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The Path Unending (A Cultivation Quest)

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[X] You will seek information on the Moloth's 'Glorious Respite'. You have uncovered long and disjointed poems speaking of the beauty of this place, which was said to have been where powerful Moloth figures would retreat to when the burdens of daily life were too much.
[X] You will seek the hall of someone known as the Justice-In-Stone. A slate you found that speaks of the Moloth's Laws tells you that they were the final arbiter of any disputes and that to be brought into their hall was to face true and impartial judgement.
 
[X] You will seek the Lord's Regalia. An old, damaged mosaic that you uncovered depicts the Moloth leader wearing an elaborate crown and brandishing a scepter as long as your arm.
[X] You will seek information on the Moloth's 'Glorious Respite'. You have uncovered long and disjointed poems speaking of the beauty of this place, which was said to have been where powerful Moloth figures would retreat to when the burdens of daily life were too much.
 
[X] You will seek the Lord's Regalia. An old, damaged mosaic that you uncovered depicts the Moloth leader wearing an elaborate crown and brandishing a scepter as long as your arm.
[X] You will seek information on the Moloth's 'Glorious Respite'. You have uncovered long and disjointed poems speaking of the beauty of this place, which was said to have been where powerful Moloth figures would retreat to when the burdens of daily life were too much.
 
A few arguments in favor of the Respite.

It probably has Beauty anam. Beauty anam is awesome. All of the applications we've seen for it are both powerful and subtle. The Rainbow Eyes are based on Beauty, as is SEG. This leads me to think that any Beauty techniques we get in future are likely to be similarly fascinating.

Moreover, as others have pointed out, it is a place of respite. There's a fair chance of it healing mental stress directly, and that's something that we really need in our arsenal right now. In the event that it doesn't heal mental stress directly, it will undoubtedly have some anam type that lends itself well to the healing of mental stress.

Overall, it is likely to both serve a function we currently lack any way to fulfill (healing mental stress) and open up truly amazing opportunities for future growth.
 
bookofportals said:
A few arguments in favor of the Respite.

It probably has Beauty anam. Beauty anam is awesome. All of the applications we've seen for it are both powerful and subtle. The Rainbow Eyes are based on Beauty, as is SEG. This leads me to think that any Beauty techniques we get in future are likely to be similarly fascinating.

Moreover, as others have pointed out, it is a place of respite. There's a fair chance of it healing mental stress directly, and that's something that we really need in our arsenal right now. In the event that it doesn't heal mental stress directly, it will undoubtedly have some anam type that lends itself well to the healing of mental stress.

Overall, it is likely to both serve a function we currently lack any way to fulfill (healing mental stress) and open up truly amazing opportunities for future growth.
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Hard agree! I think the Regalia will cover the Royalty Anam, getting anything that might help Mental Stress should be the 2nd priority here.

Although the prince option is tempting 🥺
 
Grav said:
Can we always revisit the other Moloth's locations? If this information will still be in the Archives.
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As far as I know, the answer to that is "we hope so". Certainly I don't see any reason why the other locations wouldn't still be there if we came back, but that's also contingent on getting good rolls again.

More generally, given the truly monumental success of this method, I think we should consider using research into Moloth cultural sites as a general purpose way of finding wonders and mats. There's no reason this can't be used as a way of finding other things as well, and it makes sense in character for Zhi to continue finding wonders this way if it's successful, given that a lot of Moloth sites and artifacts have likely gained power over the years.

Edit: As an addendum to the second paragraph, I should mention that the way that I phased that was a bit too optimistic. We should definitely keep the Moloth in our pocket as a potential solution, but if we try to use them to solve all of our problems, that'll get boring fast. Ves abhors boringness. This should be an option we use occasionally, not something we try to spam.
 
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[X] You will seek the Lord's Regalia. An old, damaged mosaic that you uncovered depicts the Moloth leader wearing an elaborate crown and brandishing a scepter as long as your arm.

[X] You will seek information on the Moloth's 'Glorious Respite'. You have uncovered long and disjointed poems speaking of the beauty of this place, which was said to have been where powerful Moloth figures would retreat to when the burdens of daily life were too much.
 
Vesvius said:
It isn't long before your search starts bearing fruit. On one tablet, you find descriptions of the rites a Moloth Prince underwent when ascending to their throne. On another scroll, you find a scholar's depiction of what their ancient regalia looked like. Another sage wrote a long treatise on their gods and the horrible acts they committed to worship them.

Yes, there is no shortage of information.

If anything, there is far too much. If you were to pursue every single possibility these papers speak of, you would never have time for anything else. You could spend months attempting to track down every single lead contained in the Archives and still only be scratching the surface. And while you do that, everything else will wither on the vine without your attention.

You are casting far too large a net. You will have to narrow your focus if you wish to make any headway.
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Whoever came up with the idea to research Moloth culture in order to find potential wonders, I salute you. It certainly seems to be an effective way to search for Wonders and other sites/artifacts of interest.

[X] You will seek the Lord's Regalia. An old, damaged mosaic that you uncovered depicts the Moloth leader wearing an elaborate crown and brandishing a scepter as long as your arm.

[X] You will seek information on the Moloth's 'Glorious Respite'. You have uncovered long and disjointed poems speaking of the beauty of this place, which was said to have been where powerful Moloth figures would retreat to when the burdens of daily life were too much.


This for now. Kind of torn between Respite and the Sixth Prince.
 
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ShyGuy said:
Whoever came up with the idea to research Moloth culture in order to find potential wonders, I salute you. It certainly seems to be an effective way to search for Wonders and other sites/artifacts of interest.

[X] You will seek the Lord's Regalia. An old, damaged mosaic that you uncovered depicts the Moloth leader wearing an elaborate crown and brandishing a scepter as long as your arm.

This for now. Kind of torn between Respite and the Sixth Prince.
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I credit @bookofportals for the initial idea for what it's worth.
 
Kong Zhi's insight into his alternate self was enlightening. It messed him up so bad that it savaged his rolls, and he had to find respite in the library, like a NERD.

We'll be seeing a lot of results of what-if scenarios, huh? That could really mess a guy up. Like Subaru, but less trauma and more paranoia.
 
Hang on, the Brightmaples are volcanic, right? That means the Respite could be an ancient hot spring that the Moloth royalty used to relax. Thus, finding the Respite means the obligatory hot springs episode!
 
persivle said:
We just met our HERO EMIYA, though? That was clearly the edgy Zhi that lost all other prospects besides his body and has become one of the most dangerous things in the empire second only to the noon time tyrant.
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Alter Zhi didn't immediatly try to kill his past(?) self while in The Second, a Wonder that, as far as we know, can only be reliably found by Siani. To continue using FATE, Zhi's description of the guy seemed more akin to OUS Shirou than Counter Guardian Shirou.
 
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[X] You will seek the Temple of the Deep Divine. The Moloth were said to congregate in one specific cavern and give praise to their underground deity with elaborate rituals.

[X] You will seek the resting place of their fallen Sixth Prince. You have found a soldier's account of the war on the Moloth, and the younger of their Royals was said to have waged the greatest battle in the conquest.
 
EldritchObserver said:
Alter Zhi didn't immediatly try to kill his past(?) self while in The Second, a Wonder that, as far as we know, can only be reliably be found by Siani. To continue using FATE, Zhi's description of the guy seemed more akin to OUS Shirou than Counter Guardian Shirou.
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that's fair. I've never actually watched OUS so it doesn't enter my thoughts that often. Although that also ellicits the thought of a heaven's feel-esque Kong Zhi that loses the monster arm and then replaces it with the arm of one of his time clones.

Edit: shit is it too late to come up with a new use for a love transfixed?
 
ShyGuy said:
Whoever came up with the idea to research Moloth culture in order to find potential wonders, I salute you. It certainly seems to be an effective way to search for Wonders and other sites/artifacts of interest.
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KreenWarrior said:
I credit @bookofportals for the initial idea for what it's worth.
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Okay, for the record, @KreenWarrior is being really generous here. I came up with the idea of searching the Archives for wonders, and brought up several different avenues for research, one of which was to investigate the Moloth. Kreen came up with the major refinement of looking specifically for Moloth places of power as a way to find Royalty anam. I'll accept some of the credit, but it was really a joint idea.
 
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[x] You will seek the Lord's Regalia. An old, damaged mosaic that you uncovered depicts the Moloth leader wearing an elaborate crown and brandishing a scepter as long as your arm.

[X] You will seek information on the Moloth's 'Glorious Respite'. You have uncovered long and disjointed poems speaking of the beauty of this place, which was said to have been where powerful Moloth figures would retreat to when the burdens of daily life were too much.
 
[x] You will seek the Lord's Regalia. An old, damaged mosaic that you uncovered depicts the Moloth leader wearing an elaborate crown and brandishing a scepter as long as your arm.

[X] You will seek information on the Moloth's 'Glorious Respite'. You have uncovered long and disjointed poems speaking of the beauty of this place, which was said to have been where powerful Moloth figures would retreat to when the burdens of daily life were too much.
 
[X] You will seek the Lord's Regalia. An old, damaged mosaic that you uncovered depicts the Moloth leader wearing an elaborate crown and brandishing a scepter as long as your arm.
[X] You will seek information on the Moloth's 'Glorious Respite'. You have uncovered long and disjointed poems speaking of the beauty of this place, which was said to have been where powerful Moloth figures would retreat to when the burdens of daily life were too much.

Thoughts:

Most of the comments seem to be centered around a) Cycling fail rolls and b) the selected research results & voting.

Nothing wrong with that, but I'd like to comment on the following section:

Vesvius said:
Your arrival in the massive tower does not go unnoticed. As you stride through the doors, the Senior Disciple waiting behind the desk flinches at the sight of you. But he masters himself quickly. "Good morning," he greets you. "What is it that you require?"
...
What was his… yes, Moshui Shimon of the Sixth Circle. He was helpful when you last met, and now he flinches at the sight of you.

Your chest grows heavier at the realization, but you ignore it much as you have been ignoring the reactions from the disciples you walk past in the Courtyard. "Good morning, Senior Moshui," you greet him. "I need to revisit the elder civilization section. Is two points still the cost?"

It is a very long moment before Moshui Shimon answers your question.
...
Then you brush by him, making your way to the green shelves that make up the elder civilizations section. He makes no move to converse with you further.
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That shit has got to hurt, when (the majority?) of people physically recoil in your grotesque presence and are basically stupefied into silence.

The mental stress & impact this must be having. I'm actually pretty annoyed at Siani now because he hasn't even brought it up, while effectively directly impeding KZ ability to rectify it by piling up tasks.
 
Mr8 said:
I'm actually pretty annoyed at Siani now because he hasn't even brought it up
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Well, technically he has. He dismissed the mutations as irrelevant straight to Zhi's face when Zhi started to spiral about them.

I guess you could say that was performative, but tbh I'm pretty sure they really don't even register as worth noticing to him.
 
[X] You will seek the resting place of their fallen Sixth Prince. You have found a soldier's account of the war on the Moloth, and the younger of their Royals was said to have waged the greatest battle in the conquest.
[X] You will seek information on the Moloth's 'Glorious Respite'. You have uncovered long and disjointed poems speaking of the beauty of this place, which was said to have been where powerful Moloth figures would retreat to when the burdens of daily life were too much.
 
UlseDovThur said:
In and of itself no but we're picking which of the six we're going to further research, not choosing which we're going to go look for right now with just these clues. We're narrowing our field of research and the mosaic is just the first lead we have to the Regalia.
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Thor's Twin said:
Given that we have already uncovered "an old, damaged mosaic" which depicts the Moloth leader wearing an elaborate crown and brandishing a scepter... I find it unlikely that we are searching for a mosaic that depicts the Moloth leader doing all of those things. Regalia is, after all, the emblems or insignias of royalty, specifically the crown, scepter and other items used in coronation. Since we are looking for items, it would stand to reason that they would be treasures rather than wonders, which are locations.
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You're both making the same mistake of reading the bit that says Lord's Regalia as an adjective and a noun instead of a proper noun. The 'Lord's Regalia' is the mosiac, because that's the name of the artwork. There aren't any items involved, because when you actually look at the descriptions they name/label the thing we're looking for and then give a brief description of it.
 
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