NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

[Alectai]

So, dangerous actions to take this turn, do we want one or both of them:

-Go investigate the hole. Kill Troll-Men. Maybe retrieve our livestock?
-Have a full cultivation class with our friends where we read them in on what's going on.

What do people think?

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Does this count as a Visit? Our timeline for dealing with Horra is pretty tight, and we need to help the Dwarves to get the last bit of evidence.

Maybe save hitting his sanctum for the Inspection? After all, he might get cocky if he thinks that the real incriminating stuff is hidden, and then we can lead the inspectors right over there.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Does this count as a Visit? Our timeline for dealing with Horra is pretty tight, and we need to help the Dwarves to get the last bit of evidence.

Maybe save hitting his sanctum for the Inspection? After all, he might get cocky if he thinks that the real incriminating stuff is hidden, and then we can lead the inspectors right over there.

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It's in a different category so it shouldn't. Which makes sense since it's, like, right there.

I do think we should hit the Sanctum next turn (rather than waiting for the inspection), but going after the Troll-Men doesn't seem to prevent that.

 

[Alectai]

It's in a different category so it shouldn't. Which makes sense since it's, like, right there.

I do think we should hit the Sanctum next turn, but going after the Troll-Men doesn't seem to prevent that.

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Mmm, going to be tight, I think this was the Enemy's hope.

I'm all for doing a disclosure though, to the Stigs and Abjorn at least, they're all 10/10s, and we've got reason to want to reveal things to them. Aki's a bit young still, but everyone here should be strong enough to start.

 

[Toboe]

He's best with his bow, which is of Fine make.

This is true, that had slipped my mind. You don't actually have a debt to Stigr, though Halla may feel like she should pay him back anyways.

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Would smithing a precious metal arm-ring (and putting a badass poem on it (how awesome he defended our home)) require a "jewlery smithing" trick, or can we do it with what we have already?

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Mmm, going to be tight, I think this was the Enemy's hope.

I'm all for doing a disclosure though, to the Stigs and Abjorn at least, they're all 10/10s, and we've got reason to want to reveal things to them. Aki's a bit young still, but everyone here should be strong enough to start.

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If we're doing disclosure I want Aki there. Him, Stigr, Stigmar, and Abjorn is a defensible 'inner circle' for this, though.

Would smithing a precious metal arm-ring (and putting a badass poem on it (how awesome he defended our home)) require a "jewlery smithing" trick, or can we do it with what we have already?

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There is indeed a trick for jewelry, which we lack. I think making him a sax is actually most appropriate since he broke his sword defensing the kids.

 

[Alectai]

If we're doing disclosure I want Aki there. Him, Stigr, Stigmar, and Abjorn is a defensible 'inner circle' for this, though.



There is indeed a trick for jewelry, which we lack. I think making him a sax is actually most appropriate since he broke his sword defensing the kids.

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Yeah, it's pretty defensible and they're all 10/10s, everyone else does overwatch on it in case something tries to meddle, but it should be safe, everyone involved is in our generation and sworn to us, and the Enemy should have blown its convienent interference budget for the near future.

If it wants to send Troll-men to attack again? Well, that means less to bother us when we retaliate.

 

[Mystic Pentagram]

I'm all for making him a sax, honestly, but we should consider whether we want to do that this turn specifically. I'm down if we do, but it could wait a minute too if we wanted. Like, I'm 100% on doing it...maybe 50/50 on doing it this turn.

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Maybe we can reforge Wanderlust with Sten help, making it even better than before. And infusinf Odr in it.

 

[seekingflame]

It might be best to wait for Halla to unravel some of her Orth back before kicking the worm can that is cultivator class 101, didn't we reasoned that it might cause an immediate battle?

What was the verdict on the progress speed to unravel the knot?

 

[Silverking]

If we're offically doing the Disclosure, we need to make sure to mention the "slow cultivation start in your house" trick that we learned, since you know that these guys are going to try it and they don't have a Blackhand to turn the spigot off.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Yeah, it's pretty defensible and they're all 10/10s, everyone else does overwatch on it in case something tries to meddle, but it should be safe, everyone involved is in our generation and sworn to us, and the Enemy should have blown its convienent interference budget for the near future.

If it wants to send Troll-men to attack again? Well, that means less to bother us when we retaliate.

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Aki and Stigr aren't actually sworn to us, they're just good friends.

What do you think about the troll-men? Should we go after them this turn?

Maybe we can reforge Wanderlust with Sten help, making it even better than before. And infusinf Odr in it.

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That's also defensible if Sten is down to help, yeah. I'm not sure how much we contribute given our lack of the Sword making Trick, but we could at least do the Odr infusion, and maybe duplicate the runes from Sagaseeker, which would be no small thing.

It might be best to wait for Halla to unravel some of her Orth back before kicking the worm can that is cultivator class 101, didn't we reasoned that it might cause an immediate battle?

What was the verdict on the progress speed to unravel the knot?

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We're putting 15d6 into it this turn, which should, on average, get 10 successes and free up 60 Orthstirr...but that's on average and the dice are real swingly in this system, could easily be 30, or 90 instead.

 

[Alectai]

Aki and Stigr aren't actually sworn to us, they're just good friends.

What do you think about the troll-men? Should we go after them this turn?

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We have to retaliate, but the question is how we can do so without playing into their hand.

And if this is going to compete with the Dwarf questline too.

 

[TheCount]

Alright, so, being indebted did come to bite us in the ass.

So, that means going for Drengskapr is a must, as Odrengskapr will probably still expose us to bigger enemy influence.
This, however, does bring up an interesting question.

When we go to chat with the witch, do we ask if she sold the favor and, the more important thing, why didn't she come to talk or sent a message? (Yes, i know the enemy can intercept and influence those things).

I am, btw, saying this now. i will vote to spare her, even if she is not protected by the law.

 

[seekingflame]

I'm pretty sure that disclosure also involve all the trap we know and suspect, through it might be best to add in the vote an explicit request to not try anything new without consulting us.

We're putting 15d6 into it this turn, which should, on average, free up 60 Orthstirr...but that's on average and the dice are real swingly in this system, could easily be 30, or 90 instead.

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Might be worth waiting a turn or two then.

snip

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You mean the witch who try to pull up fairy tale witch bullshit if Hallr didn't scare the crap out of her, hard pass. asking straight to the point is preferable unless you have a good plan to be subtle about it and sparing is out of the question unless she has a very good excuse.

 

[Toboe]

There is indeed a trick for jewelry, which we lack. I think making him a sax is actually most appropriate since he broke his sword defensing the kids.

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100% agreed on the weapon (with full orth and some odr).
I just think that later (we'd need to get the trick, write a poem and then make the arm ring and while that would be interesting stuff to do, it doesn't fit the Action economy at all) also make the ring.

If we're doing disclosure I want Aki there. Him, Stigr, Stigmar, and Abjorn is a defensible 'inner circle' for this, though.

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Steinarr.
Don't want to keep a secret from him if we think we are far enough to tell our friends.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

We have to retaliate, but the question is how we can do so without playing into their hand.

And if this is going to compete with the Dwarf questline too.

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We have to retaliate, but Norse revenge is allowed to take years to plan. We don't have to do it this turn if we decide not to. The question is whether we want to right now...I'm thinking not, to be honest. Next turn we do Horra's sanctum and then, we go after the Troll-Men sometime during the Winter and bring suit against Horra at the end of winter.

Unless I'm getting what turns we can show up at the Thing wrong. Lemme check real quick. EDIT: I was, we'd bring suit the first turn of Winter then get back to the Troll-Men after the Horra thing was resolved. I still think I prefer that.

Steinarr.
Don't want to keep a secret from him if we think we are far enough to tell our friends.

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The concern is that, if the enemy can leverage debts he likely owes too many, and if its response is limited by power level telling Steinarr is a fucking problem.

 

[Toboe]

We have to retaliate, but Norse revenge is allowed to take years to plan. We don't have to do it this turn if we decide not to. The question is whether we want to right now...I'm thinking not, to be honest. Next turn we do Horra's sanctum and then,



The concern is that, if the enemy can leverage debts he likely owes too many, and if its response is limited by power level telling Steinarr is a fucking problem.

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We can tell him that we think that the enemy has traps for older warriors like him and ask him not to do it.
I'm not convinced of doing it less cautious than "ask all but one to not do it yet, lead one and ask that they don't try stuff unless we talked about the possible risks" anyway.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

We can tell him that we think that the enemy has traps for older warriors like him and ask him not to do it.
I'm not convinced of doing it less cautious than "ask all but one to not do it yet, lead one and ask that they don't try stuff unless we talked about the possible risks" anyway.

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We're not actually suggesting they try this right now, we're telling them how it works and suggesting they start one at a time and very slowly if at all. Disclosure is telling them about it and what we know about how it works, or trying anyway.

 

[TheCount]

(X) A Mother's Fear - You remember how your heart hang heavy with the lack of knowledge towards your children's condition. Never again will you have that fear, that uncertainty for you now know your children's condition at all times.

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Neat, Thats both a boon and a fucking big mill stone around Halla's neck, what with Norse society being the "burn bright and short" type...

i support the idea of unbinding our aspects, we will need every drop of Orthstirr we can get.
As for the Plan....
Cultivation class seems like a bad idea at the same time as going after the trolls. i understand why its a good idea, but it would ALSO give new fuel to The Enemy, just after it spend the only low hanging fruit it had access to.

Perhaps, trolls and northern bandits? or we wait with the bandits after we got most of our bound Orthstirr back?

 

[Alectai]

Except how does that work? The Enemy clearly doesn't actually have a monopoly over Cultivation or else advancement would actually be impossible, not just difficult.

"You told people so now I have the right to fuck you up in turn" doesn't make sense. It seems more likely that it exploits an already existing Debt to retaliate if someone discloses, but we should be in the clear right now.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Perhaps, trolls and northern bandits? or we wait with the bandits after we got most of our bound Orthstirr back?

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Two fights in one turn is way too risky. I'm against it. Honestly, I'm leaning towards no fights this turn, just maybe cultivation class...but I could be persuaded.

Except how does that work? The Enemy clearly doesn't actually have a monopoly over Cultivation or else advancement would actually be impossible, not just difficult.

"You told people so now I have the right to fuck you up in turn" doesn't make sense. It seems more likely that it exploits an already existing Debt to retaliate if someone discloses, but we should be in the clear right now.

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I mean, telling them definitely makes them a target. It doesn't give the enemy any extra ability to harm them, but it gives it plenty of motivation. I think they'll all choose to know anyway if given the choice (which we should).

 

[seekingflame]

Except how does that work? The Enemy clearly doesn't actually have a monopoly over Cultivation or else advancement would actually be impossible, not just difficult.

"You told people so now I have the right to fuck you up in turn" doesn't make sense. It seems more likely that it exploits an already existing Debt to retaliate if someone discloses, but we should be in the clear right now.

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Halla got a feeling of warning when she tried disclosure, would she be able to know if the warning is still valid or faded? I don't think that it depend on this debt, more something that connect to the weird perception filter they have.

 

[Alectai]

Two fights in one turn is way too risky. I'm against it. Honestly, I'm leaning towards no fights this turn,



I mean, telling them definitely makes them a target. It doesn't give the enemy any extra ability to harm them, but it gives it plenty of motivation. I think they'll all choose to know anyway if given the choice (which we should).

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Except as we've already established, not knowing isn't any protection either.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Except as we've already established, not knowing isn't any protection either.

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It means they only get hit by collateral damage rather than being targets. Nobody went after Aki even though he's our friend because he wasn't there. Stigr is gonna wander off some time...if he didn't know this the Enemy would just let him.

They'll still want to know, but giving them a choice to stay out of it as best they can seems correct even if they won't take it.

 

[Alectai]

Probably best to give them the offer then rather than force it on them.

"I'm willing to give you some context, and I think this is the time to do it, just keep in mind that you have to expect this kind of thing to Keep Happening afterwards, if you're okay with that, let's proceed."

 

[TheCount]

Except how does that work? The Enemy clearly doesn't actually have a monopoly over Cultivation or else advancement would actually be impossible, not just difficult.

"You told people so now I have the right to fuck you up in turn" doesn't make sense. It seems more likely that it exploits an already existing Debt to retaliate if someone discloses, but we should be in the clear right now.

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And our friends?
Do remember though, we got a warning last time we tried to tell them.

"Great," a scowl passes over your face as the chorus of blank stares turns to one of shaking heads. You'll just have to give them a rundown of what your best understanding of it is. As you open your mouth to give context, something happens.

Something deep inside you — deeper than even the very depths of your soul — vibrates in a way you can only describe as like someone took a finger to a thread drawn taut. A warning from a higher power.

Though its meaning should be about as clear as a peat bog during a blizzard, it instead shines as bright as the sun on a cloudless summer day; the words you were about to speak would bring warriors of The Enemy up under you.

The scowl deepens as you're forced to rethink things. Of course The Enemy would put contingencies in for other methods being used as examples or for context. Why wouldn't it just let you have this one damned thing?!

'Because it hates us. Because its victory is us not progressing as a culture and it really wants to win.'

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...huh.
i thought it would make our friends into enemoes... but it might have been more literal, in consideration of recent events...

Still, i think its better if we do it AFTER we got the biggest thorn out of our side at least, so, after the Horra situation is dealt with.