It's a Girl's World -- And Lilly wants Adventure

Reader mode
tenchifew said:
One thing I find strange - we defeated Valerie literally in seconds, and I thought that as we did it, the cutting of the connection between Valerie and Aboleath it weakened Aboleath greatly. And yet this fight did not read as if it lasted seconds. So were there some time shenanigans at work?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We took a break to enter the dream and mess around with Micha before defeating Valerie. I've got no idea how long we were in the dream. Besides the reason why we left it is cause Petal wanted to check something in the real world and became alarmed when she noticed Valerie regenerating her head.
darknessworld said:
we are a chosen one, which technically we are now
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We have Aurora's full attention and support. Nothing technical about it. And Bloom's too.
 
Last edited:
Just because the traditional way to become a divine chosen one is "be ordinary, get tons of powers from the gods" doesn't mean you aren't still a divine chosen one if your path is "get tons of powers, be singled out by the gods for attention because the gods know how to pick a winner and want to get in on the ground floor."
 
So did it ultimately help or hurt evie that the fight took place with the guard around? Seems to have been a detriment but did the the guard actually contribute to the battle?
 
Well, on one hand, Martin should 100% believe us when we tell him Valerie was possessed by an "evil spirit." On the other, I previously considered him perhaps the most reasonable non-family adult Lilly knew (which he promptly threw in the trash by already making plans to see if he could groom her) and unfortunately this may have him blinded by a need for vengeance and thus more friction if he wants to hold Valerie responsible right then and there.

Also I have to hope that the reason Evie was so overpowered in this fight was largely because of her becoming Chibi Evie and that hypothetically Big Evie would have done a lot better. That, or we accidentally stumbled into an endgame boss or something because even if Evie was trying to defend the Watch too that wasn't super encouraging.

A bit curious in how the Watch instinctively believed Evie and Abby were entities that they, as living beings, had to fight. My first read was that Evie was using Subversion to get the Watch to see her as the good guy there even beyond the fact that she was protecting them and not turning them into undead weapons but I doubt that particular wrinkle is important.
 
May Aboleath's existence be agony unending, agency nonexistent, and capability to ever again bring harm absent forevermore.
Edifier said:
We took a break to enter the dream and mess around with Micha before defeating Valerie. I've got no idea how long we were in the dream. Besides the reason why we left it is cause Petal wanted to check something in the real world and became alarmed when she noticed Valerie regenerating her head.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It couldn't have been long. We only had a minor bit of distance on Myah (who caught up just as we left to Petal's) - we started running home the moment our Essence Sight managed to reach it. And Valerie was recovering visibly fast from decapitation.

Two important points about Martin:
1) As Madam Diviner told us, everyone who knows the calamity is coming, isn't telling. Martin's inner monologue of his ambitions in the latest update shows that he also isn't aware.
2) Diviner also told us that sometimes the most applicable way to deal with a Concordance user, however unpleasant it may be, is to discharge their prepared traps and powers on someone else. With Aboleath killing a sizeable group of the Watch, we are probably forced into a direct confrontation instead, with Lord Waters and his retinue.

I also tracked back the timeline leading up to confrontation - we first got warning of Valerie Nirielle after we already departed towards Harmuph - after we were already in sight of the walls even. After picking up Myah and talking with Diviner, we spent half an hour prepping the {Slipstream} teleport to a place that was but an hour's walk away from home. Lilly had no real opportunity to warn anyone or get a second opinion about the entity within Valerie.

P. S. I am still wondering how that old WoG fits into this, entire situation, one where we were told that someone got a Nat100 on a background roll, which is good for the world but not for Lilly personally - shortly before the first Valerie interlude.
 
Slyvena said:
More fighting, more dying. But that was not the worst of it. Sometimes when the Black felled a man its cruel tendrils would reach inside, ripping a screaming ethereal shape from within and stabbing it into the Purple. The Purple convulsed, shivered and tore slightly open each time the Black struck it this way, seemingly possessing no counter of its own.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

By the way, this was probably the Maw entity using modified souls as mini-Melange Layers to drain Evie's divinity with its attacks, before destroying the now partially filled soul.
This pretty much explain why integration is necessary: if you aren't integrated enough, then the Melange Layer would simply dissipate all of your energy eventually. But if you are, then there are probably enourmous advantages, that we probably still don't know.


Faraway-R said:
P. S. I am still wondering how that old WoG fits into this, entire situation, one where we were told that someone got a Nat100 on a background roll, which is good for the world but not for Lilly personally - shortly before the first Valerie interlude.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't think anything was said about it being good for the World.
 
Last edited:
Zaealix said:
What's left has undying loyalty to us, but what's left is not much.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I actually think this is a dangerous mindset to have at the moment. If anything, I think this may be the most precarious situation we've been in... okay, since like literally last update when we fought Valerie why is Lilly's life so dangerous.

I think it is exceedingly likely that our Evie cover has been blown. The Watch is going to want answers, we may not be able to satisfactorily give them without revealing Evie to some number of people, and even if we try to maintain the cover I suspect Martin and some others may be able to connect the dots here - it's not a particularly difficult puzzle after what just happened at that battle. Even if they somehow can't connect them it might be attributed to us anyway in a "right for the wrong reasons" manner.

And that is... worrying. Because I do not at all think we can contain the secret at that point. I honestly would be surprised if we didn't lose support in the Watch because of it. Even if Evie was helping there, we're still talking an entity that was repeatedly described in the update as wrong, alien, unnatural and something that everyone there instinctively felt a need to fight. I think it's extremely naive to think Lilly can just go, "No, don't worry, Evie's cool." and everyone will be okay with it. Honestly, I'm a little nervous about Martin and he's tied his fate to ours more tightly than anyone there. And if the secret gets out, hearsay or defectors or both... well you have to think that news is going to spread and spread quickly to those with power - individuals, organizations, and even nation-states.

Worse yet, with Evie in critical condition we're considerably restrained in our options if things do go bad. If some non-insignificant portion of the Watch decides to attack us declaring we're actually a monster consorting with demons... we're strong, yes, but we're also in a bad state right now.
 
Something that is important to note is that while the Guard took heavy losses, and probably high losses in it's more powerful members given the original count of 182 we were given 30-40 dead is about about 25% loss. It's bad. But it's not total.

Which uh, given everything with Evie being revealed is both good and bad.
 
darknessworld said:
I don't think anything was said about it being good for the World.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Maybe you're right. In fact for people curious the roll was at the end of 1.4, it was "exciting stuff, lowers chances of Lilly surviving to 18 though", and there definitely wasn't any Dark Lord waiting for a lucky 100 to lay waste to the world.

Valerie was first heard from after 1.6.
 
I am just glad we have a fuzzy feel good blessing from a humane goddess.

Because one thing worse than losing top 4th of the watch, antagonizing rest of it is even worse.
And offering healing and general sunshine is a thing that may help.

Also, yeah- with Martin knowing Evie quite intimately now, and rest of the watch being aware of this purple spirit through various Ethea senses... no real way to hide her. Not for long, if at all.
 
...So, yeah, picking Evie as an Ethos turned out to be the right call once again, because otherwise Lilly would have had to take on that hot garbage by herself, and I don't think she could have handled it (the rest of the family would have been collateral damage, that's for sure).
  • It seems that Diviners everywhere are running into interference or are just a mite distracted at trying to get glances of the Apocalypse. On the one hand, it means that there's less chance of one accidentally getting a glimpse of the nascent demigod running around. On the other hand, Madam Silva may be less of an asset than we had hoped (then again, we will be having her insights for basically free as long as we protect her, so it'll still be useful).
  • Dungeon boons give you a bonus if you DON'T know about them going in? That seems...counterintuitive. Lilly may not actually qualify for said bonus anymore due to her knowledge of [Towering Edifice], but than again it might be that very knowledge that may allow her to milk more out of it than expected. Also, how's Martin going to appease all the Watch members who DO know about the boons and see THEIR once-in-a-lifetime opportunity handed to a little girl who might be leaving town soon?
  • Silver lining, Captain Martin! I don't think Lilly's going to be hesitating for gaining more power after this. She might be a bit peeved at being kept in the dark about the boons "for her own good", but the running into danger part is not going to be a problem.
  • ...I suppose it's a function of living in a society where 13 is a marriageable age, but dangit Martin. Well, to be fair, Lilly and he are basically using each other right now, and even he acknowledges that his plans will be eventually be putting Lilly into a position where she can afford to leave him behind. Also, Lilly's a bit wise to the biases inherent in his advice.
  • Martin thought it was Evie that influenced his mind, but...maybe it was the Sources themselves that helped the Watch focus on Aboleath as the "enemy of humanity"? Martin described Pithe as a gift from a benevolent god who helps humanity protect themselves. I'm willing to bet that Pithe hardcoded a "Detect Abyss" feature into his Source to help humans gain focus and priority against such foes.
  • Of the Relay Hunting Team, we lost Moll of the Red Chains and Tovak of the Infinite Daggers. Garius and Basil were only first mentioned in this chapter. I don't know how this will affect the Dungeon Raid Martin planned, but the Watch probably isn't going to be pulling off another stalemate with Lord Waters and his retinue.
Also, I am in favor of the "release bit by bit" chapters, rather than waiting a whole month for a "complete update".
 
Something else to consider is whether or not the massacred villages Valerie and Abby had been moving through will be found out about, especially in time for the realization of how close the area came to a similar fate to be useful.

They won't feel lucky right now but seriously, in comparison to what would have happened without Lilly and Evie pulling off miracles and holding actions it would have been so much worse.

Silverking said:
Dungeon boons give you a bonus if you DON'T know about them going in? That seems...counterintuitive. Lilly may not actually qualify for said bonus anymore due to her knowledge of [Towering Edifice], but than again it might be that very knowledge that may allow her to milk more out of it than expected. Also, how's Martin going to appease all the Watch members who DO know about the boons and see THEIR once-in-a-lifetime opportunity handed to a little girl who might be leaving town soon?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's actually something that as a thread we need to think about. Lilly being on the team is something that I see the guard as a whole being behind for reasons of losing a lot of their top people and Lilly being kinda really really good at support so as to let everyone else survive to get their boons.

But while Lilly needs to grow and grow fast I'm less sure gorging on the dungeon is a better option versus sharing the exp pie with others given the benefits of soft power and not having all the eggs in one basket. Yes Lilly is super powerful. But uh, only 1 person, two with Petal. Having more powerful combatants is useful for say keeping all the non combatants we care about alive from dangerous minions while Lilly is duking it out with something terrible.
 
darknessworld said:
The technically is because we are mostly carried by our multiple ethos more than being a chosen one of some divinity.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We're a Blooming, the multi ethos thingy is from Bloom. A divine gift from our eldrich patreon.
Serve said:
So did it ultimately help or hurt evie that the fight took place with the guard around? Seems to have been a detriment but did the the guard actually contribute to the battle?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It sounded like Aboleth used the guard as weapons against Evie. So a disadvantage to Evie and Lilly all around.
Alcor said:
I think it's extremely naive to think Lilly can just go, "No, don't worry, Evie's cool." and everyone will be okay with it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We have a flow ethos and getting them to think that Evie is cool, she saved them, is going to reduce a lot of potential harm. [Shine my gentle heart] yay?
 
Edifier said:
We're a Blooming, the multi ethos thingy is from Bloom. A divine gift from our eldrich patreon.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

However, it was Colossus the one that effectively gave us the multiple ethea thing, even if I also think that was always going to be Flower end plan with the bloomings.
See the unmodified DC 85 (which we thankfully passed) to be compatible with our soul mod at the beginning of the quest.
 
Slyvena said:
Yours is a most unusual case child," he begins. The Lore Warden leans against his desk while he looks at you, somehow formal in composure despite his relaxed position. "You are in fact the second child returned after a scried confirmation of departure I have come across in my tenure, or rather, the second that didn't need to be forcibly persuaded back into the next life.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

So just a reminder that this was mentioned before. Given what Abby did with the guard... Well I think the zombie child incident is not going to be isolated by the end of the quest.
 
Edifier said:
We're a Blooming, the multi ethos thingy is from Bloom. A divine gift from our eldrich patreon.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
She's called [[The Infinite branching petals of Conviction, The Bloom which touches all, Her glory transcends, Her beauty unrivalled: Flower]] or Flower for short, not Bloom.

Edit: also note how Flower warrants two square brackets around her name, while Ethea only warrant one. we know from the E'vacliel interlude that actors like herself align themselves with [[Flower]], so she's probably a tier of being beyond other weavers or equivalent beings. That in turn would lend credence to my theory that Ethea are a part of a specific Weaver somehow, since both Ethea and [[Flower]] get the same bracketing convention wrt their names.
 
Last edited:
In regards to wanting more combatants... we probably do, but do now have the point that we want no more allied combatants than Lilly can shield from [The Heat], since said ability is an extremely potent continuous area attack with no IFF. A small number of elites will likely be our goal, at least until our following eventually and inevitably bloats to the size where it needs a full-on army. We can also note that Lilly has a limited ability to share her powers, and is likely to upgrade said ability at some point, so concentrating on Lilly can still be transferred over to others in a fashion. Still, there is an argument to be made for spreading the Dungeon boons around a bit, but we could also argue that there should be more Dungeons out there so this shouldn't be our only chance... and Lilly has the potential to unlock [Constructs] and start handing out loot herself. Honestly, my opinion would vary depending heavily on just how the Dungeon boons work... which we don't know yet.
Getting the boons in general certainly seems like a sound idea though. Valerie and Aboleath may have been the first horrible, horrible thing we have to fight, but it certainly won't be the last. Especially as I think the Maw now hates us personally, rather than just hating us in general due to hating everything.
 
Maybe keeping sympathetic linkage active at all times among those trusted would be a good idea. Like Lilly handing out the heroine's blessing.
 
Edifier said:
Maybe keeping sympathetic linkage active at all times among those trusted would be a good idea. Like Lilly handing out the heroine's blessing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

If nothing else when things are calmer we should experiment to see if whether we can use that to essentially be a repeater for support skills to widen their range in the future. For example I'd not be surprised at all if Myah can help us from the proverbial backline if we have a sympathetic linkage on.
 
The mechanic to hook Myah's boost into our Essence network would be a Soul Bond with her, that'd let us use her power using our effectively infinite Essence supply
 
A minor relations might work too. Get the 2 powers to interact more deeply.
 
Letting us use other peoples' powers or them use ours is something that explicitly needs to be learned when using a Major Relations slot, I doubt a Minor slot is good enough to do so casually.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Back
Top