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The Streetwalker's Guide to the Hierarchy

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The rolls for this turn, looks like we flubbed the Marchwarden socials - but managed to salvage the faux pas with the 80 roll.

Mooneater on steroids though with that 72 roll! It's good to have a ranged offensive option now, the summon is quite thematic after that dream with his sister, makes sense it would enter into his art. We should be able to bring up the anti-Somber mask upto speed before we brave the Streets again.

[X] Rihaku
 
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Therefore, if you wish to refine your plan to meet Dr. Musorov based on the masks you'll craft below, now is the time to do so, and should be included as a write-in mention in your vote.


Also, lets not forget the main part of the vote. @Wolfy I'd like to have your thoughts on improving the tactics.



This was pretty barebones on it own. I'm thinking constructs to distract the packs perhaps?

Also how does the two CL masks compare?
 
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[X] Artifice
[X] Teleview
[X] Phase

[X] Werewolf Tactics: Overt
-[X] Show Henry the completed Mask and use Webweaver to socially maneuver into convincing him to escort you.
-[X] Utilize the next Screentime vision, towards safer path to the Doctor with the least number of werewolves.
-[X] Back up Henry, letting him handle the melee encounters. Enfeeble the essence out of the wolves, snipe beams at ones in his blindspot. Opt to stay out of reach with Specter. Using Crimson Angel to defend against the ones you can't. Troubadour to stun werewolves out of their aggression if they get too close.
-[X] Utilize your ability to shapeshift into a non-drained werewolf at its peak during the fight - warn Henry about it beforehand so he doesn't think you've succumbed to lycantropy. Remember to mask your scent with Viscerality before setting off.

[X] Werewolf Tactics: Covert
-[X] Don't take Henry, he'd only slow you down as you traverse through Specter's intangibility. Ask him to distract the Werewolves instead so they're drawn away from your Screentime charted course. Switch out to the better version of Crimson Lost.
-[X] Utilize your ability to shapeshift into a werewolf and mask your scent to blend in. Use the Werewolf physicals with Specter's mobility to traverse quickly. Smell for the other wolves or use the CL's blood sense as needed.
-[X] Use the Mooneater's reserves to create moth-like constructs, bright with lunar essence. Use them to distract any of the Werewolves you come across.
-[X] If ambushed regardless, use the Troubadour on a werewolf if you're forced into close quarters - before snatching it back. Summon your sister's apparition too, if necessary. Focus on fighting only to get away, draining with Mooneater selectively.

[X] Wolfsbane

Just off the top of my head, until you guys sanity check or propose something better. We can totally use the wolves to farm the powers.
 
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Birdsie said:
"Alas, I can't tell you much beyond what a fellow traveler may have told you." The man's expression dissipated into firm neutrality, only the hints of satisfaction drawn on his face. His goblet rose, its contents swirled once with a dynamic wrist motion, as he took a curt sip. "The House's libraries should have more if you access them - but that'll require Guest Right. Not an honor easily issued, you understand. You could begin by, say, not contemplating the taking apart of our furniture. Improving your etiquette."

As one who'd prided himself on adherence to such etiquette, that stung, but etiquette also informed him to move on swiftly and accept the jab.
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Dorian getting called out on social stuff is funny, also we should look into getting Guest Right.

Birdsie said:
"And what, pray tell, is the House, exactly?" asked Dorian, casting a look down the hallway. Outside, the unending rain continued its soft tapping on the windows, the hubbub of the storm almost soundless from within; the House insulated sound rather well. Silver wall fixtures held candles, each flame a halting mark of defiance against the cold.

"Oh, it's a refuge of sorts." The man waved a hand, almost dismissively. "It's where dreamers move, to dream again. Or die the death of a long and peaceful eternity, as some say. The history's long and complex, and I shan't bore you with the Wars of Glory. Those records are quite dry, rather unlike anything else around here. We spirits oft become bored of reliving old events. Though, I suppose that sentiment may differ, as each of us does. Entertainments like you are rare and precious for one such as myself, for I am the incarnation of fervid joys lurking beneath unassuming appearances, the splendor and serenity of the more incomprehensible and... abstract parts of nature. I was made so."
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The House is a pretty neat place and seems mostly benevolent.

Birdsie said:
A quirk of that statement modified Dorian's next query. "You're a spirit. Then… was what I met a minute ago not really my sister? Just another spirit like you?"

"Rather perceptive of you, mortal," said Seizing-the-Night, crushing a piece of Dorian's heart. The dream had been too beautiful to be real, as it turned out. "Although what you encountered, I suspect, was more of a visage of your own heart's disease. Here, in the bordermarches, the House intersects with the dreams of its visitors. Your despondency can be blamed for what you experienced tonight; anything the 'spirit' said was likely painted by your true feelings, although perhaps stained by your suffering, too. Sorrow is a potent catalyst of what you mortals call 'magic.' But so is pleasure." As if to demonstrate, he took a languid and protracted sip of wine.
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Good to know what is really was.

Birdsie said:
After a second of debating its nature with himself, Dorian reached into a pocket and pulled out a fresh, violet grape.

His eyes closed involuntarily.

It was real, then.

He felt stirrings of an emotional concoction that was becoming as familiar as a rival duelist: deep-seated worry, existential curiosity, and a material instinct akin to avarice that drove him to seize every advantage as it came at him, even without the harness of forewarning.

He focused instead on Seizing-the-Night's mentions of how the bordermarches worked.

If that macabre apparition of Adeline were indeed one spawned of his own haunted emotions, didn't that mean he desired to be unchained from the pursuit of vengeance, deep down? Could Dorian Croft be a lax wretch, slothful enough to forget the meaning of repaying evil with its dues?

He recalled cutting down smiling Inquisitors. He remembered remorselessly ending the lives of watchmen who'd done little wrong, save desire to feed themselves and their families, because it was either that or being captured. Could one repay evil with evil, and still call the result justice? It'd been a while since he'd been so bothered. Years.

The Street and the worlds it showed, it seemed, were a spawning pool for unwelcome emotions. And yet, the stroke of Viscerality was blunted in application here. He frowned.

No matter. Focus on the present. One foot ahead of the other.
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I really love Dorian's resolve to try and push forward I do hope he continues to become a better person.

Birdsie said:
As a reminder, after this is all done, you'll be attempting to find and meet with Dr. Musorov, the man whom Henry mentioned on your first day here. Therefore, if you wish to refine your plan to meet Dr. Musorov based on the masks you'll craft below, now is the time to do so, and should be included as a write-in mention in your vote.
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Musorv is going to be a good teacher for Dorian.


[X] Artifice
[X] Teleview
[X] Phase
 
_brightwing said:
[X] Artifice
[X] Teleview
[X] Phase

[X] Werewolf Tactics: Overt
-[X] Show Henry the completed Mask and use Webweaver to socially maneuver into convincing him to escort you.
-[X] Utilize the next Screentime vision, towards safer path to the Doctor with the least number of werewolves.
-[X] Back up Henry, letting him handle the melee encounters. Enfeeble the essence out of the wolves, snipe beams at ones in his blindspot. Opt to stay out of reach with Specter. Using Crimson Angel to defend against the ones you can't.

[X] Werewolf Tactics: Covert
-[X] Don't take Henry, he'd only slow you down as you traverse through Specter's intangibility. Ask him to distract the Werewolves instead so they're drawn away from your Screentime charted course.
-[X] Utilize the next Screentime vision, towards safer path to the Doctor.
-[X} Use the Mooneater's reserves to create moth-like constructs, bright with lunar essence. Use them to distract any of Werewolves you come across.

Just off the top of my head, until you guys sanity check or propose something better.
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Maybe unorthodox.. but a werewolf is basically a creature of rage and aggression, right? I know the anti-Somber Mask didn't bake well, but what happens when you put in on a werewolf? And all that calmness washes over it. Maybe it will calmly attempt to kill us, lol.

Another idea.. A Vis restricted version of lycantropy. I would say a werewolf is pretty passionate beast. And passion equals Viscerality boost. We could make it so that Dorian uses moonlight to heighten is passions that way. Leading to super viscerality.


View: https://i.imgur.com/EZeqUML.png

We also have confirmation that The Miniaturist is viable and has synergy! I copied Addio's post in the Mask thread. Something to opt for when we deal with storage issues.
 
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So, thoughts:
  • Troubadour: The lesion here is that we shouldn't put three different abilities into a single mask because we are going to only get one. Going forward we have to understand that our craft heavily incentivize mask that do one thing due to hove Potential works. I suppose the way to work around that would be to have "switch" mask that has two modes, so you have one ability then you switch to another - something to consider
    • That being said we have our anti-mental mask, which is neat, and given the description we could try it out on a werewolf. Depending on how well that actually works out it could permanently free a werewolf, so long they carry a mask. As such it is a rather potent trading tool
  • Crimson Angel: I don't remember us crafting CL replacement this turn, but yeah this is just good. Tactics wise, we should give both CA and CL to Henry and ask him to grind CA as much as he can, then give him CL and take CA for ourselves as we leave. A short dip in power but long term it should pay dividends
  • Mooneater: Well that sure is something. I've very interesting in whole Lunar energies thing; given the setting I expect Lunar energies to be beyond abundant so this mask should be very potent here, but more importantly what happens if we drain a werewolf? Do they revert? I expect this mask to be very valuable in that sense, so it might be the best trading tool we have
Regarding tactics, don't forget that we can also shapeshift to a werewolf, or at the very least mask our scent. Between that and Specter we should have easy time just making our way through them. I think that we should leave Henry to grind masks, although we should be careful as not getting them back in time would prove to be disastrous.

Lunar drain on a werewolf is something we have to try, if this mask can revert their transformation then it is game changing for this world, and with our Viscerality we just might be capable to undo lycanthropy afterwards.
 
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Wolfy said:
So, thoughts:
  • Troubadour: The lesion here is that we shouldn't put three different abilities into a single mask because we are going to only get one. Going forward we have to understand that our craft heavily incentivize mask that do one thing due to hove Potential works. I suppose the way to work around that would be to have "switch" mask that has two modes, so you have one ability then you switch to another - something to consider
    • That being said we have our anti-mental mask, which is neat, and given the description we could try it out on a werewolf. Depending on how well that actually works out it could permanently free a werewolf, so long they carry a mask. As such it is a rather potent trading tool
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Right, we shouldn't forget to make creative uses of Viscerality. Adding them in a bit. You guys also should make tactics votes on your own though.

I think Anti-Somber mask's rhythm function would have been fine - but a Roll 17/100 was too low to support it, so we just got the emotion function. I posted the rolls earlier - it was the To Defeat Somber Roll. Fortunately, we can use Import on it and get the anti-Somber capabilities later before we need it.
 
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I meant more that Troubadour was supposed to be both traveling mask and singing mask and mental resist mask. Also since we apparently roll, then in future we should leave some time when crafting to scrap masks and remake them if it doesn't come out the way we want it. DIY rerolls.
 
[X] Artifice - Generate Facelessness. Required to craft masks. Can increase Potential of exposed masks, or slowly overwhelm and crack them.

[X] Teleview (Multi-Use) - Costs 2 Potential each. Instead, Teleview has two 'uses,' which have a separate cooldown.

[X] Swiftness - +1 Agility when the mask is worn. Will eventually develop other bonuses to your speed and mobility
 
Do we know if we already gave Henry CL and sent him away to fight werewolves, or are we going back to safehouse before heading to doctor? I'm not sure what's current status.
 
I assume after gathering the materials we went back to craft in the safehouse. To do the whole melt down the silver thing. Where Henry also rests and will presumably rendezvous?

Its been only two days so that's probably not enough time for Marie to recover. It's a shame, Murkworking was cool. Having that much control over Specter's smoke form would have led to some pretty munchkinable effects..
 
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[X] Artifice
[X] Teleview (Multi-Use)
[X] Phase

In regards to Conjurer, we should make a storage mask that would let us just carry tools around anyway, so that ability can be done otherwise.
IDK why we haven't made storage mask in this vote actually.

Regarding plan, currently we enlist Henry and go together to Doctor. I think that is still the way to go. Regarding new masks, I think that two questions we have to answer are a) do we want to keep CA instead of CL, in which case we should change tactics so Henry grinds that mask and b) Do we want to spend time seeing if Mooneater can revert werewolves, in which case we want to spend some time there.
 
I think the vote was Dorian gathers materials for his two precomitments, anti- Somber and new CL, and explicitly make Anti-werewolf mask. And find materials for Storage if he can. Since he had time leftover he attempted to finish his obligations so he'll have more time with the doctor.

It's a good thing he didn't make the Storage yet because Addio's proposed Miniaturist has high thematics and identity-function synergy. Even with mediocre rolls it will be something workable. And with good rolls potential to be something really good. I'm pretty excited for it.

@Wolfy I think you should also make a proper tactics plan before the bandwagon takes over, and Dorian goes to the werewolf encampment sans tactics. I really liked the Viscerality idea and fully depowering a werewolf.
 
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Wolfy said:
I meant more that Troubadour was supposed to be both traveling mask and singing mask and mental resist mask. Also since we apparently roll, then in future we should leave some time when crafting to scrap masks and remake them if it doesn't come out the way we want it. DIY rerolls.
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Yes I would have preferred it just do traveling and singing. When I drafted it originally the purpose was to min max it for street attunement and influence social encounters to be more positive while on the street. Pretty disappointed with the implementation here.
 
GenericName said:
Yes I would have preferred it just do traveling and singing. When I drafted it originally the purpose was to min max it for street attunement and influence social encounters to be more positive while on the street. Pretty disappointed with the implementation here.
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That's just the subpar rolls, we should be able to spend import before the street and get a proper singing mask. In the original iteration. Anti-Somberness is costly perhaps for game balancing.
 
_brightwing said:
I think the vote was Dorian gathers materials for his two precomitments, anti- Somber and new CL, and explicitly make Anti-werewolf mask. And find materials for Storage if he can. Since he had time leftover he attempted to finish his obligations so he'll have more time with the doctor.

It's a good thing he didn't make the Storage yet because Addio's proposed Miniaturist has high thematics and identity-function synergy. Even with mediocre rolls it will be something workable. And with good rolls potential to be something really good. I'm pretty excited for it.

@Wolfy I think you should also make a proper tactics plan before the bandwagon takes over, and Dorian goes to the werewolf encampment sans tactics. I really liked the Viscerality idea and fully depowering a werewolf.
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Something like this:

[X] Wolfsbane
-[X] Artifice
-[X] Teleview (Multi-Use)
-[X] Phase
--[X] Convince Henry that you might have a way to reverse lycanthropy. Require him to grind Crimson Angel in other to maximize its Viscerality boost
--[X] While traveling together towards doctor, find a way to capture a werewolf i.e. use Mooneater constructs to bait one and then forcefully put Troubadour on them. Using Mooneather, try to undo the transformation then using Crimson Angel boosted Viscerality try to defeat the virus

I guess. The ideal endgoal is to make a generic Viscerality solution that would curse the virus and a copy of Mooneater, although I suspect that former might be outside of our league unless CA boost is like crazy strong.

Also, would people be for swapping CL for CA? CA does seem a lot more potent, even if it is much lower on Potency right now. It is basically the kind of mask I wanted to swap Crimson Lost to begin with.
GenericName said:
Yes I would have preferred it just do traveling and singing. When I drafted it originally the purpose was to min max it for street attunement and influence social encounters to be more positive while on the street. Pretty disappointed with the implementation here.
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Yeah it is what it is. Well I suppose we can just make a bard mask latter, time permitting.
 
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CA doesn't have blood healing though, yet. But we could probably Vis heal from now on.

I'm fine with proposed tactics. Please make it a proper vote?
 
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I'm still not sure how smart that is vs just getting stuff we need and fucking off. But it is hard to gauge which things doctor would find useful and which not before we meet him, so who knows.
 
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