I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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Not necessarily. The Norse are tough cookies, after all.
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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)
- Thread starter I.F. Ister
- Start date
- Original Fantasy Action
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- Tags
- norse mythology (mythology) original xianxia cultivation western cultivation ask sirihand did your mother tell you anything? discussion pleases yggdrasil farming gloating gets people killed granary management hubris is a coward's word you will die norsemen do not die when they are killed the qm has a bad memory the qm is bad at math viking courtroom drama (legal drama) vikings
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I can think of two reasons poison has traditionally been taboo, neither of which neccesarily apply here but may still have shaped social attitudes.
The first is that most real-life poisons are pretty slow, especially delivered by weapon. It's not direct intravenous, its intramuscular at best. This means they don't really help you win a fight, they make sure your opponent dies later on. A weapon for murder not a weapon for battle.
The second is that traditionally poison is a weapon of the subaltern. Swords and armour are expensive and are a way the privileged class enforce themselves on their lessers, so they are good and proper. But any churl can put poison into a cup and a poisoned arrow fired from ambush will kill without regard for class.
The first is that most real-life poisons are pretty slow, especially delivered by weapon. It's not direct intravenous, its intramuscular at best. This means they don't really help you win a fight, they make sure your opponent dies later on. A weapon for murder not a weapon for battle.
The second is that traditionally poison is a weapon of the subaltern. Swords and armour are expensive and are a way the privileged class enforce themselves on their lessers, so they are good and proper. But any churl can put poison into a cup and a poisoned arrow fired from ambush will kill without regard for class.
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Imperial Fister has explained the difference in way I think makes sense (poison is nid because it's not part of the assumed conditions, and thus secret...weapons, hugareida, and even runes are part of what people prep for and thus not nid).
- Location
- Bretonnia
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By the way, Hamr 1 is considered to be baseline human, right? And Hamr 1 is equal to 1 Endurance Health... so does that mean Norse children have no problem killing adults? Since Hod Horrason and Lori Burrison had no trouble dealing more than that.
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I think it is fair to say that you've beat them. This combat has definitively ended in your favour. They're not necessarily fully dead and you may be fighting them again later, but they're gonna have to take the L for this bout.
A norse child could kill a christian adult, yes. Norse adults are a bit tougher.
- Location
- Bretonnia
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Well, yeah. I said baseline human. Norse aren't baseline humans. I assume they aren't the norm, either.
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Armor is a thing, and I believe it was mentioned that Hamr 1 was, like, average human with Hamr 2 being peak human...but yes, Norse children can kill non-cultivators, though all the people you're listing were at least 12 when they were doing that stuff.
We are talking about poison applied to a weapon used in combat, not poisoning food or secretly stabbing someone with a poisoned dagger.
Decapitation would presumably bring significant issues in coordination/seeing-what-you-try-to-hit (and seeing-what-you-try-to-defend-from)? (Aki seeing through his fylgja being an exception)
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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Hamr 1 is average to star athlete stuff, yeah. Hamr 2 is freak of nature, but not beyond the bounds of humanity.
Hamr 3 is where the shenanigans start happening.
But, to answer your question, yes. A Norse child could absolutely kill an adult non-cultivator and it wouldn't even be especially difficult.
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I mean, it's also been stated what the difference is: Knowledge. If you actually tell people you're using poison or have a rune on your weapon saying 'This weapon is poisoned' you're not taking nid. It's the secrecy that makes it cheating.
I think you're assuming that if you chop a Norseman's head off his body stops moving. That may or may not be the case...
Sirrocco
Pedantic
So one thing I notice is the sheer quantity of debt that we're reaping on this one.
- Wolfwind owes us (and the seeress) directly for the fact that he's not currently a draugr.
- His son Hardir owes us his life, directly and personally.
- Veny (Hardir's wife) owes us her life, directly and personally.
- Hasvir (Veny's brother) owes us his life twice, in quick succession.
...and all of these people were sort of vaguely on the enemy side of the ledger at the beginning of the day.
So at bare minimum, I'm seeing a serious pile of Drengskapr coming out of this (because charging into a burning building to save the life of a recent-and-possibly-current enemy has got to count for that, and the fact that we kept doing it even after one of them swung an axe at us probably makes it count more) and there's a nontrivial chance that we get to rack up some more followers, given the depths of the debt and the situation they're going to find themselves in once this is over (utterly devastated farm, buildings mostly destroyed, almost everyone dead, reputation brutally savaged by association).
Folkmarr: "Oh, great. Now that she's not an enemy anymore, she's a competitor again."
- Wolfwind owes us (and the seeress) directly for the fact that he's not currently a draugr.
- His son Hardir owes us his life, directly and personally.
- Veny (Hardir's wife) owes us her life, directly and personally.
- Hasvir (Veny's brother) owes us his life twice, in quick succession.
...and all of these people were sort of vaguely on the enemy side of the ledger at the beginning of the day.
So at bare minimum, I'm seeing a serious pile of Drengskapr coming out of this (because charging into a burning building to save the life of a recent-and-possibly-current enemy has got to count for that, and the fact that we kept doing it even after one of them swung an axe at us probably makes it count more) and there's a nontrivial chance that we get to rack up some more followers, given the depths of the debt and the situation they're going to find themselves in once this is over (utterly devastated farm, buildings mostly destroyed, almost everyone dead, reputation brutally savaged by association).
Folkmarr: "Oh, great. Now that she's not an enemy anymore, she's a competitor again."
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So you'll just assume the worst and then use that as argument?
If it is any consolation for Folkmarr: The followers we'd get are related, so they'd counts as 1 for the sake of the becoming a jarl trait.
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I mean, we do need to be able to crew a ship...
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We're getting close.
We have Us, Abjorn, Stigr, Gabriel, Aki (if we wait until year 9 when he's 16, anyway), and our current Huskarls (Stigmar, Tryggr, and Trausti) for 8. If we recruit our brother Eric (not crazy talk, as a ship-builder he can perform repairs and he likely needs the Orthstirr) and maybe one of Halfdan's sons and it goes to 10. A few people from this incident might round us out pretty well, honestly, though I doubt they're swearing service to us...eternal friendship like Halfdan is more likely, I think.
For comparison, Folkmarr's Felag was 13 people including Halla and Abjorn.
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- Location
- Bretonnia
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@Imperial Fister
Don't actually recall if the alarm rune was actually posted, but if it was, it's missing from our 'known runes' collection in the training and stats tab. I believe it was posted... something about bones?
Don't actually recall if the alarm rune was actually posted, but if it was, it's missing from our 'known runes' collection in the training and stats tab. I believe it was posted... something about bones?
The Last Breath of Horra Hasvisson 8
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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[X] The collapsed Brewery
Leaving Hasvir's still, barely breathing form with his sister and brother-in-law, you take to the air on blazing wings.
The scent of spilled alcohol is thick and cloying as you descend from the sky. Your nostrils burn as the smell seeps ever-deeper into your body. You scowl as you survey the scene — you're gonna be smelling like a drunk for a week after this!
Tryggr's stumbling around, calling for his brother — one of his legs hanging on by a thread. He's waving his arms around him, like he can't se- He turns and your breath hitches as you catch sight of the inch-deep trench stretching from one ear to the other, carving out his eyes in the process.
You start moving to him, but something black and feathery catches your eye.
Tucked between a fallen post and a broken barrel is Aki's raven — his head bent at a wrong angle. Glassy eyes stare unseeingly as the wind gently brushes against his dry, ragged feathers. Snow is beginning to pile up on him, a blanket of ice in the winter.
You can't tell if he's dead or not, there's too much spent orthstirr in the air to know for sure.
But before you can check on him, the sound of clashing weapons reaches your ears.
Casting one last look at Aki, you race towards the sound. Bursting through a plume of smoke, you bear witness to Trausti staggering back as a six-armed Threaded Man wrenches its swords from his stomach.
He falls to the ground, blood turning the snow red as the Threaded Man moves to finish him off, only to pause as a pupil spots you atop the pile of rubble.
You growl, gripping Sagaseeker tight as it readies itself for battle.
0~0~0
(Hugr (Tactics): 6x2, 5x2, 4x3, 3x3, 1x1)13+3=16 Successes
You are standing at the top of a hill, Trausti and the Threaded Man at the bottom of it, near to the palisade. Trausti is on the ground, dragging himself out of the way of your looming fight. He's fine, more or less.
This Threaded Man is different to the one you fought in Horra's house. This one lacks a cloak — or perhaps it was torn away? — and has six arms, each ending in grafted-on blades. Its feet are normal and it lacks any arrow-launching machines. It is about a foot away from being twice your height, if you had to make a guess.
It's rather damaged. One of its eyes is gone and you can see straight through its head. Holes dot its body, evidence of some manner of trick. An icicle as thick as your thigh is jammed through its chest.
However, it doesn't appear to be overly bothered by any of this.
But, despite everything, it doesn't appear to have Frenzy. A plus at last.
Endurance: (10/10) | Frenzy: (3/3) | Armor Health: (11/17) (+4 to Defense)
Orthstirr: (211/330) | Odr: (18)
(X) Frami: 110 | ( ) Virthing: 110 | ( ) Saemd: 110
Sagaseeker has 23 orthstirr in its reservoir.
Your Armor has 13 orthstirr in its reservoir.
Shapeshifting is granting you (+1 Damage and +1 Attack-Speed)
Your combat pool is 56d6.
Punching Up is Available
What do you do?
[ ] (Plan Name)
-[ ] (Dice) Attack
-[ ] (Dice) Defense
-[ ] (Dice) Intercept
-[ ] (Dice) (Trick) (Orthstirr)
-[ ] Tactics Write in
0~0~0
AN: This one took me longer than expected to get out, my apologies for that.
No moratorium.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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- He/They
I made a promise, near the beginning of this quest, to not kill anyone off-screen.
Asveig was the exception, not the rule.
Killing Aki off-screen would be an utter waste of his character.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Great!
That being said, I guess we did call the Brewery being the one that needed the most help well, huh? At least, I hope that's what it meant, and the calm state of the Weavery means that Gabriel and Abjorn won their fight quickly and moved to back another front up rather than them both getting completely ganked despite Abjorn being Halla tier and having a stupdly good weapon, as well as EIGHT FUCKING HAMR and 16 Endurance. There's no way he'd die quietly I think.
So, no Frenzy, but it's a chonky boy. How fast does Halla think it is?
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Is Trausti in range of a Kindle-Spinner explosion? If not, I feel ranged bombardment is a good option.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I'm honestly thinking doing a big Folded Kindle Spinner since it doesn't seem to have any good ranged options, most of the successful hits on it look to have been from ranged attacks.