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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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[X] Push on despite the danger (Begins The Heart of the Hading)

@DeadmanwalkingXI given that the endgame's of Halla's saga might be the Drysalt plot and thats progressing quickly, we probably need to speed up our plans. we might want to offer Dorri our services as a new seeress, now that Solrun is gone- its a powerful position, and a great way to both assure him we know nothing and possibly a lot of information. we just need to make sure we use no terms that oblige our loyalty to him or otherwise risk nid.

we probably should be doing Vestfold next summer since we promised to go pick up Kolla. we might be able to push in the tournament before that if we still wanna doing it? might be a good way to recruit men for the journey, among other stuff. also it might draw Hasvir closer?
winter we should probably spend on researching the spell, and hopefully norse armor. while our next turn can probably be spent on the rest of this summer's domestic actions?
 
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Blademaster said:
@DeadmanwalkingXI given that the endgame's of Halla's saga might be the Drysalt plot and thats progressing quickly, we probably need to speed up our plans. we might want to offer Dorri our services as a new seeress, now that Solrun is gone- its a powerful position, and a great way to both assure him we know nothing and possibly a lot of information. we just need to make sure we use no terms that oblige our loyalty to him or otherwise risk nid.
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The Drysalt plot isn't actually progressing that fast. It exists, but progressing quickly? I'm not seeing how this information changes that. It makes us want to delay it and get more info and resources, if anything. Though, really, we want to get all that stuff as quick as possible either way.

More importantly, Seeress isn't an appointed position. It's a profession...we are already the local seeress by virtue of being the only one around for the moment. Like, nobody appoints you town doctor, you're just the only doctor who lives in that town.

Blademaster said:
we probably should be doing Vestfold next summer since we promised to go pick up Kolla. we might be able to push in the tournament before that if we still wanna doing it? might be a good way to recruit men for the journey, among other stuff. also it might draw Hasvir closer?
winter we should probably spend on researching the spell, and hopefully norse armor. while our next turn can probably be spent on the rest of this summer's domestic actions?
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Vestfold next Summer was always the plan. I dunno if I want to put it off to have the tournament before it, though. That seems off. We do probably want to do that next Summer as well, but I was thinking after the Vestfold expedition, which we'd do ASAP next Summer. We definitely can't do both in one turn for a host of reasons.
 
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May Solrun find peace soon....
And may Vidar get eaten by an Abyssling. I don't care for his pain anymore, he must case to exist.

[X] Push on despite the danger (Begins The Heart of the Hading)

Imperial Fister said:
Gritting her teeth, Solrun's eyes blaze with a defiant fire as she grips the edges of the table for support. Limbs shaking and quivering with every laborious breath, she forces herself onwards by sheer strength of will. "Drysalt is arrogant and has an ego larger than the whole of Midgard combined. He thinks little of humans and can be tricked. Lure him into a trap and seal him away, it's the only way he can be beaten."
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Hm... we could make a Burl to the underworld bridge and let the Bridge Guard goddess whose name escapes me deal with him?

Too bad we don't have magma or ice tricks though, fire is bad at restraining things and we can't even wound him so... only our blinding trick might work. If that.
Hitting him hard would probably still be effective if we want to just move him though.
Imperial Fister said:
"I..." She whispers with the last vestiges of her strength. Thinking quickly, she picks her words wisely as life quickly leaves her limbs—the nid burning through her orthstirr and moving onto her very soul. "Hadingshero... he knew..."
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Crowned Barrows, huh? Lot of daurgs then.... hm... ooooooh, Can we ask the Halding to help us out, perhaps?
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
More importantly, Seeress isn't an appointed position. It's a profession...we are already the local seeress by virtue of being the only one around for the moment. Like, nobody appoints you town doctor, you're just the only doctor who lives in that town.
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oh sure, but its still good to let Dorri know he can rely on us. Im not even sure if he knows we are now a fully fledged seeress.

in the doctor analogy, its less about getting a doctor position, and more going and saying 'the old doctor is dead, you can rely on me as his replacement"
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Vestfold next Summer was always the plan. I dunno if I want to put it off to have the tournament before it, though. That seems off. We do probably want to do that next Summer as well, but I was thinking after the Vestfold expedition, which we'd do ASAP next Summer. We definitely can't do both in one turn for a host of reasons.
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we don't know how Vestfold will take though, thats the thing. we can do the tournament at turn 1 then turn 2 sail. however, if we sail first, then we don't know if we return before winter, and we will probably need to do preparations right before anyway
 
Blademaster said:
oh sure, but its still good to let Dorri know he can rely on us. Im not even sure if he knows we are now a fully fledged seeress.

in the doctor analogy, its less about getting a doctor position, and more going and saying 'the old doctor is dead, you can rely on me as his replacement"
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I mean, we can announce we're a seeress, yeah. That's more of a general thing than just Dorri, though.

Blademaster said:
we don't know how Vestfold will take though, thats the thing. we can do the tournament at turn 1 then turn 2 sail. however, if we sail first, then we don't know if we return before winter, and we will probably need to do preparations right before anyway
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Not knowing how long Vestfold will take is why we should do it ASAP. We don't want to be trapped there for the winter for a host of reasons...which is what would happen if we leave after the tournament and it takes long enough that we couldn't have gotten back for it if we did it later.
 
Great update! A Christmas present from IF, thanks!

Some really moving scenes in this one; I think it's important to see the toll that all this is taking on Halla. Also kinda interesting to see the over-use of calm charges as being similar to overusing prescription drugs.

[X] Push on despite the danger (Begins The Heart of the Hading)

We need this information.


Imperial Fister said:
"Drysalt..." Solrun sighs as she struggles to find the right words, the cracks in the oath splintering further with every half-breathed syllable, "Drysalt is a troll of another era. A being from a time before time, from before there was the idea of such a thing as Midgard. I think, anyways, my father had precious little time to teach me of this." She swallows as dirt shakes from the ceiling, the Norns deeply unhappy with Solrun's oath-breaking. The stench of nid is thick and cloying as it descends upon Solrun like a starving dog to a fat-heavy carcass. Orthstirr vanishes as Solrun musters her strength and carries on unflinching, "Drysalt has no physical weaknesses. His skin is impervious to weapons and tricks of all kinds, no manner of esoteric trick or twist or spell may lay him low."
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Sounds like quitter talk to me!

Imperial Fister said:
"How do we beat him, then?" You simply can't accept that such a thing is impossible. It just isn't in your nature to lay down and die.

Gritting her teeth, Solrun's eyes blaze with a defiant fire as she grips the edges of the table for support. Limbs shaking and quivering with every laborious breath, she forces herself onwards by sheer strength of will. "Drysalt is arrogant and has an ego larger than the whole of Midgard combined. He thinks little of humans and can be tricked. Lure him into a trap and seal him away, it's the only way he can be beaten."

"How do we seal him away?" At your question, Solrun's eyes turn red with sorrow as her head hangs low.

"I..." She whispers with the last vestiges of her strength. Thinking quickly, she picks her words wisely as life quickly leaves her limbs—the nid burning through her orthstirr and moving onto her very soul. "Hadingshero... he knew..."
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Skippy said:
So, what's The Secret?

The Secret is nothing more or less than the knowledge of how Drysalt is called or summoned, which necessarily also contains the essence (probably at great cost) of how to banish or repel Drysalt.
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Skippy said:
...there is one person who would have been a first hand witness to most of the key action here, and might know some important things, even if he does not know The Secret itself. It's possible he saw nothing important, but he's the best possible lead other than being able to speak to Runor or Framarr themselves.

Hasvir Hadinghero.
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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsqmU3v0hVA&pp=ygUQZGJ6YSBpIGNhbGxlZCBpdA%3D%3D

Huh, wait, so did Solrun actually need to die then?

We were already going to see Hasvir, and I was definitely going to do my best to get us to ask him about Drysalt given the obvious likelihood of him being around the last time Drysalt was banished. I'm sure it would have occurred to other people as well given the convo on Discord.

I guess this will definitely help to focus Halla's mind as she goes into the meeting, maybe.
 
Skippy said:
Huh, wait, so did Solrun actually need to die then?

We were already going to see Hasvir, and I was definitely going to do my best to get us to ask him about Drysalt given the obvious likelihood of him being around the last time Drysalt was banished. I'm sure it would have occurred to other people as well given the convo on Discord.

I guess this will definitely help to focus Halla's mind as she goes into the meeting, maybe.
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Hasvir bound Drysalt before, so he knows how, but from what IF said Hasvir didn't know that Drysalt was actually unkillable. He presumably knew he was tough, but that much would not have been new information. The only way we find out he's actually unkillable is Solrun, or beating it out of Dorri.

Whether that's worth her death is a different question, but it might well be, depending. We'll definitely go in differently knowing that. We might have had binding him as a backup plan even without that knowledge, but we would have at least tried to kill him outright.
 
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The Heart of the Hading 1
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Push on despite the danger (Begins _The Heart of the Hading_)
    0~0~0

    Invisible eyes linger on your forms as you and your husband move as one through the densely-packed trees. The trail—left there by some unknown past traveler—is only traceable thanks to the low light levels rendering things like grass and bushes unable to grow. Nevertheless, the path is as winding and difficult to follow as you'd expect from a place like this.

    The barrows only grow taller as your passage takes you further into the depths. Towering monoliths to ages past, they stand as the sole mark of that which came before. Deeper than you've ever head anyone go in the Hading, the air itself is rich with unchecked growth.

    Deep divots sit in the ground on either side of the trail, each positioned off a ways from the foot-trodden path. Where once stood homes and buildings, now there is only pits in the earth. It's a fate that awaits all the buildings of the world, you realize as you pass by one that looks disturbingly like the foundations of your own home, to wind up in a place like this.

    Eventually, the trees grow thinner and thinner as the canopy falls away. Invisible eyes stay watching, but they stay with the trees and go no further as you step into a grotto.

    The faint tinkle of a waterfall catches your ears like the song of a working woman as you blink in the sudden sunlight, the only shade a gift of the truly gargantuan ash dominating the entire flower-coated clearing. It's ancient and gnarled, covered in wounds gathered over the course of what must have been thousands of years.

    Where other trees bow to the wind and sway to the beat, the wind makes way for this tree's rest. With Winter on the distant horizon, some of the trees have started to change colors and shed their leaves. Where other trees bow to the whims of the cold, the winter begs this tree for forgiveness as it sweeps across the grotto.

    But where other trees are whole and hearty, this tree bears a wound like none other. A crater drives itself through the bark and deep into the wood. Hundreds upon hundreds of rings spill out as the crater mars the surface of natural grace and beauty. Cracks spiderweb out from the epicenter as the reality of the situation dawns on you.

    This... This wound is the result of cultivators at war. A battle between titans, where one lived and the other didn't.

    There are only two battles you know of that could cause a wound like this. The duel between your own grandfather, Hallr Blackhand, and Hasvir Hadingshero.

    ...And the battle between Hasvir Hadingshero and Drysalt Hadingsbane.

    The only question is, which is it?

    What would you like to do first?
    [ ] Investigate the Great Ash
    [ ] Investigate the waterfall's song
    [ ] Investigate the remnants of those that came before

    0~0~0

    AN: Not much to say here.

    No moratorium.
     
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    • Thermal Lance/Unending Time in The Sun/etc would not have killed Last Stand Steinarr so wouldn't kill Drysalt either. We knew we couldn't beat him, Corpsemake might not have been able to beat him. Face it Solrun didn't need to die, this information is worthless, we were never going to kill him, our plan was banishment/seal/bargain/etc.
     
    [X] Investigate the Great Ash

    I feel like this is maybe the most polite?

    Ego_Discite said:
    Thermal Lance/Unending Time in The Sun/etc would not have killed Last Stand Steinarr so wouldn't kill Drysalt either. We knew we couldn't beat him, Corpsemake might not have been able to beat him. Face it Solrun didn't need to die, this information is worthless, we were never going to kill him, our plan was banishment/seal/bargain/etc.
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    They wouldn't have taken Steinarr out in one blow, but Steinarr also wouldn't have been able to ignore them entirely. Taking Drysalt on in a fight with a sufficient kill team (ie: Corpsemaker, Farbjorn, Wolfwind, and us, just as one example) was definitely on the list of possibilities, though. And would have been a bad mistake.

    Whether she needed to die is a different question, but this information is far from worthless.
     
    Oshha said:
    Need to? Perhaps not, but finding out this information now instead of mid-battle will likely be the difference between defeat and victory.
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    Unless there is something that isn't obvious, I don't think this information is worth anything. Solrun would be much more useful. I am taking this as an reminder that we can make mistakes and die in this quest.

    Edit:(I don't know how to quote) "Taking Drysalt on in a fight with a sufficient kill team (ie: Corpsemaker, Farbjorn, Wolfwind, and us, just as one example) was definitely on the list of possibilities, though. And would have been a bad mistake."

    Would it have been, the information seems to be obvious. We knew there was something up with Drysalt, something that made him hard to kill. Evidence, he is still alive. We knew Hasvir "beat him", we knew where we could find him. It seems like we had everything we needed.
     
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    Ego_Discite said:
    Thermal Lance/Unending Time in The Sun/etc would not have killed Last Stand Steinarr so wouldn't kill Drysalt either. We knew we couldn't beat him, Corpsemake might not have been able to beat him. Face it Solrun didn't need to die, this information is worthless, we were never going to kill him, our plan was banishment/seal/bargain/etc.
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    1: Thermal Lance definitely would have been able to kill Steinarr, you would have had to make him use his aspects before you hit him so he couldn't deflect it but it it would have definitely been an option*.

    2: *We* *personally* might not have been able to beat him but there was definitely an idea to bring like 50 dudes to help with killing him.

    3: Corpsemaker is literally invincible. He definitely could have beaten even someone as powerful as Last Stand Steinarr or someone significantly stronger through attrition.

    4: We were absolutely planing on killing him if we could, the fact that we can't is very important to know.

    So yes this information is actually worth something.

    *TSS and a Sunfire Trick would also have done the job.
     
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