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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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Simon_Jester said:
Within the context of its own cultural milieu, well... a lot of kids in a lot of cultures got promised away, fostered out for what turned out to be much of their lifespan and never saw home again, captured into slavery, or otherwise put into situations that were about this bad except without the softening "it's with Idunn" angle or the rather colder "your mother agreed to this before you were born" angle.
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That's true.

However my trust in Solrun has dropped dramatically and we definitely should not trust her anywhere near our kids

Also we should probably tell Kolla and Aki about this, if anyone deserves to know it's them
 
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I'm pretty sure Solrun wouldn't have told us if she hadn't told Kolla first.

If I'm right, then whether Aki knows is probably Kolla's business. Given that Aki's the guy who's all about second sight even to the exclusion of first sight, it seems fairly likely to me that he does.

It's entirely possible that the people whose business this is already know, and we're only just now finding out because Solrun chose to share this information with us even though it's not... strictly... our business, because she was trying to warn us against thinking we can relatively casually go looking for Idunn apples the way we relatively casually went looking for Aki's soul in Ginnungagap.
 
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Simon_Jester said:
because she was trying to warn us against thinking we can relatively casually go looking for Idunn apples the way we relatively casually went looking for Aki's soul in Ginnungagap.
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To add a bit more information to this.

Idunn's apples are an incredibly important strategic asset. Like, the only thing I can think of to compare them to in real life is the US military's logistics capabilities. The only thing better then a Thor in his prime is a Thor with 10,000 years of combat experience who is also still in his prime.
 
On the Kolla situation: I suspect Kolla probably wouldn't even exist without Solrun's deal...she was likely too old to have another child without serious help by the time she made it, given the math, and the apple-related stuff is a good candidate for 'serious help'. That doesn't make the deal morally correct, necessarily, but it's worth keeping in mind in terms of why Solrun would make such a deal...Solrun may even have originally made the deal primarily so as to enable her to have another child at all.
 
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Since Solrun has said she can get in touch with Idunn, I wonder if there's a similar way to get in touch with her husband, since as far as I know he's a Skaldic god and might be willing to trade something for a blessing or something for one of our kids.
 
I had been wondering how Solrun could have had Kolla when the maths would have said that she would have been past menopause already.

Ages:

Steinarr's (14) brothers were 10 and 12 years older than him when they were murdered (24/26). Solrun had to have been at least 16 to have babies (42 minimum).
Kolla is about 4 years younger than us (so about 17 to our 21). Steinarr was 24 when Sten was born. Sten is 6 years older than us.
When Halla was born:

Halla: 0
Sten: 6
Steinarr: 30
Solrun: Minimum 58

So when Kolla was born, Solrun had to have been a minimum of 62 years old. Menopause usually happens at about 51.

Now that we're 21, ages should look like:

Kolla: 17ish?
Halla: 21
Sten: 27
Steinarr: 51
Solrun: Minimum 79
 
I had been wondering where the downside for Norse cultivation was. They gain power so quickly when compared to any other cultivators. And ALL of them have that capability. Even death is more an inconvenience in most battles if "treated" quickly enough.

When that Knight said he had guarded his piece of land for hundreds of years I thought that we would have as much time.......I have now learned that a Viking burns very bright. But those that burn the brightest, also burn the shortest T___T
 
[X] Side with Dorri and mop up the foraging bands

I worry that whilst we're mopping up the foragers, the elite warriors will be doing something too, maybe striking out in a group to attack Asvir, or launching a counter-attack and catching us whilst we're strung out from hitting multiple raiding parties. But ultimately it's usually not a good idea divide forces in the face of a superior opponent, and the opportunity to defeat our enemy in detail is too good to pass up on. Perhaps more importantly, allowing the foraging parties to run wild means any victory will be kind of a pyrrhic one, given our primary objective is to stop our farms from being burnt and families being killed.

If we had a castle we could send all our noncombatants to and which could hold off any raiders, then Logi's plan would be the best one. But short of that, I think Dorri's plan does the best at recognising our constraints whilst allowing us to make the best of a tough situation.

DeadmanwalkingXI said:
By what Solrun said, I highly doubt this would even help. Blackhand still had aging issues despite all his Odr after all. If it did help, it would do so via Hugr Infusion. And Steinarr infusing Hugr results in him going berserk. There might theoretically be a safe way to do it, but definitely not one we have time for.

Also, Solrun already offered a treatment. At least in the short term.
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Also, Odr cultivation isn't like a Super Saiyan transformation or becoming an Exalted. There's not a massive immediate power-boost or physical transformation, it's more that it opens the door towards accumulating a new kind of power and doing things you can't otherwise, and that requires a lot of time and concentration. Something someone suffering from cognitive decline likely caused by a terminal illness has neither of.

Also Also: Ymir is our enemy, and is kind of dick. There is absolutely zero reason to believe it would balk at a chance to kill us just because Steinarr is nearing death or suffering cognitive decline. Indeed, the fact that Steinarr is not at 100% gives it a better chance of killing us and eliminating one more potential problem down the line. To assume the Enemy would not send a full retaliation is inviting calamity.
 
W00KY said:
When that Knight said he had guarded his piece of land for hundreds of years I thought that we would have as much time.......I have now learned that a Viking burns very bright. But those that burn the brightest, also burn the shortest T___T
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To be fair, we knew there wouldn't be a super long life for this kind of Cultivation. It's one of the main tenants that All Men Die.
 
Imperial Fister said:
Alright, now that you've had a couple hours to let it marinate, how was the update? I managed to find some extra motivation and put a little extra effort into the last few updates, so I'd like to know what you folks think.
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They've been great, and the extra effort really shines through. Particularly enjoyed the description of the autumn leaves in the last update.

This whole plot arc has hit like a train, right at a point when the playerbase were really easing into our comfort zone and assuming we had everything figured out. In a scant handful of updates we've lost the security blanket of Blackhand, face the prospect of losing our father, and even losing our home to raiders. The last few updates have really brought home the fundamental precariousness and uncertainty of a way of life defined largely by the capacity to commit acts of violence, and the true meaning of "All men must die".

I'm on the edge of my seat and utterly gripped to see where things go from here.
 
I'm simultaneously extremely worried about the upcoming raid and very extremely excited about testing out all of our new abilities


Edit: by the way can we use FTB inside of TSS? or is that completely over powered?
 
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mythfan12 said:
Since Solrun has said she can get in touch with Idunn, I wonder if there's a similar way to get in touch with her husband, since as far as I know he's a Skaldic god and might be willing to trade something for a blessing or something for one of our kids.
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Maybe, though on the other hand we've just seen the clear implication that such blessings can come at a higher price than many would willingly pay, even for power, even for their children.
 
alexthealright said:
Edit: by the way can we use FTB inside of TSS? or is that completely over powered?
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It's wouldn't be overpowered, by virtue of the fact that even a Perfected Time Stands Still would not give the Flame-Tending Blade very long to charge.

It would technically be possible, I think - the FTB has a variable charge time and I think in principle could be unleashed after only three to four actions worth of time since we began to charge it. But with such a limited charge time, it wouldn't beat simply using those four actions for delivering multiple attacks, especially given the possibility of launching Folded attacks.

What might be possible is to use Time Stands Still to give us a final bit of time to unleash the Flame-Tending Blade after we've already begun charging it, once we run out of room to dodge and our defences get overwhelmed. But in a lot of circumstances I think that a Contested Movement could do the same thing (so long as we're confident of beating the Hamr test) without costing us a whole Aspect.
 
W00KY said:
I had been wondering where the downside for Norse cultivation was. They gain power so quickly when compared to any other cultivators. And ALL of them have that capability. Even death is more an inconvenience in most battles if "treated" quickly enough.

When that Knight said he had guarded his piece of land for hundreds of years I thought that we would have as much time.......I have now learned that a Viking burns very bright. But those that burn the brightest, also burn the shortest T___T
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This is something Imperial Fister's been pretty clear about throughout the quest, for the record. If you're just now reading it and catching up you may have missed it and I'm not judging or anything, but it's been an explicit theme of the story for a long time.

As I understand/recall it, the fundamental truths of Norse cultivation are "everyone's gonna die some time, when the Fates decree," "there is no power that does not come at a price," and "your power is tied up in your story as it exists within the Written World."

The nature of orthstirr and skaldic powers are clear proofs of the third of those, and it was inevitable that any exceptions to the first rule would come (per the second and third) at incredibly high prices.
 
alexthealright said:
I'm simultaneously extremely worried about the upcoming raid and very extremely excited about testing out all of our new abilities
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Yeah, I feel that. We are several steps more terrifying than we were during our last serious fight. Almost half again as much Orthstirr, +2 Endurance, +1 Frenzy, +3 Shapeshifting Slots (+3 into Speed), +18 Combat Pool, new armor and gear adding +25 Armor, DR 4, +1 to all Damage, +1 Speed, and 4 Perfected Tricks including Slowing Slog which we barely had, and didn't have usable, at that point. Plus a scary new finale in TSS.

The ability to use Sharpen on Perfected Firebomb Strike also makes us the grim reaper for weaker foes...that's a 2 Orthstirr and 1 Combat Pool for a 4d6+6 or 5d56+6 attack that deals 12-14 damage. That'll hit through most low end defenses and straight kill just about anyone it hits who lacks a shield (it goes right through a Good Gambeson and Hamr + DR 9 or less, sometimes 10 or 11...Mail and helmets makes one hit more survivable depending on quality, but probably not two for anyone short of armor like ours). Perfected Kindle Spinner, meanwhile, is a free 2d6+6 or 3d6+6 for 10 damage in small AoE. Sharpened Basic Attacks are 3d6+6 or 4d6+6 for 1 or 2 Orthstirr and 5 or 6 damage and add to Stoked Pool...and with Stoked Engage we can do a lot of them, and 2-3 of them will have the same effect as one FBS. That's probably only better if powering up to fight a champion or something imminently, though.

And that's all just our minion-sweeping options.
 
[X] While most warriors mop up the foraging bands, you will fly over the raider's ships and burn them using Unleash Inferno (after using Flamecalling to gather flames). Then you will retreat to join the other warriors of the Valley.

I like the idea of hunting down the foraging bands, but i think Halla talents could be used best for a quick strike against the ships before retreating. I don't know if that is Nid, but for the sake of the Valley we can take a bit of Nid.

After we destroy the ships we then join the other warriors to wipe out the foraging bands. So now the weakest warriors of the raid are stuck on the coast without food and without ships.
 
Mystic Pentagram said:
I like the idea of hunting down the foraging bands, but i think Halla talents could be used best for a quick strike against the ships before retreating. I don't know if that is Nid, but for the sake of the Valley we can take a bit of Nid.

After we destroy the ships we then join the other warriors to wipe out the foraging bands. So now the weakest warriors of the raid are stuck on the coast without food and without ships.
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Versus the number of high end warriors that are likely to be there, I think this is probably too ambitious...Halla can burn things well, sure, but she's not actually arrow-proof or anything like that and with probably 100 of them or thereabouts still guarding the ships I think we die if we try this. Or at least take an unacceptable risk.
 
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DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Versus the number of high end warriors that are likely to be there, I think this is probably too ambitious...Halla can burn things well, sure, but she's not actually arrow-proof or anything like that and with probably 100 of them or thereabouts still guarding the ships I think we die if we try this. Or at least take an unacceptable risk.
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Wasn't it said that the weakest warriors will be left with the ships? And i am sure that Halla can use fire against the ships, dodge a few arrows and then retreat.

Her entire build is abaout fighting while flying and attacking from range, i doubt we will find anybody there with a strong counter to it.
 
Mystic Pentagram said:
Wasn't it said that the weakest warriors will be left with the ships? And i am sure that Halla can use fire against the ships, dodge a few arrows and then retreat.

Her entire build is abaout fighting while flying and attacking from range, i doubt we will find anybody there with a strong counter to it.
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No, it was said that their strongest would all be left guarding so that they could have a larger number gathering food (which does mean it might be more like 50 than 100...but their 50 strongest if so, I'd still expect closer to 100 but it's hard to tell). And we don't need a hard counter to take us out when they have a 50 to 1 advantage, just enough people with a nod to ranged combat or one person significantly higher end than us who's put some stuff into it.
 
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DeadmanwalkingXI said:
No, it was said that their strongest would all be left guarding so that they could have a larger number gathering food (which does mean it might be more like 50 than 100...but their 50 strongest if so, I'd still expect closer to 100 but it's hard to tell). And we don't need a hard counter to take us out when they have a 50 to 1 advantage, just enough people with a nod to ranged combat or one person significantly higher end than us who's put some stuff into it.
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If that is the case then i read wrong the chapter. Then i agree with the other plan.

[X] Side with Dorri and mop up the foraging bands
 
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