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Rock the Cradle: A cultivation story

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VagueZ said:
"And then you just do it two hundred more times every hour of every single day forever and ever. I'm going to go get some tea." Bosc gets up and goes into the house, leaving just you and Jaylon and Beti in your backyard.
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Mood, Bosc. Mood.

[X] Death of the Senses

This already seems like a runaway win; it's the most flexible and also fits best with Keras's overall theme of being confusing as all fuck to everyone who meets them.
 
unObservant said:
Exhaustion puts opponents on a timer until defeat that Keras is well-suited to outlasting them with, and seems super likely to grow into a form that directly feeds that stolen stamina back into Keras to tilt that matchup even further in our favor; or provide a fast means of recovering our energy after prolonged or wide-scale Technique use.
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Exhaustion is okay but to me it lacks pizazz. Instead of winning as long as we don't lose, I'd rather win through superior strategy or tricks our opponent can't see until they get whacked with them.
 
VagueZ said:
The death madra is confusing, baffling. It doesn't directly hurt peer opponents, but it interferes with sight and hearing a little. Victims won't always notice immediately: it tends to make it easier to miss things in the corner of one's eyes or quiet noises.
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Now I really wish we'd added Dream to our path. Could've made it so Dessicated Valley doesn't just drain your senses, it feeds them to Keras.
 
[X] Death of senses

Make it so our opponents don't notice the effect and we can land sneaky criticals. Exhaustion is also good but it gives the opponent time to recognize what is happening and think of ways to deal with us. It could help make them go for broke or spark a creative solution. Someone that's gradually missing more and more pieces of what's going on around them will have a harder time assembling a useful solution IMO.
 
[X] Death of senses

It was a hard pick between this and exhaustion, but I think sense deadening will open up more opportunities in combat than simple exhaustion.
 
[X] Exhaustion
[X] Death of senses

Some_guy_161 said:
It was a hard pick between this and exhaustion, but I think sense deadening will open up more opportunities in combat than simple exhaustion.
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Shows you've never been in a fight. Exhaustion is just as deadly as losing track of small things. If you're exhausted, your limbs move slower, your mind moves slower, things get just a bit harder.
Rather than not seeing an attack coming, it gets harder to dodge, harder to block, and easier to make mistakes. Your form gets sloppy, your strikes and blocks become more and more awkward, and eventually you're just waiting for death no matter how you try to fight back.
 
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Poor Etaja. I'm glad you gave him such a sympathetic backstory. Obviously the Vroshir suck when they raid worlds or work with people like Daruman, but I like seeing this side of them. The side that kind of has a point.

Really curious what Risshon's long-term plan here is. Does he just want to replace the Luxe with the Brightflares? Cuz given what we've seen of their school, they kinda suck too. Not sure them being in charge of this city is really going to do much for the downtrodden. Also, damn, assassinating the Prince is a massive escalation, are they trying to overthrow the entire royal family?

Poor Bosc, her siblings are wanderlusted and so she has to take over the farms. At least she's got a hard-working husband. Also she developed excellent madra control out of laziness, lol.

[X] Exhaustion

Death of senses is probably better for our overall Path (great in combo with our Striker technique), but I'm just a sucker for draining techniques. Consume has spoiled me.

Silverking said:
So if Risshon is the poisoner, has Gardenia been "read in" on the conspiracy, or is she simply processing the ingredients just like all the other poisons she's been working with? She's no fan of the status quo, but something tells me that deposing the Luxe to ascend the Brightflares would end up sounding in her ears like "come meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
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I doubt she's been read in, if only for "two men can keep a secret" reasons. No real need to read her in. Just mix in any suspicious requests among all the legit ones, and she's unlikely to cotton on.

unObservant said:
Whatever effect is preventing Remnants from forming in the Silent Hinterlands is slowly but surely petering off - which, given the prior speculation we've had on what's been causing it, lines up pretty well with the two short years we've got until it's Dreadgod Time.
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Hmm, what's the speculation? Just that the low aura from previous Dreadgod visits causes it? Or related to the Sacred Valley suppression field? I don't see how the Dreadgod visiting is related.

unObservant said:
Exhaustion puts opponents on a timer until defeat that Keras is well-suited to outlasting them with, and seems super likely to grow into a form that directly feeds that stolen stamina back into Keras to tilt that matchup even further in our favor; or provide a fast means of recovering our energy after prolonged or wide-scale Technique use.

Plus, I kinda love the potential image of us reversing what Beti did for us during the Healing event - perch in her branches and gather up a battlefield's energy in large enough quantities to act as a continuous power source for her, so that our Enforcer-focused plant mecha friend can have free reign over everything in her vines' long reach without having to worry about maintaining her own reserves.
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Yeah I love the idea of Keras draining a tiny amount of stamina from everybody in a wide area, and taking it for themselves.
 
VagueZ said:
[] Dad has prepared the roots of the oak here for you.
You are trying for the Oakheart Iron body. Benefits:
- Strength E to D
- Toughness E to D
- Your body takes on some benefits of a plant-like constitution, meaning you need to eat and drink less, and poisons for humans mean less to you.
- Subplot: Although this has been forgotten in the Silent Hinterlands, it turns out that this body gives its user a certain receptiveness to spirits.
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VagueZ said:
[] They stay

This focuses more on Keras and their same-aged friends, trying to follow the family business through a difficult time, and perhaps some lingering other local concerns and mysteries. Keras still seems a peerless prodigy to those around them. This is not to say that the concerns from the Kingdom will vanish, not at all.
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There's been references to whatever the weirdness in the Silent Hinterlands backstory is in some of the votes as well. Don't know if it's specifically Dreadgod related though, or if that's just a coincidence. I just know that dreadbeasts are drawn to them, but that doesn't really cover Remnants?
 
Okibruez said:
Shows you've never been in a fight. Exhaustion is just as deadly as losing track of small things. If you're exhausted, your limbs move slower, your mind moves slower, things get just a bit harder.
Rather than not seeing an attack coming, it gets harder to dodge, harder to block, and easier to make mistakes. Your form gets sloppy, your strikes and blocks become more and more awkward, and eventually you're just waiting for death no matter how you try to fight back.
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That still requires a fight to last long enough for the debuff to take effect. Sense deadening, on the other hand, is an advantage that's useful right from the start. Every moment the opponent is trying to focus on Keras is an opportunity to use Dandelion Rain and some sleight of hand, and vice versa. Exhaustion just gives a more convenient timescale for something that will already happen, but Death of Senses means Keras can continue growing their fighting style and allows them more options to approach combat.
 
Tylansimov said:
Hmm, what's the speculation? Just that the low aura from previous Dreadgod visits causes it? Or related to the Sacred Valley suppression field? I don't see how the Dreadgod visiting is related.
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My theory is that for reasons likely related to the mysterious Void Key owner we found, there's been a Dreadgod physically underneath the Silent Hinterlands for a very long time, which has caused the land's weirdness as a side effect - something that's such a subtle and widespread part of the area's 'background radiation', that Etaja has no frame of reference for it being unusual for Cradle rather than just being one more Foreign Iteration Thing he needed to get used to. Maybe he simply never had reason to look downwards hard enough to see the main body; maybe it's one of those things that are hidden well enough that not even he can see it from a distance without expending enough power that it'd broadcast his own location.

Maybe the Dreadgod is imprisoned, sealed in a way that incorporates both the abundant halfsilver's unusual properties and drains the Remnants around the prison as a source of fuel- but now it's finally breaking down, potentially stuck in a downward spiral where the seal is starting to break down, so the drain isn't working as effectively, so it's got power supply issues that are breaking it down even faster as it tries to compensate.

Maybe the Dreadgod is recovering, having been defeated and seemingly killed ages ago, but not thoroughly enough that it couldn't come back given enough time. It's been consuming Remnants in the area around it ever since, rebuilding its strength bit by bit and potentially producing halfsilver as a consequence, but now it's getting close to reaching some critical threshold / got prodded closer to awareness / etc and so the consumption has slowed.

Whatever the case, if there is one here it's almost certain that Etaja himself was unintentionally the cause of things starting to change when he crashed face-first into this particular location years ago - we know from the very first update that if he hadn't come, Keras would've had a long, boring, happy life in this land until they died of old age, and the Dreadgod's arrival has been hidden from fate in the same way that the results of all of Etaja's direct actions are (as we know from very personal experience); when normally Oracles would have been warned about something that affects Fate as much as a Dreadgod does literally decades in advance.
 
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unObservant said:
Dreadgod physically underneath the Silent Hinterlands for a very long time
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unObservant said:
almost certain that Etaja himself was unintentionally the cause of things starting to change when he crashed face-first into this particular location years ago
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Hmm, I don't think I agree with most of this. Dreadgod spoilers By the end of the series it's just impossible that there's a 6th dreadgod. Now, theoretically, I could see this as being the Slumbering Wraith's doing, except I'm pretty sure Sacred Valley is way to the Northeast of us, so it should also be affecting most of the Kingdom, the Blackflame Empire, and the Flozen Blades sect.

re: Dreadgod, I definitely think it's Etaja's fault. Can the Dreadgod sense him, and that's why it's coming?
 
Tylansimov said:
Hmm, I don't think I agree with most of this. Dreadgod spoilers By the end of the series it's just impossible that there's a 6th dreadgod. Now, theoretically, I could see this as being the Slumbering Wraith's doing, except I'm pretty sure Sacred Valley is way to the Northeast of us, so it should also be affecting most of the Kingdom, the Blackflame Empire, and the Flozen Blades sect.
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You're probably thinking of the official Cradle world map, which is much newer than this quest and doesn't actually fit with some stuff I'd already written before we got it, and so I'm not using that. You're substantially correct, except that Sacred Valley is almost due north instead of northeast. My version of Ashwind is shaped like a giant letter "C" for... very long-winded reasons. Sacred Valley is still weeks' worth of travel away from the Silent Hinterlands and the rest of what I think you're assuming and building off of is correct, so this is just slightly adjusting the direction you're pointing in.
 
VagueZ said:
You're probably thinking of the official Cradle world map, which is much newer than this quest and doesn't actually fit with some stuff I'd already written before we got it, and so I'm not using that. You're substantially correct, except that Sacred Valley is almost due north instead of northeast. My version of Ashwind is shaped like a giant letter "C" for... very long-winded reasons. Sacred Valley is still weeks' worth of travel away from the Silent Hinterlands and the rest of what I think you're assuming and building off of is correct, so this is just slightly adjusting the direction you're pointing in.
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I was actually going off this map: https://www.reddit.com/r/Iteration110Cradle/comments/jkchx3/ashwind_continent_map_revision/

I think we've had the map discussion, actually, though I have no idea where in this thread.

Anyway, I said Northeast mostly because I couldn't remember where in the Kingdom the Hinterlands are.
 
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