NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

[Alectai]

That was true... Right up until the fact we became a berserker just by putting it into our mind. That's not just "become more of what you are". Odr itself seems to carry violence with it, which means that it's not generic - it has distinct properties.


Or it's not rage.

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Being a Berserk isn't something outside the scope of the Norse system though, it's something that can be induced artifically after all, so the potential lies beneath the surface--presumably anyway, and it's 'Easy enough' to bring out that they're widely known about and respected, rather than being one-off mad science projects.

I'm sure we'll get our infodump, but I find it unlikely that "Bloodthirsty Killing Machine" is locked in from the moment you invest a single point of Odr into your Mind.

 

[Shard]

Is Frenzy +1 to the final result of combat rolls, or is it like Offensive/Defensive-tuned reflexes, +1 to every dice?

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Is Frenzy +1 to the final result of combat rolls, or is it like Offensive/Defensive-tuned reflexes, +1 to every dice?

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By wording it'd be the first, but a definitive answer would be nice.

@Imperial Fister how does Frenzy work, mechanically? And what recovers points of it?

 

[Shard]

"I climbed into the furnace!"

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Well, if getting to Hugr 7 is too hard, we can try to get Forgefire by sticking our hand in the furnace.

Drifa survived it despite being like, 6?

Tryggr sits down — nearly falling in the process, much to his brother's exasperation — and you offer a question to the pair. "What sort of supplies or support did you get from the locals?"

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Did we ask Tryggr why they were in two separate camps, then decided to be in one camp?

It was only thanks to the presence of Steinarr that nothing happened, that no acts of nid were done.

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PALM FIST STRIKE x64

...Did you actually simulate out the combat for Halla vs her brother/husband/father here?

 

[Alectai]

Did we ask Tryggr why they were in two separate camps, then decided to be in one camp?

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I mean, we did try to ask that, but it got missed or glossed over I guess?

 

[I.F. Ister]

Is Frenzy +1 to the final result of combat rolls, or is it like Offensive/Defensive-tuned reflexes, +1 to every dice?

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One to every dice? That'd be insane!

Frenzy is just like Offensive/Defensive-tuned Reflexes in that it adds +1 to the final result. Unlike the shapeshifting, though, it adds it to everything done in combat.

Did we ask Tryggr why they were in two separate camps, then decided to be in one camp?

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Always were the same camp, it was just that they were separated for raiding reasons.

Drifa survived it despite being like, 6?

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'Survived' is a strong word.

...Did you actually simulate out the combat for Halla vs her brother/husband/father here?

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What would there be to simulate?

Halla earning nid as she desperately claws at an enemy she cannot hope to win against?

Steinarr ate all the nid for that whole encounter by crushing your hand.

The Enemy doesn't let you have anything, not without it winning somehow.

@Imperial Fister how does Frenzy work, mechanically? And what recovers points of it?

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A full break in combat, just like Focus.

 

[Silverking]

Steinarr ate all the nid for that whole encounter by crushing your hand.

The Enemy doesn't let you have anything, not without it winning somehow.

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...Will all the Enemy's traps and costs to Norse Cultivation die with him, or will it take a number of Sacrifices of equal value to cancel each one out? Because while taking the Enemy off the board is vital to preventing him from actively working against our culture, it may still be a long road to "fix" Norse cultivation for mass consumption if all his curses remain either way.

 

[I.F. Ister]

...Will all the Enemy's traps and costs to Norse Cultivation die with him, or will it take a number of Sacrifices of equal value to cancel each one out?

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I'm sorry, I cannot answer that question. Not for all the Reward Dice in the world.

 

[Shard]

Steinarr ate all the nid for that whole encounter by crushing your hand.

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Steinarr's really getting a bunch of nid lately, huh.

The Enemy doesn't let you have anything, not without it winning somehow.

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I'm sorry, I cannot answer that question. Not for all the Reward Dice in the world.

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I get the impression they're in some way integrated into Norse culture. Like a cancer. Or maybe an ossification.

 

[Bass11]

So did Stienarr get nid from crushing our hand?

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

...Will all the Enemy's traps and costs to Norse Cultivation die with him, or will it take a number of Sacrifices of equal value to cancel each one out? Because while taking the Enemy off the board is vital to preventing him from actively working against our culture, it may still be a long road to "fix" Norse cultivation for mass consumption if all his curses remain either way.

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Honestly, so far we're finding ways around most of them once we know what they are and where they are. Without the Enemy keeping us from sharing information, we could have all our kids at the first stage fairly safely before they were 10 years old and casually restrain them while they invested their first Odr into Hugr.

They're dangerous and require workarounds, sure, but that's true of cultivation in general, I think. It's certainly true of Chinese cultivation in most xianxia. The problem here is the inability for anyone who figures out those workarounds to share the information. We're having to reinvent the whole system from first principles without a roadmap here and that's the main problem.

Which is not to say some of them aren't constructed traps and getting rid of them wouldn't be good, but even if getting rid of them isn't on the table, most of the ones we've found so far can be dealt with.

Steinarr's really getting a bunch of nid, huh.

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Not really? I think this was the only nid we've ever seen him get. I might be misremembering slightly, but there definitely haven't been too many instances.

So did Stienarr get nid from crushing our hand?

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Sounds like it, yeah.

 

[Shard]

Not really? I think this was the only nid we've ever seen him get. I might be misremembering slightly, but there definitely haven't been too many instances.

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Steinarr got Nid for witholding our mother's amulet from us.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Steinarr got Nid for witholding our mother's amulet from us.

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Ah! Okay, that's still two whole instances...and neither probably for as lot of orthstirr. Not exactly a pattern.

 

[Bass11]

Where are we on the amulet? Have we done anything with it yet?

 

[Alectai]

Where are we on the amulet? Have we done anything with it yet?

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We can't really go on any adventures out of the valley until Horra's been dealt with.

That being said, The Enemy is really grinding my gears now. "You can't win without me winning more" is the absolute worst kind of asshole villain behavior in existence.

I really, really hope that isn't ground int...

No, it can't be, can it? Because if the Enemy has already won, this wouldn't be a story now, would it? He's about to win, but it occurs to me that its Greatest Strength is the fact that it can prevent people from sharing important information, which means the Story exists because Hallr actually beat it by setting up Charred Soul. It means there's a chance instead of the Enemy's triumph being eternal.

We've got a lot more rigging to do, if we're going to beat it.

 

[Shard]

How was Hallr even able to get to the point where he could set up Charred Soul anyway?

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Rank 4 (Dice Max is 4d6, 1 Orthstirr to Max) | Base Dice: 3d6

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@Imperial Fister here's a minor character sheet error, our Fylgja says it maxes out at 4d6 total, that should be 5d6 (and thus 2 Orthstirr to max).

-Puncture (Cost 9): Allows an attack to slip through perfect defenses.

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(X) Sway Trick (Cost 4): A basic trick that allows you to try to sway out of the way of attacks. (Refined: 5/6)

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Less an error and more a difference between them and everything else, Puncture should probably be listed as Cost 9 Orthstirr/2 Odr and Sway as Cost 4 Orthstirr/1 Odr to put them in the same format as everything else.

Reinforce Shield should probably also have a listing of how many layers it grants for an Odr, we don't generally want to do that, but for consistency...

 

[I.F. Ister]

@Imperial Fister here's a minor character sheet error, our Fylgja says it maxes out at 4d6 total, that should be 5d6 (and thus 2 Orthstirr to max).

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I knew there was something off about it! Good catch!

Less an error and more a difference between them and everything else, Puncture should probably be listed as Cost 9 Orthstirr/2 Odr and Sway as Cost 4 Orthstirr/1 Odr to put them in the same format as everything else.

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Also good catch

Reinforce Shield should probably also have a listing of how many layers it grants for an Odr, we don't generally want to do that, but for consistency...

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It is the same, but I will add it in.

Odr is equivalent to up to 5 Orthstirr, not flat out equal to it.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

I really, really hope that isn't ground int...

No, it can't be, can it? Because if the Enemy has already won, this wouldn't be a story now, would it? He's about to win, but it occurs to me that its Greatest Strength is the fact that it can prevent people from sharing important information, which means the Story exists because Hallr actually beat it by setting up Charred Soul. It means there's a chance instead of the Enemy's triumph being eternal.

We've got a lot more rigging to do, if we're going to beat it.

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I mean, the enemy loses long term no matter what we do, I think, it just drags Norse society and cultivation as it exists down with it unless we stop it. Conversion to Christianity is not a losing ending, remember, but a neutral one. If this world follows real world history and the Christians successfully convert the Norse, then they almost certainly destroy the Enemy, or at least much of its power, in the process.

We're not really fighting here to defeat the Enemy (though, in practice, we do have to do exactly that), we're fighting to save and improve Norse cultivation, culture, religion, and society rather than see them subsumed. The Enemy is just the thing in the way of us doing that.

 

[Shard]

Also.

From what I understand, Hallr gave Charred Soul to everyone named Halla/Hallr. Because his memory is fragmented between all of them. I can't imagine him running the risk of losing from just being unlucky once.

But it still raises the question of how Hallr got to the heights he did in the first place.

And whether we can do something similar for our descendants as well.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Also.

From what I understand, Hallr gave Charred Soul to everyone named Halla/Hallr. Because his memory is fragmented between all of them. I can't imagine him running the risk of losing from just being unlucky once.

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He separated because of that, but as far as we know only this fragment 'woke up' and is providing more than minor benefits. Others might have in theory, but we don't know that one way or the other. We might want to meet our cousins and find out at some point.

But it still raises the question of how Hallr got to the heights he did in the first place.

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That's a really good question and I desperately want to know the answer myself.

And whether we can do something similar for our descendants as well.

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I mean, we do in fact pass on our combined soul to one child per generation. So we already have?

 

[Shard]

Do we actually need to ascend to the heights of Norse Cultivation to win? Would it be enough to, say, spread the knowledge of Odr wide enough that the Norsemen are drinking the well from which Odr comes from - dry?

 

[Alectai]

Do we actually need to ascend to the heights of Norse Cultivation to win? Would it be enough to, say, spread the knowledge of Odr wide enough that the Norsemen are drinking the well from which Odr comes from - dry?

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Problems are Cultural, and the Enemy is enforcing it, there's no victory without defeating the Enemy, because it will enforce shit behavior until it's been made to stop.

And if the Enemy could be defeated without Peak Bullshit, it probably would have happened by now.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Problems are Cultural, and the Enemy is enforcing it, there's no victory without defeating the Enemy, because it will enforce shit behavior until it's been made to stop.

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Yeah, this. We need to kill the enemy and make major inroads to changing the culture on a couple of fundamental levels to win. I don't see us achieving that without getting to at least the level Hallr was, and probably higher.

 

[Alectai]

Yeah, this. We need to kill the enemy and make major inroads to changing the culture on a couple of fundamental levels to win. I don't see un achieving that without getting to at least the level Hallr was, and probably higher.

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Definitely higher, Hallr still didn't even qualify for The Enemy to make an appearance, it ganked him with proxies. Probably not even its best ones either.