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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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Alectai said:
It costs 35 Orthstirr, and gets increasingly difficult to apply the stronger we get. I think it being stupidly good is intended.
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There's stupidly good and there's 'casually get 40-50 successes on persuasion whenever dealing with someone powerful' stupidly good. The second does not seem an intended result.

Alectai said:
Mind you, while I Xed it, this isn't final, I need to do a feasibility and then editing check after everyone runs over it.

But I think this is the way to go. Trick the Troll into turning from Horra's proxy into one of the knives we use to carve his head off.
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Rules discussion aside I'm inclined to agree, if the legal plan works it's tempting and I'm torn between that and yours, if it doesn't yours seems fine.

@Imperial Fister how do the rules on attempting a social check here work, does that use our combat pool or our normal social pool, does our Twist let us add 20 dice to it, would tricks allow us to invest our whole combat pool into a single social roll...how does this actually work mechanically?
 
I've got to step out for a bit, need to grab a few things from the store. Have fun chatting it up and refining the idea!
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
@Imperial Fister how do the rules on attempting a social check here work, does that use our combat pool or our normal social pool, does our Twist let us add 20 dice to it, would tricks allow us to invest our whole combat pool into a single social roll...how does this actually work mechanically?
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Punching up gives you more dice. How you use them is up to you.

Social check here would work like normal, out of combat social checks, but you can add more dice to it should you so desire.

With no active-use social tricks, you can't dump all your dice into one thing. You could if you had the stuff to do so, but I would not recommend it.
 
Imperial Fister said:
Punching up gives you more dice. How you use them is up to you.

Social check here would work like normal, out of combat social checks, but you can add more dice to it should you so desire.
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So we could add Punching Up dice or our +5 Muna dice but not ordinary combat pool dice? Is that how that works?

And how many social checks does the tricking plan require, and likewise how many would the 'get them involved in legal hijinks as a witness' plan involve, if the latter is even viable?

Imperial Fister said:
With no active-use social tricks, you can't dump all your dice into one thing. You could if you had the stuff to do so, but I would not recommend it.
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Why wouldn't you recommend it? I'm curious.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
And how many social checks does the tricking plan require, and likewise how many would the 'get them involved in legal hijinks as a witness' plan involve, if the latter is even viable?
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Alectai said:
"By the gods! What at terrible noise!" you ask--after all, you're just an ordinary woman after all, who would find you threatening. Look down on the Troll. "Oh good heavens Sir Troll! What has happened to you? Who could have done this to you?"
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1 social check
Alectai said:
Trick him into thinking that he was deceived, baited into a trap by a wicked man.
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Another check
Alectai said:
See if you can get information out,
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One more check (this one isn't vital)
Alectai said:
offer him some dinner as he goes on his way to ideally Repay the Favor of the Treacherous Man who sent him here.
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and the final social check (also not vital)

This is one of those situations where you can be too successful.

As for the legal hijinks, I would need to see a write up of it in order to give exact details. Likely the same as this plan, though.
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Why wouldn't you recommend it? I'm curious.
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All your eggs in one basket is a bad idea, especially with only semi plot-armor.
 
Imperial Fister said:
This is one of those situations where you can be too successful.

As for the legal hijinks, I would need to see a write up of it in order to give exact details. Likely the same as this plan, though.

All your eggs in one basket is a bad idea, especially with only semi plot-armor.
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Check...was I correct about how the dice work (ie: we can add the bonus dice from the Twist but not the base dice) or not? And do we need to invest dice to get the basic 10 dice we get just from Hugr + Silver-Tongue or not?

I'm still legitimately pretty confused about how the dice work here which makes assigning them hard.
 
Okay, I think that looks about like this, assuming we prioritize all the other stuff over gathering information. I dunno if that's right, but that seems like a side goal and we're still putting some dice into it (EDIT: Shifted the dice a little to making the interrogation better):

[X] Plan: Trolls Are Not Known For Their Cunning (v2.0)
-[X] Invest 30 dice into combat Pool, 6 into Hugr, 3 each into Tactics, Silver-Tongue, Scouting, and Strategy, 2 into Barb-Tongue, and 4 each into Wildcraft and Wordplay. Activate Probe-Trick and First Impression. (-60 Orthstirr)
-[X] 0d6 Attack
-[X] 0d6 Defense
-[X] 0d6 Intercept
-[X] 41d6 social stuff
-[X] Activate your Twist to generate 20 Dice, Activate Fight Of Your Life to generate 5 dice (-35 Orthstirr). Total of 66 dice to add to the social checks.
--[X] Make sure at least Sten is out of sight (he can hide behind Abjorn if nowhere else).
--[X] "By the gods! What at terrible noise!" you ask--after all, you're just an ordinary woman after all, who would find you threatening. Look down on the Troll. "Oh good heavens Sir Troll! What has happened to you? Who could have done this to you?" (28d6 + First Impression)
--[X] Sweet talk the Troll, let him think that you're just a woman who coincidentally heard his distress. Give a hint that you had no idea such a troll was here, when you were simply exploring the area looking for something or other. Trick him into thinking that he was deceived, baited into a trap by a wicked man. (28d6)
--[X] See if you can get information out, (22d6), offer him some dinner as he goes on his way to ideally Repay the Favor of the Treacherous Man who sent him here. (28d6)
--[X] If this works, have him followed in secret by your Fylgja, shrouded from recognition With Covered in Rags (-18 Orthstirr). Equip it with some defensive Tricks if you have time (specifically Sidestep, you'll pull out your spare work knife to make room).
--[X] If this fails and it attacks you, use Halting Vortex (-4 Orthstirr) and pivot to something else while you fall back to where the others are., but the idea of fighting this thing all night if you can turn him into an arrow aimed at the Curse Master tickles you something fierce.

EDIT: Approval vote:

[X] Plan: Trolls Are Not Known For Their Cunning, legal edition
 
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DeadmanwalkingXI said:
I don't think it's Christian, he was last sighted somewhere in Persia, I believe (maybe some old magic from a lingering cult of Ahriman, or something?), but he has displayed the previous ability to compel magical creatures to his service, so that may well be what happened here.
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Don't think it's magic from Ahriman, mostly because I can't see enough people worshipping the closest Zoroastrian equivalent of Satan to build up much in terms of mystical knowledge. Not enough to make it plausible that some survived the rigors of time and the torches of the Zoroastrians and Muslims for Horra to find.

That being said, I forgot how well travelled Horra was. I still think that whatever compulsive mojo he's got going is, if not Christian, at least solidly linked to the Abrahamic faiths. We have just seen that Horra is capable of using the carrot rather than the stick with the troll. The fact that he doesn't do so with the spirits he calls upon implies the foreign magic he calls upon is ill suited for such things.

That suggests doing so is forbidden (Thou shalt have no other gods before Me), or ineffective (demons). While it's quite possible that it's from another tradition entirely, when you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras. There's plenty of options. He might have come across a partial Kabbalist text, or perhaps a fragment of the Ars Goetica.
 
If we assume the skald's story is correct, he likely learned the powers from something very old, written in the earth.

Wait, could the Enemy be Neanderthals/their gods? I always kind of love stories that play with Neanderthals, though the execution varies. I will go ahead and assume it's not dinosaurs, as that would be a definite change in tone.
 
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Hunter531 said:
Don't think it's magic from Ahriman, mostly because I can't see enough people worshipping the closest Zoroastrian equivalent of Satan to build up much in terms of mystical knowledge. Not enough to make it plausible that some survived the rigors of time and the torches of the Zoroastrians and Muslims for Horra to find.
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I mean, we are in a xianxia world...I'm betting cults to Evil Gods (as an equivalent to demonic cultivators) are a lot more common than in reality. And, as mentioned, he learned it from something old and buried...I was honestly thinking an old book more than a living cult.

Hunter531 said:
That being said, I forgot how well travelled Horra was. I still think that whatever compulsive mojo he's got going is, if not Christian, at least solidly linked to the Abrahamic faiths. We have just seen that Horra is capable of using the carrot rather than the stick with the troll. The fact that he doesn't do so with the spirits he calls upon implies the foreign magic he calls upon is ill suited for such things.

That suggests doing so is forbidden (Thou shalt have no other gods before Me), or ineffective (demons). While it's quite possible that it's from another tradition entirely, when you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras. There's plenty of options. He might have come across a partial Kabbalist text, or perhaps a fragment of the Ars Goetica.
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This is also pretty plausible, though.
 
[X] Plan: Trolls Are Not Known For Their Cunning (v2.0)

Thanks for cleaning it up while I was out!
 
[X] Plan: Trolls Are Not Known For Their Cunning, legal edition
-[X] Invest 30 dice into combat Pool, 6 into Hugr, 3 each into Tactics, Silver-Tongue, Scouting, and Strategy, 2 into Barb-Tongue, and 4 into Wordplay. Activate Probe-Trick and First Impression. (-56 Orthstirr)
-[X] 0d6 Attack
-[X] 0d6 Defense
-[X] 0d6 Intercept
-[X] 41d6 social stuff
-[X] Activate your Twist to generate 20 Dice, Activate Fight Of Your Life to generate 5 dice (-35 Orthstirr). Total of 66 dice to add to the social checks.
--[X] "By the gods! What at terrible noise!" you ask--after all, you're just an ordinary woman after all, who would find you threatening. Look down on the Troll. "Oh good heavens Sir Troll! What has happened to you? Who could have done this to you?" (30d6 + First Impression)
--[X] Sweet talk the Troll, let him think that you're just a woman who coincidentally heard his distress. Give a hint that you had no idea such a troll was here, when you were simply exploring the area looking for something or other. Trick him into thinking that he was deceived, baited into a trap by a wicked man. (30d6)
--[X] See if you can get information out, (16d6), offer him some dinner and try to convince him that he needs to make a complaint to the Headman about [probably Horra] selling a cave he doesn't own(scam) (30d6)
--[X] If this works, use the Trolls claims and the Scorn-Pole as evidence of attacks against your family, especially if the Troll can give testimony who should be searched for evidence/who should stand for a holmgang.
--[X] make sure Sten stays out of sight of the Troll.
--[X] If this fails and it attacks you, use Halting Vortex (-4 Orthstirr) and pivot to something else while you fall back to where the others are., but the idea of fighting this thing all night if you can turn him into an arrow aimed at the Curse Master tickles you something fierce.

just in case i miss anything important and don't return before vote closes
[]DeadmanwalkingXI
edit2: with them head to head, maybe better to avoid the approval vote for the other plan (its good too, but just a hair less funny if it works)
 
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Alectai said:
Thanks for cleaning it up while I was out!
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No trouble, happy to be of assistance.

Toboe said:
[X] Plan: Trolls Are Not Known For Their Cunning, legal edition
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This seems workable. I'll probably add an approval vote for it. Both versions seem fine.

Toboe said:
[X]DeadmanwalkingX
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KreenWarrior said:
[X] DeadmanwalkingX
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FYI this is not quite my whole name (the I got left off) so the forum doesn't acknowledge it.
 
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Alectai said:
God, this plan is super ballsy. BUT IF IT WORKS
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Honestly, it's a pretty low investment play in terms of resources expended. We're long past the point where losing 44 orthstirr (the total cost including the social skills) is crippling, and that and allowing the troll to stand up is most of the cost right there. Like, it's not free, but it's not 'we lose if the plan fails' by any means either.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Honestly, it's a pretty low investment play in terms of resources expended. We're long past the point where losing 44 orthstirr (the total cost including the social skills) is crippling, and that and allowing the troll to stand up is most of the cost right there. Like, it's not free, but it's not 'we lose if the plan fails' by any means either.
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Definitely Muna worthy if we pull it off though!

Are there even social-derived Hugareida @Imperial Fister ?
 
[X] Plan: Trolls Are Not Known For Their Cunning (v2.0)

We can have our legal courtroom drama! Our cake and eating it!

This plan is amazing, please work.

edit:

[X] Plan: Trolls Are Not Known For Their Cunning, legal edition
 
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It's a great plan and i love it one small problem didn't it meet sten before via biting his leg off? And therefore know we're blatantly lying to it? I know Trolls Are Not Known For Their Cunning but maybe we shouldn't tempt the norns have him hide out of sight?
 
I kind of think that Horra might have come across remnants of the Sea People. It would kind of fit narratovely but is a little weord from a world building perspective because I doubt they had writing.
 
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