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Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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Bakkasama said:
I haven't been following the discussion that closely, could you please clarify?
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Next turn we are going absolutely ham on training new combat arts, like Beast King's Savage Dirge and Unstoppable Glacier March. The math cabal has spoken; there shall be a DARKNESS MONTH.

(please do me the kindness of pretending that I had a heavy metal font for that last bit)
 
ImperatorV said:
Hey guys, remember when we chased that huge cloud tribe warband and they mostly got away because of the buff network they had set up? Let's shut down the enemy supports. Shutting down their intel/tracking capability will also be helpful, because it makes our evac easier and leaves them confused as to what happened longer.
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Yeah, the highest green we can see is with them too. Im worried about the assasins but i think ur point is valid. Stopping the buff train from coming truly online would make everyone on their side signicantly easier for us and our allies to handle, including the assasins.
 
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[] The Kennel and the Brute (Hinders Enemy buff structure and tracking/intelligence gathering)

Will be my choice, as it not only helps us now but also keeps them from detecting our "presents" a little longer as well as delays them figuring out what we were/are/will be planning by having come down here. Sure they'll suspect any number of things but this way they won't be able to get any proof or figure out that it was Ling Qi who got so deep inside their lines.
 
[X] The Kennel and the Brute (Hinders Enemy buff structure and tracking/intelligence gathering)
 
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The assassins are scary, especially the idea of them making it to our exit plan.

I think we can trust Su Ling to see them, and Xuan Shi to stop them.

I think this is a decent opportunity to take us to relationship 0 with Rong, he'll respect us jumping on the leadership.

That aside, they outnumber us with worse combatants. Fights like this are ALL buffs, just like if it was 5 of their Greens vs Han Jian, Gan Guangli, 10 Imperial Yellows and 50 Imperial Reds

[] The Kennel and the Brute (Hinders Enemy buff structure and tracking/intelligence gathering)
 
This is a difficult decision.

I'm inclined towards [] The Drillyard (Overall chaos, prevents enemy organization for forming up.) as I believe that pound for pound our specialists have advantage on their specialists right now with the ambush. Stopping any kind of organized response would bring it basically down to a hero clash I think we can win. However this is perhaps the riskiest option and leaves the door open for their version of a shounen protaginist to pull off a stunning upset with the power of friendship innumerable curses and body horror mastery.

In second place is [] The Kennel and the Brute (Hinders Enemy buff structure and tracking/intelligence gathering). We have a pretty good lineup here for squashing, which is why I think the drillyard would be good. This option should keep them at a baseline strength we can easily squash and at the same time make it difficult for them to respond to us. In some ways their advantage is numbers, however, and they've demonstrated an understanding of formations in their architecture, thus I feel it risky to let them organize a proper response, even if its not directed the best it could possibly be.

[] The shrine and the Dancers (hinders enemy stealth attack efforts, morale damage to enemy)
This option potentially will have the greatest effect but trades hero vs hero of the drillyard for hero vs army. Again we have a good squash setup but the people who are good for squashing armies (Ling Qi) are going to be dealing with the assassins in the first place if we take this option, which im concerned about. On the flip side, we're probably the best person to handle the Dancers other than Liao Zhu, and going after them directly should avoid worst case scenarios like the assassins going after our back line and making retreat difficult.


With all those considerations my favored options are still in that order. However some more contemplation is required about their strengths and how they fight.
With our current set up, i'm leaning towards squash the drillyards and bait the assassins into Ji Rong so he can punch them real good with lightning. Main risk is them figuring out where our backline is and making trouble there, for that we have Xuan Shi at least.


 

[] The Kennel and the Brute (Hinders Enemy buff structure and tracking/intelligence gathering)

this is important for the escape
 
Theres a two hour moratorium on voting remember. I don't know if any of these votes will count yet.

I'm leaning toward the Kennel. We know the majority of their strength comes from mobs/shoggoths which they supplement with stealth strikers. Ling Qi and Senior Brother whatsit can handle stealth and we're not here to break them so reducing morale is of lesser use. Damaging the core of their force is probably gong to be part of the sects main strategy agains them so knowing how they react will be valuable. Overall chaos and stopping them organising is good but agin we're not here to win. Even causing damage is a secondary goal. We're here to see their response and knowing how they respond to an attack on their obvious weak point will be useful.
 
Pretty fun looking at what 4th realm proper looks like. I'm guessing this is just expressing her domain and throwing a rock.


As for the votes:
[] The shrine and the Dancers (hinders enemy stealth attack efforts, morale damage to enemy)
[] The Kennel and the Brute (Hinders Enemy buff structure and tracking/intelligence gathering)
[] The Drillyard (Overall chaos, prevents enemy organization for forming up.)

My initial thought is that all 3 cater in some way to our capabilities:
  • We can certainly tango with their Dancers (and pretty ok at breaking morale).
  • With Elegy we're pretty great at crippling enemy buff structures and tilting an entire battlefield in our advantage.
  • Between us and our spirits, we're the best-placed for aoe disruption for general chaos.

So given we can perform well in all cases, I think the place our contribution would matter most is the Kennel and the Brute:
  • While the morale damage is nice, if we start fighting elsewhere these Dancers are gonna come to us, and both LQ and Ji Rong should be able to hold their own just fine (especially with LQ's spirits supporting us). And if they prove too problematic, well Guan Zhi is right there. The biggest risk is Ji Rong getting stabbed but we're not his babysitter. (hopefully LQ learned to dodge this time).
  • Elegy letting us cut off enemy buff layering is huge in our ability to actually disrupt their forces and keep an advantage after the initial shock wears off. We've seen last time we fought these guys (and against the barbarians) that team buffs are no joke.
  • Striking the kennels also nicely coincides with crippling their tracking/intel, which should ameliorate any risk of getting our escape route cut off.
  • Ji Rong is probably a lot better suited to take on someone called a "Brute" rather than a pair of "Dancers". In fact, him and LQ work much the same way CRX+LQ worked in the bandit ambush, and can let us set up a similar openings for kill moves if necessary.
  • Just opting for general chaos, while doable, is sort of aimless compared to the other two options that accomplish other objectives that would sow chaos as a consequence.

So tl;dr gank the buff and break their ability to coordinate and chaos will follow anyway.
 
[] The Kennel and the Brute (Hinders Enemy buff structure and tracking/intelligence gathering)

[] The Drillyard (Overall chaos, prevents enemy organization for forming up.)

Torn between these two, but maybe we're best to take out the Dancers since we have faced one of them before? Prior experience might give the edge there. /shrug
 
[] The shrine and the Dancers (hinders enemy stealth attack efforts, morale damage to enemy)

Beyond the scope of the mission the Dancers the most dangerous to the Sect, the enemy's buffs are pretty potent but outright assaoult on the surface is going to be meet with *Elders*. I'm curious what the shrine's effect will be on morale, seems like we might learn something about the Shishigui while all the other options are straight up fights. In addition to that Ling Qi is most familiar with the Dancers and that seems like a fun narrative to pursue in this war, if there's any foes we're likely to get personally invested in it's them. All in all I think Dancer Shrine would make the most interesting chapter.
 
[] The Kennel and the Brute (Hinders Enemy buff structure and tracking/intelligence gathering)

I mean. We're here to gather intel. I would love to go stompy stompy in the yard and wait to see what buffs they have and what the assassins do, without an organized infinite mook supply. But when we fight The Kennel and Ji Rong fights the Brute we play to both our strengths and cripple the enemy. Then maybe we still get info since none of them have an explicit intel cost or boon on them.
 
yrsillar said:
"I'd say hit the river place, since it seems real important to 'em, but that'd ruin the spy crap those two just did wouldn't it?" Ji Rong was the first to speak
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To list everyone's opinions:
• Ling Qi: wants to hit the most valuable (cultivation) option, but settles for hitting the military target. Doesn't want to hit non-combatants
• Ji Rong: wants to hit most valuable (cultivation) target, but thinks that'll go against Elder Jiao's spying op settles for military target.
• Su Ling: wants to avoid hitting non-combatants. Advocates hitting combatants.
• Liao Zhu: wants to retaliate an eye for an eye with hitting civilian infrastructure.
• Bian Ya, Xuan Shi: falls back on aphorisms of war — namely, deny the enemy the ability to fund their war effort — but thinks this group shouldn't be doing so.
• Guan Zhi: inclined toward hitting the cultivation target, but the strategic goal of this op is to draw out the military.

To sum up: basically everyone wants to hit the cultivation target, except for Liao Zhu's Bloody Moon vengeance.

yrsillar said:
This wasn't a heist or a burglary, this was smashing a shop's front window to test the response times of the guard, or a gang burning a stall to prove that yes, they were serious about the money.
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:D Ling Qi's War analogies are the best!

yrsillar said:
"As ready as I am for anything involving you," Su Ling replied dryly.

"You can't blame me for this one, I was following you," Ling Qi joked back
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Cute banter! The sense of continuity and fellowship via injokes is critical for relationships! ❤

yrsillar said:
Blocks of bone, enhanced by the Shishigui's foreign formations crumbled to powder, ripped inward toward the center of the distorted smoky gray sphere two score meters wide that expanded outward from the point of impact.
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... o_O Did Guan Zhi just make a black hole as a basic attack while she was holding back?

yrsillar said:
He's going to do that in all three since disruption is the point, this is just choosing your focus probably drill or kennels for max numbers though
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Ok! Thanks!

[x] The Kennel and the Brute (Hinders Enemy buff structure and tracking/intelligence gathering)
[x] The Drillyard (Overall chaos, prevents enemy organization for forming up.)

Either has my vote! Let's burn this joint to the lithosphere!
 
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Varder said:
Afaik we plan to have the famous "darkness cultivation month" next turn and add a bunch of combat arts to our repertoire.
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Poor Ji Rong, will only get to see us improving from current day when we're still slightly below some of our old FVM capability (buffing Aria for aoe damage sadface), to decent levels across a few new arts, with no idea that our usual monthly-gains rate is 2-3 times slower.
 
[] The Kennel and the Brute (Hinders Enemy buff structure and tracking/intelligence gathering)

We cannot afford them buffing their fodder until weight of numbers starts to show, because if it does we lose. Similarly, we really don't want them tracking us or making intelligent decisions when dealing with us.

Ideally we'd do all three, or Kennel and Drillyard to maximize confusion. As is we have do either this or drillyard, because the numbers disparity will make all the difference and quickly.

Also, limiting intelligence gathering limits the chance of them sending assassins to shank us and our family while we sleep.
 
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[X] The Kennel and the Brute (Hinders Enemy buff structure and tracking/intelligence gathering)

As the old saying goes cut off the head of the snake and the rest will follow.
 
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I see the appeal of hitting the kennel, but after our last encounter with the assassins I am seriously worried about them, and last thing I want is them ganking us while we are already engaged in another fight.
 
glyph said:
I see the appeal of hitting the kennel, but after our last encounter with the assassins I am seriously worried about them, and last thing I want is them ganking us while we are already engaged in another fight.
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While I initially feared the assassins and what they would be capable of, I am growing more confident in the ability of our teammates to deal with those assassins before they become a problem. Liao Zhu should be more than capable of dealing with G3 assassins if the need arises. Remember, there are only 2 of them. We are operating as a team, and I am more than willing to rely on the others in the field to deal with the assassins if they become problematic, but Ling Qi and her back up are uniquely suited to dealing and isolating an individual whose primary concern is buffing up others.
 
Alectai said:
Stop the buff chain and shoggoth fertiliser, and make our bug out more likely is my thought.

On the other hand, ninjas might circle around and gank our exit strategy, hard to say.
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The group's entry point was the dreaming fungus, if the way there is still open for retreat than it should be possible to have it consume pursuers, so weakening tracking might not be the best play. Taking out the dancers or the drillyard might be more impactful to current strategic concerns.
 
One key takeaway from this: if we ever have to form a cultivator baseball team, it looks like we know who to recruit as a pitcher. That's one hell of a fastball.
 
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