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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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Sirrocco said:
They're vikings. "body dead but not true dead" is a very real possibility.
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True. That's why I said 'if he actually kills him'. Like, from what we saw he's gonna kill him, the question is whether it's dead-dead.

Sirrocco said:
At the same time, we'd have to capture one who was actually working with Horra. He may have kept himself insulated from all of that.
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If we can prove it's anyone from Horra's compound (and it almost certainly is) we can tie it to Horra with our own testimony about overhearing him ordering things taken to his 'friends to the North and East'. A phrase we actually overheard and led us pretty directly to the bandits.

Shard said:
We do have Stabilizing Hand. And Meat-keeping sticks.

If the Norns say that some of them are only bodily dead, not true dead...
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Indeed. It's a possibility and one we should bear in mind.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
True. That's why I said 'if he actually kills him'. Like, from what we saw he's gonna kill him, the question is whether it's dead-dead.
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Oh, fair point. I was more talking about the ease of taking someone prisoner when they're a temporary corpse, though.

Also... there was a thing that bothered me. Like, why? Why are we currently facing the bandits from two different camps, rather than just one?

Well, we have a distant fate-worker who acts through our enemies and hates us personally and knows we exist and wants us dead. I suppose that that's a reason.

The only question is whether this was the local threats it had available to throw at us in punishment for sharing the clue, or whether it still has other local minions in wait.
 
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Sirrocco said:
Oh, fair point. I was more talking about the ease of taking someone prisoner when they're a temporary corpse, though.
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Fair. That's up to fate, of course, and I suspect fate usually says that if your side all lose and die it was your time to go.

Sirrocco said:
Also... there was a thing that bothered me. Like, why? Why are we currently facing the bandits from two different camps, rather than just one?

Well, we have a distant fate-worker who acts through our enemies and hates us personally and knows we exist and wants us dead. I suppose that that's a reason.

The only question is whether this was the local threats it had available to throw at us in punishment for sharing the clue, or whether it still has other local minions in wait.
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Could be. Could also just be bad luck (not all bad luck is always gonna be The Enemy). They may have split up to cover more ground and just gotten back together...these were clearly one group originally, I think, just based on number, so them reuniting is not super weird.
 
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On the upside if we wipe this (combined) camp then that's basically all of Horra's reinforcements gone.

Two for the price of one!

You know, assuming we win, anyway.
 
Shard said:
On the upside if we wipe this (combined) camp then that's basically all of Horra's reinforcements gone.

Two for the price of one!

You know, assuming we win, anyway.
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There were three camps (one to the North, two to the East), and this is only two of them so sadly no...it's progress (and two for the price of one), but not fully completed as there's still another camp out there.
 
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One thought for this combat
  • We have Odr pumped tricks in our back pocket and I suspect we're going to need them when dealing with the boss here
Two thoughts for our next round of training
  • Imagining Standstill not as a blanket but as a meat-keeping-stick to be jammed into kindlespinners to build up a massive barrage of them over multiple turns
    • Or for shooting as arrows to pin people
  • Trying to reinforce Blackhand with Odr to help him with his patchwork memory
 
mastigos said:
One thought for this combat
  • We have Odr pumped tricks in our back pocket and I suspect we're going to need them when dealing with the boss here
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Eh. I'm pretty dubious that +1-3 damage on a few attacks is the thing that beats this guy, and that's what boosting tricks with Odr offers. There are enemies where that would be priceless (specifically those with a lot of flat damage reduction who we were fighting alone), but I'm doubtful he's one of them. I could be wrong, but I suspect if he were physically tough enough for that to be the deciding factor he wouldn't bother wearing armor.

mastigos said:
Two thoughts for our next round of training
  • Imagining Standstill not as a blanket but as a meat-keeping-stick to be jammed into kindlespinners to build up a massive barrage of them over multiple turns
    • Or for shooting as arrows to pin people
  • Trying to reinforce Blackhand with Odr to help him with his patchwork memory
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We are Blackhand...we cannot separate him out, whenever we use Odr on ourselves we're giving it to him. Maybe investing it in Hugr will help his memory (though I doubt it), but that seems like that'd be the way to do that if there is one.

As for Standstill...why would those even be useful? Like, 'shooting as arrows to freeze people' is literally the same effect as IAT with maybe more range, but range has never been our issue with IAT, and I'm very doubtful of a Trick letting us carry dice over between turns (which is the limiting factor on Kindle Spinners) with something that does not, in fact, manipulate time. Like, we can do 45 Kindle Spinners in a turn...the problem is that they're 3d6 each and cost us 90 Orthstirr...doing a giant flurry of them is not something we are incapable of, and I don't see how Standstill really solves the issues with doing so.

KreenWarrior said:
That two of the camps joined together feels a bit significant. Were they building forces for a unified attack?
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Plausibly. We definitely want to take prisoners here and interrogate them about the situation if possible...I dunno if it will be, but it's worth a shot.
 
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DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Eh. I'm pretty dubious that +1-3 damage on a few attacks is the thing that beats this guy, and that's what boosting tricks with Odr offers. There are enemies where that would be priceless, but I'm doubtful he's one of them. I could be wrong, but I suspect if he were tough enough for that to be the deciding factor he wouldn't bother wearing armor.
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I mean if we get a hit with an attack that's boosted with like 10 Odr, or something..
 
Realistically, the trick is to pop it when it would have maximum possible effect, like doing a 3x Odr Burn on a set up Leaping Cleave or when we really want to shatter someone's nuts to make absolutely certain they're not in any position to retaliate.

Odr Burns are for decisive plays, not something we use regularly. Keystone notes where we positively want to fuck the other guy up as thoroughly as possible during the smallest window.
 
Interesting....

On the shatter writs trick, do we really need to focus on wrists instead of just any available joints?

As for the two camp being combined.... Either massing for a big push, like it was suggested earlier or they were about to break this camp, either for better catch or to go home.

For the captain.... Either we can block his move or we can't. Although.... Could we warn the others in time, even if we can't intercept? Or could Stig?

The loot is really tempting though....

Edit: on note of Odr tricks.....
I thought there is no difference by Odr boost on an orthstiir fuelled one? Or was that not tested yet?
 
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The Meddler said:
I'm a little confused here; why did the attack only deal armor damage?
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Because that's what Armor does--at least shitty Norse Armor anyway. It acts as ablative endurance for you.

We were avoiding damage beforehand because we had Reinforce-Shield on it, which gives you an extra ablative layer relatively inexpensive--with the caveat that it collapses when hit by a Trick Attack. This was the first actual bit of Armor Damage we've taken in a while.
 
Shard said:
I mean if we get a hit with an attack that's boosted with like 10 Odr, or something..
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We can't, how much we invest is capped at our Skill...which is 3.

Alectai said:
Realistically, the trick is to pop it when it would have maximum possible effect, like doing a 3x Odr Burn on a set up Leaping Cleave or when we really want to shatter someone's nuts to make absolutely certain they're not in any position to retaliate.

Odr Burns are for decisive plays, not something we use regularly. Keystone notes where we positively want to fuck the other guy up as thoroughly as possible during the smallest window.
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Yeah, there are definitely uses but I don't think we should plan on them before even knowing someone's capabilities. If they can just avoid the attack automatically it's wasted after all. Good for big tough targets who don't dodge, bad for enemies who are super dodgy.

The Meddler said:
I'm a little confused here; why did the attack only deal armor damage?
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Attacks always deal damage to armor until all the armor is gone. That one stripped our Reinforce Shield and did one damage...which went to armor since we still had armor left.

Alectai said:
Because that's what Armor does--at least shitty Norse Armor anyway. It acts as ablative endurance for you.

We were avoiding damage beforehand because we had Reinforce-Shield on it, which gives you an extra ablative layer relatively inexpensive--with the caveat that it collapses when hit by a Trick Attack. This was the first actual bit of Armor Damage we've taken in a while.
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In fairness, Mail and Helmets also give a flat bonus on defense rolls (on top of providing Endurance). Gambesons are cheap for a reason and it's that they provide only extra Endurance. Still, doubled Endurance for relatively cheap is a pretty sweet deal. Non-Knight armor used by Christians seems to do the same, based on our fight at the town...only Knight Armor does the really silly stuff.

TheCount said:
Interesting....

On the shatter writs trick, do we really need to focus on wrists instead of just any available joints?
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It's designed for arms, but name aside I think it targets elbows and hands as well as wrists...whatever will disable an arm.

TheCount said:
For the captain.... Either we can block his move or we can't. Although.... Could we warn the others in time, even if we can't intercept? Or could Stig?
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If we have time to warn them we should have time to intercept. We don't have advance knowledge he's attacking, we're just planning for it as a contingency.

TheCount said:
Edit: on note of Odr tricks.....
I thought there is no difference by Odr boost on an orthstiir fuelled one? Or was that not tested yet?
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There are two ways to use Odr on Tricks:

#1: In place of 5 Orthstirr to power the trick.
#2: To upgrade the Trick's effect...for damaging Tricks this is +1 Damage per Odr spent

The second is what we're talking about and is probably occasionally worth using. I'm very skeptical if the first is ever worth doing.
 
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Yeah, it's best used for moments when you've pinned the enemy in place for a sec and want maximum impact in that window. So like, something to follow up a successful IAT with like we did with the Priest. That plan worked because his Soma rating was pathetic given his tier, but if we did an Odr Burn on both of the hits of our combo, that would have nearly killed even a chonky lad like Abjorn in a single combo, and most people don't have a 8 Fucking Hamr and a Bear Fylgja to double an already silly Endurance score. Take the latter out of consideration? And that combo might have actually one-shot even Abjorn, the tankiest tank who ever tonked. I sincerely doubt even a 30 year old is going to have a Hamr score over 8, or we'd recognize him on sight.

It's definitely not for probes, it's for pressing a transient advantage and turning it into a massacre instead of chip damage.
 
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When we get gud at craftmanship I would like to see if we can forge a Norse equivalent to Knightly Armor. Runes on the inside to regenerate Orthsirr, accelerate the user, etc.

And if we can we should see if we can put Odr into the weapons and armor we are making. See if we can empower the spirit of the items we are making.
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
The second is what we're talking about and is probably occasionally worth using. I'm very skeptical if the first is ever worth doing.
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If we're literally out of Orthsirr option 1 might be useful. And/or if we get a lot more Odr.

...What would an Odr-Boosted Ember-Winged Cloak or Inertia-Arresting Throw do? Or Sickness Sear for that matter.

Ember-Winged Cloak is a major movement option for us, and IAT is one of the ways we can execute single enemies. Sickness Sear + Odr getting rid of magical diseases and poisons would be very good.

e: Should we Odr-boost the Ember-Wing Cloak + Halting Vortex Combo 'just in case' plan that we have?

e: Can we Odr-buff our Twists? Dressed in Rags, especially.
 
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DeadmanwalkingXI said:
There are two ways to use Odr on Tricks:

#1: In place of 5 Orthstirr to power the trick.
#2: To upgrade the Trick's effect...for damaging Tricks this is +1 Damage per Odr spent

The second is what we're talking about and is probably occasionally worth using. I'm very skeptical if the first is ever worth doing.
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The first is absolutely worth doing if your other option is "run out of orthstirr entirely, have all of your tricks turn off, and die". It's effectively an extra chunk of highly expensive gas tank. That's the sort of thing that you never want to have to use, but....
 
Shard said:
When we get gud at craftmanship I would like to see if we can forge a Norse equivalent to Knightly Armor. Runes on the inside to regenerate Orthsirr, accelerate the user, etc.
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That'd be neat but we're definitely talking way into the future on that one.

Shard said:
And if we can we should see if we can put Odr into the weapons and armor we are making. See if we can empower the spirit of the items we are making.
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This seems possible much sooner though...we could try infusing a point into the sax we forge next turn and seeing what happens.

Shard said:
If we're literally out of Orthsirr option 1 might be useful. And/or if we get a lot more Odr.
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There's no such thing as enough of a resource you can spend on permanent buffs. Like, yes, if it is a choice between dying due to being out of orthstirr and using Odr we should do the latter, but otherwise we shouldn't ever use it instead of orthstirr.

Shard said:
...What would an Odr-Boosted Ember-Winged Cloak or Inertia-Arresting Throw do? Or Sickness Sear for that matter.

Ember-Winged Cloak is a major movement option for us, and IAT is one of the ways we can execute single enemies. Sickness Sear + Odr getting rid of magical diseases and poisons would be very good.
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We've been specifically told you need Seidr to deal with the magical stuff. Other than that it's not clear and I'm not inclined to burn odr testing it unless we absolutely need 'that effect but better'.

Shard said:
e: Should we Odr-boost the Ember-Wing Cloak + Halting Vortex Combo 'just in case' plan that we have?
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No, because by everything we know they should work even without Odr and Odr is not replaceable...well, it is, but it's basically burning XP permanently weakening ourselves for the rest of our life for a temporary advantage. We shouldn't be doing that on anything where we're not sure it's both necessary and useful unless we're trying to figure out how it works, and we know how it works on Tricks already.

Sirrocco said:
The first is absolutely worth doing if your other option is "run out of orthstirr entirely, have all of your tricks turn off, and die". It's effectively an extra chunk of highly expensive gas tank. That's the sort of thing that you never want to have to use, but....
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Sure, if it's a choice between that and death. I'm more than a bit skeptical we're gonna have that happen, though...with our current orthstirr, which will only go up, combats are already not gonna last long enough to even get close to that benchmark very often, and it becomes more and more unlikely as we grow in power. Like, if we're having 12 round combats, something has gone terribly wrong somewhere and we should likely flee rather than trying to fight on burning odr.
 
Shard said:
When we get gud at craftmanship I would like to see if we can forge a Norse equivalent to Knightly Armor. Runes on the inside to regenerate Orthsirr, accelerate the user, etc.

And if we can we should see if we can put Odr into the weapons and armor we are making. See if we can empower the spirit of the items we are making.

If we're literally out of Orthsirr option 1 might be useful. And/or if we get a lot more Odr.

...What would an Odr-Boosted Ember-Winged Cloak or Inertia-Arresting Throw do? Or Sickness Sear for that matter.

Ember-Winged Cloak is a major movement option for us, and IAT is one of the ways we can execute single enemies. Sickness Sear + Odr getting rid of magical diseases and poisons would be very good.

e: Should we Odr-boost the Ember-Wing Cloak + Halting Vortex Combo 'just in case' plan that we have?

e: Can we Odr-buff our Twists? Dressed in Rags, especially.
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EWC is probably our biggest candidate to push to Perfect, just because of how much of a game-changer it becomes at that level.

As for Knightly Armor... I don't think we'll ever straight up copy it, it seems too integral to the Knight track of the Christian system. That being said, there's no reason we can't eventually develop some kind of... I dunno, Runeplate that provides a strong boost but isn't actually part of your Cultivation either.

Still won't be as good as Knightly Armor, but it's still a step up from sticking with the same mail hauberks that everyone else has largely outgrown by now.
 
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Alectai said:
EWC is probably our biggest candidate to push to Perfect, just because of how much of a game-changer it becomes at that level.

As for Knightly Armor... I don't think we'll ever straight up copy it, it seems too integral to the Knight track of the Christian system. That being said, there's no reason we can't eventually develop some kind of... I dunno, Runeplate that provides a strong boost but isn't actually part of your Cultivation either.
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Honestly, this might even already exist (maybe minus the Runes). There was an earlier discussion of the Varangian Guard and wondering how they could make Norsemen the equal or superior of knights (which they almost have to be able to do for that set up to work), and I did a little light reading on the Varangian Guard and the Byzantine Emperors provided them with armor...so magic armor designed for Norse Cultivation may well be an existing thing in-setting, if one that requires specific steps to get. That's just a theory, but an interesting one.

Alectai said:
Still won't be as good as Knightly Armor, but it's still a step up from sticking with the same mail hauberks that everyone else has largely outgrown by now.
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This is incorrect, based on what we've seen. Mail is state of the art non-magic armor in this era for most of Europe. Plate Armor wouldn't even exist without magic given the rest of the tech base. The Norse are not meaningfully technologically behind their Christian neighbors (Knight Armor is a specific magical exception, not really tech per se).
 
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