Remove ads

Quest to Become a Hero

Reader mode
Ack, that's rough. Though this was probably a much better way of experiencing this lesson than by knowingly letting a minion die in combat. It was a perceived betrayal, but not an actual one. No disposing of unwanted minions to make room for better ones later, we need to carefully plan what we're going to bond with while working to increase our slots the hard way.

Even though the emotional impact is kind of dissonant for me because it just tried to kill us seconds ago, it'd probably feel best for John's mental and emotional state in the immediate term to bury it. Alternatively, there is something to be said about "Don't let your subject go to waste in the uncaring earth" and "They can still contribute even in death" to justify harvesting it, but I doubt he'll see it that way IC. The only thing I know for sure is that Leaving It is the worst of both worlds.

I'm even less sure about the Knowledge question. On the one hand, "No" is probably going to negatively impact the EXP drip from new Knowledge clause in our Scholar Code. On the other hand, I don't really like how absolutist the "Yes" answer is. It doesn't really account for the relative values of the knowledge gained versus sacrifices involved, it just says "pay any price for any kind of Knowledge." It inches us closer to the kind of extreme that could be interpreted as eventually being willing to sell your soul for, I dunno, a cake recipe or something.

Of course the only certainty is that Velvet deserves all the credit for that kill, but we'll just have to give her what we can.

I'll see what other arguments have been posted in the morning and vote then.

Edit: Oh also, it looks like Iron Clad Mind saved our asses here.
 
Last edited:
Hrm, regarding the wolf? Each of the three things we do has different effects, since it could be said to be establishing our code as a Lord.
To Leave it is to preserve our mind and reduce anguish, at the price of being unable to make use of it's corpse, I'm not sure how this would be refined further, though the practice of Deadnaming comes to mind.(A thing where you take up a new name and stop using the old one, on account of said name being attached to painful memories.
To Skin it is to move towards callously exploiting our minions, this is the guy who dominates monsters just to throw them into the meat-grinder of combat. Also possibly the guy who learns how to Dominate corpses.
To bury it is to commit to having a funeral for every minion that dies on our watch, to cherish all of them and to be particularly hurt when one of them is killed. This can be expensive, but it has it's upsides, synergising the best, perhaps, in with John's nascent notions of how the Guild wastes the lives of novice Adventurers.
 
[X] Yes, regardless of the price knowledge must be gained.
[X] It was your subject, it deserves a proper burial. You might not have a shovel, but you'll make do...

My thinking here is that this is not the end of our code we will refine it further. By doing this we can continue the expectation that we will pursue dangerous knowledge but I would like to guide it towards putting our self in danger not others.
 
[X] No, sometimes it is better not to know. Sometimes the price is just too steep to pay...
[X] Skin it and gather what you can.
[X] 2 XP

Not all knowledge is worth pursuing, though much of it will be.
 
[X] No, sometimes it is better not to know. Sometimes the price is just too steep to pay...
[X] Skin it and gather what you can.
[X] 2 XP

To paraphrase Jimmy McMillan, the price is too damn high sometimes.
 
[X] Yes, regardless of the price knowledge must be gained.
[X] Skin it and gather what you can.
[X] 2 XP

We should ask what level are the slimes and bears when we get the chance.
 
[X] No, sometimes it is better not to know. Sometimes the price is just too steep to pay...
[X] Skin it and gather what you can.
[X] 2 XP
 
[X] Yes, regardless of the price knowledge must be gained.
[X] It was your subject, it deserves a proper burial. You might not have a shovel, but you'll make do...
 
[X] Yes, regardless of the price knowledge must be gained.
[X] It was your subject, it deserves a proper burial. You might not have a shovel, but you'll make do...
 
If this was in general, I'd prefer that "No" wins, but if we didn't find this out now, we probably would have tried the disposable minions trick, which would have been even worse. So sometimes you pay a price for the knowledge that lets you avoid a pitfall you're heading towards.

While harvesting an animal isn't disrespectful, giving the wolf a burial shows that John sees it as a "person" and not just resources. I just feel like we should honor the death of our minion.

I'm wondering how the Disaster quest will interact with the Sorrowful trait. If we're not careful, John might become depressed.
 
I'm not. Undead are mindless and unless we end up clashing with the Lich controlling all of them struggle of dominance style, it shouldn't cause a moral issue to John, and frankly I'd expect Sorrowful to ping if we DIDN'T help rather than if we did, but...
Actually? Point to consider-Sorrowful might also be influenced by what we do with the Wolf.
 
Zaealix said:
I'm not. Undead are mindless and unless we end up clashing with the Lich controlling all of them struggle of dominance style, it shouldn't cause a moral issue to John, and frankly I'd expect Sorrowful to ping if we DIDN'T help rather than if we did, but...
Actually? Point to consider-Sorrowful might also be influenced by what we do with the Wolf.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'm actually worried about John seeing people die during the quest, especially since I think some conscripted militia people are fighting too and not just adventurers.
 
Mount. Elements said:
I'm actually worried about John seeing people die during the quest, especially since I think some conscripted militia people are fighting too and not just adventurers.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ah, losses in war? Meh, I'm sure the Guild at least has books on the subject, assuming they don't have out and out therapists on the job. Given the Elitist style made necessary by the might of our foes, I'm sure the concept of 'what if our best dude is going through a phase right when we need him to make with the monster mash.' has come up previously.
 
[X] Yes, regardless of the price knowledge must be gained.
[X] Skin it and gather what you can.
[X] 2 EXP


If we are to become a Sage, Master of All Knowledge. We've gotta get whatever knowledge we can. Just gotta become strong enough to pay the price associated for that knowledge. But for real, I don't think that this vote is too bad. John could do x thing that's liable to get him killed for a scrap of knowledge, or he could do x safe thing and live a long life, earning vastly more knowledge this way, so he's not gonna get super stupid with this. This option gives us a lever for character growth, giving us an actual concrete motivation listed on the character sheet of "knowledge must be gained" that can be used to make John consider things and courses of action that he wouldn't normally, but that might be better for him in the long run.

Skinning Wolf because we're poor, we need money, and it's already dead.

Giving Velvet the maximum EXP possible to try and get her to level up quicker so she's more useful.

But hey, something to keep in mind: Domination only works for beings who have a lower level than ours, so we should probably try and stay at least one level ahead of our minions at all times. No idea if getting high enough in level lets monsters under us buck off our control, and I don't particularly feel like testing it.
 
[X] No, sometimes it is better not to know. Sometimes the price is just too steep to pay...
[X] It was your subject, it deserves a proper burial. You might not have a shovel, but you'll make do...
[X] 2 XP
 
[X] No, sometimes it is better not to know. Sometimes the price is just too steep to pay...
[X] It was your subject, it deserves a proper burial. You might not have a shovel, but you'll make do...
[X] 2 XP
 
[X] Yes, regardless of the price knowledge must be gained.
[X] Skin it and gather what you can.
[X] 2 EXP

I want to ask the archer lady how to get a therapist when we get back, however.
 
[X] No, sometimes it is better not to know. Sometimes the price is just too steep to pay...

No. Absolutely no. People in RL have done horribly evil things in the pursuit of knowledge and I have no desire to emulate them.

[X] It was your subject, it deserves a proper burial. You might not have a shovel, but you'll make do...
[X] 2 XP
 
[X] No, sometimes it is better not to know. Sometimes the price is just too steep to pay...
[X] Skin it and gather what you can.
[X] 2 XP
 
[X] It was your subject, it deserves a proper burial. You might not have a shovel, but you'll make do...

[X] 2 XP

I still can't make up my mind about the Knowledge question, so I'll leave it blank for now. However, with the point about the corpse question probably determining how John views his relationship with his minions, I can't countenance the cold pragmatism of the Skinning option. It's clear that Domination establishes an empathetic connection with the subject; John feels what they feel, both emotions and sensations, as well as their thoughts to a degree. By connecting to the dying wolf, he actually experienced its last moments personally, hence why he's so devastated. To go through that experience, and then treat it as just another kill to harvest like any other ordinary monster doesn't say things about his development that I'm comfortable with.
 
[X] Uhtread

No one has the exact vote I want, but I think giving Velvet 2 XP has enough to pass, and I want to vote for a proper burial. Just skinning the wolf after being connected to its mind is cold, and we're not THAT poor. The Golden Leaf quest should earn us more money as well.

I'm also voting for YES because it scares me what John nearly did out of ignorance. Since this doesn't determine his attitude forever and to the extreme, I'm ok for voting for it this time and then voting against it in the future if necessary.
 
This has rather neatly wiped out the disposable minions talk. There's still the question of dominate small and level it vs dominate big though.
 
I would say dominate one-two levels below us? So there's room to grow before leveling issues.

But, yes, disposable minions are not happening.
 
Well dominated minions gain traits and abilities, it remains to be seen if that means they have a better growth curve vs grabbing a higher level minion.... we really need to look into the other taming classes and see how minions work next time we are at the library. If we can find similarities across taming classes those may apply to us as well
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top