- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Yes, you would be honored. (Gain technique Warhound's Cry).
The Path Unending (A Cultivation Quest)
- Thread starter Vesvius
- Start date
- Original
-
- Tags
- original xianxia cultivation quest
I'd like a wallet of 75 to 100 anam for the Archive run, including allowance (which might take a hit from this). Sounds daunting, but if we plug away at sect tasks each week I think it's doable with what we'll get from our commission.
- Location
- Classified
I'm thinking fifty at absolute minimum. Assuming that Spirit Beast hunting jobs are regularly available and that we don't get horribly mauled, we'd have to kill minimum 3 beasts, up to 7, to be assured of a quality technique of appropriate elements, not including money reserves. Somewhere in there, we need to find time for our own defender charm, to reduce the risk of the aforementioned horrible mauling. It also gives us plenty of time to explore, develop a wide range of potential element options.
Last edited:
[x] Yes, you would be honored. (Gain technique Warhound's Cry).
- Location
- Australia
[X] No, you… you had best not. You've other business to attend to after all.
- Location
- California
Alright, now that I'm off of work I can post some of my reasons for voting other than the fact that not doing so means we aren't joining our chosen brother in a song of glory and battle.
Let's start with the mechanics, as that is honestly the least interesting part of this. From the description we got of the technique, it seems likely that this is a Scholar technique. This would mean that we would have a technique in both of the match-up triangles, which would then mean (barring any odd interactions such as passives or such) we could theoretically always hit for at least neutral damage once we get the BSA unlocked. In practice, it would depend on Tempo and the variety of techs our opponent has, but at our current level our opponents shouldn't have a wide variety of techs available to them; Nokai is just now getting her second technique and the only other disciple we know of having two is Jai Fa both of which seem to be in the same triangle. One concern I do have with the technique is the anam cost. The amount of anam that Kong Zhi felt from the tech was more than he thought Nokai would've been able to muster on her own. I'm hoping that this is because of the cooperative nature of how they were doing it and that we could do a weaker version by ourselves, otherwise it is less easily used.
Oh and a note, I've seen people mentioning that the Warhound's Cry itself is a known Waste Barbarian technique and I do not think that that is the case. Nokai mentioned that she was learning it from Zhao and that he developed this technique when he advanced in his cultivation (which has interesting implications on how animal Artists gain techniques). The thing that seems to be a Waste Barbarian thing is the way that they seem to be able to use their animals to fuel their techniques directly.
One thing that has been brought up both in thread and on Discord was this bearing some similarity to the decision to join the duel. On the surface it does bear some resemblance (the balancing between friendship with filial responsibility), but there are some key differences. Nokai, unlike Mei Daiyu, is one of our greatest allies. Mind you, Mei was certainly shaping up to be an important ally, but at that time the two people whose opinion I cared about the most were Nokai and Jai Fa and that's still the case for me. Admittedly, the interactions with Mei Daiyu since the duel have been more of a gut-punch than I was expecting, but I would make the same decision in a heartbeat. If we had not done the duel, I don't see anything we would have gained. We wouldn't have lost anything directly either, as the only person who would've had any thoughts of us joining the duel was Nokai and I don't think she would have been particularly disappointed. It would have been the status quo. Here, both of the decisions have connotations on our relationship with Nokai. If we say yes we are tightening our bonds with Nokai, which has consequences down the line for our relationship with our family, friends and the other members of our sect. But make no mistake, what Nokai is doing here is an act of vulnerability and to not take it will affect our relationship with her as well. Now she probably won't take it too harshly and probably would even understand, but it would still hurt her.
In the wider narrative it might cause us some problems with members of the sect, this is true. You know who probably won't give a shit? Elder Siani. When Kong Zhi first saw him he noted that the man likely traced his heritage in lands far to the south, making it unlikely that his people ever had to deal with the Waste Barbarians. There's also the fact that he's an Elder and beyond such petty crap. Now that probably applies to the other Elders as well, but if we join Elder Siani's...department (which seems to be the current preference of the thread), we may be the only disciple under him. Or at least one of the few. Assuming that each Elder has control over the promotion of their disciples to higher circles, that means nobody (or very few people) who would be able to directly interfere in our tasks. Plus you don't want to piss off the guy working for the sect's secret police.
I would also like to point out that without Nokai, we wouldn't have gotten the BSA, so this is the second anam technique we have access to because of her.
Let's start with the mechanics, as that is honestly the least interesting part of this. From the description we got of the technique, it seems likely that this is a Scholar technique. This would mean that we would have a technique in both of the match-up triangles, which would then mean (barring any odd interactions such as passives or such) we could theoretically always hit for at least neutral damage once we get the BSA unlocked. In practice, it would depend on Tempo and the variety of techs our opponent has, but at our current level our opponents shouldn't have a wide variety of techs available to them; Nokai is just now getting her second technique and the only other disciple we know of having two is Jai Fa both of which seem to be in the same triangle. One concern I do have with the technique is the anam cost. The amount of anam that Kong Zhi felt from the tech was more than he thought Nokai would've been able to muster on her own. I'm hoping that this is because of the cooperative nature of how they were doing it and that we could do a weaker version by ourselves, otherwise it is less easily used.
Oh and a note, I've seen people mentioning that the Warhound's Cry itself is a known Waste Barbarian technique and I do not think that that is the case. Nokai mentioned that she was learning it from Zhao and that he developed this technique when he advanced in his cultivation (which has interesting implications on how animal Artists gain techniques). The thing that seems to be a Waste Barbarian thing is the way that they seem to be able to use their animals to fuel their techniques directly.
One thing that has been brought up both in thread and on Discord was this bearing some similarity to the decision to join the duel. On the surface it does bear some resemblance (the balancing between friendship with filial responsibility), but there are some key differences. Nokai, unlike Mei Daiyu, is one of our greatest allies. Mind you, Mei was certainly shaping up to be an important ally, but at that time the two people whose opinion I cared about the most were Nokai and Jai Fa and that's still the case for me. Admittedly, the interactions with Mei Daiyu since the duel have been more of a gut-punch than I was expecting, but I would make the same decision in a heartbeat. If we had not done the duel, I don't see anything we would have gained. We wouldn't have lost anything directly either, as the only person who would've had any thoughts of us joining the duel was Nokai and I don't think she would have been particularly disappointed. It would have been the status quo. Here, both of the decisions have connotations on our relationship with Nokai. If we say yes we are tightening our bonds with Nokai, which has consequences down the line for our relationship with our family, friends and the other members of our sect. But make no mistake, what Nokai is doing here is an act of vulnerability and to not take it will affect our relationship with her as well. Now she probably won't take it too harshly and probably would even understand, but it would still hurt her.
In the wider narrative it might cause us some problems with members of the sect, this is true. You know who probably won't give a shit? Elder Siani. When Kong Zhi first saw him he noted that the man likely traced his heritage in lands far to the south, making it unlikely that his people ever had to deal with the Waste Barbarians. There's also the fact that he's an Elder and beyond such petty crap. Now that probably applies to the other Elders as well, but if we join Elder Siani's...department (which seems to be the current preference of the thread), we may be the only disciple under him. Or at least one of the few. Assuming that each Elder has control over the promotion of their disciples to higher circles, that means nobody (or very few people) who would be able to directly interfere in our tasks. Plus you don't want to piss off the guy working for the sect's secret police.
I would also like to point out that without Nokai, we wouldn't have gotten the BSA, so this is the second anam technique we have access to because of her.
- Location
- India
- Pronouns
- He/His
[X] Yes, you would be honored. (Gain technique Warhound's Cry).
- Location
- California
It tends to be more interesting to vote to do something than to vote not to do something.
- Location
- earth
[X] Yes, you would be honored. (Gain technique Warhound's Cry).
Man, people out here really be voting with intricate reasons when I vote positively for any doggo interactions.
Man, people out here really be voting with intricate reasons when I vote positively for any doggo interactions.
This. I'm not expecting that "the thorns are just marshmallows". I expect this will have consequences... but they'll be interesting consequences, with interesting character interactions, and interesting things needing to be done to deal with them, and the story will be better for it.
- Location
- Boston
[X] No, you… you had best not. You've other business to attend to after all.
Eh, I just don't really see Kong Zhi picking this up. There's also the fact that Nokai has been plenty generous to Kong Zhi, and I want to see him try to develop a bit more without her help.
The choice also feels kind of meme-y, I guess? I don't really see it being regularly used and choosing it seem to be just for the lols. Which is fine, I guess, but isn't what I'm interested in atm.
Eh, I just don't really see Kong Zhi picking this up. There's also the fact that Nokai has been plenty generous to Kong Zhi, and I want to see him try to develop a bit more without her help.
The choice also feels kind of meme-y, I guess? I don't really see it being regularly used and choosing it seem to be just for the lols. Which is fine, I guess, but isn't what I'm interested in atm.
- Location
- Yes
Mei Daiyu wishes that was true.
DangerKitty
shoddy writter
- Location
- lala land
i find it amusing how contentious this vote is. Glad we are getting it though.
im curious is it possible to imbue a technique we have learned onto a charm? like could we take this and put it on a charm with the hunger vestige we have and give the howl hunger properties? Seems like that would be legit. Alternatively we can take this technique and possibly create variants. For example if we can learn how to create a variant that uses our cloud in a bottle maybe we could create a "howl of the storm" technique or something? it may be too small of an energy source though, but that disciple had it as a 9th circle, im sure that other more potent carryable energy sources exist, or we could recreate or improve the cloud in the bottle once we get better at crafting too.
im curious is it possible to imbue a technique we have learned onto a charm? like could we take this and put it on a charm with the hunger vestige we have and give the howl hunger properties? Seems like that would be legit. Alternatively we can take this technique and possibly create variants. For example if we can learn how to create a variant that uses our cloud in a bottle maybe we could create a "howl of the storm" technique or something? it may be too small of an energy source though, but that disciple had it as a 9th circle, im sure that other more potent carryable energy sources exist, or we could recreate or improve the cloud in the bottle once we get better at crafting too.
Last edited:
- Location
- PA
*crosses arms*
Soo...Thinking about this, it occured to me that while yes, this isn't a public venue, and saying no wouldn't mean much...It occurs to me that saying yes implies we're going to be trying to do the howl.
And it's possible we'll screw up and Kong's voice will be distinct enough for people to make sense of it.
I'm loathe to turn it down simply because as I see it, association is the damaging thing about hanging with the Waste Barbarians, and as such, we'd need to actively start AVOIDING Nokai in order to avert the reputation loss we'd undergo. Conversely, if we say yes, we get a new trick that could be quite useful...
Except now that I think on it, it...Might not be so useful.
Drawing from animals, all well and good, but we don't actually have a pack to draw from. It'd be more stuff we'd need to get the prerequisites for, and this time it WOULD be a constant drain, it'd be a ally we'd have to actively maintain...Which would not bode well for our Crafting demands.
[X] No, you… you had best not. You've other business to attend to after all.
Soo...Thinking about this, it occured to me that while yes, this isn't a public venue, and saying no wouldn't mean much...It occurs to me that saying yes implies we're going to be trying to do the howl.
And it's possible we'll screw up and Kong's voice will be distinct enough for people to make sense of it.
I'm loathe to turn it down simply because as I see it, association is the damaging thing about hanging with the Waste Barbarians, and as such, we'd need to actively start AVOIDING Nokai in order to avert the reputation loss we'd undergo. Conversely, if we say yes, we get a new trick that could be quite useful...
Except now that I think on it, it...Might not be so useful.
Drawing from animals, all well and good, but we don't actually have a pack to draw from. It'd be more stuff we'd need to get the prerequisites for, and this time it WOULD be a constant drain, it'd be a ally we'd have to actively maintain...Which would not bode well for our Crafting demands.
[X] No, you… you had best not. You've other business to attend to after all.
So, regarding this decision, I'm reminded of this conversation with Mo Hanying after the duel.
It seems rather relevant advice with regards to our current decision.
It seems rather relevant advice with regards to our current decision.
I'm pretty sure what is happening is that the dog pack is acting like a mobile Beast Wonder that is enabling her and us to learn a 10q(2/3?) Beast Scholar technique. We were confused about the amount of anam because it seems weird that Nokai would be throwing around 20 Beast anam (10 for us, 10 for her) in the middle of nowhere. Now that we know there's a Wonder, that is explained.
I really doubt that the actual technique would have a Cost of 18 or higher.
Last edited:
- Location
- USA
Its easy for Mo to say when her status as a noble means that she can bulldoze past the social costs. And even then, I doubt Mo would learn a barbarian technique. Its called moderation. We can spent time and befriend Nokai while not letting social pressure stop that, while also realizing that the degree of social cost for learning a technique characteristic of the enemies of the Empire we live in is something perhaps prohibitive. The way you are framing it is disingenuous, frankly.
Last edited:
- Location
- ?
No, it shouldn't. If we keep cycling Beast anam it will eventually do it, but one level of one technique shouldn't have any effect besides technique integration.