Although I am kind of interested in how going all out and impressing Shao leaves less room for making friends with them. I thought it would be good for friend-making if we do impress them more.
There's a few big assumptions here. Firstly you're assuming that reward tiers increase in value in a linear manner, which there is no evidence of (and honestly would surprise me given, well, xianxia). Secondly, you're not factoring in any benefit from superlative successes which, given they're literally impossible normally, I would expect to be significant. Finally, you're assuming that critical fails aren't a thing, and so there's no value in being able to negate them.
Now that I'm looking at it again, I tunnel visioned on the tier thing when it dosen't matter, the probability of any result except for 1/2 (which become impossible) or 101/102 (which become possible) dosen't change. So an accurate estimation of the difference would be 0.01*(-V(1)-V(2)+V(101)+V(102)). Which can be anything depending on the value of the overcap successes and the 1.
Honestly, I'm more intrigued by the narrative value of Dreamer's Endless Journey. We've already seen it used once already, and it was sweet, and I would love to see just how interesting it could become with diligent cultivation.
[X] "You know what, let's do this… no holds barred." (More likely to result in injury. Also more likely to impress Shao Cuifen, will probably not give opening to become friends.)
[X] "You know what, let's do this… no holds barred." (More likely to result in injury. Also more likely to impress Shao Cuifen, will probably not give opening to become friends.)
Minor Affinity: Slumber
Quan Jia Awakened within a dream and a small piece of that realm followed her out. (+2 dice to cultivation of all arts or techniques with the keyword Slumber)
Physical Stats
Attack =3
2(Strength) + 1 (Unarmed)
Defense = 5 (8)
5 (Dexterity) + 4/2 (Potency) + 1 (Technique)
Health = 5
1 (Stamina) * 5
Esoteric Stats
Attack = 4
4 (Potency)
Defense = 1
1 (Awareness)
Health = 10
2 (Resilience) * 5
Talent
Level: ●●●●
N/A
Affinity
Level: ●●●●● ●●
+2 dice to cultivation of arts and techniques with a theme of Slumber. (Minor Affinity for Slumber)
+3 dice to cultivation of meridians, qi, and base cultivation. (Large Estate Vent)
Potency: Diamond Core Theme(s): Slumber, Dreams, Travel Growth: 6 Paths Description:
Those who wander the Dream speak of paths, glittering highways and twisted game-trails alike, portions of consistency within an infinitely mutable whole. While no two cultivators can agree upon where a path lies, or what it leads to, there are a few paths within the Dream where effort and understanding can set the stage for one's journey along it.
This art, created by the Sage of a Thousand Eyes lays out the meditations required to begin the journey upon six such paths.
First Path: the paths of Dream are as fractured mirrors to the roads of the waking world. A cultivator of the First Path takes their first steps along this fractured way and begins to perceive the branchings of if and perchance.
Mastery of the First Path grants a +2 (to a 1d100 base roll) bonus to random event, exploration, and loot rolls
XP: 0/25
Potency: Diamond Core
Theme(s): Slumber, Earth, Shield
Attribute: Dexterity
Type: Physical Defense
Growth: 5 Dunes
Description:
Throughout the Dream, sands blow, a metaphor carved into the Dream by waking minds and enacted upon waking minds by the Dream. Despite its recursive nature, the sands of sleep may be manifested with slumber aspected qi and used to rob the impetus of an attack upon the cultivator. The Dreaming Tempest, Ma Qiu was the first cultivator to tap into this particular facet of the Dream and use it to defend herself from attackers. While this technique retains little of the potency of its progenitor, it is still an effective means of shielding a cultivator from harm.
First Dune (Qi cost: ●):
The Sands of Sleep draw away force, impetus, verve, from the waking world. Practitioners of the First Dune learn how to interpose discs of this sand between themselves and attacks.
The First Dune provides a +1 dice bonus to physical defense pool.
XP: 0/25
2 Spirit Diamonds
1 Robin's Grace Pill: a pill crafted from the fluttering grace of a robin and mixed with base materials before being cooked in a cultivation furnace. +6d10 to cultivating dexterity
A branch of a cherry tree, engraved with inhuman precision into a simple golden-jade plaque sways ever so slowly amidst an unseen breeze. [Talisman provide +2 dots to dexterity, a bonus that will increase to +4 upon reaching Quartz Soul, +6 upon reaching Pearl, +8 upon reaching Agate, and +10 upon reaching Amber.]
A pearl, glowing with the soft luminescence of the moon, dangles from a simple silver chain. [Talisman provide +2 dots to potency, a bonus that will increase to +4 upon reaching Quartz Soul, +6 upon reaching Pearl, +8 upon reaching Agate, and +10 upon reaching Amber.]
A censer scribed with the character for heat embossed in black enamel on each of its sides. [The Gyre of Five-Fold Enlightenment provides a multiplicative bonus* of 1.2 to the number of cultivation dice that can be applied to the cultivation of arts, techniques, attributes, and base cultivation level.]
A unique creation of the unaspected qi upon which the Sect of Riven Stone was built and the artifice of Multifarious Chen Bai, these vents are an incredible boon to almost all outer-sect cultivators. A cultivator who spends at least one evening a week sleeping or cultivating within an abode containing one of these vents will absorb the unaspected qi that is emitted. Due to the purity and lack of aspect of this qi, it rotates freely within the cultivator's meridians until being absorbed into the Diamond Core. (Large Estate Vents provide a bonus of +3 cultivation dice to all cultivation that does not involve aspected qi up until Agate Soul.)
Whether it's due to an impressive mental capacity, to notice, and process the minute flaws in the apparatus of a game of chance, or whether it's due to a burgeoning ability to interpret the interface of chance and fate, you have gained a supernatural competence in playing games of chance.
Quan Jia succeeds in all gambling checks where either her opponent(s) lack an applicable skill or the game itself isn't protected against this kind of advantage.
Your mother sought enlightenment through beauty and found it in the blossoming of a flower. Your father modified his core in an unusual, and dangerous, way to win the hand of the woman who had stolen his heart. Is it any surprise then that the sprawling estates of your childhood were full of gardens and jungles, oases and forests, home to ten-thousand species of plants? Is it any surprise that an easily bored child would escape to wander those endlessly changing vistas? That you would learn of the natural world by yourself, and at the knee of your father?
Quan Jia automatically succeeds in all gathering attempts for plants with a cultivation level equivalent to Diamond Core. The DC for gathering all plants is reduced by 1 dot.
Hitting things wasn't necessarily your favorite thing to do, though, you had learned how to do so. It was, after all, one of the few places where your pops wouldn't compromise: if you wanted to explore outside of the estate you had to learn how to defend yourself. Since there were only so many things to see, and nap on, inside the estate, you had agreed, and despite your preferences learned how to both punch and kick.
Quan Jia can fight off an arbitrarily large number of unawakened beings (e.g. animals or people) she also received a +1 dice bonus to her physical attack pool.
The Heavens were cruel. That was the only explanation for the hours, days, weeks, months, years, centuries, ages... well maybe not the last two, you had spent learning the endless minutiae of trade agreements and political alliances in the Province of Shattered Peaks.
Quan Jia understands the underlying power structures and alliances that form the province. (Skill will be expressed narratively more than mechanically)
If lessons on politics had been torture then lessons on cultivation were... still torture. Why did pops always try to keep you cooped up inside? Regardless, your lessons exposed you to a thousand different cultivation resources, taught you to recognize the ambient ley lines that made up a cultivation site, and gave you a theoretical foundation for how talismans worked.
Quan Jia will automatically identify all common cultivation loot she finds and receives a +1 dot bonus to identifying rare loot.
Relationships
Ma Liqiu: 2
You beat her up and then saved her from her own exploding technique. That would be the perfect start to a new friendship, if only she'd drop all the weird Lady Quan nonsense.
Dai Qiao: 2
She's your neighbor that likes to grow plants, or imbue them with nascent spirits, or something. You're not quite sure. Either way, you've never met someone that can talk to spirits like that and you're determined to become friends with her.
Zhang Bao: 2
Eldest Son of Baron Zhang Chao one of Lord Quan Jin's retainers. Either wants to date you or fight you, you're not sure, and don't really care
Xiao Lien: 3
She hasn't really said, but it's not really hard to notice that things haven't been all that great for Xiao Lien recently. That's all going to change now, she's your friend, and pops always says how important it is to make sure your friends are happy. Also, she's a top eight pillow without even using her tail... her potential seems endless.
Meng Chao: 2
For as long as you've known him, and you've known him almost your entire life, Meng Chao's been odd. Interacting with him has always been a matter of exchange, even conversation has felt some of this. Despite that, you don't dislike him, and it seems that he appreciates your willingness to exchange things.
Shao Cuifen: 1
Due to distance and markedly different priorities, you and Shao Cuifen have never interacted much. She cares too much about her sword and you care too much about napping. It just never works out.
Liu Mei: 5
Her life before yours is what Mei Mei always says, and she's attempted to prove it at least twice that you know of. She's been your attendant and constant shadow since the day you were born. She's also the second best pillow you've ever had.
She's been at the peak of the Amber Soul for as long as you've been alive, but lately there's been hints that she might be close to breaking through.
Quan Jin: 7
It's not easy to encompass everything your father means to you, to the province, to everything, but if you had to, he would be the sun around which everything orbits. You've never had even the slightest cause to doubt your father's love for you, but sometimes you wonder if it wouldn't be easier if he did doubt. Maybe your failures would sting just a bit less if that were true.
Luo Lifen: -5
You've always hated, and honestly, loved to hate Luo Lifen, a sentiment that had until just the other day seemed mutual. Now she hates your newest friend, and by extension you, with a loathing completely out of line with what it had been.
Elder Yi Qiu: 0
She teaches your cultivation class. You don't know much more about her.
Elder Chen Fan: 0
He teaches your combat class. The only thing you think you know about him is that he likes to laugh and smile.
A question about the Attribute totals: is there a limit of 5 on how high any one can go, or is it just a formatting thing because we don't currently have one above 5?
Also, I assume we can't start on the Lesser Souls and Bodies until after we've reached the peak of Diamond Soul?
[] "Maybe let's not go all out?" (Less likely to result in injury. Also less likely to impress Shao Cuifen, may give opening to become friends.)
"Very well," something complex flickers across Shao Cuifen's face, there and gone before Quan Jia can even begin to interpret it. "Defend. Xin Yue will remain sleeping."
"Who? Someone else likes sleeping?" She perks up even as qi begins to pulse around Shao Cuifen, "Why haven't you ever told me?"
"Sword," the other noble dips the sheathed blade in her hand, "Xin Yue."
"Oh," there's a feeling of foolishness burning the tips of her ears, but in this moment it's entirely beyond her abilities to stop talking, "does she actually like to sleep or is this a metaph-"
"Defend," this time the word is punctuated by a flickering crescent of starlight that passes inches above her head.
"Fine," Quan Jia pouts as she languidly shifts around a lancing strike and drifts sluggishly backward to buy space.
Since the restrained option won, this spar won't be modeled as full combat. Instead it will be resolved as a series of escalating static check.
Another flickering strike, this time directed right toward the artery in her throat, is deflected by a golden disc of sand. As she twists, turns, and more than once wiggles around bursts of moonlight, Quan Jia yawns in that overly ostentatious way that had infuriated tutors and trainers brought in from a thousand miles around her pops' estate.
Unfortunately, her sparring partner's face doesn't even flicker. Instead soft luminescence forms a razor sharp edge as it extends from the sheathed blade. Animal shaped discs crash and blend into dome of shifting golden sand that rises up to meet that edge. While Quan Jia can feel the attack as it sears through the outermost layers of her defense, she can also clearly tell that it just doesn't have the potency necessary to carve through the innermost.
Shao Cuifen clearly seems to notice the same thing, because after a few more probing strikes that fall upon her dome and fail to pierce through she stops.
Sand rains down around her in sparkling iridescence as she banishes her technique to speak. "So your sword's name is Xin Yue?"
"Yes," grey eyes lighten to silver, "from the moon: mined, smelted, forged, blessed under the crescent."
"It's a piece of She Who Fell?" Quan Jia can't quite help the incredulous note in her voice, "Wow, can I see… no wait, maybe after."
Shao Cuifen's sword might be an even nicer artifact than my Gyre…
"Mother's gift. Sword for Sword." Shao Cuifen raises her sword, "defend."
Quan Jia's eyes twist unpleasantly as her sparring partner vanishes from sight. And in that instant of confusion, searing darkness slams into her ribcage and bites deeply into a dream thin layer of sand.
A followup strike flickers at the edge of her sight and she bends backward with a lazy grace to avoid it. Another strike forces her to complete that bend and she digs fingers into the dirt as her hips twist and her arms bend. With a shove, aided by an elastic sheet of sand, she flips up into the air, spinning and landing a dozen feet away
Shao Cuifen is there waiting for her as she lands. Without an instant of hesitation, pulsing radiance crashes into languorously scattered petals of sand. Saved by that desperate defense, Quan Jia dances slowly around a pair of thrusts moving faster than her eyes can follow.
Qi twists and the earth beneath them turns slippery with sand. Her opponent stumbles on the loose grains, and she takes that momentary lapse to skate away to safety.
"I realize this may be a bit hypocritical coming from me, but..." Shao Cuifen's sheathed blade stops inches from her throat as Quan Jia speaks . "Swords need more than swords, right?"
"Explain," Shao Cuifen steps back, black hair and and the loose white sleeves of her dress fluttering in eerie synchronicity.
"Umm, I'm really more familiar with punching and kicking so that probably won't work, but," she frowns in thought, "it's like with sleep… without pillows and blankets sleep just isn't comfy at all, right? So swords are probably like that too."
There's a long moment of silence, and Quan Jia isn't sure whether her point had worked.
What point am I trying to make?
"Whetstone," is the eventual response. "Defend."
That makes sense… I guess….
A flick of the wrist and Xin Yue rings like a struck gong. The discs of sand orbiting around her shatter into cascading waves of sand. A flickering mote of qi reforms the nearest wave as countless threads of woven gold. Weaving, twisting, knotting together, shimmering lacework writhes out to meet the strikes of smooth wood and leather wrapped in blades of lambent qi.
Shao Cuifen strikes and delicate patterns of sand dissolve, severed from her qi in a thousand places. Quan Jia yawns and languid warmth once again shifts free floating sand into sticking, grasping, pulsating spheres.
A blade strikes, sinks, is stuck. Quan Jia grins. Shao Cuifen frowns. Qi twists. Sand explodes. Shards of mirror bright glass carve deep furrows in the ground, bounce harmlessly of of her final layer of defense.
"Friends are kind of like whetstones, you know?" Quan Jia comments into the pause brought about by her opponent's last technique.
"No," eyes flicker rapidly between silver and grey, "explain."
Darn, I was hoping you wouldn't ask...
"They help you polish the parts of yourself that you can't do on your own?" Quan Jia asks more than says and then falls silent.
Quan Jia really had no idea what she was doing, and only an inkling that maybe the two of them weren't really that different to work with, but this was the critical moment of that spur of the moment decision to try and make friends with her fellow noble.
Though who would ever choose a sword over sleep...
All that was left now was to wait completely patiently as Shao Cuifen ponders her words.
I wish she'd hurry up though...
Since I don't want social situations to resolve in the same way combat/etc. does, but since I still want some level of uncertainty added to these situations, here's the compromise:
Social rolls are made (occasionally) during social actions. They are modified by Quan Jia's social score with that character or organization and by any in scene accomplishments (e.g. passing DC's).
"Quan Jia wants to be friends?" there's a bit of a hitch to her words brought on by the lack of her normally clipped tone.
"Yep," Quan Jia nods happily and then with a not at all sly grin continues, "and in case you didn't know, the best way to make friends is to sleep together."
"Inappropriate," is the flat response that Quan Jia easily ignores, busy as she is materializing both Comfy Pillow and Blanket.
"Not even a little," she flops down on her Blanket and fluffs her Pillow, "come on, since we're friends now, I'll even let you use the Pillow."
After all, I've got a different pillow in mind.
"Defend?" her newest friend sounds a bit plaintive.
"Uh-uh," her Pillow fluffing becomes a touch more insistent, "come on. Xin Yue naps so you should too."
"Ok," that seems to be the reasoning that does it. The way her friend approaches reminds Quan Jia somewhat of trying to entice one of the stray cats in her garden with bits of food.
Still, she smiles when Shao Cuifen sits down, smiles even wider when she leans back on the pillow, and nearly painfully widely as the tension in her friend's posture finally relaxes.
With a genuinely tired yawn, Quan Jia flops back, accidentally landing on her friend's shoulder, "wake me up when Mei Mei gets here."
Before the last word is entirely out of her mouth, and conveniently before her friend can protest, Quan Jia drifts off into sleep.
I think I mentioned it at some point in the thread, but to reiterate here, one action per turn (more or less) will be a bonus action that reflects outside factors interacting with Quan Jia. It is, in essence, a space for me to write a scene I find interesting that may or may not be related to anything from the turn vote options. It may also be written from the POV of a different character.
This bonus option will, at worst, be entirely neutral, and likely at least slightly beneficial. This guarantee does not extend to any vote options that result from the bonus option though.
It was more difficult than most people thought, to stay in an a state of awakeness that could at any moment shift to naptime. Today that state required the shade of a parasol painted with hundreds of cherry trees in full blossom shedding pink petals onto a lazily flowing river. That the petals turned real and showered Quan Jia as well when she spun it about over her head had nothing at all to do with it.
Not a thing…
White-Caps upon Stone, the city that had grown up around the outer walls of the sect had been named in the old way, though whether for the snow capped peaks or a local variety of mushroom she didn't know. It was also constructed out of mortal ingenuity and artifice. And mortal refuse. Quan Jia slips around a pile of what was certainly not animal droppings and continues her meandering walk down what seemed to be a main thoroughfare.
Storefronts lined the unevenly paved cobblestone road, their wares described with crude hand painted plaques hanging from awnings. A fish here, an ear of corn there, a dancing woman over there. It was all so fascinating.
I wonder what kind of dances mortals do…
Quan Jia wasn't really here for shopping though, it was unlikely, after all, that there'd be anything sold here that met her, not exactly lenient standards. Rather, it was more a chance to see something new. And since she'd never been to a mortal village before, everything was new.
Perhaps she could have brought Xiao Lien with her, but her friend still seemed to be a bit annoyed with her, for some odd and unknowable 2reason. Mei Mei was similarly a bad choice, her attendant had never seen a good idea she couldn't make worse with boring things like safety and propriety.
That had left a disappointingly bare friend list. It was probably too soon to pester Shao Cuifen again, and that left Dai Qiao as the only other choice. Unfortunately, she hadn't seen the girl all week. So, with no other choices, Quan Jia had wandered into this mortal haven by herself.
I think I need more friends…
Maybe she could find a new one some-
"Psst, parasol girl, over here," a whispered voice drags her away from idle thoughts and she looks around for someone with a parasol.
Oh right… that's me.
Following the trace of qi that had accompanied the words, Quan Jia looks over to where a disciple, wearing the red robes of an outer sect disciple with the green trim that indicated he'd been in the sect for two years, was standing. "You were that girl from the welcoming festival right? The one who won all those gems?"
That question, and the ridiculous flat brimmed hat shading his eyes jogs her memory, "I am. You were the one who started betting on me, right?"
"Tang Huan," he grins, removes his hat with a flourish, and sketches an even more flourishy bow, "and may I have the lady's name who so valiantly earned me three month's worth of cultivation gems?"
"I'm Quan Jia," she replies and when he just nods without any sense of recognition, she relaxes a touch, "did you just want to say thank you? Or do you normally accost women in the street?"
"Ahh, the agony," his hand clenches in front of his heart, "that my benefactor would besmirch my motives so. Nay, rather, I would ask a perhaps indelicate question if I may."
"I don't think you're really helping your case," she muses with a grin, "but ask away, just know that I have a Mei Mei to beat up rude and mean people."
"A frightening proposition to be sure," the way Tang Huan's answering grin is perhaps a shade unsure is a pretty clear indication that he remembered her attendant too. "With the blessings of Heaven, may I remain un-beaten up as I ask: was your luck that night a vagary of chance, or is it perhaps a more sure thing?"
"The closer to random the better," Quan Jia replies after a moment of pause to consider whether admitting to it was a good idea. "But anything with an element of chance twists a bit when I'm around."
"Around, you say?" Tang Huan's eyes light up with an all too sly sort of look, "would my benefactor then consent to a brief diversion… a certain fellow of mine is setting up a friendly game of Ten-Thousand Immortals and a finger upon the scales of chance wouldn't go amiss… for me at least."
"Why would I want to do that?" she asks, somewhat intrigued despite herself.
"Would a cut of the, admittedly, modest prize pool not be enough to interest you," that question received a somewhat disinterested shrug in response.
Her allowance was enough for most things…
"Then perhaps…," Tang Huan taps a lip thoughtfully and then asks, "was my benefactor aware that with very few exceptions, senior outer sect disciples were forbidden from meeting with first year disciples?"
Quan Jia adopts her best sarcastic Mei Mei voice and asks, "Is gambling one of those exceptions?"
"Rather let's say that gambling which occurs away from the sect is," he grins slyly again, "so if instead of currency one were more interested in a chance to arrange contacts among those with a more… thorough knowledge of the outer sect then…"
[] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
[] "Hmm, no," Quan Jia frowns slightly, "you seem kind of creepy, and pops warned me about following strange men to unknown places. Besides I've got a town to explore." (Unlocks Tang Huan at 1, free town exploration roll.)
Quest looks interesting so far. Haven't seen a noble MC before.
A question about the Attribute totals: is there a limit of 5 on how high any one can go, or is it just a formatting thing because we don't currently have one above 5?
Also, I assume we can't start on the Lesser Souls and Bodies until after we've reached the peak of Diamond Soul?
[X] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
[X] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
[X] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
[X] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
[x] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
[x] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
[X] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
[X] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
What are peoples plans for cultivation going forward? I figure we want to have made progress somewhere beyond meridians by the next set of Elder lessons, and for that the best method I can see is getting to Late Diamond Soul. If we want to keep up with our friends and find a worthwhile site, I don't see us having enough actions to make progress on more than one goal, not with our Talent.
Late Diamond Soul at least helps us in fights and politically I don't want to risk falling behind the others. Sleeps Glittering Sand lvl 1 should hopefully be enough to last us a month (especially if we find time to use that pill and get that 4th Dex dot), and as cool as Dreamers Endless Journey is we'd still likely end up getting it near the end of the month, after we've ideally found a proper site and so after the bonus would be most useful. I'd probably set upping DEJ as our next goal after Late Diamond, but not right now.
[X] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
What are peoples plans for cultivation going forward? I figure we want to have made progress somewhere beyond meridians by the next set of Elder lessons, and for that the best method I can see is getting to Late Diamond Soul. If we want to keep up with our friends and find a worthwhile site, I don't see us having enough actions to make progress on more than one goal, not with our Talent.
Late Diamond Soul at least helps us in fights and politically I don't want to risk falling behind the others. Sleeps Glittering Sand lvl 1 should hopefully be enough to last us a month (especially if we find time to use that pill and get that 4th Dex dot), and as cool as Dreamers Endless Journey is we'd still likely end up getting it near the end of the month, after we've ideally found a proper site and so after the bonus would be most useful. I'd probably set upping DEJ as our next goal after Late Diamond, but not right now.
TBPH, at our current die-pools/talent, cultivating anything other than Meridians/Base isn't super rewarding. Even with our resources and good house vent, we're only putting out 7-8ish successes - which means the only thing we can actually expect to improve in a single action is Meridians. Right now it takes four-ish actions to cultivate any of our techniques up to level 2, ditto dexterity (even with the one time extra 6 dice)
If we stick at the 2/week actions for cultivation, that'd be minimum 2 weeks to advance a single technique one rank (takes ~4 actions currently), which just doesn't seem worthwhile since, if we instead split meridians/base, we could in the same timeframe be up to 9 meridians and be only 1/2 weeks out from late-diamond.
Once we hit Quartz-soul, which we can do in 4ish cultivation actions, we can hoover up more spirit-stones (we have access to more than we can actually use right now) giving us 18 bonus dice from resources (and probably landing our raw-dice pools into the 30s with vent, relic, etc) at which point taking 1-weeks-or-less to start putting levels into techniques/stats gets a lot more palatable., but we'd probably still want to do it in 2 (1 action a week instead of doubling up) so that our meridians/base cultivation don't lag behind.
money-as-a-superpower pays immense dividends in cultivation speed by rushing up to where we can use our full allowance as fast as we get it - granted, we probably wont because there's always other things to spend money on.
On second thoughts looking at this we only get our Meridian bonus to attribute training at base, and on average we need 75 dice to get the 30 points for Dex 4. Even with the Gyre we'd need around 63 dice to get it. If spirit stones apply as well then that helps a lot, bringing it down to around 4-5 actions from 8-9, but still probably not worth it compared to monofocusing base.
[X] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
As I understand it the broad plan in the thread goes something like:
1) Grab the low hanging Meridian fruit (we can unlock a new Meridian in a single action even with our terrible talent)
2) Grind cultivation until we have the foundation to use best!superpower (money) at Late Diamond/Quartz soul
3) Use best!superpower to level our cultivation and combat arts.
4) Roll that Adventure Gacha until we get a fortuitous encounter to offset our talent.
I would probably add a 3.5 which is to acquire, at a minimum, an esoteric defence art, an esoteric or physical attack art and a movement art.
One thing we should probably look into next week is buying stuff. Since we get spirit stones faster than we can eat them, for now, it makes sense to see if we can swap some of those into immediate bonus dice.
[x] "Hmm, ok," Quan Jia pauses just long enough and smiles innocently before adding, "I'll take the gems too though." Her smile is in no way affected by the way Tang Huan's face momentarily falls at hearing her condition for joining. (Unlocks Tang Huan at 2, chance to earn gems and make contacts.)
Quite honestly, I'm actually pretty impressed with Quan Jia's networking potential in this first week. She's made friends with another of the high nobles from the new batch of students, which is going to be important if our rival tries to manipulate others into hindering us and our first friend.
Based on what the winning vote looks to be, Quan Jia will start working on making networks with the older disciples (albeit through gambling), giving a pretty substantial advantage in getting information about the sect.
Mixed feelings on this one. Someone clearly wants to manipulate Quan Jia, which means they can be manipulated back for significant gains.
But manipulating people will cut into nap time...
