Turn 2: Damnable Juniors Results
AA542 Dong Liang
Spirit Stone Vault: Approximately 50 thousand
External Sect News:
Skirmishes along the northern frontier have increased with a new incursion leading to the loss of four golden cores and two hundred thousand brave soldiers of the celestial army after a few depots were overrun. This has, according to official missives happened due to clear treachery and deceitful locals misdirecting their supplies and burning them ahead of the advance. More accurate rumors are that the generals managed to march away and into the North, wintered in a barren landscape, and proceeded to freeze due to nomad sorceries. For his part, the Emperor has called up another wave of conscripts from the mortal villages to be trained as replacements to settle the frontier. The normal funerary rituals involving the conscripted are expected to continue for the next decade as the next wave of settlers is moved by ship to the frontier.
The Jewel Blossom Sect for its part has announced that the trade along the river will be more open than ever before with the completion of a massive series of locks. The Towering Horizon sketch has somehow managed to recruit three golden core cultivators from the nearby lands, offering some massive treasures to them. Little is known how exactly they managed to attract such powerful cultivators but the rumors range from everything between them fleeing from a sect about to be declared demonic to a fanciful tale of romance. Pearl Ferret has continued to be the wealthiest sect, responding to the news of increased gold mining by purchasing an entirely gold showroom incorporating a dozen arrays for some irrelevant treasures to lord their wealth above the other sects.
Personal Actions:
Make Formal Contact with a Sect: A proper diplomatic party is a flashy and worthless affair compared to more important cultivation, but it is a formality that must be done. Gathering two elders and a gaggle of inner disciples along with some basic gifts before setting off to a sect can ensure a favorable impression and intimidate some of their inner disciples to avoid the border, at least for a few years. Being a known quantity further has the advantage as the most bloody-minded will not take offense to the sudden appearance of a new sect in the area. (5 Thousand Spirit Stones) (Great Pearl Ferret) (56)
Dealing with pearl ferrets has come with a traditional showdown of four golden cores against their six with several cordial matters discussed. They presented themselves as a merchant sect, trading gifts for gifts in an exchange of words and goods produced. Not even a single punch was thrown in the meeting as cordial discussions and the costs for goods were negotiated. It is tragic to say that two elders ended up making massive purchases well above the value of the pearls supplied, but it is entirely their fault for being swindled. The sect itself uses some strange water elemental technique focused on the river itself, claiming to have been allotted their land for more than a thousand years.
Observe Mortal Hunters: Recent improvements in technique and equipment have already led to hundreds of stories of mere mortals downing spirit beasts. Suppressing one's cultivation and following around a dozen mortals as they attempt to hunt spirit beasts to death can prove enlightening and give a basis for working with the simplest outer disciples. The rumors may just be that, but saving a few dozen mortal hunters from spirit beasts can create an image of benevolence. If their techniques are applicable, reducing the loss of outer disciples to the wilderness can be revolutionary in keeping up numbers. (68)
Following mortal hunters has been a simple exercise of observing them with a minimal degree of concealment, patiently waiting and cultivating in sight of the docks. The hunters going to the province have been obvious, armed with an arquebus of some variety and whatever short sword or spear could be gathered. Tagging them by leaving a small jade slip in their pockets has immediately led to several exceedingly interesting conclusions. Firstly, an arquebus of sufficient size can bring down a beast in the body refinement stage. Secondly, a mortal hunter is optimistic, occasionally drunk, and effectively blind living in splendid ignorance of the world around him. Thirdly, are slower and worse reacting than any reasonable beast, with half a dozen needing to be saved from their ambition. Talking to a few of these and the desperate insistence for even a small part of the body has revealed that a few spirit stones are a lifetime of wealth for a mortal, even the son of a landowner was desperate for a small bit of horn worth half a spirit stone at best.
Observe Inner Disciples: The inner disciples have clearly been neglected, poorly trained, and ignored for too long. Taking some time away from important management work to follow inner disciples and see how they are being lazy in their cultivation and training. Some of the elders have called the youths of today lazy and indolent but they are youths that have been raised by the sect, making it the direct fault of the elders. If it's a question of more intensive training alone, it can be solved in a fortnight without issue but if it is truly a generational problem, more extreme means will have to be considered. (9)
Following a dozen inner disciples as they have attempted to hunt spirit beasts has almost entirely confirmed the elders' worst assumptions. They are inattentive, lacking in basic awareness, lacking more than half of the techniques needed to function, and excessively favor flashy moves that accomplish little. After almost eight of them had attempted some great demonstration of mastery and qi concentration and failed utterly outside of making an excessively large glowing sword. According to the elders, the generation is lazy, but from observation, they are rather incompetent and little more than poorly instructed peacocks.
Disciple Cai Tao has over two weeks of hunting and failed to catch anything or notice anything while hunting. He has managed to lose his tent due to testing a technique at his stage four separate times. Missed sixteen beasts of a lesser stage and nine beasts of a similar stage. Further, he has a negligible mastery of any detection techniques, missing an obvious golden core fourteen treelengths behind. This entire effort concluded with trying to fish in the river and a disastrous incident with a giant carp nearly leading to a lost hand if not for a timely intervention.
-Lord Xian Wei, Alchemical Notebook 3791
Inner Disciple Actions(Costs Two Personal To Focus on Three) (Several Will Passively Proceed depending on Reward Allocation):
Establish a Herb Garden: Getting more seeds sown for supplying critical pill-making ingredients will ensure a steady supply for lower disciples and ensure that the very finest harvests can be made available for proper refinement. The inner disciples would of course prefer to be cultivating rather than weeding gardens and dealing with complicated spirit herbs but it's not like illiterate outer disciples could be trusted with the task. (Divine Moss) (33)
Motivating inner disciples to do anything has been a constant mess of oversight and hints to improve their severely lacking cultivation. Poking a few to plant seeds with a reward of personal lessons and harsh critique has worked for now but there are only so many inner disciples. The garden itself has been planted on several large walls of properly arranged boulders to catch the morning dew, spreading the moss across them. The first harvest is only going to come in a year with seed stocks replenished. Already every inner disciple has asked for some of the moss to use for pills of protection for hunting and attempting the most arduous of cultivation.
Hunt Spirit Beasts: The wily spirit beasts in the rivers and mountains are a threat to outer disciples, are a nuisance to the mortals, and contain valuable reagents. Leading inner disciples into mortal danger would be frowned upon but by popularizing certain recipes requiring the parts of beasts and offering the correct rewards for their hunting many can be enticed to take their chances. Some may never return but a few hundred carcases can help sect funds and spirit stone reserves. (15)
As much of a loss of face, as it is to admit, the sect is not ready to conduct large-scale hunts. The outer disciples are too incapable of so much as mounting resistance to beasts with poor preparations and even worse equipment. The inner disciples for their part are unaware and incapable of doing anything but patrolling towns and making the mortals feel safe to no productive end. A few dozen outer disciples and an inner disciple perished in the hunting attempts but those were almost expected. Intensive training and a wider distribution of techniques are going to be essential to get the sect functional as it is currently a collection of imbeciles in ever fancier robes.
Train Juniors: Training illiterate juniors in the basics of cultivation and the techniques of the Open Lotus Art is a time-consuming but necessary measure. Ensuring that those who want access to training improve juniors can encourage a virtuous cycle of constant promotions for those willing and able to instruct. Quality of instruction is never going to be the best, but those that are capable will rise no matter the quality of instruction. (71)
Pushing the incompetent tinner disciples to train the juniors has been an exercise in constant frustration with complaints of "wasting time" and several other irrelevant prattles. Getting personally involved has produced far better results with basic techniques instructed at scale including how to possibly detect a spirit beast by sending out their qi both actively and passively. For those who immediately embraced the simplest techniques and entered qi formation a few lessons and exercises for how to practice detection techniques have been mandated. Explicit instructions have been made on how to deal with illiterate recruits with inner disciples strongly encouraged to read them for better teaching practices. The entire system as it is though, is not working; the sect is not the celestial army and has no need for a hundred thousand incompetents with a half dozen techniques and the worldly understanding of the average turnip.
No Vote/Will Update Soon
