 Purchases)
-[ ] Nascent Treasures (5 Purchases)

Alright, here's my proposal. Went back and forth on the Railway Cannons, but ultimately they're just too hard to balance with everything else and the BoS is incredibly good. I figure in-character, we'd pretend the invasion is to fight the SB rebels, and have Klein diplomance the utterly harried RP into putting up with our shit. OC's gonna be a problem but he's also very busy right now, and with another Nascent on the table ASAP I think we'll be okay.
 
Now, if I were personally putting together some plans, based on my analysis...

[ ] Strength Today
-[ ] The Strength Purity Diplomatic Expedition (Major Purchase - costs 2 Purchases)
-[ ] Assault Gravity Itself (Major Purchase - costs 2 Purchases)
-[ ] The Four Families
-[ ] The Completed Technique Palace (15 Purchases)
-[ ] Nascent Treasures (5 Purchases)
-[ ] The Millennium Oasis Formation (5 Purchases)

PERKS: Maximizes our strength and influence by taking all of the "Lock stuff down" options, cashing out early on our gains. We gain another Nascent, insane logistics, and as a result of doing so, we can easily digest our gains and start looking longfully for opportunities outside. Probably need to spend Nascent Actions backing up the Blacsmiths tho.

[ ] Tremendous Power Tomorrow
-[ ] Increasing Wealth
-[ ] The Underworld Devil Fortress (Major Purchase - costs 3 Purchases)
-[ ] Assault Gravity Itself (Major Purchase - costs 2 Purchases)
-[ ] Complete Control
-[ ] The Blood of Silver (20 Purchases)
-[ ] The Millennium Oasis Formation (5 Purchases)

PERKS: Takes advantage of our current conslidation period to lay down the foundations for further growth, maximizing all of our +Popgrowth and +Cultivation Speed modifiers. When 25% of our new Cores right as we're about to experience a population explosion jump in immediately being as productive as a Mid Core (And if anyone ever makes it to Nascent Soul, gains the ability to jump a Small Realm), that's a fundamental empowerment of our Clan.

[ ] We Put Our Faith in the PCs
-[ ] The Strength Purity Diplomatic Expedition (Major Purchase - costs 2 Purchases)
-[ ] Assault Gravity Itself (Major Purchase - costs 2 Purchases)
-[ ] The Four Families
-[ ] The Heart-Realm (20 Purchases)
-[ ] The Millennium Oasis Formation (5 Purchases)

PERKS: Like Strength Today, but trades off the Nascent Soul and the Technique Palace for opening up a powerful Secret Realm, potentially connected to setting DEEP LORE. A third Secret Realm (That doesn't suffer Diminishing Returns like the Cloud Caves do and apparently has better rewards than Qiguai/Yuan) opens up many possibilities for players--especially as the difficulty of going through later Realms increases tremendously.

No decisions on the Clan/Nascent actions yet though, but we definitely want to see if we can help Sorrowful Blacksmiths suppress their rebellion problem, we definitely don't want a hostile Blood Path power occupying the Colossus Footsteps Pass, especially since dislodging them would leave our attackers exposed to Old Cannibal.

EDIT: Oh boy! Just got confirmation that we can overspend Purchases as long as we're taking Wealth Creation actions, I was wondering what to do with the Clan action! Yeah, that makes "Gather Wealth" as a Clan Action high priority, since that lets us get Fuck Gravity on the Blood of Silver build.
 
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honestly, I am opposed to sending the blacksmiths aid, Manuel is bullshit now and he has Kleisthenes for backup, a blood path rebellion taking the pass is not a calamity, it is free real estate.
 
honestly, I am opposed to sending the blacksmiths aid, Manuel is bullshit now and he has Kleisthenes for backup, a blood path rebellion taking the pass is not a calamity, it is free real estate.
that's why I think it's a perfect opportunity to take the pass under the pretense of securing trade routes and start moving forces in and securing ground. Plus it's not declaring war so Strength Purity and others can't really do much but token protest.
 
honestly, I am opposed to sending the blacksmiths aid, Manuel is bullshit now and he has Kleisthenes for backup, a blood path rebellion taking the pass is not a calamity, it is free real estate.

We can't afford to get in a real war outside of the Desert, because Old Cannibal would love to catch Manuel out of the treaty region.

Manuel hiding in the Sorrowful Blacksmith chief's shadow though and popping up to backstab the other one in a critical moment though doesn't require much time.
 
honestly, I am opposed to sending the blacksmiths aid, Manuel is bullshit now and he has Kleisthenes for backup, a blood path rebellion taking the pass is not a calamity, it is free real estate.
Except we it cuts off trade for spirit stones and attacking the mountains is STUPID hard. Plus, it gives OC a really easy route into our heartlands if the blacksmith guy joins his territory to him, which he likely will. Furthermore if we commit to the mountains we have nothing keeping Oc from rolling up those areas simply because he can due to the treaty not being in effect there.

Plus, the whole SIX Nascent Souls on par or better with our best Nascent Soul when we have three total, which is a serious power disparity allowing Oc to roll us over as soon as the treaty expires, if not even sooner as 5 Mid Ns vs 1 Mid and 2 early is a horribly lopsided fight at best.
 
... Phew.

So, I see three viable options with our Mega Prize.

All of these include the Millennium Oasis Formation, because that's both too good for us, and I want to get Ferenike's efforts face, even if they're not playing with us anymore. So I won't list them. Here's how I see our options.

A) Technique Palace + Nascent Treasures
Advantage: We get Casia right now, our Foundation Establishment and Core Formation mooks are now the match of every other faction even in 1v1, which is a big deal in the warfare that will be endemic in the Great Era. Also has benefits in the Trials because our cultivators are harder to kill even when caught solo.
Flaws: All advantages are temporary in the grand scheme of things. The Technique Palace is a specific object and an Early Nascent is fodder in this day and age. The Great Era is going to mean we've got a generation of superheroes incubating, and while our Good Seeds won't fall far behind, it's still a mess.
Best taken in conjunction with Vassalizing the Jingshen, as Casia can sit on their grumbling and give magical Peace vibes to everyone to get the benefits without much of the costs.

B) Blood of Silver
Advantage: Strengthens our core, fundamental asset, effectively ensuring that there's a 25% chance that every new Core we get magically gets the equivilant of 24 Impact--and a hell of a lot more than that if they then reach Nascent Soul. This is a power that will stay with the Clan forever--even if we have to flee again because the escalation spiral becomes too great. It just means there's a 25% chance that every Golden Devil who hits Core becomes a complete fucking monster--and we've got a lot of Cores about to start coming out of the pipeline.
Flaws: Power tomorrow is not power today. This also doesn't do anything for our Good Seeds directly, because Good Seed-ness trumps even the Blood of Silver. Our position right now is pretty good in terms of having time to cook, but it's not perfect, as we still have the Trials imposing constant attrition.
Best taken in conjunction with Assimilating the Jingshen, as we want as many Clan Cultivators as we can to roll the dice as much as possible.

C) The Heart-Realm
Advantage: Another Secret Realm we can access, which based on what Occi's said so far, is "Slightly more difficult than Qiguai/Yuan, but with better rewards on the top end." Considering that it's literally a gate to the Heart of the Turtle-Child, there's an excellent chance that there's some serious Deep Lore to be found here, and potentially some top tier shinies. This is putting our faith in the Good Seeds to find a solution through the darkest of nights for us.
Flaws: Do we really need another Secret Realm? I mean, some of us certainlly could, those of us with ambitions who have cleared out their quota and still desire more rolls. Also, this doesn't do much to help our baseline forces either--it's absolutely gambling that a Good Seed hits the rocket engines and can into space before we actually need greater power.
Doesn't especially synergize with any of the Jingshen Dispositions.
+1 for this Blood of Silver route in conjunction with Chron's "thread the needle into a jugular" plan that should show up eventually.
 
[] The Great Eastern Alliance
- [ ] Building Bridges (Sorrowful Blacksmiths) - Aim to create a power bloc to stabilize the East. Offer an alliance to the Sorrowful Blacksmiths, the Yuan Clan and the Quiguai Clan. For now, focus on the Sorrowful Blacksmiths, offer full support to them in exchange for joining an alliance with. The pass would turn into neutral territory defended by all members of the Alliance, with members states also having access to the facilities in the pass. The toll of the pass would remain to fund the fight against the Blood path, basicly bribing the Yuan and the Quiguai with some share of the desert wealth. In exchange for ceading the pass to the alliance, the Sorrowful Blacksmith sect is to get the whole of the Seven Saber Sect lands when they are reclaimed.
- [ ] Manuel - Assist A Faction (Sorrowful Blacksmiths) - Either as a fellow alliance member or as a mercenary.
- [ ] Kleisthenes - Assist A Faction (Sorrowful Blacksmiths) - Same as Manuel
- [ ] Purchases (2)
-- [ ] Send Spirit Stones to the Blacksmiths (1 Purchase)
-- [ ] Raise Two Scorpion Legions (1 Purchase)
- [ ] Complete Control
- [ ] Loot Purchases (25)
-- [ ] The Spear and Shield of Bronze (10 Purchases)
-- [ ] Nascent Treasures (5 Purchases)
-- [ ] The Spirit Railway Cannons (10 Purchases)
 
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Well, about time. As things were, the Golden Devils would have outgrown their opposition at a hilarious pace.
Right under the candle is the greatest shadow, after all.
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I like that the more esoteric uses of the Spear keep coming up, and especially that Manuel found a way to use it for information gathering during the Bei conflict, which is more along the lines of his Dao rather than just swinging a big stick.

That said, I'm worried about celebrating too early. The Spear is a treasure that should keep providing insight all throughout Spirit Severing and beyond. Too much excitement over every little trick might lead to a premature loss of interest if the tangible benefits temporarily dry up.
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As for future priorities, or at least how I see them:

1) Maximum munchies. Treasures raining everywhere? Well, in other Seas, Manuel's accumulation would likely easily allow for Great Circle or to outright push Spirit Severing. With control over the whole desert, his current stage just doesn't cut it. There's no reason for him so stay stuck in Mid Nascent Soul if Heaven is footing the bill.

2) Propaganda. History is written by the winners - we have the option to take control of the Jingshen narrative before someone else does it for us. I mean, Old Cannibal is out of control and Manuel easily roflstomped Junjie, how did the Jingshen survive in the Desert for so long among these monsters? Obviously they cut deals with the Blood Path. In fact, recent statistical analysis shows that the Qi Desert was growing! Their recent dimplomatic failures were surely an effort to pinch the spirit stone supply to make the Blood Path more attractive! Despicable!

3) Silver Shenanigans. The synergy between Complete Control and Blood of Silver is just too damn high.

On top of that, we have an elder waiting for her chance to advance. While Destasia was stuck in Early Core for who knows how long, Xinya blasted through the cultivation ranks with the talent of a true uber-elite. She has the talent, the will and the ambition - why not give her the chance? Whether we buy more treasures or not (personally, I'm more partial to the oasis array), I say we provide her with the available tribulation treasures and a shot of Ascension Blood and tell her to spearhead the new Age as Silver . . . or not at all.

After all, she's peaked within her limits and has started to stagnate and even decline. Do we want to see a downward spiral with her current Dao? Her contacts are rekt anyways after the blood drama so she'd be effectively starting over. If she fails, she does so at a time that seems perfect to replace an elder about to go bad anyways.

4) No more mister nice Devil. More troops for the Battlefield? Why not. Of course, they can have ALL the troops . . . as soon as Manuel, SPS and the Blacksmiths sit down with a map.

The Golden Devils will take over the management of the Colossus Footsteps to make sure that the spirit stone supply can continue uninterrupted *WINK* *WINK*, the Battlefield will get the engineers and the Jingshen rejects AND Manuel will personally wreck the Blacksmith rebellion to show off how much better he is.
If they refuse . . . well, we can sit pretty on our stones and legions while they starve and bleed, then walk in when both sides are weak and the Alliance has no resources to reinforce them.

Meanwhile, Klei can hold home base, make sure the integration goes smoothly and resolve internal issues - for example, the Hong Xuan grudge was cute when we were just another Clan among many, not so much when we control a quarter of the whole region.

As for the last unit of money and clan action, I wasn't a big fan of the scorpions last time but they worked out super well IIRC? And I'm really curious how the blood drama worked out for Magic Oak. Don't put off till tomorrow what you can invade today, am I right? x)
 
so, these are what i got for now that i like.
[] Plan: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
[] Increasing Wealth: Specifically infrastructure and such as focus.
[] Send Spirit Stones to the Blacksmiths (1 Purchase)
[] The Strength Purity Diplomatic Expedition (Major Purchase - costs 2 Purchases)
[] The Jingshen Territories:
[] The Spoils of War: The Blood of Silver (20 Purchases)
[] The Spoils of War: The Millennium Oasis Formation (5 Purchases)
[] Manuel: Survey New Territories
[] Kleisthenes: Tend to Diplomacy

[] Plan: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but not more than scorpions!
[] Increasing Wealth: Specifically infrastructure and such as focus.
[] Raise Two Scorpion Legions (1 Purchase)
[] The Strength Purity Diplomatic Expedition (Major Purchase - costs 2 Purchases)
[] The Jingshen Territories:
[] The Spoils of War: The Blood of Silver (20 Purchases)
[] The Spoils of War: The Millennium Oasis Formation (5 Purchases)
[] Manuel: Survey New Territories
[] Kleisthenes: Tend to Diplomacy

i can't decide between total control and 4 familes.
on one hand, control would give more stones and clan cultivators, but would cost us workforce.
on the other hand, four families gives us quicker returns but smaller ones on the long turn with another faction to juggle.

im against the gravity attack because heaven is awake now, simple as that.
Sending Manuel to the blacksmiths is just asking OC to go for a walk there.
im also for diploing the mountain powers, but they need to be turn separately sadly.
 
I don't really see how the technique palace is supposed to be a short term option. Finishing it will strengthen all of our elites, forever. Sure, it's a generalized boost, but it's not like it'll ever go away. If anything it's an all-rounder choice, lacking specific, targeted utility in favor of a simple, blunt force multiplier.
 
I don't really see how the technique palace is supposed to be a short term option. Finishing it will strengthen all of our elites, forever. Sure, it's a generalized boost, but it's not like it'll ever go away. If anything it's an all-rounder choice, lacking specific, targeted utility in favor of a simple, blunt force multiplier.

Well, it would go away it someone blew it up, I suppose.

I'm not sure if the Blood of Silver treatment, by contrast, would be hereditary.
 
Well, it would go away it someone blew it up, I suppose.

I'm not sure if the Blood of Silver treatment, by contrast, would be hereditary.
I mean, I guess? But it's also in the Dawn Fortress. If somebody is sacking the Dawn Fortress and blowing our super important shit up, we're probably dead either way. Either in the immediate short term, or from falling back into Trials Death Spiral.
 
Well, that looks a bit rough for Mountain Bell.

Does the Saber Palace warrant a map entry without a Nascent Soul though? They're just a minor vassal at this point.
Sure, it's a generalized boost, but it's not like it'll ever go away.
Yes, but the same argument is true for Blood of Silver.

However, there was already a different option to upgrade the technique palace once. It might come up again, or we could devote a NS action on it once we have more, whereas the opportunity to feed up to a fifth of the desert population into the Silver experiments would be much harder to replicate.
 
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I wonder if there's additional synergy between the Blood Of Silver and the control option, as it makes signing up to become a clan member a better deal, so we may get more takers.

I mean, I guess? But it's also in the Dawn Fortress. If somebody is sacking the Dawn Fortress and blowing our super important shit up, we're probably dead either way. Either in the immediate short term, or from falling back into Trials Death Spiral.

Our good seeds managed to hit the Jingshen's nascent cultivation treasures, so I wouldn't want to rule out sabotage missions from the other powers' heavenly backed good seeds.
 
Year 240 Interlude - The Wei Princess
It had worked!

Wei Ning, officially the Thirty-Second Generation Wei Princess, though she did not mind the title Holy Justice Maiden, squealed with glee and flung her long hair back over her shoulder. She blew overlong sandy blonde bangs out of her eyes, and quickly checked to make sure nobody had heard or seen her. Not that, ultimately speaking, she cared.

It had worked.

She hadn't thought it would've. It had only been after the Blood Mists had passed that she had realised what she had wrought.

Eighty years ago she had led an assault on the Demonic Altar, after the Celestial Compass had shown that it was vulnerable. The Compass had proven to guide the Sect correctly each time it lit up, leading them to some great necessity, some victory that preserved them, or even finding an item that empowered them. It had lit up eight times in the course of ten thousand years, and she was lucky enough to have seen both the seventh and the eighth.

When it had led her to a fragment of empowered turtle-shell from the Turtle Child itself, she had been joyful.

When it had led them to the Demonic Altar she had been wary, to say the least.

Yet everything had gone as could've been best hoped for. The strike had been successful, the fragment of turtle-shell the Compass had guided her to had sliced into the Demonic Altar itself, bringing it to weakness and to a possible, permanent end. An end to the Demonic Altar for good, the sort of victory she and her Sect had hoped and wished for, for thousands of years.

The war after that had gone poorly, admittedly, and the backlash had not been minor. Even fighting back the assaults she had to had left her more badly wounded, the Demonic Qi incredibly difficult to expel. Thankfully her experience in grappling with it had left her nigh unaffected during the recent Blood Mists, but it meant her freedom of action was sharply limited. Not that it mattered. Not at all!

If they lost this entire war, the Demonic Altar was gone. No more hiding after a loss, no more filthy stone altar that taught some unsuspecting mortal the secrets of becoming a monstrous demigod. This would be the last war that the Blood Path would wage on the region. Oh, there would be other wars. Other monstrosities, other evils. There was no end of evil to vanquish, no end to corruption, to rape and murder, to theft and arson and vandalism.

She took in a deep breath. No, the Elders had already been punished for their little act of defiance. Making them wait hand and foot on the Foundation Expert from the Golden Devils had been enough to give their egos a little shake.

Still.

Painting a statue with the tanning solution she used to colour her skin was a nice gesture to revere the original Wei Princess, but giving it her own eyepieces - the little circles of Seerglass that sat in her eyes and made her iris look larger - was a little too far. This all would've been fine, had they not recarved the statue to be nude afterwards.

So she'd beaten them all and made them serve a random Golden Devil, which seemed fair to her.

Tch. Not to mention the eyeliner. Hers served a purpose, the extract of Shadowbane Bat darkening around her eyes, but also permitting her to gaze through almost all darkness. Likewise with the nails. She had hers carved from an ancient piece of bone she'd retrieved on Turtlebone Mountain when she was younger - they enhanced her blows considerably.

She shook her head.

Mockery from the younger generation was one thing, but the truest thing - and the thing she needed to focus on, was that she had won.

Even if she died tomorrow and the Strength Purity Sect was brought to an end, this was a true and complete victory. For now, there was war and misery and death. In the future, though, mortals would live without fear, cultivators would know that their fellows did not seek to consume them. Wei Ning shook for a moment, and decided to go seek advice as she so often did.

She walked out of her room, and down the hallway. Her quarters were spartan, and the only thing within walking distance of where she slept was a small shrine.

She entered the shrine. There was a small tablet there atop an altar. She bowed.

"Big bro... I hope you can forgive me. I couldn't save you when you were strong and I was weak, and then I threw away millions of lives now so people in the future would be safe. I know you said that I should just smash the problem in front of me and keep smashing until I ran out of problems, but that's not a way I can live any more. I'm sorry, I tried my best. Still..."

Her voice trailed off, and suddenly the volume went up a notch.

"You're the idiot who didn't teach me how to scheme in the first place! Absolute strength is all well and good but it's not like you can just beat everyone up like that big dummy from the desert! That moron died and if I acted like him I'd die too! And then who'd protect people, huh? You tried to use absolute strength and you just died, it didn't matter how strong you were! There's always someone stronger, idiot! I can't live like that! Arrrgh!"

She screamed in frustration, and then kowtowed repeatedly.

"Sorry, sorry. I know you're dead and it's rude. I just like to talk to you like you were alive. Even if you became a ghost, I doubt you'd ever care about manners, right?"

She shook her head.

"It's frustrating to admit, but I still find the statue thing infuriating. Even in the face of the largest victory ever won by the Strength Purity Sect. I've won so much and those little idiots making fun of me still annoys me!"

She let out a sigh.

"I should beat them up again...", she mused.

"No, no, you're right, big bro. Facesmashing Dominator is a good title but I was hoping to get them to call me Holy Justice Maiden again. You'd just laugh at me if all my juniors were afraid of my fists. They need to admire my pristine commitment to justice instead! Also, my good looks."

She got up from her kowtow and spoke once more.

"Alright, just the justice, sheesh. You just don't let up at all. Anyway, good talk. I'm going to go cycle more of this Demonic Qi out of me, so I guess I'll be vomiting up black blood for the next ten hours. Have fun being dead - it's gotta be better than that!"
 
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Anyone else worry that the Celestial Compass might start to point in our direction?
Sounds like it might be worth the next SoHW action to steal it?

Even if it still works against us, at least we have a warning against situations with stacked odds . . . or just straight up subvert it into a Shadow Compass . .
I wouldn't want to rule out sabotage missions from the other powers' heavenly backed good seeds.
Can we post heavenly seed profiles? xD With a Protagonist Cheat Power, a grudge against Golden Devils and a critical character flaw that will inevitably lead to their demise . . .
 
Anyone else worry that the Celestial Compass might start to point in our direction?
That would, very nearly, be a disaster.

From what we have seen however, it doesn't seem to explain the ultimate quest, giving only a direction to it.

The problem is it may keep pointing at us after we convince the Wei Princess it's pointing at a likely ally to make pact with.
 
Now that's interesting; both the Demonic Altar and Strength Purity - or rather, the head honchos of both - are completely okay with the obliteration of their Sect, so long as their long term goals are completed. The way things are going, it seems like both of them might get what they want, at the cost of their entire Sect. That would be a rather poetic end to that rivalry.
 
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