All course work is done, all of the tests are behind me and I'm freeeee! freeeeee I tell you!
Now, I'm going to close the vote but the next part will only come out sometime next week as I'm going to finish the current turn in distant stars and then post turn 10 over the weekend but I already have an outline for our next part so writing should go smoothly.
Adhoc vote count started by uri on Apr 17, 2024 at 12:59 PM, finished with 18 posts and 7 votes.
[X] Earrings of silent communication (a better name would be appreciated)
-[x] active
-[x] they allow to converse telepathically among all wearers of bonded earrings, either all together or just between a subgroup of them. It's possible to make more earrings to add to the telepathic network, but the crafter would need to both know how to make them, and to have access to all currently existing earrings to synchronize them, and Aurora eould need to justify such a request to her family
- [x] 2 points (1 earring for Aurora and 1 for each of her retainers)
[X] training multiplier treasure. Not sure about the type
-[x] something that can be used to make our forced training (so body and mind) better. Given to us by the family as they KNEW what the first oath would be about. Ideally something that can be shared with our retainers
- [x] 3 points
'What have I done' this was the only thought going through Aurora Protus mind.
Over and over -as she was being led by her loyal retainers to their assigned residence- has this thought flashed through her mind.
A never-ending cycle of horror and panic regarding the oath she has sworn mere moments before.
She knows why she has sworn it.
She knows the reason she forsook all common knowledge and her own desires for a lazy life to swear an oath so demanding.
But with oath sworn and the shackles gripping her soul, it all become so real and her reasons were swept away in the wind.
What does it matter that her family wont pressure her to work harder, if she already works harder than they would have ever pressured her.
What does it matter if she can spend hours lazing about with no one pressuring her to work if she works more then she has ever done before.
She doesn't know what kind of demon has overtaken her during the oath swearing ceremony but knows for a fact that it couldn't have been her that swore this oath.
Yet deep inside, in her blazing soul, she could find irrefutable evidence.
She doesn't know how long she spent in this haze but at some point, she could feel her head being laid doesn't on something soft.
So soft it was heavenly.
Unconsciously she recognized the feeling as belonging to her thrice refined phoenix feather pillow.
Slowly -with the help of her expensive pillow- Aurora pulled herself back together.
Looking around, she found herself in a tastefully decorated bedroom, seeing as some of the items she sent to the sect ahead of her arrival were present here, it wasn't hard to deduce that this was her room.
After a few more minutes of rest on her pillow -she really should look for the matching mattress- she finally felt ready and stepped beyond her room.
She stepped into a balcony overlooking a specious living hall, a small chandelier illuminating it and below it stood a medium table with five chairs surrounding it.
Both Gallus and Octavia set around the table and seem to have paused some kind of conversation when she left her room.
"Finally awake princess? Good of you to join us" Gallus was the first to speak, his voice deep and rough like always but there was something different about him. Probably related to the oath he swore.
Octavia on the other hand was satisfied with a small "my lady" rather than a sarcastic comment.
Ignoring Gallus and nodding in appreciation to Octavia Aurora start descending the stairs to the side of the small balcony.
Reaching the bottom, she noticed a plush couch next to a small table and dragged it to the larger table, it seemed far more comfortable then the -admittedly nice- wooden chairs.
Letting her body sink into the cushions of the couch and take pleasure at the softens of it, she drinks in the silence and enjoys the moment of reprieve she has.
Alas all good things come to an end and this time by her hand as she focuses on her two friends and loyal retainers and breaks the silence "what did I miss?"
"Not much, we were just discussing what we're having for dinner" it was Gallus who answered, his grin spreading as he knows that he didn't answer what Aurora asked.
Seeing that he didn't mean to correct himself, Octavia sighed and answered in his steed "You've missed the initiation ceremony, they outlined the rules and expectations".
"See, you haven't missed anything important" Gallus interrupted.
And despite Octavia glare Aurora couldn't help but agree with him, she have been thoroughly briefed on the iron oath school rules and traditions -the ones that weren't deliberately kept form her at least- and didn't feel like sitting through that lecture again.
Seeing the expression on her face, Gallus grin just became even more smug, while Octavia glare switched to glare at Aurora, her golden eyes peering into Aurora very soul before sighing again "they also listed the requirements to become a true member which must be completed in the next three months".
And now Aurora was also glaring at Gallus, who responded to the pressure by the two women by saying "allright, allright there may have been some important information there but we'll fill you in"
At least some of the smugness left his smile.
Body at the second tier.
Two oaths.
Horkos at 20.
One skill at expert.
3 layers of the iron body cultivation. (which you'll get by going to the library)
A third order oath (this concept will be explained soonish but isn't something you currently know).
Three skills at expert or one at master.
Horkos at 50.
Will at the second tier.
5 layers of the iron body cultivation.
Passing the final test or placing high in one of the main tournaments.
"hmmm…. Are you sure its all?" Aurora ask's once Gallus finished reciting the initiation speech word for word.
In response Gallus rolled his eyes "Of course I'm sure"
"And there was nothing about jumping straight into the inner school?"
"There wasn't...although I might have something" Gallus replied before closing his eyes, his tense face told you he was focusing on something "Yeah three years ago someone in the verdant growth school jumped straight to inner my father and yours talked about it as it was fairly impressive said he got his fourth oath by that time but I didn't hear anything else"
"Well, it's not like I was planning to pursue such an ambition so nothing is lost" is Aurora last words that night before she returns to the luxury of her bed and phoenix pillow.
Four oaths???
???
The next day aurora woke bright and early -more like was dragged out of bed by Octavia and a laughing Gallus- made herself presentable -by that she means she tire not to interrupt Octavia as she did her swift work- and with both Gallus and Octavia at her side, existed her new residence.
Now outside she could see that the house she was provided was just to the side of the court center with something like a hundred or so other houses ringing around it -of far lesser quality.
Just outside of her door there was a large cornered that traveled in all four direction and in the middle of it there was a large wooden board with various pieces of paper attached to it.
Seeing as aroura and her retainers were pretty much alone -because apparently, they woke up really early- they had no trouble approaching it and readding the contents of the notes.
There were only two important subjects relayed on the board.
The first was the times and locations for lessons given by the sect elder's (along with a note that they would repeat the same lesson a week later).
The second is directions to the contribution center and the directive to collect their stipends.
Now waking up this early dos bring up an opportunity, from what you were told in initiations -that was later relayed to you by Gallus- everything in this courtyard is up to the disciples to manage.
In fact, they worded it such, that aurora is pretty sure that pulling down one of the notes is totally within the rules and the chance for a semi private lesson with an elder is just to tantalizing to pass up.
Especially when no one will see you pull it down.
Do you want to pull one of the lessons time and location off the board?
[] no.
[] yes.
-[] which one? (choose one of the three last options in the lesson category).
The start of week 1. You have 7 AP to spend (unless otherwise specified every action costs 1 ap) between the following options
Lessons (will be available for the first 2 turns).
[X] Physical work by elder Artus (you must spend 6 AP over the next 2 turn's on this action) (this is for your oath).
[] The three fundamentals alchemy, enchanting and combat by elder Zerveas.
[] Oaths and their understanding by elder Septima.
[] meditation upon the self by elder Valla
Cultivating/training.
Will be updated as new information and training sites are unlocked.
Social.
[] Apparently while Gallus oath gives him perfect memory he still needs to actively seek those memories, of course the first thing the bastard deigned to remember was Cispia birthday party, you know the one you made a fool of yourself in, and is content to laugh at you once more.
[] Octavia is around if you wish to talk, especially if it's to complain about how Gallus is annoying.
[] you could also just laze about with your retainers, resting and having small talk.
[] You saw Areti Vlahili and as a Protus its practically your duty to push her down.
[] You know Alex Condakis is around, go introduce yourself you could always use a contact with one of the five, even if its only with a branch member.
[] You could also start building your faction gods know you need some minions to order around.
[] almost two hundred disciples have been granted entrance to the school at least some must be worth something, keep an eye for hidden gems and see if you can befriend/recruit them.
Exploration.
[] Explore the school- the school sits on a huge amount of land go explore and see if you can find something interesting.
[] Find the library- apparently you need to get the iron body method from the library and to do that you must find it.
[] Find the contribution center- follow the directions given to you and go claim your weekly stipend and while you're at it go see what missions are available to you.
[] Explore the market- you've got money and your all but certain that there is some kind of market somewhere around here, find it and burn a hole through your pocket.
Additionally, you may give your retainers a directive to do something , wether that be gathering information/ doing jobs or whatever, this is pretty free form but you can only have one directive for each of them in a turn.
[] what do you want (if you want) Gallus to pursue?
[] what do you want (if you want) Octavia to pursue?
Okey I'm somewhat sleep deprived so I really hope I didn't forget anything; I'll be available for questions for the next 2-3 hours but after that I'm going to need to go to sleep.
Good sir, while I appreciate your contribution to the internet and its bounty, I must humble request you consider: sleep is good.
If I have failed to convince you, then soldier on as you will, but take care of yourself.
Pulling down lesson plans:
[x] no.
Can we set up a system with all the fellow disciples where we all agree to not do this and beat the crap out of anyone who does? It shouldn't be hard to find out if it's been done, and by who, even if its only after the fact.
[X] Physical work by elder Artus (you must spend 6 AP over the next 2 turn's on this action) (this is for your oath).
[x] The three fundamentals alchemy, enchanting and combat by elder Zerveas.
[x] meditation upon the self by elder Valla
We should work at increasing our action economy as soon as possible. Building a faction so we can have them do things is a good step towards that.
[x] You could also start building your faction gods know you need some minions to order around.
[x] almost two hundred disciples have been granted entrance to the school at least some must be worth something, keep an eye for hidden gems and see if you can befriend/recruit them.
[x] Find the library- apparently you need to get the iron body method from the library and to do that you must find it.
[x] Find the contribution center- follow the directions given to you and go claim your weekly stipend and while you're at it go see what missions are available to you.
I haven't decided on retainer actions yet. Thoughts?
[X] Plan: Getting Ahead Of The Pack
-[X] yes.
--[X] Oaths and their understanding by elder Septima.
[X] Physical work by elder Artus (you must spend 6 AP over the next 2 turn's on this action) (this is for your oath).
--[X] 3 AP
-[X] The three fundamentals alchemy, enchanting and combat by elder Zerveas.
-[X] Oaths and their understanding by elder Septima.
-[X] meditation upon the self by elder Valla
-[x] Find the contribution center- follow the directions given to you and go claim your weekly stipend and while you're at it go see what missions are available to you.
-[X] what do you want (if you want) Gallus to pursue?
--[X] We want him to find the Library, dig up the Iron Body Method, and if he's able to get copies for the three of us great, otherwise he'll be able to guide us on how to grab the method ourselves when more time is available later. If there's a choice between getting the copies for all three of us or getting in good with the Librarians, get in good with the Librarians.
-[X] what do you want (if you want) Octavia to pursue?
--[X] We want her to do a cautious investigation of our intake class. Order of priority is: Who are the hidden gems, who are the political players we haven't taken note of yet, who's making trouble already. Politics and connections are an unfortunate fact of life for us, so it's best to get a lay of the land and try to figure out those (mostly) unaligned that we will be able to try to persuade to be aligned at least not against us if not with us.
I think it might not be a bad idea to guarantee we're at least a little further ahead of everyone else on the fundamentals of the cultivation system.
Edit: Changing my plan to Hit The Ground Running, but with the flyer ripping. It's a way better idea to let our retainers do stuff we don't have the actions to do.
-[X] Physical work by elder Artus (you must spend 6 AP over the next 2 turn's on this action) (this is for your oath).
--[X] 3 AP
Setting aside 3AP every turn on Training seems like a reasonable balance between getting Swole, fulfilling our Oath, and having time for other things.
-[X] The three fundamentals alchemy, enchanting and combat by elder Zerveas.
-[X] Oaths and their understanding by elder Septima.
-[X] meditation upon the self by elder Valla
These have a Timer on them to benefit from, so learning from them this turn and next turn is a must in my eyes, especially to ensure we have a fundamental understanding of how things work.
-[X] Find the contribution center- follow the directions given to you and go claim your weekly stipend and while you're at it go see what missions are available to you.
Cash is King, and Missions make the Xianxia World Go Round.
Plus going on ahead as a Tier 2 person gives us a shot at stumbling into and defusing trouble before our retainers might have to deal with it.
-[X] what do you want (if you want) Gallus to pursue?
--[X] We want him to find the Library, dig up the Iron Body Method, and if he's able to get copies for the three of us great, otherwise he'll be able to guide us on how to grab the method ourselves when more time is available later. If there's a choice between getting the copies for all three of us or getting in good with the Librarians, get in good with the Librarians.
Gallus is a Knowledge dude and we want him to have Library Access and get to Nerding It Up asap. If we're fortunate he'll be able to snatch up the Iron Body Method without Octavia and us spending an action on it, but otherwise this should get him into a good position to start exploiting his natural inclinations and become the Lore Nerd that will save our asses with esoteric knowledge later on.
-[X] what do you want (if you want) Octavia to pursue?
--[X] We want her to do a cautious investigation of our intake class. Order of priority is: Who are the hidden gems, who are the political players we haven't taken note of yet, who's making trouble already. Politics and connections are an unfortunate fact of life for us, so it's best to get a lay of the land and try to figure out those (mostly) unaligned that we will be able to try to persuade to be aligned at least not against us if not with us.
With Mind 9, Investigation, and her Lie Detecting Eyes, Octavia is set to dig up a lot more information than we would alone, and her being a "peasant" means that she may be able to make moves and remain unseen where we would have eyes all over us while we act.
If we're lucky, she'll be able to give us a rundown of what all is going on with our intake class before we run face first into anything, if we're fortunate she'll be able to make contact with some people before our "political rivals" get ahead of us, and if we're blessed then we'll get an idea of who and how our intake class interacts with those already set up within the Sect proper.
Next turn I'd like to do a repeat of our first 6 AP (3AP physical training, 3AP on our elder guided classes), with the last AP depending on if we need to go to the Library ourself or not, with the not likely being either a Retainer Social or a Recruitment attempt. Projected Retainer Missions are currently up in the air depending on the results and revelations of this turn.
I think it might not be a bad idea to guarantee we're at least a little further ahead of everyone else on the fundamentals of the cultivation system.
Edit: Changing my plan to Hit The Ground Running, but with the flyer ripping. It's a way better idea to let our retainers do stuff we don't have the actions to do.
I'll note that if we want to recruit other people as legitimately loyal to us, potentially screwing over those people before we even meet them isn't the best look imo.
That doesn't sound incorrect, though I wouldn't be surprised if we were lead to further classes after attending these ones.
But if we don't have other classes that we need/want to do next week, then that just gives us more ability to resolve the intel that our retainers give us this week.
She doesn't know what kind of demon has overtaken her during the oath swearing ceremony but knows for a fact that it couldn't have been her that swore this oath.
well, I'm going to assume at least the first set of requirement is not supposed to be particularly difficult to reach.
We already have the tier 2 attributes. We can get to Horkos 10 just by taking another oath, probably, so we only really need another 10 or so. And we have a few skills at adept 4 and 5, so bringing them to expert shouldn't be that hard.
Of course I have no idea how difficult the cultivation is here, but we should manage.
I'll come back to these requirements once we understand them better.
"There wasn't...although I might have something" Gallus replied before closing his eyes, his tense face told you he was focusing on something "Yeah three years ago someone in the verdant growth school jumped straight to inner my father and yours talked about it as it was fairly impressive said he got his fourth oath by that time but I didn't hear anything else"
"Well, it's not like I was planning to pursue such an ambition so nothing is lost" is Aurora last words that night before she returns to the luxury of her bed and phoenix pillow.
Between this turn and the next we should definitely attend them all... though we COULD, if we wanted to, have Gallus "replay them" for us later if we missed one.
Of course even if he can describe them perfectly and repeat the Elder's speeches, there might be things we'd miss out on, like for example the elders might use artifacts to help in the lesson.
I think we really want to go at the Oath lesson to start with at the very least. making a custom plan for training can wait until after the first lesson with elder Artus... and maybe some training in Mind. If we could bring it to 10 (20) quickly enough, our oath power could multiply it to 100...
[] Apparently while Gallus oath gives him perfect memory he still needs to actively seek those memories, of course the first thing the bastard deigned to remember was ---- birthday party, you know the one you made a fool of yourself in, and is content to laugh at you once more.
[] Octavia is around if you wish to talk, especially if it's to complain about how Gallus is annoying.
[] you could also just laze about with your retainers, resting and having small talk.
[] You saw Areti Vlahili and as a Protus its practically your duty to push her down.
[] You know Alex Condakis is around, go introduce yourself you could always use a contact with one of the five, even if its only with a branch member.
[] You could also start building your faction gods know you need some minions to order around.
[] almost two hundred disciples have been granted entrance to the school at least some must be worth something, keep an eye for hidden gems and see if you can befriend/recruit them.
[] Explore the school- the school sits on a huge amount of land go explore and see if you can find something interesting.
[] Find the library- apparently you need to get the iron body method from the library and to do that you must find it.
[] Find the contribution center- follow the directions given to you and go claim your weekly stipend and while you're at it go see what missions are available to you.
[] Explore the market- you've got money and your all but certain that there is some kind of market somewhere around here, find it and burn a hole through your pocket.
Yeah, Library seems like a must. Contribution Center too, actually, though maybe we could send our retainers instead? Do we actually need to go and take our stipend each week, or can we go only when we need it/want it?
about the market... well, Octavia can again help with negotiation, hopefully. After all she'd know if the merchant is honest about the goods, or if he really can't go lower than X.
and she might be able to see if something is a fake or not too.
Additionally, you may give your retainers a directive to do something , wether that be gathering information/ doing jobs or whatever, this is pretty free form but you can only have one directive for each of them in a turn.
[] what do you want (if you want) Gallus to pursue?
[] what do you want (if you want) Octavia to pursue?
not necessarily true. I agree with you on not doing it, but it CAN work out, as long as you're not dumb about it.
We can also actually do the opposite and share the information on the flyers if they're removed by others, though, as a way to gain some gratitude from other students...
-[X] Find the contribution center- follow the directions given to you and go claim your weekly stipend and while you're at it go see what missions are available to you.
Cash is King, and Missions make the Xianxia World Go Round.
-[X] what do you want (if you want) Gallus to pursue?
--[X] We want him to find the Library, dig up the Iron Body Method, and if he's able to get copies for the three of us great, otherwise he'll be able to guide us on how to grab the method ourselves when more time is available later. If there's a choice between getting the copies for all three of us or getting in good with the Librarians, get in good with the Librarians.
Gallus is a Knowledge dude and we want him to have Library Access and get to Nerding It Up asap. If we're fortunate he'll be able to snatch up the Iron Body Method without Octavia and us spending an action on it, but otherwise this should get him into a good position to start exploiting his natural inclinations and become the Lore Nerd that will save our asses with esoteric knowledge later on.
-[X] what do you want (if you want) Octavia to pursue?
--[X] We want her to do a cautious investigation of our intake class. Order of priority is: Who are the hidden gems, who are the political players we haven't taken note of yet, who's making trouble already. Politics and connections are an unfortunate fact of life for us, so it's best to get a lay of the land and try to figure out those (mostly) unaligned that we will be able to try to persuade to be aligned at least not against us if not with us.
With Mind 9, Investigation, and her Lie Detecting Eyes, Octavia is set to dig up a lot more information than we would alone, and her being a "peasant" means that she may be able to make moves and remain unseen where we would have eyes all over us while we act.
If we're lucky, she'll be able to give us a rundown of what all is going on with our intake class before we run face first into anything, if we're fortunate she'll be able to make contact with some people before our "political rivals" get ahead of us, and if we're blessed then we'll get an idea of who and how our intake class interacts with those already set up within the Sect proper.
I think we should do it now and in person. Aurelia has Heart 16, and the first week is the best moment to recruit, where people are still not fully settled.
Octavia should definitely assist us though.
Reminder, we need to decide WHEN and FOR WHAT to use our Mind * 5 ability (twice per month).
@uri how does the ability charge/recharge? Does it only starts recharging AFTER we first use it? do we get both uses after a month, or maybe one after 2 weeks? If we wait until the 4th turn/week to use both instances of the power, would we then get them both back on turn 5?
You'll do so automatically after taking the action (without it costing AP) the explore action is more then just going and taking the stipend, it also includes seeing what the contribution center is all about and gives a change to take a job.
about the market... well, Octavia can again help with negotiation, hopefully. After all she'd know if the merchant is honest about the goods, or if he really can't go lower than X.
@uri how does the ability charge/recharge? Does it only starts recharging AFTER we first use it? do we get both uses after a month, or maybe one after 2 weeks? If we wait until the 4th turn/week to use both instances of the power, would we then get them both back on turn 5?
I think we should do it now and in person. Aurelia has Heart 16, and the first week is the best moment to recruit, where people are still not fully settled.
I figure that by having Octavia focus on picking out targets, next turn we can leverage our 16 Heart for more tailored approaches rather than spending/wasting time trying to figure out who's worth the effort.
You'll do so automatically after taking the action (without it costing AP) the explore action is more then just going and taking the stipend, it also includes seeing what the contribution center is all about and gives a change to take a job.
I probably should have mentioned it but your retainers do help on your actions as at least one is around you at all times.
The directives are if you want them to go and do something on their own.
Well yes but you don't have that unlocked yet.
From the sect and its not money (this was explained in the initiation) but cultivation aids.
Every 4 turns, so you'll get both back at the start of turn 5.
We can PROBABLY delay the contribution center by one turn, as we're not cultivating this turn anyway.
and by turn 4 at the latest we NEED to use both mind*5 uses. Right now I'm thinking to use it for the training/study program, but I'm sure we can come up with other ideas for it.
I figure that by having Octavia focus on picking out targets, next turn we can leverage our 16 Heart for more tailored approaches rather than spending/wasting time trying to figure out who's worth the effort.
I will say that it wouldn't matter that much, recruiting someone notable would likely take several AP worth of effort and you won't miss something if you start a turn late (especially if your doing some ground work).
We're doing half the obligatory training, 3/4 mandatory classes, and we're sending our retainers to look for cultivation info at the library and valuable recruits among our "peers".
as far as starting plans go, this is fine.
That said, we need to come up with more ways to abuse our oath powers.
Aurelia has her "mind*5 for a challenge, twice per month/every 4 turns".
Gallus has "perfect memory up to 4 years ago"
Octavia's is a boring "1 extra dice reroll on all skills", BUT she has the "no lie or falsehood may be exist in the gaze of the bearer of this legacy", which should work on more than just lies, but potentially even counterfeit/fake magical items, potentially even fake/wrong information from books...
actually Uri any comment on how this power works? Because the definition of lie and falsehood matters a LOT here. It's one thing if she can notice people lying, another if she can, say, know if a BOOK is lying, or if a painting is an original or a copy, and so on.
actually Uri any comment on how this power works? Because the definition of lie and falsehood matters a LOT here. It's one thing if she can notice people lying, another if she can, say, know if a BOOK is lying, or if a painting is an original or a copy, and so on.
Well, it's based on the absolute truth of the world and the intent of the person.
If someone intends to lie or mislead shell know, if someone tells a falsehood but not know that it's one she'll still know because it's based on the truth of the world and there is very much just one set of truth's.
Well, it's based on the absolute truth of the world and the intent of the person.
If someone intends to lie or mislead shell know, if someone tells a falsehood but not know that it's one she'll still know because it's based on the truth of the world and there is very much just one set of truth's.
You know, this was stated to be the "slacker" start with an AP penalty, but I didn't expect for retainers to be so good?
Honestly really glad to see there be so much (potential) benefit from this so soon, I don't recall the last time I actually saw things from a Noble's perspective in a xianxia that wasn't a super loner or that low key ignored the benefits of having, ya know, Staff.
-
I'm glad to see that discussion has come out that my plan covers the fundamentals pretty well, though I do have a question.
Which mandatory class am I missing? I thought I got everything? And reviewing the text, nothing beyond the oath is "strictly" mandatory, just a really good idea.
(Assuming the answer to all the following questions is yes, and also actually stated as true statements able to twig the Lie Eyes.)
"Is the best cultivation method for me that I can reasonably access within the Library?"
"Is the BCMFMTICRA in this half of the Library?"
"Is the BCMFMTICRA in this half of the stacks within this half of the Library?" (repeat until single stack is identified)
"Is the BCMFMTICRA in this half of this stack?" (repeat until single arrangement of shelves are determined)
"Is the BCMFMTICRA in the upper half of these shelves?" (narrow down to a single shelf)
"Is the BCMFMTICRA on the left of where I've placed my hand within this shelf?" (narrow down to a single book/manuel)
"Is this the BCMFMTICRA?"
Repeat for Octavia and for Gallus
Of course, this all assumes that whatever knowledge protecting formations they have don't block Octavia's superpower, but at the same time narrowing in on the information available that isn't hidden behind DRM is still dead useful.
You know, this was stated to be the "slacker" start with an AP penalty, but I didn't expect for retainers to be so good?
Honestly really glad to see there be so much (potential) benefit from this so soon, I don't recall the last time I actually saw things from a Noble's perspective in a xianxia that wasn't a super loner or that low key ignored the benefits of having, ya know, Staff.
-
I'm glad to see that discussion has come out that my plan covers the fundamentals pretty well, though I do have a question.
Which mandatory class am I missing? I thought I got everything? And reviewing the text, nothing beyond the oath is "strictly" mandatory, just a really good idea.
With the vote being so one-sided I figured I'll close it early.
Now there is another matter to discuss your oath allows you to multiply you mind for a short time among other things this can be used to help learn skills as 99% of them roll mind (or include mind in the calculations).
Learning skills is simple you spend AP to go to a lesson or to learn on your own you then roll the average of the training attributes (most things are just pure mind but some also have the other attributes) with the teacher teaching skill taking the place of your skill in the roll.
You then need to get a certain amount of succusses and then you go up a rank.
The XP formula goes like this (X is the sub rank you wish to achieve):
Novice: 4*X.
Adapt: 9*X.
Expert: 20*X.
Master: 50*X.
Grandmaster: 200*X.
Going up a rank inflict an additional 5X cost (so going form novice 5 to adapt 1 costs 45 XP).
Of course, things aren't straight forward, while going from novice to adapt is juts a matter of XP expert and up require some challenge that pushes your limits to rank up even when they got the necessary XP.
Now with the explanation of how skills training work here is a list of all the skills you'll be training this turn, so decide if you want to use your oath to speed up training or not (reminder you only have 2 uses) and if so, which skills you want to do so.
[] don't spend an oath charge.
[] spend an oath charge.
-[] On which skills? (note you may pick a skill twice)
Here is your skill list with the training attributes and a small description of what the skill does.
Athleticism (body/mind) – used for long physical challenges as well for physical cultivation.
Meditation (mind)- used for Horkos and oath cultivation as well as the actual act of meditation.
Weapon skill (body/mind)- used for combat.
Foot work (body/mind).
Alchemy (mind)- used for the art of concocting pills and elixirs as well as identifying them.
Runes (mind)- used for the art of enchanting as well as identifying enchantments.
Honestly, as long as we advance at an acceptable rate and help maintain an internal sect faction for future family members, I can't imagine our duties being anymore onerous than occasionally Representing The Family at some function or other.
Setting our sights on entering within the Outer Sect (I have honestly never heard of Branch Members in this capacity before, which is neat!) and getting into the Inner Sect within two years should probably cover things pretty well.
That being said, we should probably start thinking about what we want our "Profession" to be.
The three routes that come to mind are essentially "Monster Slayer", "Crafter", and "Politician".
Being a Monster Slayer would be focusing on the Martial Path, getting swole and regularly leaving the Sect on missions to go kick ass and take names. A dangerous, but importantly prestigious, path that would get our family off our backs as long as we're reasonably successful at it, this path would embody the "Hurry Up And Wait" route of laziness, in that we would have lots of downtime waiting for Monsters to show up and would be generally allowed to faff about as long as we keep bringing in results (read: dead Monsters (read: spirit/demonic beasts, ghosts, demons, bandits, demonic cultivators, etc etc).
Our retainers would actually be really good immediate assets for this path, with G-Man being our Lore Nerd telling us what the Monster is and how to kill it and 8-Gal being our Investigator getting the intel G-Man needs to identify exactly what we're dealing with and otherwise gathering information on the very important bits of "Where exactly is the bastard?"
We'd probably want a fourth in our party, though their exact role specializations would depend on what everyone else in our party branches out into (for example, if we go Martial-Melee-Fighty-Fighty Cultivator, Octavia goes Investigation-Stealth-Social-Bureaucracy, and Gallus goes Lore-Nerd-Knowledge-Formation, then having someone on dedicated long range support-alchemy-healing would be dead useful), but that can wait until we see our options.
Being a Crafter would be immensely safer than going for the Martial Path, and as long as we show hard work, diligence, and a reasonable amount of talent, then our family should be willing to bank roll our training into one of the Cultivator Industries. It's a respectable path, but one that relies on start up capital and is otherwise a slow path to prestige and influence. But once started, we wouldn't be able to drop it due to the whole "family paying for the initial investment" part of things, so we'll want to make sure this is really something we want to pursue. Additionally, most of the social power and prestige comes from implications and being able to offer a service, so of the three paths before us this gives our family the least short-to-medium term leveraging power politically, imo.
Our retainers would be able to help out a shit ton in terms of material management and "customer service", as Gallus would be best suited towards identifying resources, reagents, and recipes, and Octavia would be best suited for actually finding those things and telling if anyone trying to buy or sell us something is actually bullshitting us.
Assuming we keep our retainers primarily within the Sect with us to handle all the messy paperwork stuff, we'ddefinitely want to build a relationship with someone or some group able to act as an external resource supplier, to help hunt down that really rare crap and also provide security when we would inevitably go to Auctions.
The third path, Politician, would be focused on building up influence and connections within the Sect as our primary means of building power/being productive in a way our family would be amendable with. We'd likely want to pursue an Artistic Path such as Caligraphy, a Knowledge Path such as Bibliography (being a Librarian), or a Service Path such as Medicine (beyond studying and practice it requires patients/customers to actually do anything), that would keep us in the Sect and then basically focus on going "Confucius Gentle(wo)man" about things and leveraging our Fancy Rep and Family Connections to build up a network of people whom feel indebted to us/vibe with us, with a focus on us being a Benevolent Benefactor and essentially getting into Favor Trading to build up a faction for ourselves that our family would then be able to benefit off of.
This would require a lot of initial effort, but eventually things should essentially snowball and stabilize to a point where most of the faction running work would amount to telling people to do stuff, building and maintaining relations, and keeping an eye out for back seeking knives.
A Lore Nerd with Perfect Memory and an Unassuming Lie Detector are very obvious benefits for this route.
I think I'm inclined towards the Monster Slayer route myself, but let's see what our MC feels about the various ways of things after this turn.
And we finish things off with "How To Make Shit 101".
I'm inclined towards dropping both charges into Athleticism and Meditation, because something called Iron Body probably uses both and having a quality foundation is helpful in things like this.
[ ] Plan: Burning Charges
-[ ] spend a charge on Athleticism and Meditation
[X] Plan: Slow and Steady
-[X] Meditation
But at the same time, if we want to spend a charge on Athleticism next turn, we probably won't lose anything, and we'll also get to see the mechanics of how all of this works straight off without real risk because Meditation is going to be important regardless of what we do.
