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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
So, some thoughts on this dive into darkness.

We don't have any actual descriptions of the creatures that we will be fighting in the cavern, but we can make an inference that due to the location of the chasm they are likely to be related, in some way, to the creatures that Elder Jiao was dealing with when he purged the sinkhole. Which means that it is likely the creatures will be plentiful, angry, and dangerous.

It is excellent, then, that we are very good at dealing with mass numbers of opponents. FVM should be able to handle pretty much any weaker swarm units and should stimy any powerful creatures. Given that the creatures seem to lack any ability to leave the chasm, our flight may be useful in avoiding early confrontations as we secure a safe area in the beginning area, but will likely become less useful as the cavern system becomes more constrained.

I am under the impression that we are conducting this raid before our cultivation fruits, which makes me think that we will still have our prior art suite equipped. Which means AE, AM, AC, AS, and FSA. Of significance, in my mind, is AE and AC. One of which will provide a steady supply of meatshields and a way to replenish qi against hordes of opponents and one which will buff up our minion's physical attacks, Li Suyin's physical attacks, and buff up the physical attack of whatever constructs Li Suyin brings on the adventure.

I think that Li Suyin's constructs and our own AE minions (should we have them) will be important as means of bogging down the creatures' movements and providing targets for the creatures to lash out against that are not us. Additionally... we should still have FZ up and running which might be able to slow down the creatures even more while giving Li Suyin a boost to escape incoming danger if necessary.

TRF will be vitally important, not only to keep Li Suyin healthy as we keep moving down but also to preserve any constructs she brings so that they can be used for longer periods of time. Our priority will probably be Li Suyin's safety, and thus having a strong defensive support art will dramatically improve our chances of us going deeper and not suffering crippling injuries.

Our best bet is to probably move slowly and methodically and making sure that we have an escape route in case we need to make a quick escape from a beast that is stronger than expected.

As for rewards... I'm not expecting really anything for us. We might get lucky and find a long forgotten talisman or a source of infinite cosmic power, but this is primarily to help Li Suyin get more valuable and rare materials for her use in experiments and drug crafting. It would be nice to find something forgotten deep in the bowels of the earth, but I don't have any expectations.
 
Poor mom, here's a vote for her.

[X] Ling Qingge: Your new household is arriving from Tonghou, perhaps you should put in an appearance and see how your Mother is handling things?
 
Just missed the vote closing Khaos, but no worries, you can try voting for it at the end of month social action vote.
 
Snow mom is compelling, but I would rather do her quest 1st next month after we have had a bit of practice with all our new arts. For me the next vote will be turtle boy. Also I would rather a Humom event unrelated to our new maids.
 
Snow mom is compelling, but I would rather do her quest 1st next month after we have had a bit of practice with all our new arts.

OTOH, doing it now let's us have completeing/slotting arts happen narrated simultaneously with the SL.

That sounds like a great way to buff what will be one of our primary Insights and arts going forward.
 
I think waiting a week is just as narratively powerful though I know my view isn't shared by many.
Uh, bear in mind the current turns are a month long not a week, so putting it off to next turn is not going to be an insignificant gap narratively. Not huge, but notably more of one than doing it this turn.
 
I hope we see some Singing Mist Blade action in the underground. It's really been kind of quiet in the narrative lately and this is a good chance for it to show off some of its strengths.
 
Uh, bear in mind the current turns are a month long not a week, so putting it off to next turn is not going to be an insignificant gap narratively. Not huge, but notably more of one than doing it this turn.
it seems like 2nd social action is at end of month and 1st is at the start. So first is at minimum 1day, maximum 2 weeks after.
 
Mm, honestly, the biggest problem with Qingge is that her options are always competing with other, more established characters.

Like, right here, it was "Do one of the ones that everyone's been planning on" or "Qingge action", it might be intentional or not, but it is a bit irritating.
 
That's just an artifact of Qingge being the only mortal relevant to Ling Qi. Given a choice between a cultivator action or a minor mortal action and the cultivator will win everytime. Only way Qingge has a hope of being voted for is if there's something major going on with her, or we can use minimal resources on her.
 
Mm, honestly, the biggest problem with Qingge is that her options are always competing with other, more established characters.

Like, right here, it was "Do one of the ones that everyone's been planning on" or "Qingge action", it might be intentional or not, but it is a bit irritating.
Mmm, the other interesting thing is that when you look at it narratively, it doesn't necessarily matter.

I mean, Ling Qi tries to work on pretending to care about mortals would be a valid character development thing that could merit narrative focus. Likewise, Ling Qi feels awkward and decides put off dealing with it would also be a valid character action.

At the same time though they could totally just be left largely in the background right now because our mortal servants aren't really that important as characters to the story.

Arguably the same could be said of Suyin. The main reason to do her adventure here is that we promised to do it a month ago, and this is a good time for Ling Qi to want to do helping friends things. By the same token though, our relationship with Suyin has had plenty of development, and the event could easily be handled off screen and just have, idk, a scene start with us returning from the adventure as flavor.

Narratively I would suggest the most important thing to actually be developed on screen is our relationship with Xuan Shi, which we've been told to develop, and which could have long term implications.

Indeed, if, at this point in the story, one was wanting to emphasise Ling Qi trying to be helpful to her friends then doing all the events could actually be good. Just have Mother and Suyin being background elements and then going into Xuan Shi as the actual story arc (because we the readers need to get to know him) would arguably a good way to accomplish that while maintaining pacing.
 
Considering how the Relationship levels are written, here are what i think are the cap for our SL:

Bai Meizhen: Rank 4 => max rank 5 because the "love ship" has passed
Cai Renxiang: Rank 2 => max rank 4. I doubt she'll ever look past "we work for her"... not sure she can...
Ling Qingge: Rank 3 => max rank 6. Mother 'nuff said.
Zhengui: Rank 4 => rank 6. ...


Sixiang: Rank 1 => max rank 3?4? i bit hard to pin it down on him/her. Maybe 6 ? a DIY husbando might be possible...

Gu Xiulan: Rank 4 => max rank 5. Sadly no fiery yuri lover :cry: but it's still possible to get it to BFF. Might have significant political consequences...
Xuan Shi: Rank 1 => rank rank 4? idk if he's actually husbando material, but if so, as Xiulan: significant political consequences.
Li Suyin: Rank 3 => max rank 5. Retainer status would be great and i know a lot of people what that.
Shen Hu: Rank 1 => max rank 4. i doubt it'd go higher than that considering the gala event.

Zeqing: Rank 3 => rank 4, we don't want it to go higher with yandere snow maiden. Also: she will remain here.

As i see it, we have (16x2) 32 SL ups, so more than enough room for the one to three Social actions with each character we currently know and even a couple more.

There are only 4 people (in italics) we currently know with 100% certainty that we will continue to interact with after the Inner Sect Arc.
So we might want to focus on the other ones in the time we have left in the Sect, so that the social links allows us to "take them with us" when we go away...
 
My priorities for SL are currently Xuan Shi> CRX (if one appears for her, I think she's gated behind other SLs or even cultivation mins though)>either Rank 4> anyone else
 
Arguably the same could be said of Suyin. The main reason to do her adventure here is that we promised to do it a month ago, and this is a good time for Ling Qi to want to do helping friends things. By the same token though, our relationship with Suyin has had plenty of development, and the event could easily be handled off screen and just have, idk, a scene start with us returning from the adventure as flavor.
We've never had an actual adventure with Suyin, so while we do know her there is something new and fun to doing something there. I don't think it can simply be handled as "being with friends as usual", there.

Narratively, I think that onscreen there is a lot of things that are needed to develop. CRX relationship probably need more moments when we see her actually doing things, Meizhen relationship probably need more of a "seeing her with other people/friends", and Xiulan likewise. Sixiang is kinda magical in that it's easy to place her everywhere, really, and pillow fort means she will have her own private time.

Xuan Shi... is harder to place. We have actually seen quite a bit of him alone, and quite a bit of him with other people, and quite a bit of him in 'adventures' before. What we haven't seen is him being proactive and on a project, I guess?

TBH I don't think there is much to develop there that is new.
 
Xuan Shi... is harder to place. We have actually seen quite a bit of him... in 'adventures' before.

I don't recall that, he was never in the forefront of any of the Wargames battles that were on screen last year and we've never explored or anything with him. The closest I can recall to seeing him in action is when we saw flashes of light around the corner when he TimeOut'd Ji Rong.

It will be fun to be doing crazy cultivator adventures with Li Suyin, we haven't seen her fight or even high stress problem solve since she joined in the fight against Chu song at the vent.

I'm eager to see how her grandfathers acupuncture arts work with the Poison(probably) she learned from Bao.
 
I don't recall that, he was never in the forefront of any of the Wargames battles that were on screen last year and we've never explored or anything with him. The closest I can recall to seeing him in action is when we saw flashes of light around the corner when he TimeOut'd Ji Rong.

It will be fun to be doing crazy cultivator adventures with Li Suyin, we haven't seen her fight or even high stress problem solve since she joined in the fight against Chu song at the vent.

I'm eager to see how her grandfathers acupuncture arts work with the Poison(probably) she learned from Bao.
We haven't 'partnered' in adventures before, but we have seen quite a lot of him while on those. Him time-locking Ji Rong, him fighting against Ji Rong/Sun Liling in thunderdom redux, him helping us with the ambush preparations against Ji Rong in week 35...

Actually, Ji Rong's real rival is Xuan Shi :thinking:
 
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