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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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Arkeus said:
So, from what I am looking at, it seems that there is a real reason we want to win this challenges @PrimalShadow. You mentioned earlier that this was only 20YSS, and it is, but it should be just the tipping point to getting 8GSS next turn if the math on income is right. @DeAnno ?

That does tempt me to go for the 'safe' choice, as 20YSS next turn is more important than staying at that rank for long. Mmmh.



That is not Shen Hu's reasons for leaving, though:
This wasn't "I am doing this because going to the King is more dangerous", but "I am doing this because it fits what I want to do better".

Now, there is a legit argument for "In the presence of a Not!White, Ling Qi panicked and believed that Shen Hu was in danger of being straight up murdered by a Cyan". This specific fear didn't come to me in the text (maybe I missed it?), and I think at the time it would have been really strange to think this could happen.... but even if it did, wasn't that the exact kind of fear Meizhen has when Ling Qi meet with Zeqing, or got to a moon party? Or when Xiulan goes to one of her tribulation?

I mean, Shen Hu's reasoning, before going into the moon dream, was this:
It is pretty clear to me that he was ready to risk his life, and Ling Qi knew it. That Ling Qi's fear is reasonable doesn't change that she is doing the exact thing she doesn't want people to do to herself.
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A) Shen Hu explicitly backed out because he didn't want to involve himself in high level stuff:

She glanced at Shen Hu, who shrugged. "You know where I'm going then. "Guys like me don't have any business with this high up stuff."
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B) Ling Qi explicitly feared for her life? It was kinda part of the vote which mentioned it being dangerous to ask the King to spare Shen Hu as a boon (despite the fact the he was going to reward her), and the King itself mentioned that Ling Qi might break from the simple fact of being on the side of his hunt (which implies worse things to those on the receiving side of it).

EDIT: further proof of Ling Qi's fear

Ling Qi swallowed, considering his offer, surrounded as she was by the embodiment of a forests rage, the hand of an incalculably more powerful cultivator on her shoulder. Her thoughts raced. He had offered her a boon, but only for two things…. But could she afford to press her luck and try for a better outcome?
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And no, this is still not the same thing. You keep equivocating doing a tribulation and being killed for some reason. Shen Hu had no chance against the King and Ling Qi knew it, she also thought that dying in the dream ment dying for real. Like, there is the repeated assumption that Ling Qi totally knew that this was a 'test' that could be won* with no permanent damage suffered that isn't sustained by the text at all.

* Which is wrong on two counts, it wasn't a test and Ling Qi didn't think it was.
 
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Arkeus said:
It is pretty clear to me that he was ready to risk his life, and Ling Qi knew it. That Ling Qi's fear is reasonable doesn't change that she is doing the exact thing she doesn't want people to do to herself.
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But Ling Qi's problem isn't that he might have died. It's that in that situation, using the reasoning she actually used, she made a decision she feels reflects a problem with her. It's not the decision or its potential consequences that she regrets, but the thinking going into it.
 
One thing that annoys me is that logically the extreme pressure and fear Ling Qi felt when faced by the King of the Forest should have resulted in her picking the Hide option.
Fang should have been the result of something else. Something that would have resulted in Ling Qi trying to hit/kill something.
Preferably revenge.
Maybe seeing Shen Hu being killed by the people he tried to protect ? Maybe a Weilu noble stealing/destroying her robe or flute ?
Adhoc vote count started by Ayashi on Jan 2, 2019 at 6:29 PM, finished with 108 posts and 48 votes.
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I'm hoping that Cai will share the fruits of whatever research she's clearly done on the next rank tier. Unless she only asked about them one by one until she found what she liked I expect that she's got at least some info on the skills of tier of 775-800 (EDIT: actually more likely to be to around 785-7 going by Ling Qi's options). I know we were hired to be a spymaster but it'd seem silly to duplicate the effort.

It would also be nice to get an idea of what level of movement is expected in ranks per month, to better target our priorities in future.

[X] Disciples 815-825
[] Disciples 802-814

Might switch over if @Arkeus turns out to be right about the 20 YSS next month making a significant difference to our progress.

EDIT: Seems like 20 YSS would punt us over the line. So changed to the safer vote.
 
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[X] Disciples 815-825
Lacking Zhengui, I'd rather take the somewhat safer option and aim for someone who's at-most 15 places ahead of us.

And, it's what CRX did, so we might as well follow her example.
 
Humbaba said:
I'm hoping that Cai will share the fruits of whatever research she's clearly done on the next rank tier. Unless she only asked about them one by one until she found what she liked I expect that she's got at least some info on the skills of tier of 775-800 (EDIT: actually more likely to be to around 785-7 going by Ling Qi's options). I know we were hired to be a spymaster but it'd seem silly to duplicate the effort.

It would also be nice to get an idea of what level of movement is expected in ranks per month, to better target our priorities in future.

[] Disciples 815-825
[X] Disciples 802-814

Might switch over if @Arkeus turns out to be right about the 20 YSS next month making a significant difference to our progress.

EDIT
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Ling Qi's current currency is

103 Red Stones
16 Yellow Stones
2 Green Stone

Which I am pretty sure is missing both this month's income and what Ling Qi and Shen Hu found while exploring.

Assuming that Ling Qi wins her challenge plus adding this month and the next income gives us:

RSS 103+131+35 = 269
YSS 16 + 20 + 40 = 76
GSS 2 + 2+ 2 = 6

Which just about gives Ling Qi 8 GSS, if the mirror wasn't sold at that point.
 
Arkeus said:
but even if it did, wasn't that the exact kind of fear Meizhen has when Ling Qi meet with Zeqing, or got to a moon party? Or when Xiulan goes to one of her tribulation?
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No, the situation is fundamentally different.
It would be the same if Meizhen somehow got a boon from Zeqing, knew Ling Qi was going to be thrown into a trial unprepared and with dangerous consequences for failure, then decided to chicken out and not ask that Zeqing be careful with her friend's life instead asking for a boon for herself.
Though, of course, Meizhen is much closer to us than we are to Mudboy.
But that is also why Ling Qi is so unhappy with her decision in principle because if she ended up in a similar situation with Meizhen she is now not sure how she will react after this precedent.
 
Hm, it would be nice to challenge up to 775-750 once we hit appraisal. The 2nd floor archive access will be important for us as we won't have many AP to spend on gaining points for access. This is almost as important as the extra gss.

[X] Disciples 815-825

I'd vote for 800 if there was literally any point to it, but it gives nothing extra at all.
 
SynchronizedWritersBlock said:
I'd vote for 800 if there was literally any point to it, but it gives nothing extra at all.
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Well, it does give some real benefits:
  1. We probably aren't doing challenges next month, which means we will slip down. If we are in the top half of the bracket it's likely we will stay in that bracket, and get the +20 YSS again at the start of month 4.
  2. The people we're researching from 802-814 are more of a threat to challenge up at us in the future as we climb, or to challenge up at CRX now. It's just more valuable information in the long term.
  3. A more difficult challenge is likely to produce more in the way of stat and skill rewards, and will be more worth the CP we will spend making it.
 
[X] Disciples 815-825

Once Ling Qi is out of her funk I am ok with going all out on the chalenges.

Until that I want to be a little morw conservative.
 
SynchronizedWritersBlock said:
Hm, it would be nice to challenge up to 775-750 once we hit appraisal. The 2nd floor archive access will be important for us as we won't have many AP to spend on gaining points for access. This is almost as important as the extra gss.

[X] Disciples 815-825

I'd vote for 800 if there was literally any point to it, but it gives nothing extra at all.
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Knowing where Sun stands now, so that later evaluations have a basis to go off of when determining her progression is what springs to mind for me since it's bound up in how much of a threat she is to Ling Qi.

It also sets a question forward in "Are we going to skip 802-814 or are we not?" and there hasn't been a lot of effort put forward to figure out how people feel about that idea. Furthermore, there's a question as well of how we'd plan to find out about their abilities once we surpass those ranks. These are just an aside though.

Another point is that harder challenges might provide more of... quite a number of possibilities to be honest, but the main two that come to mind are reputation/respect and CP. Respect is straightforward obviously, but the CP comes to my mind because the higher up we are the more CP we can feasibly swing at a person and the chances we get to harvest CP from people failing when they challenge Ling Qi.

Mostly though it's a chance to see Sun's spec's and any other powerful folks.
Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Jan 2, 2019 at 7:21 PM, finished with 116 posts and 52 votes.
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George said:
Only if the Sect Official or Elder overseeing the challenge pursuant to rule 6 chooses to offer us such a challenge. Our Woodwind A skill will most likely only matter for combat challenges.
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Or if there's someone else whose got a music kick, which isn't like completely strange, see Ruan Shen.
 
[X] Disciples 802-814
The problem I have is playing it safe sounds solid as a notion but we need to keep up with CRX, which means we've got to rise with her. If we fail or otherwise cannot then fine, but it kind of vaguely feels like both brackets will be close enough in power that the difference is more about ambition then anything else.
One (admittedly bad) answer to the Blood Moon's play is to simply become too powerful to be forced into that fork to begin with...
 
PrimalShadow said:
Where did you get that idea?

We have to finish no more than five ranks after CRX, yes - but why would that imply we need to stick to her tail before the finish?
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We don't, but the thing is the higher your rank the more goods you get, which is why you want to climb, and thus why powerful people don't squat at low ranks to avoid the notice of more powerful cultivators.
 
The rewards aren't different at every specific rank but ranged so I think there is a chance that some people are going to sandbag a bit.

Also, between choosing info over a strong and a weak opponent, while having both is ideal, having info on the strong is the next best thing.

With those in mind, I think it's better to aim higher so any new rank we can get will have a better buffer.

[X] Disciples 802-814
 
Changing votes,

[X] Disciples 815-825

I was swayed in no particular order by

-lacking best tortoise if our target chooses a fight.
-The divide not being on a reward teir anyway.
-It keeping pace with CRX's challenge, even if we're not gap closing yet.
-Any won challenge making us immune from leapfrog backslide anyway.

Once we hit appraisal and have a Green Turtle backing us up, we can start closing with RenRen.
 
Tbh, for people wanting to play it somewhat safer I'd almost be tempted to write in something like [] Disciples 810-820.

The thing is that challenging anyone below 820 is sort of not really worth it anyway because it's so close to the edge of the tier.
 
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