that could be an issue, though it should hopefully be only a temporary concern since the sheer scale of the incident would make that easy to disprove with all the stuff back home/with other group members? poisonings are better done discretely and all
though that could still plant seeds of doubt, and there's the chance it could be construed as an uncaring act set up for plausible deniability, or giving the impression of sabotage (to try and make the group as a whole fail/die)?
another concern to me is us looking weak and encouraging detractors, it'd suck if screwing up here/minerva salvaging it (and all the other actions we're delegating where misc heroes get glory/credit) will give people(such as the newly appearing self-aware Hauteclere) an impression that Minerva's better to rule, when we can say for sure that she mechanically isn't?
[X] Join the battle for the ship Though she's slain their captain, there's no telling how many pirates are left on that ship. And what sort of commander is the first to retreat from a battle? Minerva will not have time to dress her shoulder properly, though she will drink a vulnerary on the way.
I have no idea if this is a good one or not. It might be all up to the dice rolls if Minerva eats a severe injury. I'm just worried that if we stay in the village the ship will get away and our 'good intentions' will be spoiled by accidentally poisoning a bunch of villagers.
[X] Join the battle for the ship Though she's slain their captain, there's no telling how many pirates are left on that ship. And what sort of commander is the first to retreat from a battle? Minerva will not have time to dress her shoulder properly, though she will drink a vulnerary on the way.
Cool, cool. I'll write today, might not finish the update. But my goal is to start the Gala with the New Year. I am super excited, but there is a lot of planning work to be done.
ah whoops, looks like my vote didn't get counted since it was in the middle of text. ah well, unaminous vote anyhow lol. fingers crossed on results and good luck Vocalist!
I'm currently on a bathroom break at work, so I'll have to do the breakdown of my thoughts on the character sheets later, but I just want to say that as someone who has never fully read the setting document for 8Bit Distopia, but has taken part in multiple of these quests, seeing how much even the people of the Outlands remember Dr. Light as a hero is heartwarming to me.
(Also, the SF Easter Egg captules from the X series let us know Light geeks out about ki powers, so he would probably have a lot of fun sharing knowledge with Occult specialists if he ever gets the chance.)
Alright, finally found a good time to post my thoughts. There's a lot to react to, so apologies if this runs long.
Overall raiding went pretty much just how I'd hoped, and we got some good information. We now understand why Minerva saw so many ungarrisoned forts. They people are nomadic, so which areas they actually care about protecting change with the season, and the forts are staffed accordingly. I agree with Michalis' strategic assessment that Aurelis will be a frustrating nut to crack. We don't really have a good way hit them where it hurts with our full strength. I suspect the key to definitively defeating them will be finding a way to pin down Hardin. That won't be easy, but the bounty hunters we found might be able to help there, if we can afford them.
The young man (and you still can't remember his name, how embarrassing), with notably more reticence than he's shown so far, offers you this: "My father says it's for the best if the conquest of Aurelis takes a while. War is where we have the best chance to prosper, whereas a continent peacefully united under one rule might be…"
This is a rather interesting point. Conventional wisdom usually states that wars should be kept as short and decisive as possible. However, we have a raiding culture where it actually costs us an action to not attack someone at least once a year. Collectively, Martial is far and away our nation's best stat. It's very much in our best interest to look for conflicts we can exploit. That might actually be a good policy during the Gala. Pretty much all our allies have some kind of schism going on. Sheena vs her mother. Camus vs Nyna vs Ludwig. Gharnef vs Wendall/Fjalar. Even Medeus doesn't have as complete control of the manaketes as he at first seemed (that goes double if Tiki enters the scene). Approaching the underdogs in these conflicts and reminding them that we have a horde of dracoknights who will eagerly fight pretty much anyone could be a good bargaining chip.
Lena's letter made me chuckle. She clearly has Michalis pegged. Their relationship actually reminds me of the one between Michalis and Maria, except that without the family ties and age gap they're a lot more frank about what they think of each other.
Wasn't expecting much out of the learning action, given the DC's involved and the resources we had to work with, but that crit fail still hurts, especially seeing how it's affecting Minerva now.
A little disappointed that Frost's ability didn't trigger, but I enjoyed seeing the two of them nerd out over magical science, and the stat gains are nice.
I'm liking Michalis and Catria's relationship. It's neat how Catria's traits that others might find off-putting (her cynicism, her desire for self-sufficiency, her competitiveness, her bluntness, etc.) are things Michalis can actually relate to. I'm not sure if I actually want to see them romantically involvd, or if they should just be good friends. Personality-wise, I think they're actually a good fit, but politically the mathc is somewhat sub-optimal. Either way, it's good that they're making friends outside they're own families.
Seeing Pyrathi was good. We've basically got two separate governments there; a sort of pirate republic on the outside, and an isolated religious commune on the interior. Gomer is basically our black market contact, which could be useful. I'm continuing to enjoy Mannu as a character, and he reinforces my belief that the manaketes in general are operating on incomplete information about how the human kingdoms work. Also, Mannu's holy mountain, Mt. Pyre, shares a name with a shrine from Pokemon Emerald. Probably a coincidence, but I thought it was interesting.
"I did build this monastery for a reason," he says wryly. "Humans kept coming and asking me questions, and some of them wanted to stay. I decided that they might as well do it in one place, so I didn't have to deal with them traipsing all over Salamand's holy mountain." A shadow comes over his expression. "It's not as if I have any young manaketes to teach, these days. I've given the offer to Fjalar, but the only thing she's ever been interested in is making bigger explosions. Bah."
So it sounds like Fjalar is, in fact, a manakete. And Saias is important to her. Good to know.
Raid is going well enough so far, even if we've had some poor rolls associated with it. We'll just have to wait and see how bad the penalty from that vulnerary crit fail is. Discovering there is something in the Hauteclere is interesting. That occult action to study it is looking more tempting.
Incidently this line:
Immediately made me think of the Millenium Items from Yu-Gi-Oh.
As an aside, I like that official language of Archanaea is apparently German, as Greek is for Macedon. Both because it's evocative of the Holy Roman Empire, and also because I read a translation of the Nibelungslied a couple years ago, and it gave me strong Fire Emblem vibes.
Alright, I think that's enough for now. Looking forward to the next update!
fairly sure it's a triforce thingy(presumably as small a fragment as needed to not be crazy overpowered), which is both really good and a massive pain lol.
could be big to research, but that also means poking the whole thing with a stick? if we find something out, we absolutely don't want anyone else to find out after all
This is a rather interesting point. Conventional wisdom usually states that wars should be kept as short and decisive as possible. However, we have a raiding culture where it actually costs us an action to not attack someone at least once a year. Collectively, Martial is far and away our nation's best stat. It's very much in our best interest to look for conflicts we can exploit. That might actually be a good policy during the Gala. Pretty much all our allies have some kind of schism going on. Sheena vs her mother. Camus vs Nyna vs Ludwig. Gharnef vs Wendall/Fjalar. Even Medeus doesn't have as complete control of the manaketes as he at first seemed (that goes double if Tiki enters the scene). Approaching the underdogs in these conflicts and reminding them that we have a horde of dracoknights who will eagerly fight pretty much anyone could be a good bargaining chip.
hmm, well the shape up martial is a DC 75 action but that should be fine since we have high base martial/heroes with plenty too (so long as exhaustion from all the raids doesn't give us a seasonal malus to martial actions, at least?)(30 martial from us+41 from Minerva, so meeting it should be fine)
regarding pulling open a gate, at first i though it could be an issue since with frost's17 learning and our 12 we'd need to meet a DC of 61 to get it, but i remembered the DC is reduced to 60 due to this turn's martial crit i think? so probs just need to beat a roll of 30 for success. that said, the risk of losing tech *would* be pretty lame so that might be an inconvenient risk
[ ] Join the battle for the ship Though she's slain their captain, there's no telling how many pirates are left on that ship. And what sort of commander is the first to retreat from a battle? Minerva will not have time to dress her shoulder properly, though she will drink a vulnerary on the way.
Minerva does not take very long to make her decision. It's not that she thinks the other dracoknights are less than fit fighters; it's that she thinks she is less than a fit diplomat, and if she tries to calm frightened strangers she is sure to mess it up somehow. The best thing she can do for the situation is leaving. So she ties herself onto Leonidas (blessing the quick thinker who saddled her wyvern back at camp) and takes off for the ship. As they make their way over the water, she digs in the saddlebags for one of the little plastic pots she'd prepared back in the Aerie. Inside is a vulnerary, an herbal concoction Michalis sourced from some healer. It's supposed to be spread on the wounded area of the body, but drinking it should help, too. She pries off the rubber seal and shoves her tongue inside.
…Eurgh. These things aren't made to be tasty, but…really. Even by the standards of medicine, this greasy paste is…it tastes a little rancid?
Come on, she tells herself, you're not a child! Grimly, she licks the pot clean and shoves it back into her saddlebag in time to get a good look at the ship.
[Resistance on board: 41, again]
The pirates sent the cream of their crew to the raid, and even those weren't much to the Aerie's dracoknights. Some of the enemies down below look to be fighting with kitchen utensils. Hm, perhaps whatever they were cooking will serve for lunch when the battle is over?
[Resisting the effects; Martial; Difficulty 80: 63+41=104; Success]
At the thought of lunch, Minerva feels…a bit queasy. Yes, there's definitely an uncomfortable feeling in her gut, and to make matters worse, her shoulder isn't feeling any better at all! Damn herbalist – if her medicine must taste so disgusting, she should at least make sure it works. She's injured and her mount is tired. Well, fine! Fine! She is the finest warrior here, strong of body and strong of heart. She will pull through.
[The various conditions affecting Minerva and Leonidas will be combined into a -25 'Not feeling great' modifier for the next scene.]
[Minerva vs. Sailors; Martial: 97+41+15(Wings Obscuring the Sky)-25(Not Feeling Great)=128 vs. 45+18-10(Not Prepared for This)=53; Solid Success]
Leonidas, land.
That portion of the deck is not empty, but that is the point; when her wyvern is tired, she lets gravity do the work. A sailor is crushed beneath his scaled bulk and finished off with a single bite.
[Sailors vs. Minerva; Martial: 41+18-10(Not Prepared for This)=49 vs. 75+41+15(Wings Obscuring the Sky)+8(Wyvern-Scale Armor)-25(Not Feeling Great)=114; Solid Failure]
She reaches for her lance – and it's not there, damn it. Well, she should be thankful she has her saddle at all. Lacking a weapon long enough to use from wyvernback, she starts untying herself from Leonidas mere minutes after she mounted him. He gives an obliging roar, and that is enough to scare any enemies away from attacking her while she is distracted.
Feet on the deck, Hauteclere in hand, Minerva scans for fresh targets. There, the kitchen-utensils group is huddled together. They look scared and wilting.
[Minerva vs. Sailors; Martial: 57+41+15(Wings Obscuring the Sky)-25(Not Feeling Great)=88 vs. 73+18-10(Not Prepared for This)=81; Bare Success]
[Sailors vs. Minerva; Martial: 97+18-10(Not Prepared for This)=105 vs. 31+41+15(Wings Obscuring the Sky)+8(Wyvern-Scale Armor)-25(Not Feeling Great)=70; Success]
Her attack is weak and slow; she is a good enough warrior to realize that she's made a mistake attacking such a large group in her condition, with one long mental moment to castigate herself as her heavy axe completes its follow-through and a knife rasps against her cuisse, prying into the scales. Leonidas punishes the attacker by tearing her arm from her body, but it is still a sign of weakness. If she did not have him by her side; if these sailors were better-armed—
Doubt is defeat. It is Hauteclere's breathy voice, whispering to her. Are you defeated already?
[Minerva vs. Sailors; Martial: 19+41+15(Wings Obscuring the Sky)-25(Not Feeling Great)=50 vs. 31+18-10(Not Prepared for This)=39; Success]
[Sailors vs. Minerva; Martial: 24+18-10(Not Prepared for This)=32 vs. 80+41+15(Wings Obscuring the Sky)+8(Wyvern-Scale Armor)-25(Not Feeling Great)=119; Solid Failure]
She takes a deep breath and steps away from her wyvern, baiting another attack. A pirate approaches, swinging a nail-studded plank that he swiftly loses. She is wounded and weakened and she is still the finest on the field.
[Minerva vs. Sailors; Martial: 17+41+15(Wings Obscuring the Sky)-25(Not Feeling Great)=48 vs. 100+18-10(Not Prepared for This)=108; Critical Failure]
[This is a corner case I haven't thought of…rules have been updated appropriately.]
She is ready to push further forward, until – her stomach heaves and bile stains her throat. She staggers, struggling not to lose her breakfast and losing. She's shaking. Her uninjured arm whips up to shield herself from an opportunistic blow, just in time. Eyes wide and wild, she snarls at her attacker, trying to stand up.
It is Leonidas who charges in to shield her. They flee from his snapping jaws, thank Naga. But they are growing bolder, seeing her like this. She grits her teeth and raises her axe…
Only to find that she can't. Her fingers are numb where they were just smashed, and with that, both of her arms are injured. Shit, shit—
[Other Knights vs. Sailors; Martial: 35+25=60 vs. 35+18-10(Not Prepared for This)=43; Success]
[Sailors vs. Other Knights; Martial: 57+18-10(Not Prepared for This)=65 vs. 20+25=45; Success]
One of the sailors suddenly whips around and charges in a different direction. Minerva hears the pained cry of someone else's wyvern. She sees through bleary eyes that the other dracoknights have cleaned up the rest of the dregs on the deck. They surround her little mob until Minerva is no longer the outnumbered one. "Surrender, wretches!" a powerful voice calls. "Our wyverns have more than enough to eat. If we feed you to them, too, they'll be too fat to fly."
[Surrender?; Diplomacy; Difficulty 90: 61+6-25(Had your leader on the ropes)+30(Decimated)+20(Did not want to fight bloody wyverns today)=92; Success]
…Minerva heaves a sigh of relief as the remaining pirates drop their weapons. It is shameful that she contributed so little, but a victory is a victory. She lets her axe fall to the deck and rummages clumsily in her saddlebags for a skin of lukewarm water. A shadow approaches.
"You've never been one to shy away from battle, Princess Minerva, but for the first time I find myself wondering if you attract it to you. Was the village raided right as you stepped inside?" It is the same figure who urged the pirates to surrender, a grizzled old knight by the name of Merach. A fixture at the Aerie since Macedon's early days, he bemusedly watched over Minerva's early efforts with a pegasus, and then – after she succeeded in stealing a wyvern egg from the Valley of the Drakes – offered her a sincere apology, and some serious lessons in lancecraft.
"Near enough," she replies. The water settles her stomach, for the moment, but she feels it is on the verge of rebelling again. "I would not call it anything more than odd luck, Merach. We went looking for trouble, and we found it. Do we have wounded?"
"Nikos took a slash to the leg, but should be able to fly out of here. And that's the worst of it. Are those vulneraries good for wyverns, too?"
"I'm not sure they're good for much at all," Minerva mutters, a sour look on her face.
"Hm. My lady, are you wounded?" Merach says. "You held off a force of pirates on your own and then, instead of resting, you decided to repeat the feat." There is a bit of reproach in his look. "You don't look…"
"What kind of commander would I be if I had others do all the work for me? No, I – I took a blow to my shoulder, but otherwise I'm fit. Ah, and something I ate earlier is disagreeing with me, but that can't be blamed on this battle." She mollifies him and begins the next duty of a commander, one sure to raise the spirits: dividing the loot. Given her state, she does ask the others to carry things, and even deigns to sit. Her men descend into the bowels of the ship and pull out all the valuables as thoroughly as her brother cleans meat from bones.
[Rolling for loot…]
The pirates were fresh from their home port, so no secondhand booty, though the captain's quarters do hold a small lockbox with a few coins. The real prize is their equipment: compasses, waterproof tarps, fishing line, nylon cord (the real good stuff, with a braided sheath around a yarn core), a roll of duct tape, and two electric torches? That both work?
"What were they doing with two of these?" Minerva asks incredulously. "The boat isn't even that big?"
"Hey Commander, turns out this metal box is actually a radio!" one of her knights says, hitting a button in demonstration. The metal box lets out a horrendous screech. "It's supposed to sound like that," he assures her.
Finally, there is a pot of fish stew cooling in the galley. Minerva recuses herself from that. She is not the only one.
[1 Goods and 5 Tech recovered from Gazzak's pirates!]
When Audrey gets back, it is as a messenger bearing confused approval from the villagers. Their homes and possessions are safe, and all of them escaped with their lives.
"Even the blacksmith?" she asks.
"Oh, yeah, that guy. Well, who knows if he'll pull through. But it turns out that the pirate captain was carrying a vulnerary on him, and by the time I turned around this teenager was pouring it on his wounds and shrieking 'Dad, don't die!' Our loot by rights, but we have plenty of vulneraries so I didn't bother objecting. It seemed like the kind of thing you would do, Commander…uh, am I wrong?" Audrey stops short, noticing the sour look on her face.
"You did well, Audrey," says Minerva. "Don't use the vulneraries we brought from Macedon." She indicates the spot at the ship's railing where, even now, someone is being horribly sick into the water. "I am going to have strong words with that herbalist when we return."
I was going to roll for Kwame's survival, but Gazzak does drop a vulnerary in-game...
---
Minerva drinks deeply from the ship's water tanks, pads her richly bruised shoulder, and unrolls her bedding on the ship's deck. She curls up next to Leonidas, ignores the disgusting gurgling in her stomach, and tries very, very hard not to feel sorry for herself.
This is a terrible way to spend the night after a battle.
Fuck. It's Hauteclere, or the ghost haunting it, or whatever. She never unpacked that can of worms, did she?
I feel that I have been reasonably patient so far. I was prepared to wait even longer, while you got uproariously drunk or found a comely pillow friend. But you have chosen quiet misery instead. Don't you think you could use a distraction?
"What do you want from me?" she grumbles.
Your name, to start. A few other basic details. Your cause, your current station in life, your desired station in life, any enemies you wish to see driven to their knees before you.
…This conversation is too strange to have while lying in her bedroll. Sourly, she pulls herself upright, until she can see the endlessly churning sea. She grabs the golden axe, its blade still glimmering faintly in the unnatural light of the moon, and sits cross-legged with the haft across her thighs. Leonidas starts awake – why is she grabbing a weapon? Are they under attack? – but she shushes him, and slumps over the axe to inspect it once more.
It is the same as always, to her senses. Nothing has changed since it started talking this morning. She frowns.
I am waiting.
She speaks in a low voice and lets the waves drown out her words, fearful that the others will hear her. Even so, she cannot suppress the proud ring as she says, "I am Minerva, daughter of one king and sister to another. Princess of Macedon, Dracoknight of the Aerie, Rider of Red Leonidas, and Wielder of the Golden Axe, Hauteclere. What is your name, spirit?"
A marvellous style, you have. I wish that I could answer in kind, but my name is lost to me now, along with all my other memories. I cannot even tell you how I came to be trapped in this form.
"Can you even tell me what you are, then?"
Not a single name remains to me, to call myself. I can tell you that I used to be much greater than I am now. I used to be…I used to be able to stride across the world, and reach my hand out to the sun, and roar with the bitter winds, as you can. Now, I…I can dream, I suppose. And speak to you. Is Hauteclere the name your people have given this shard that I am trapped in? It is as good a name as any, for me.
"Do you expect us to have many conversations besides this one?" Minerva says, with some trepidation.
You are my wielder, are you not? Or do you plan to cast me aside, now that you have learned that your weapon bears a chatty spirit?
Minerva scowls. How much does this thing know of her heart? "I'm not that antisocial. I would not reject you for that reason alone. Tell me, Hauteclere, can I trust you by my side in battle? Leonidas," she reaches out to stroke the cool scales, "has been my companion since his hatching. He lives in my brain and my blood. Every one of the knights I flew with today is bound to me by oaths, a shared cause, and a shared home. I know them, and how they fight. By what means can you prove yourself their equal, worthy of being carried into battle? I do not fight with people I do not know." Caeda and Hardin would say otherwise. But the axe doesn't know that. Probably. If it knew everything that happened as she carried it, it wouldn't need to ask her name.
Prove myself worthy of you? Very well, Minerva. But first, answer this question: What is your cause? Why do you fight?
It's not a very hard question. She knows what she wants to do, and why she wants to do it. "Macedon is my cause. I go out and fight so that the people back home know peace, freedom and full bellies."
Oh? That's admirable, but that's not the whole story.
"What are you talking about?" She shifts in her seat, leaning low as if trying to convince an invisible interlocutor. "I don't have some…hidden agenda. My family, my home, everything I love is wrapped up in Macedon."
Hm…Does your love of Macedon explain why you decided to face a dozen of pirates alone today?
"Which time?" The silence speaks volumes. She can just imagine Hauteclere smugly quirking an eyebrow at her, though the image in her mind has Michalis's face. "That was a tactical error. I admit that." Her many aches won't let her pretend otherwise. "It is not a sign of some deep seated-facet of my personality that I…didn't get help…before putting myself where the fiercest fighting is…" She trails off, remembering the whole incident in Aurelis again.
So anyway, why did you face a dozen of pirates alone today?
"There weren't a whole dozen!" she protests. Someone taking night watch looks over at her from across the deck. "We're fine here!" she calls back. More quietly, she continues, "I jumped in because – I tend to – I have a great deal of confidence in my abilities. After seeing their captain, I knew that none of them could match me and Leonidas. Individually. Or together, if I were having a good day." She expects some chiding from the axe, some saying about the uncertainty of war or the dangers of overconfidence. Principles she already knows, in theory.
Instead, she gets a question: Minerva, can you tell me again why you fight? Why is it you fighting for Macedon, and not someone else?
"Because I'm good at it," she says with no hesitation.
Why? Was this strength something that just appeared in you one day?
"No." Without consciously meaning to, a hand reaches beneath her clothes to clutch the mirrorshard pendant. "I worked for it. I trained. When I was too young to train, I watched. I knew who my heroes were and I wanted to become like them." Her fingers squeeze the silvered edges of the mirror, still jagged. A sharp reminder – heroes are still human. "Even better than them. I know there is further still I can go."
She continues, "I'm not seeking to become strong enough that no one can ever hurt me. That's a fool's errand. What I am seeking is power enough that no one can dismiss me. Enough to answer any blow. Enough to protect everyone I care about." These are thoughts that she has never fully expressed before, but they feel right and true as they pass her lips. The weakness inside her is only illness, not doubt.
I love it! Minerva, when you ask how you can trust me, I ask in return: how could I ever betray you? I am literally a tool in your hands. There is a pause, then. The voice is notably more subdued when it returns: I believe I once was…a seeker of power, like you. My own cause has been stripped from me, but I admire yours enough to take it as my own, and to aid you with whatever meagre faculties I have. After all, I have nothing better to do.
[Minerva's trait has been upgraded! Hauteclere, the Golden Axe: A shining axe that seems to fill its wielder with endless energy. +5 Martial, +5 Occult. When you are defeated in battle, a sudden second wind gives you the energy to make one more attack.]
[The spirit has some ideas about how to increase Minerva's power further. It will discuss them if she takes a personal action to commune with it.]
[More information has been revealed about the action 'Heavenly Bequest':
[ ] Heavenly Bequest, Part 1
Difficulty 60
Why does the Golden Axe have a ghost tied to it? Who made it? And, if it's just a fragment, where are the other pieces? You're not likely to find the answers to these questions outright, but if you look into the axe's provenance, you should be able to eliminate several possibilities. You have a feeling that the pieces of this mystery – and this axe – will not be easy to assemble. (Establish some basic facts about Hauteclere, identify where further answers could be found)]
This was a fun chapter I winced when the epic failure happened but I'm overall happy on how things turned up, Hauteclere is been a fun axe so far, and it will be fun to learn more about it.
hmm, well the shape up martial is a DC 75 action but that should be fine since we have high base martial/heroes with plenty too (so long as exhaustion from all the raids doesn't give us a seasonal malus to martial actions, at least?)(30 martial from us+41 from Minerva, so meeting it should be fine)
regarding pulling open a gate, at first i though it could be an issue since with frost's17 learning and our 12 we'd need to meet a DC of 61 to get it, but i remembered the DC is reduced to 60 due to this turn's martial crit i think? so probs just need to beat a roll of 30 for success. that said, the risk of losing tech *would* be pretty lame so that might be an inconvenient risk
5 tech?
i guess people just carry around all that if they're from more advanced areas. the anachronism we're operating in is thick enough to taste (it tastes like a crylic fruit)
close, all we need to deal with now is trying to avoid the awkward questions of whether this was a particularly bad assassination attempt or not, which i imagine to be a pain
this has happened before istg, you kill a guy one time and then people are always suspicious of you for the rest of time. they don't even know for sure we did it, but the situation's probably the same right now
and hylia forbid someone die under mysterious circumstances near you. you can't exactly say "well yeah i killed this other guy, but definitely not this one", (even worse in this case since we don't want to admit to the murder that actually happened. most of our arguments to easily prove this wasn't an assassination end up brushing against that whole issue)
sorry if i can't help you more, just know enough to say "seems high enough to assume will work, and if not just have to deal with it". there's always the chance of a nat 1 after all. if it's a safe bet that's what matters for plan creation?
5 tech?
i guess people just carry around all that if they're from more advanced areas. the anachronism we're operating in is thick enough to taste (it tastes like a crylic fruit)
close, all we need to deal with now is trying to avoid the awkward questions of whether this was a particularly bad assassination attempt or not, which i imagine to be a pain
this has happened before istg, you kill a guy one time and then people are always suspicious of you for the rest of time. they don't even know for sure we did it, but the situation's probably the same right now
and hylia forbid someone die under mysterious circumstances near you. you can't exactly say "well yeah i killed this other guy, but definitely not this one", (even worse in this case since we don't want to admit to the murder that actually happened. most of our arguments to easily prove this wasn't an assassination end up brushing against that whole issue)
sorry if i can't help you more, just know enough to say "seems high enough to assume will work, and if not just have to deal with it". there's always the chance of a nat 1 after all. if it's a safe bet that's what matters for plan creation?
i don't think that's worthwhile in this case, it's likely enough to succeed that it'd probably be unnecessary?
thankfully though if something does fail we can always retry it, i think we have multiple turns to do the actions in and still get that bonus?
i don't think that's worthwhile in this case, it's likely enough to succeed that it'd probably be unnecessary?
thankfully though if something does fail we can always retry it, i think we have multiple turns to do the actions in and still get that bonus?
for those who didnt notice, this is a street fighter character who's just cameo'd.
I dont know how good his diplomacy is, but he might be a better choice diplomatically.
At the least, he's met with the whitewings, wouldn't be a threat to Maria when in a room alone together, and is further loyal to Mannu.
I dont think we'll be talent poaching Dhalsim, as fantastic as his stats are I imagine, and I expect he'd be a likely appointment (especially if we dont find a more fitting appointment)
As someone who's been hovering the quest, I was surprised that it took this long for folks to react to Dhalsim, I think the first major non Fire Emblem character showing up. He's so cool, he does Yoga and Flame :]
Me: Hmm, I'm running out of monk-type FE characters but I need someone to represent Mannu's cult. Should I make up an OC? Or look abroad? Let's scan the Street Fighter II roster real quick, there might be some kind of martial arts monk--
Dhalsim: Hello, I am a wise ascetic and I also have fire powers.
Me: Welcome, sir!
You're correct in that he's the first non-Fire Emblem character with a speaking role. A few others have been mentioned, here and there.
[] Give Minerva Food Poisoning + Send Minerva in to fight (unknown quantity) of Pirates
-[] if successful though: secures the ship and the loot brought home, perhaps?
-[] successful or not, I think Minerva might go out of commission for a moment, perhaps?
-[] NOTE:she's taking it on the way to the ship. Maybe she won't get ill until landing. Maybe.
[] Give Minerva and Injured Villagers Food Poisoning + Assume Ship Wont Escape
-[] Audrey will probably be fine, but Kwame? This is the route that maybe sees Kwame live + Recruited. I'm not actually that serious here, he had some pretty bad rolls and the pirates had some pretty good ones. IF he lives, that's gonna be an amputation probably. I dont expect either of these is actually a recruitment option here due to the vulneraries sabotaging things
-[] How badly do you want to bet administering poison to a village abroad goes?
-[] Oh also Minerva actually tends to her injury possibly in addition to the vulnerary rather than riding andtaking it.
Worst news: these are probably our only options
We can't tell Minerva to not use the vulneraries, because that'd be metagaming.
She doesn't yet know that they've all long-since gone bad.
Both choices are in-character, and both choices are disadvantageous.
Why? Minerva uses a vulnerary no. matter. what.
My theory of the outcomes is:
this is a choice on just how much danger Minerva will be in while kneecapped by putrid vulneraries
I'm expecting there to be a serious risk of Minerva falling in battle if sent aboard the boat..
I'm expecting there to be a risk that the villagers wont be too happy that she's passed out poison
this is a choice on just how little loot we want to bring back from raiding
because the ships might escape. we dont actually know how staffed they still are.
this choice probably affects diplomatic relations with the Holy Kingdom
because uh, "the raiders came and fended off pirates, and then poisoned the laypeople" could be interpreted interestingly
really, I expect there's some notable consequence from vulneraries being passed around to villagers
this choice probably affects some form of Recruitment / Support window? unsure tbh
I doubt Audrey is a hero candidate, and same for Kwame. Maybe, since they're named?
I didnt find either of them from a lazy search of "name fire emblem", so they could be OCs or references to something
Blacksmith could just be dead no matter what. Option A doesn't poison him, and Option B does. I wonder if there's anyhealing to be had from the spoiled vulnerary recipe, but, oh boy. Poor guy.
really this choice is how much you want Kwame to suffer on his no good bad day
Being Kwame Is Suffering (tune in for the omake: Puella Kwame Magica)
soooo... I'm personally unsure what route to vote for.
EDIT: in order to stimulate voting... I choose risk, in hope of potential reward.
i'm surprised nobody's mentioning the fact that hauteclere is apparently made with a triforce (power?) fragment, huh
maybe don't let that info get within GD corp's sights no matter what? because they'd definitely try to take it if so and that could be pretty bad. for now just keep an eye out on where minerva's going, maybe don't assign her to the fane quest so she's less associated with relics, and keep her off of any diplomacy style actions that would involve people from the city?
Lena's letter made me chuckle. She clearly has Michalis pegged. Their relationship actually reminds me of the one between Michalis and Maria, except that without the family ties and age gap they're a lot more frank about what they think of each other.
That's actually very close to what occurred to me as I was writing this. I jokingly put it as 'Lena is like Maria without the niceness," but...Thinking about it some more, Maria and Michalis love each dearly in such a way that they're almost...willfully blind to their own differences? Like, their personalities could not be more different, and they have every reason to hate each other in the games, but they seem to love each other unconditionally right until the end. In Shadow Dragon, Michalis and Minerva have a wonderful dialogue affirming their willingness to kill each other, but if you send Maria to fight him, his reaction is horror and confusion. And then the sequel reveals that immediately after that boss battle, Maria took her brother's body and nursed him back from the brink of death.
As an aside, I like that official language of Archanaea is apparently German, as Greek is for Macedon. Both because it's evocative of the Holy Roman Empire, and also because I read a translation of the Nibelungslied a couple years ago, and it gave me strong Fire Emblem vibes.
Ugh. 100 EXP for pointing out the error. Working on a chapter in little stolen hours during the Christmas festivities with my family leads to things like this slipping through the cracks. I'm not very happy with the quality of this piece in general.
Sure, I can hand out EXP for a good meme. Have 200. (Is that guy from Vision Quest or The Last Promise?)
In context, Minerva was talking about how a large group can overwhelm her even when she's a match for all the individual members. Her edge poisoning is not that bad. Maria's prescribed her some anti-edge medication.
5 tech?
i guess people just carry around all that if they're from more advanced areas. the anachronism we're operating in is thick enough to taste (it tastes like a crylic fruit)
I am so glad that someone got that joke about the yarn! Ah, I want to make it clear that this bounty was the result of a high roll. In context that absolutely is an unusual amount of high-tech equipment for a pirate in this region to be carrying around.
i don't think that's worthwhile in this case, it's likely enough to succeed that it'd probably be unnecessary?
thankfully though if something does fail we can always retry it, i think we have multiple turns to do the actions in and still get that bonus?
