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

[occipitallobe]

Good Seed and Omake Spreadsheet Rules:

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.

 

[TehChron]

There's no point to going halfway, since the whole goal of trying to nab those lands was about weakening the Blood Cannibals position rather than advancing our own.

Even if we decline to fortify the Demonic Bee Sect Border, Direct Rule over the newly acquired territories is a full stop must in order to hobble the Blood Cannibals recovery from this clusterfuck for as long as possible.

 

[LordEdric]

I'm more worried about the bees actually, they have had a great few turns while we're kicking the cannibals while their down. I really hope we can train a new soul level soon

 

[Alectai]

I'm more worried about the bees actually, they have had a great few turns while we're kicking the cannibals while their down. I really hope we can train a new soul level soon

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Long way off from that unfortunately, we've only got one potential Nascent Soul and she's still a hundred years or so even optimistically from trying.

 

[occipitallobe]

@occipitallobe Can we direct rule the scarred lands and action off the depopulated ones?


Because I'm thinking we take one piece of land for ourselves and sell the other one, so we could make fortifications against the devil bees and then before the one hundred year truce runs out we fortify the piece of land we sold off.

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I don't see why not, to be honest. If you'd like to write that in it's a perfectly valid course of action.

 

[Alectai]

That's just getting the same result, but a whole lot slower and inefficiently in exchange for us spending a little less right now. The point is that we deny this territory, and the simple face is that vassal powers aren't capable of fortifying to the same extent we are.

Given a hundred years for the Clan to lock a place down? It will be ours.

 

[ninjastar]

I mean, the whole point of going for the scarred lands was to fortify them, right? A one time bit of wealth isn't as big of a deal as the long term gains from increasing our territory, Remember, the more land we have the weaker our wealth curse.

 

[uri]

@occipitallobe how long do's manuel think the battle with child corps gulper will take?

 

[TehChron]

I mean, the whole point of going for the scarred lands was to fortify them, right? A one time bit of wealth isn't as big of a deal as the long term gains from increasing our territory, Remember, the more land we have the weaker our wealth curse.

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Additionally, I've mapped out some scenarios where we can possibly leverage this into us subsuming the Blood Cannibal Sects lands in their entirety once Old Cannibal bites it

@occipitallobe

Given that fortifying a single border two of our vassal states wipes out about 15 years worth of our own savings, which is considerably higher than what the Blood Cannibals will have both on hand (Thanks to this clusterfuck) and will be able to produce for the near future (Due to this clusterfuck depopulating their territories) and the Optimatoi have a specialty in setting up Arrays...

Will the Blood Key that Manuel made from Corpse Gulper's Leg still be usable due to the Blood Cannibals simply being unable to afford replacing all of their most critical infrastructure across their territory for the forseeable future?

Especially if Old Cannibal were to eat Significant Injuries from putting down Child Corpse Gulper this turn?

 

[occipitallobe]

@occipitallobe how long do's manuel think the battle with child corps gulper will take?

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Hard to say. Could be years of minor battles, using catspaws to track him, inflicting wounds, back-and-forths.

Could be one single battle taking at most two or three weeks of concerted effort.

Will the Blood Key that Manuel made from Corpse Gulper's Leg still be usable due to the Blood Cannibals simply being unable to afford replacing all of their most critical infrastructure across their territory for the forseeable future?

Especially if Old Cannibal were to eat Significant Injuries from putting down Child Corpse Gulper this turn?

Click to shrink...

For the next couple of turns, yes. But the Blood Arrays are more like hardware, and the 'who is easily able to access them' is more like a set of software logins. Old Cannibal has root access, so he'll need to go around resetting things, but you can expect your access to rapidly diminish over 2-3 turns down to nothing before the truce is up.

 

[Mochinator]

While we are asking questions about combat techniques and the setting, I have one of my own. Flying Swords.

They are huge genre staple, but I am wondering how we are presenting them, since it tends to vary a lot in different novels. In some having a flying sword and being able fly around on it is A Big Deal and sign of great advancement/wealth. In others like I Shall Seal The Heavens they are almost literally ten a penny. ISSTH's protag basically has 'swarm the enemy in cheap flying swords and then have them explode' as his signature move in the early chapters.

Its a niggling little thing, but would be interested in hearing opinions on it.

On a sidenote I should totally see if I can get Minervina a flying cauldron or something.

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Just my personal opinion, but depending on what vibe you're going for, Xianxia usually has it as Sword Cultivators being the only ones that can make swords fly. Flying swords due being made/enchanted with the ability to fly is usually the kind of everyone can use as long as they get the cash while Real Flying swords are due to the Sword Cultivator being at a high enough level that they can wield the sword from a distance.

The later is less riding the sword and more i command my sword to hack their heads off while i drink my tea

Part of my problem is that it feels like it weakens longer omake, and incentivizes artificial omake breakup.

That being said, I don't have a very strong opinion on this.

While I'm writing the update, I'd appreciate more thoughts from the thread on the above.

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I don't mind the current system. I think it's pretty ok in that it grants the Bonus regardless of the length of the Omake. More or longer Omakes rolling over to background rolls for the Good Seed is fine since it allows the more invested people to work on expanding their Good Seed from being just a burb.

I also like how it grants a slight strategic feel to the players since it forces us to weigh the risks and rewards. Like in my case, i'm choosing to focus on improving my Good Seed's tribulation chance by aiming for the tribulation bonus in Turn 4, however if my good seed had decent enough odds this turn, i might instead go for the Bonus to fight 1 realm and up as a Panic Button.

So planning based on the events is fine for me.

I'm thrilled with the current system honestly, it keeps my brain exercised by generally giving me something to write so I don't fall off the wagon, but not demanding a gigantic investment in time and effort plotting out a grand story arc--I can just focus on my strengths and portray scenes, or small storylines and then step back and watch the world state change.

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I agree, i had lots of trouble just coming up with my first few omakes. Having a writing prompt in the Good Seed summary made it easier for me to write omakes since i have something to build up on.

A decimation in the face of an army worth of Cultivators in terms of Mortal casualties is pretty stupendous performance frankly speaking

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I think another point to addon is that our location doesn't play well to Armies of Cultivators. I remember it being mentioned that our location increases the rate of attrition. That would likely mean that most of the stuff we face will be exactly what the fortifications can do well against.

IF it gets to the point where we're faced by a Hugh army + the resources needed to support them as they root us out... I think it's a GG since that will take like enormous amounts of wealth from the attackers.

 

[The Fourth Monado]

On one hand, getting more wealth to help when the Tribulation rolls up would be nice

on the other the entire point of this was to fuck the Cannibals so yeah

also I have begun work on developing a Good Seed who will most definitely die because I don't have the time or grasp of the character yet to work on the good shit omakes but we need more basically mook Good Seeds so yeah

 

[TehChron]

For the next couple of turns, yes. But the Blood Arrays are more like hardware, and the 'who is easily able to access them' is more like a set of software logins. Old Cannibal has root access, so he'll need to go around resetting things, but you can expect your access to rapidly diminish over 2-3 turns down to nothing before the truce is up.

Click to shrink...

So hypothetically we could invest further into Intrigue against the Blood Cannibals to set the seeds for doing something more drastic like iunno

poisoning old Cannibal or their crop of Good Seeds in the interim?

 

[Kaboomatic]

So hypothetically we could invest further into Intrigue against the Blood Cannibals to set the seeds for doing something more drastic like iunno

poisoning old Cannibal or their crop of Good Seeds in the interim?

Click to shrink...

Do we have any poisons that can actually do anything against a nascent soul?

 

[LordEdric]

So hypothetically we could invest further into Intrigue against the Blood Cannibals to set the seeds for doing something more drastic like iunno

poisoning old Cannibal or their crop of Good Seeds in the interim?

Click to shrink...

Us poison master seed look like we have a lot of work to do in the coming turns

 

[TehChron]

Do we have any poisons that can actually do anything against a nascent soul?

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Whether or not we do isnt the point.

Wiping out their Good Seeds before Old Cannibal can raise up a potential successor is more than good enough for now. The expense of recovering from that would destroy the Blood Cannibals lol

Especially should Old Cannibal reach his limits before then as well

 

[Mochinator]

Wiping out their Good Seeds before Old Cannibal can raise up a potential successor is more than good enough for now. The expense of recovering from that would destroy the Blood Cannibals lol

Click to shrink...

I feel that any potential successor is way out of the reach of most of our Good Seeds. Any such successor will be Core Formation going for Nascent.

At our levels, most of the good seeds can only handle QI condensation Cultivators. Although wiping them out should affect the Blood Cannibals ability to hold land...

@occipitallobe is there any benefit to pushing back ascending ? I have a tentative idea of not hitting Formation Establishment till the 100 year testing ground event is over since that way the only opponent my good seed will face will be QI Condensation Cultivators...

WIth 9th stage + stacking up some life-saving and fighting across realms treasures, i should stand a pretty good chance ?

 

[TehChron]

I feel that any potential successor is way out of the reach of most of our Good Seeds. Any such successor will be Core Formation going for Nascent.

Click to shrink...

That really doesnt matter?

Theres like a million or so members of the Clan.

 

[Mochinator]

That really doesnt matter?

Theres like a million or so members of the Clan.

Click to shrink...

Whoops, sorry wrong context. What i meant was a successor to Old Cannibal not to our Grand Elder. I meant that statement in response to the plan of taking out Old Cannibal's successors/Good seeds.

As in the type of Good Seeds our Clan's good seeds can handle are unlikely to be the future head of the Blood Cannibals.

@occipitallobe Another brief question if you don't mind. If i want Xiao Yi's Formations to be accepted by the Clan, should i set his Goal to " Refining Formations " and rely on RNG to get a good enough rolls for it to pass ?

 

[The Fourth Monado]

Diogenes Aparámillos

The Aparámillos family had never been really prominent among the Golden Devil Clan, as a family at least. Their founder had been a wandering Cultivator from the Plains, who several hundred years ago had arrived and joined the Golden Devils Clan for a time. Though his strength was great, he was uninterested in permanently signing on to the Golden Devils, and in time left the Clan after his wife passed away. His descendents, despite inheriting some of their Ancestor's special bloodline that allows them to transform into a stronger and metallic state, ended up rotting away in relative obscurity. The Clan leadership, somewhat annoyed wit how the so-called 'Undefeated In The East' had left so casually, extending only the most cursory of support as the family became an average family in the Clan.

This is the family Diogenes was born into. His family name, a bad joke. His father and mother, seemingly content with being average Qi Condensation level Cultivators. This was the level the Aparámillos family had fallen to, and despite his parents and other family's acceptance of that, it rankled Diogenes. Their Ancestor had been a man undefeated, a Cultivator of amazing skill and power! Why had his blood faded away so easily? So Diogenes began his training, and found himself growing distant from his family as the Blood of Bronze failed to appear within him. But the time came, and the family began to travel to the main citadel for the inductions. Diogenes joined the Munifex with minimal incident, and began to Cultivate, finding himself leaning toward becoming a Sword Cultivator.

Then, it happened on his first real mission. A clash with bandits began to go badly, his companions being overwhelmed, and a blade struck Diogenes through the arm, aimed at his heart. It was over. He was going to die. For a moment, there was peace as the blade began to pierce his chest... and then Diogenes realized what that meant.

He was accepting it. He was accepting his mediocrity - the fact he'd amount to as little as the rest of his family, die here like just another rat in the sand. And from his heart, disgust boiled through him, and anger at the fact that this was it, this was all he would ever achieved. And at that incredible surge of rejection that surged from his heart, something awoke within him...

And he changed.

Silver boiled out of his body, flowing across his skin and melting into it before forming itself into something like living armor. The bloodline inherited from that wandering Ancestor, having gone dormant within his own blood, melded with the Blood of Bronze and awoke into a humanoid but monstrous transformation. With a casual twist of his arm, he snapped the blade within it, and with the return strike he crushed the bandit's ribcage.

For the first time in his life, Diogenes tasted Power.

High Concept: An average mook Cultivator descended from a massively powerful wandering Cultivator who spent a century or two with the Golden Devils Clan. Despite starting out a mook, he managed to awaken the Special Unique Mix of the Cultivator's special gimmick(which was that he turned into this) and the Blood of Bronze. He's super salty at the fact his family has fallen to mediocrity and has, more damningly, accepted it, and currently wishes to make the name actually mean something for the first time in centuries. Is now Motivated(TM). Basically a Rival type who'd repeatedly clash with the protagonist.

Starting Perk: Devil Silver Body(Name Pending). In essence, a full change of the flesh, coating it in an odd silvery metal that melds back into it to change him into a humanoid monster looking sort of like this:

(link to sauce)

It'd basically be a Super Mode that grants three things - self-evolution(allowing the form to adapt and grow in power, size and other traits via training and other things)), self-regeneration(self-healing - p obvs), and self-replication(it can form living things and enhance living things with the metal produced by the transformation). Starting out, beyond whatever power boost it'd grant, all Diogenes would actually have access too is the self-regeneration, and he'd be unaware of the other two traits of his Bloodline.

Probably could be used to make some really bitchin' pills by other enemy Cultivators if captured, though. Furthermore, most of the traits of his Ancestor's Special Thing are long forgotten by the family, leaving him little idea of figuring out how his transformation works.

Current Objective: Reach the 13th Heavenstage, and master his Bloodline transformation.

Current Status: 9th Heavenstage. One of the Indomitable 13, managed to survive.

@occipitallobe Made a Good Seed that's Basically Vergil Descended From Master Asia And Super Salty About It

 

[uri]

@occipitallobe ,Say how much time of full war for our clan do's one year saving translate to?

 

[Katana1515]

@occipitallobe If its OK, can I ask about the ramifications of a particular set of options?

What would the overall picture be like in terms of economy and military strength if we sold off the new lands and then made our focus 'raising new disciples.'

I am a bit leery about spending our precious time and resources on fortifying a single border when we are a landlocked power literally surrounded by hostiles. To my mind we would be better served by having a stronger central army that could knock back any invasion and potentially threaten an invader in his own home if we need it to.

Auctioning off the land also takes maximum advantage of our 100 year ceasefire. We shouldnt be concerned with fortifying a secure border when we have a clanwide heavenly tribulation coming up in 60 years.

On a much more important note. Anyone got any ideas on how we are going to get back at the Prankster Elder?

 

[TehChron]

That's not how logistics work with superpowers

You need powerful defenses so that those armies have time to muster and repulse the invading force

 

[Katana1515]

That's not how logistics work with superpowers

You need powerful defenses so that those armies have time to muster and repulse the invading force

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You say that, but we are talking about a Xianxialand of truly ludicrous scale. The harsh desert conditions already serve much of that purpose.

I would rather leverage our gains into a substantial boost for the clan than buying bunkers for our already very fortunate vassals. Hence my question. The 'Raise Disciples' action is highlighted as being the single most significant action we can take to improve the clans prospects, so I am checking to see if we have a hope in hell of affording it! If not then seeding the depopulated lands with clan members looks more attractive to me.

 

[TehChron]

You say that, but we are talking about a Xianxialand of truly ludicrous scale. The harsh desert conditions already serve much of that purpose

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Deserts kill by exposure

Which takes time. Leaving cultivators to move uncontested means they can take to sufficient speed so as to overcome that natural barrier

Maybe not completely, but enough to make us take significantly more casualties then we should have to. Especially against a foe who just btfod another one of our sworn enemies and is presently powering up from the gains of that event

Under our current threadbare conditions there is no such thing as sufficient. Only what is expedient and what is affordable.

There will be time to consolidate after our flanks both new and old are secured

 

[occipitallobe]

I feel that any potential successor is way out of the reach of most of our Good Seeds. Any such successor will be Core Formation going for Nascent.

At our levels, most of the good seeds can only handle QI condensation Cultivators. Although wiping them out should affect the Blood Cannibals ability to hold land...

@occipitallobe is there any benefit to pushing back ascending ? I have a tentative idea of not hitting Formation Establishment till the 100 year testing ground event is over since that way the only opponent my good seed will face will be QI Condensation Cultivators...

WIth 9th stage + stacking up some life-saving and fighting across realms treasures, i should stand a pretty good chance ?

Click to shrink...

Yes. Broadly speaking, aging more lets your cultivator solidify their Dao, and eases ascension. During that time you can still accumulate cool and useful things. It doesn't offer any power benefits, however.

Whoops, sorry wrong context. What i meant was a successor to Old Cannibal not to our Grand Elder. I meant that statement in response to the plan of taking out Old Cannibal's successors/Good seeds.

As in the type of Good Seeds our Clan's good seeds can handle are unlikely to be the future head of the Blood Cannibals.

@occipitallobe Another brief question if you don't mind. If i want Xiao Yi's Formations to be accepted by the Clan, should i set his Goal to " Refining Formations " and rely on RNG to get a good enough rolls for it to pass ?

Click to shrink...

Put a note in your Good Seed background about it, and I'll let Xiao Yi try and bend his Fate to making a Formation that's worthy of acceptance by the clan instead of particular personal bonuses.

@occipitallobe ,Say how much time of full war for our clan do's one year saving translate to?

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Depends hugely. Defensive war? Not all that more expensive than normal, as the Clan retracts expenditure on new Array constructions, new mortal life improvements, etc, and directs that money to defensive ends. It might be another 30-40% increase in expenses if the Clan chose to keep spending as per normal.

Offensive war? Easily a doubling of expenses.

@occipitallobe If its OK, can I ask about the ramifications of a particular set of options?

What would the overall picture be like in terms of economy and military strength if we sold off the new lands and then made our focus 'raising new disciples.'

Click to shrink...

Raising new disciples is strictly an income hit - unless it's desperate, the Clan prefers to allocate more income for disciples to cultivate at their own speed which is experienced as a loss of income for both raising and upkeep.

Militarily, though, more disciples is the number 1 power option for a reason. Outside of raising up a new Nascent Soul, more disciples means more patrollers, more guards, more missions to aid allies, etc, etc. In the short-term, it's strictly better than Fortifications.

That said, Fortifications only cost Wealth, the Income hit is negligible. So while they take time and money, ultimately once they're in place they're not an ongoing expense. Disciples on the other hand increase your military power directly, but the opportunity cost over time is considerably larger.