[X] Aid the prince, it was better to err on the side of the human
Oh hey @yrsillar
A question.
About how long did it take before the Bai to loosen their grip on the bronze they had access to as part of their big trump card in the early days?
Because the fact the guy's using a bronze spear rather than something of wood, bone, or stone suggests that this is definitely taking place post-unification.
I think as we literally were roommates with a Bai for a while, and our Academics skill is at least decent, that this is something that Ling Qi should have an idea of ICly.
The enemy stat blocks are beefy; that really might just be the sensible retreat option, though I'm sure it won't just end the event with no rewards.YOLO.
[X] Aid neither, leave them too it and go elsewhere, to try and figure out what is going on in this dream.
I trust there isn't a trap option that looks us out of this cool event, so the arguments about understanding this dream before fully committing convinced me.
A wrong choice isnt the same as a trap optionYOLO.
[X] Aid neither, leave them too it and go elsewhere, to try and figure out what is going on in this dream.
I trust there isn't a trap option that looks us out of this cool event, so the arguments about understanding this dream before fully committing convinced me.
That's not the option you're voting for. Shen Hu is following Ling Qis leadI think it's important to note that, neither of them noticed Ling qi for now. The prince was not adressing to us but to Shen Hu. So maybe we can find more info while Shen Hu engage in the fight ?
That's not the option you're voting for. Shen Hu is following Ling Qis lead
A spirit which can cast Sleep, Dispel and Sonar ping with Lake...I got nothing.Shen Hu doggedly followed her trail, eyes aglow with the colors of sunset, but quickly, he found himself lost again in the mist. It was interesting new trick he was working on, and the primary thing she was helping him hone. As Ling Qi circled him casually playing her melody, she once again felt the brush of his qi as another pulse washed over the field they sparred in. This time though, the half formed technique didn't slide off of her like the water from a ducks wings however, the warm placid qi stuck.
His faintly glowing eyes snapped to her in an instant, his right hand whipped up and the talons he had been striking at her with breaking away from his gauntlet with a sound like shattering glass, launching three gemstone daggers her way. Ling Qi twisted in response, smoothly avoiding the first two, while the third flew through her suddenly phantasmal shoulder, trailing black mist.
"Looks like you got it down," Ling Qi said, lowering her flute and straightening up.
"Seems like it," Shen Hu said with a satisfied grin, coming out of his combat stance.
"Uh huh, 'he's' got it," Sixiang replied amused. "It's definitely a spirit, that guy doesn't have a drop of lake qi in his own meridians."
'Be nice, he hasn't said anything about you brushing off his techniques either,' Ling Qi chided in her thoughts. If Shen Hu wanted to maintain the pretense that his second spirit didn't exist, she wasn't going to be rude and press the matter. Out loud, she said, "You're getting better at working the throws into your style too."
For an Earth cultivator I'd personally advise a medium power Earth shotgun wide bore, low damae blast which slows down opponents for their cheaper hits to get a windup."Not good enough though," he grumbled scrubbing a hand through his hair as he gauntlets crumbled into sparkling dust. "The big attacks are too draining, but the little ones are still too slow and awkward."
"Or I'm just too fast," Ling Qi replied just a little cockily. Xiulan was a bad influence on her.
"Or your just too fast," he replied agreeably. "Your qi just never runs out does it? How did you cultivate so much?"
"You know I can't answer that,"
Shen Hu: "Girl, you facetanked Sun Liling, the most attacky cultivator of the Outer Sect, for several minutes and you want MORE TONK?! Truly a Xuanwu is well suited to you!""Hm, I guess so," Shen Hu mused. "Did you want to practice hitting me with something? I kinda feel like I'm taking advantage."
"Like I said, I'm working on defense, avoiding your attacks is enough." Ling Qi dismissed. While she was nearing mastery of another Step of her movement art, she also felt like her improvement was slowing down when it came to her mundane ability to avoid attacks. Perhaps because she had relied so much on Thousand Ring Fortress in the Tournament, or because she had pushed the knowledge on reading enemies and efficient movements from Elder Zhou's lessons as far as they could go.
Shen Hu's flexing could keep her eyes busy for ages."Well, if you say so," Shen Hu replied, stretching his arms above his head before falling back into a combat stance. "So no mist this time?"
"No mist," Ling Qi agreed. Not quite looking at him. Xiulan really had infected her. Shen Hu could be distracting at times. "It'd defeat the point if you had to spend half of your time finding me."
Shen Hu nodded, and Ling Qi let her meridians flood with dark qi. She wouldn't let herself slow down now. Besides, sparring was more relaxing than most of her other responsibilities.
Cultivation: Green 2/Bronze 2
Health A5, Qi C25
Speed C5(B burrowing), Initiative C15
C. Perc. C10-B(?)
Phys Def
Avoid: C10, Armor B20
Spir Def
Avoid B25(?), Armor C
Phys Off
Hit C25, Pen B25
Spir Off.
Hit C20-B(?), Pen C25
Primary Elements: Earth, Water
Secondary Elements: Wood
?? Elements: Lake, ?
Man these rolls aren't very good(except for the Special)AP 1
28, 16, 34.
131 red stones worth of cores and reagents
21, 81, 74
Minor site, major site, 35 red stones
Special Roll +20
88+20=108
Special encounter
Hmm, it occurs to me that this isn't too unusual. Lots of natural places of power either get camped on by a powerful spirit, or just eaten for cultivation bonuses.Shen Hu went along with her pretty easily, not even asking to see the map. She supposed that made sense though. If he intended to explore randomly on his own, what would it hurt to follow her lead?
Their first foray turned into more of a hunting trip. The location she had chosen from the map was practically overrun with beasts. Well Ling Qi couldn't help but think that that was too strong a word. It had been a nesting ground for Hundred Year Cicadas, and after a few hours of swatting fist sized bugs with oversized jaws out of the air, she had gotten frustrated and just flooded the grove with mist. Her companion took care of the underground nests. Whatever site might have been there originally was gone, it's qi drained away by the insects, but the creatures cores and wings sold for a small sum, so it wasn't totally pointless.
...They probably would have gotten more if her mist phantasms hadn't shredded so many of them.
Water Qi continues to sneak up on us. The Grove makes finding a Wood Art this turn pretty lucrative though. And Zhengui would probably love it. If he doesn't snack on the trees.Their next foray was a lot more fun. Hunting a pair of Stonetusk Boars felt more like actual hunting, and it was actually a bit of a challenge, limiting themselves to art-less combat. More importantly, the location her map had guided her too still contained a couple of cultivation sites. The first was a convergence of several small streams, rich in water qi, which would serve as a nice meditation spot while she worked on her new art later. The second was quite a bit better, the stand of tall oak trees, planting in a complex pattern that from above, turned out to be a qi gathering formation, was of much higher quality.
Brook's Convergence: Multiply the dice of water art cultivation by 1.2
Grove of Thirty Three: Multiplies the successes of Wood Art cultivation by 1.2. In addition add 1/10 of the successes of arts containing physical attribute keywords to physical cultivation
Trial Site. We met the Moon Stag before, but never really got a sense of personality.However, in the third foray, and the last one Ling Qi would be able to make this month, if she wanted to accomplish all of her other plans, they found something odd. This location had been marked by a rearing stag with a moon disc held in its antlers. It had also given her a feeling of danger...but there was no risk without reward, right?
Peaceful valley holding a memory of ancient days. Likely the founding event?"It smells like smoke," Shen Hu said from below her, rubbing irritably at his nose as he peered down into the valley that lay before them.
Ling Qi was perched in a crouch on a low tree branch to his side, giving her a better vantage point. It appeared like any other valley between the high hills. Lush and green, with a lazily winding ribbon of blue running through its center. Yet…
It still smelled like smoke, even with not a spark in sight.
"There's no fire qi in the air or the ground," Ling Qi said with a frown. "Can Lanhua feel anything?"
Shen Hu glanced down at the carpet of rippling mud under his feet, most of his spirits mass was merged with the earth, but she remained at least a little visible. "...Nothing," he said with a frown. "She can't feel anything bigger than mice and bugs."
Which was alarming in its own right, Ling Qi supposed, a fertile valley like this should be heavily populated by spirits and beasts. 'Sixiang?' she asked in her thoughts.
She felt the odd prickling sensation of the dream spirit pushing her presence out through all of her senses as the spirit gave a little hum. "You found something interesting…. There's an old, old memory here."
'An illusion? Do you think you or I could break it?' Ling Qi thought, narrowing her eyes at the seemingly peaceful valley.
Sixiang let out a task. "No silly, it's a memory, a dream that's still hanging over the place. You can't dispel it anymore than you could dispel me."
Shen Hu Quest: "Man that Ling Qi really is as airheaded as her reputation huh? She just keeps staring off into nothing.""Also, your eye candy is giving you a weird look."
"Sorry I was just lost in thought," Ling Qi said quickly, shooting Shen Hu an apologetic look. It probably looked like she had just spaced out.
LOL, these two."It's fine," Shen Hu replied. "What do you think? I could head in with Lanhua. I doubt anything will take us out in one shot, if it's a trap."
"I don't think it's a trap exactly," Ling Qi began slowly as Sixiang fed her more information. "It's more like...this valley is part way into a dream?" she felt Sixiang's approving nod. "So we can't sense things inside from outside properly."
Shen Hu cupped his chin thoughtfully, but she saw a spark of excitement in his brown eyes. "Oh? I've never fought in a dream before," he paused furrowing his brow. "Well not that I remember anyway. Are you coming in?"
Ling Qi couldn't help but roll her eyes at his eagerness… this guy, he really would go in with nothing but his spirit beast and not a single scrap of information. Of course, she couldn't say she was any better. She hated wasting time. There was never really any question as to whether she would brave whatever was ahead. "Yes, I will. Bring Lanhua up. You'll need to be my cover."
Well, SOMEBODY has to be the sane one in the group.He accepted that so easily, she mused, as great torrents of mud rose to engulf him until Lanhua's lumpy, marsh reed covered head rose to her level. The spirit looked at Ling Qi with her pit like eyes and let out a bubbling rumble.
"I'll cover you both, I promise," LIng Qi replied. Really the mud spirit was the more sensible out of the two of them.
Making a sound like a gathering mudslide, Lanhua began to tramp down the hill, and Ling Qi followed, fading into the shadows of the canopy as she hopped from branch to branch soundlessly, as they made their way down into the valley.
Bloody Moon.The moment that they entered the range of the memory would have been obvious even without Sixiang's prodding. One moment they were standing under a bright noonday sun, and the next they were under a night sky, and the forest was burning. Lurid light made the cool dark of night into a mockery of day and plumes of smoke rose into the sky, framing a sullen crimson crescent moon.
So...anyone recalls that the Weilu were replaced by Tree Cultivators?From all around, the sounds of combat rang out. The crack of shattering trees reached their ears and the earth shook underfoot from terrible blows… and yet those distant things could not draw her attention, for in front of Ling Qi's eyes a battle raged.
An earthshaking bellow rang in her ears as a titanic spirit struck the ground with it's branch like arms. It was as if one of the ancient trees of the deeper forest had uprooted itself and been reshaped into the vague outline of a man. It's burning canopy rose more than ten meters into the night sky, and below that was a visage like a caricature like an old man, with knothole eyes and a beard of moss and lichen, flickering with embers. It had an apeish gait, with too long arms and short legs.
And heres the Weilu guy who is pissed off and probably mantling Bloody Moon something fierce, going by the aesthetics.At the spirits feet its foe darted in a blur. It was a man of a sort. Tall, taller than any human Ling Qi had seen save Cai Shenhua, he wore a flowing and resplendent emerald robe, marked by soot and blood. In his hands was a spear of polished bronze, and from his head there sprouted a pair of horns, parting his long brown hair. His red eyes burned with fury as his darting spear punctured the spirits hide of bark again and again, seemingly to little effect.
His eyes fell upon Shen Hu and Lanhua then, and hope lit in them. "Soldiers! This prince requires your aid. Aid in striking down this mad beast, that I might go to mine Father's side!" He shouted in an archaic diction, avoiding a thunderous blow that sent dozens of hungry grasping roots writhing up from the ground to grasp and tear at the hems of his robe.
Sixiang was muffled. Something doesn't want her to tell us whats going on, so probably the Bloody Moon's aspect wanting to see our reaction.Before Ling Qi or Shen Hu could respond, the tree spirit let out a furious booming howl that sent a shiver down her spine. "You dare Oathbreaker!" It's words were foreign, a slow, consonant heavy speech, and yet Ling Qi found she could understand it. "Begone children of river and hill! We have no quarrel!"
Ling Qi heard Sixiang say something in her thoughts, but it was muffled and unintelligible. Shen Hu was glancing back in her direction, his face protruding from Lanhua's chest, looked confused and searching for guidance.