Since Xuan Shi still has difficulty understanding Ling Qi, this ought to help I think
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
Ling Qi could not help but feel as if she were as ineffectual as the statue. Frustration rising, Ling Qi once again darted in, sending her "eyes" spinning and circling all around the statue as she tried to figure out just what she was missing. Her eyes narrowed as she focused down, pushing everything else - the sounds of the fight, the rush of air past her ears, and the bursts of qi clouding her senses - aside. She focused herself entirely on the target of her ire.
Under her intense focus, she found what she was looking for there, layered beneath the other arrays, hidden under layers of conditional triggering effects. The simplicity of the trick made her feel embarrassed to have missed it.
"Zhen!" she called out in her thoughts as she flew into position. "Spit your venom at my light on the count of three!"
Ling Q isaw the fiery serpent twitch in confusion as the words reached him, but the confusion cleared away quickly as she saw his eyes focus on the hovering light right above the statue's left ankle. Satisfied that he knew what she was doing, Ling Qi flew through the tangle of arms to reach a spot just above the nape of the statue's neck and made her count.
Burning venom and hoarfrost song struck at the same time, and the statue seized up. Two limbs flickered out, fire and water both fading to nothingness.
"Xuan Shi! Lightning here -" a flickering wisp blurred to hover above the statue's left pectoral "- and earth here!" she shouted next. A second wisp hovered over the statue's navel.
To his credit, the boy understood immediately. A spike of stone slammed upward even as he spun, flinging a metal baton, still charged with a storm's worth of lightning higher still. In an instant, two more limbs were gone, and the restorative functions of the primary array grew weaker still.
Here, she encountered a conundrum. Of the remaining elements, she had little in the way of offensive techniques to shatter their guiding arrays. She did not think that Xuan Shi had any thunder, wind, or lake arts active. Nor did she know whether that mountain art he was using could be used offensively. Perhaps he might have a talisman that could do the trick, but she wanted to finish this herself.
The hem of her cloak snapped in the wind as she soared downward, the air sparkling with droplets of frozen water as she began to hum the Aria of Spring's End. In seconds, she reached the main array and raised her flute, calling the wintery qi of the Hoarfrost Refrain down. Frost rippled out, and once again, stone cracked and splintered under supernatural cold. This time, however, the recovery was not instantaneous, slowed greatly by the loss of four power sources, and her technique clung to rock and artificial channels for a few crucial seconds.
Just enough time for her to lay her hands on either side of the great splintered crack she had made in the statue's back and sing the Call to Ending. Her voice echoed loudly in the temple as she sang the wordless power of absolute cold into the world, and beneath her hands, stone exploded violently. Shards of frozen rock pattered like flakes of snow against her dress and face. The statue rocked and reeled, and its four remaining elemental arms winked out at once.
Ling Qi heard a rumbling battle cry and a mighty crash as a massive weight smashed against the statue's shins. Zhengui, charging forward, with his shell aglow with magmatic light, sent the statue tumbling, and over it' falling shoulder, she spied Xuan Shi standing atop his shell, seemingly unbothered by the smoke rising from his feet. His ringed staff was raised over his head horizontally. As she watched, she felt the qi around the staff distort, and suddenly, the weapon went wholly still, even as Zhengui's forward momentum tore it from Xuan Shi's hands.
It hung there in the air, impossibly still, as the statue fell upon it, and remained there, hanging still in a cloud of dust after it had carved clean through the fallen construct's neck. For a moment, as the echoes of the statue's fall faded from the temple, Ling Qi hung silently in the air, staring down at the unmoving ruin Xuan Shi and Zhengui had wrought.
Then as Zhengui wriggled his way free of the fallen rock, and she saw Xuan Shi still standing on his shell, hat only slightly askew and dusty, she broke the silence. "I thought I had the offense?" she asked archly, hands on her hips.
Xuan Shi coughed and doffed his hat, revealing a head of short black hair, split by a short ridge of white bone that began at his forehead and disappeared beneath his collar in the back. "Apologies. This one merely sought to grasp opportunity," he called up, returning his hat to its place as he hopped down from Zhengui's back, embers still sizzling on his blackened sandals.
"You did say to listen to him, Big Sister," Gui pointed out as Zhen emerged, grumbling from the back of their shell.
The full speed of a group of third realms was a fearsome thing. Wind ripped trees and plants from the soil at their passage, and the ground crumbled beneath the force of pounding feet. The world was a blur, and still, it would take them minutes to cross the distance to the cavern wall.
They were more than halfway there before things began to go wrong.
Xuan Shi was the first to notice. In the midst of their dead run, the stocky boy suddenly turned his head to the side. "Ware!" his voice, normally quiet, boomed. Off to their left side, there was a crack and an agonized shriek as the spindly shape of a dancer bounced off of the flaring shield of interlinked pentagons, green energy crackling from her limbs.
Light flared again on the other side, and the shield rumbled. Both figures bounced back from the wall, flowing like mist back into the shadows, only for Xuan Shi to crack the butt of his ringed staff against the platform under his feet. The creatures let out cries of surprise as vibrant white light bloomed from their silhouettes, ruining their efforts.
Ling Qi began to emerge from shadow, ready to take a shot, and she could see Ji Rong tensing to do the same, but Bian Ya's voice cut them off, echoing directly in their thoughts.
"Do not engage. Conserve qi. Disciple Xuan is on defense."
Ling Qi cursed internally, but she knew Bian Ya was right. They couldn't afford to slow down, not with the force chasing them. She could actually make out their shapes now, those flying things. They were black and oily with thin humanlike bodies, the shimmering wings of moths, and heads like those of men with the features wiped off save for twisting horns that rose from their temples and twitched like an insect's antenna. Each one carried a shishigui warrior clad in armor of chitin and unknown metal in their dangling, large claws. Even from here, Ling Qi could feel a worrying ratio of third realm power among them, one in five or one in eight at least, akin to the Sect's forces at full muster.
Stripped of the shadows, the dancers did not retreat, weaving a wide circle around Xuan Shi's shifting barrier of light and ceramic. Their knives carved skittering sparks along the barrier, leaving lines of corruption and rot in their wake, but Xuan Shi merely rang the rings of his staff and new panels rose to replace those that rotted while broken panels whizzed out like throwing knives to impact and explode on contact with the trees and ground, forcing the dancers to dodge and weave through a barrage of returning fire.
As they closed the distance to the wall, matters only grew worse. Ling Qi felt a twinge travel through the darkness, an unfamiliar and unwelcome sensation of something moving through a space that she had long considered hers. Across the blurring landscape, shadows writhed and boiled.
Ribbons of blackness, edged in searing crimson, crashed down all around the perimeter of the barrier. A dozen in all, they stabbed like blades into the interlocking plates of Xuan Shi's barrier talisman, causing seafoam sparks to shower out along with a horrible grinding sound like nails on glass. Xuan Shi grunted in effort, his shoulders hunching before the qi running through his spine doubled in density and the barrier became nearly opaque in its brilliance.
Through a drifting wisp, Ling Qi saw their newest assailant, a pale white figure floating in the midst of a sphere of black and red ribbons. The shishigui's pure white hide gleamed, save for the dark hole in his chest where ribs were flayed open to bare his beating heart. On the pulsing organ, a single overlarge eye spun, run through with black veins, and the creature's spider-like fingers twitched like a wielder of puppets as the strands of shadow and blood respun themselves for another assault. The creature was at the fortification stage.
But as he raised his hands for another assault—Ling Qi felt the shadows bend under her grip, forcing her to leap out before the thing's vile qi could soak into her—a silver flash engulfed it. The creature let out a warbling cry as a pool of liquid silver opened at its feet, and it dropped as if it stood on the surface of a lake. As it sank into the pool, Liao Zhu emerged, cut, bruised and burned. He somersaulted away from the already rippling and bulging pool to land atop Xuan Shi's barrier.
"Activate the beacon! There is too much force coming down!" he shouted.
Bian Ya paused, and Ling Qi recognized well enough the look of her listening to silent orders. She flicked her wrist, and Elder Jiao's totem appeared in her hand. It was a simple thing, a black, many faceted gem, but it pulsed with power.
So they ran, and the beacon charged.
Ling Qi could not help but feel uneasy. Her skin crawled, and bumps rose on the back of her neck. Something was wrong. There was something in the air, something beyond the beat of wings and the incessant sound of drums.
There was a twisting in the air, a subtle unnatural feeling that she could not place. As Guan Zhi crashed down among them, swatting away a dancer like it was a mere child's toy despite the angry red burns that covered her arms and hands, it clicked.
There was attention upon them. It reminded her of Zeqing's domicile with its twisting space and endless darkness. The beacon's qi rippled out as it activated, but it was wrong. It opened a curling hole through space, but there were holes, gaping tears in the path through which a person could fall and never stop.
As the beacon's qi engulfed them and the others cried out as they began to fall, Ling Qi desperately twisted in the broken space and poured everything she had left into the meridians which channeled the power of the Dreaming Moon's arts. Her lungs and spine burned as she overloaded it and ripped everyone sideways into the realm of Dream.
Above her, Zhen spun and bared searing, white hot fangs as veins of sickly black corruption spread through the psychedelic dreamstuff all around them, pulsing and wet like exposed veins. Gui began to turn ponderously, far too slow as those veins flattened and sharpened, forming ribbons of black and red.
Behind them, that smug spirit cackled and dissolved into drifting motes of pale blue light, and Bian Ya's eyes widened in alarm. Her hand swept up, a war fan shimmering into existence as the wind kicked up, wrapping around them like a cloak, filling Hanyi with a lightness she had not felt since descending the mountain.
Her fox companion was rising to her feet, and Su Ling was mid turn. Hanyi's voice was just beginning to rise into Mother's Aria.
The rat-thing's power finished gathering. A cage of ribbons closed around it, flat as paper, flatter perhaps as if it would disappear if viewed from the side. Two dozen ribbons writhed, coming together about its head, twisting into a spiralling lance that bloomed with power.
It was power that was too familiar. Hanyi felt her stomach drop. She had tried so hard to access power like that. It was her birthright, it was! She just couldn't get the hang of it! She could hear the faint wail of the Dream that touched it and felt it disintegrate, felt it End.
The lance of Consumption shot forward, trailing ribbons of darkness, aimed squarely at Bian Ya.
It struck Xuan Shi instead.
It didn't change course, and Xuan Shi didn't move. Instead, Hanyi felt something in the world bend, and suddenly, the lance was flying toward Xuan Shi's outstretched hand instead as if it had never been aimed anywhere else.
The lance struck with a sound like a vast temple gong being struck. The scent of the sea tickled Hanyi's nose as interlocking pentagonal planes bloomed out from Xuan Shi's palm. Three layers thick, they exuded weight and solidity, each one looming like the wall of a fortress.
The first layer shattered instantly, ground down, broken, Consumed. Xuan Shi's sleeve was shredded, revealing a thick arm marked by patchy black scales.
The second shattered, and ribbons of nothing split and splintered, shrinking the spiralling lance. Xuan Shi's collar tore, and he grimaced as strips of skin were flayed back from wrist to shoulder.
The third layer shattered, and gray lightning rippled out from the diminished lance, now more a beam of solid black. It struck his palm, and for just a moment, it looked as if Xuan Shi had caught the attack and stopped it cold in his hand.
Then there was a spray of blood, and his shoulder erupted in gore as the lance shot off into the sky. But even as his left arm dropped uselessly to his side, he leveled his staff at the rat-thing and growled out a single word.
"Return."
The will-hewn stone at their feet cracked, and the Dream howled as a hammer of force equal in power to the lance and more roared out like a tsunami.
She wasn't going to be caught again. Not like she had been with the fox.
"Xuan Shi, we're going to move much faster now," she said. The pressure of the voices scratching at her thoughts, was growing now, and the mineshaft rumbled and contorted, bending all around them. Ling Qi flickered, appearing atop Zhengui's shell, and offered a hand down. "Come on."
He looked at her silently for a moment and then clasped her forearm. His bulky ceramic gauntlets were cold from the chill of her presence. That helped, a bit, she supposed. She hauled him up with her.
"Aw, c'mon, chickening out already, but my cousins want to play!" Kongyou laughed.
"It isn't your cousins I'm worried about!" Sixiang shouted back over the noise in the tunnel. It sounded like a wailing wind, but it was so much heavier than that.
Ling Qi let the bickering wash over without comment as Zhengui began to amble forward, not needing a word from her. She gathered power around herself, wind and dream and ice, a a cold and sparkling mist that flowed from her sleeves and the hem of her gown.
It was one of the earliest promises she made in her cultivation, back before she had ever heart of domains or names or laws. When she had abandoned the dream of the infinite blue sky, unmoored wholly from the base earth. Sometimes she forgot, sometimes it troubled her, sometimes she failed. She wasn't going to today.
Her wings were strong. She would carry as many as she needed too.
Rolled 93 10 degrees of success
+3 Motion XP. Motion increases from III to IV
+20 to Reward chance for next action.
Motion is life and joy, unobstructed by the chains of destiny. Wings beating in tandem may soar through the most terrible storm.
Wind erupted as the thought crossed her mind, Zhengui's twin cries of alarm covered by the sudden scream of wind as they shot down the tunnel. Around them, shapes and images of suffering formed in the dark, the death of peoples, the cruelty of tribes and kingdoms and empires alike. Inevitability crushed down upon them like the pressure of the ocean, this, inescapable fate that humans built for themselves.
And beside Her Xuan Shi hunkered down, one hand on his hat, shrunken in on himself to hold against the wind and the pressure. But, under the wide brim of his hat, she caught a glimpse of his dark, inhuman eyes. There was a resolve there, too match her own.
The rings on his staff chimed over the wind, and the slots on his gauntlets glowed with heat and power as ceramic plates began to fly out, two, then four, quickly passing beyond counting. The plates assembled, mathematically perfect edges meating. A sharp prow that parted the air before them, a hull to protect from lashing wind and the grasping claws of inchoate nightmares alike.
Beneath them, Zhengui's shell vibrated as her little brother ceased flailing in the wind. There too was determination, to protect, to never fall behind, to never be a burden. Trunklike legs and blunt head withdrew into a stony shell, and even the body of the serpent pulled in, retracting until there was only a dull volcanic glow. And then came heat, a blazing heat that turned crystalizing mist into a churning vortex of wind as flames erupted behind them, fiery orange and verdant green.
Ling Qi steered the vortex, the ceramic ship encased them crackling and flashing as dark spirits burned away on contact, leaving only three hexagonal holes from which the cones of life-flame could erupt.
The past demanded repetition, to walk ever in the grooves carved by feet that were long since dust. In the howling darkness, Ling Qi came to know the true name of the Nightmare on whom they tread. For every cry and broken spirit bore its brand.
The name of the Nightmare was the Forever King, who whispered sweet despair and acceptance into the ears of weak and mighty alike, brother of the beast called Other, who bound and blinded men with self forged chains.
But the vice of such a beast was sloth, always sloth. It's grasp relies upon acceptance and isolation.
+2 Freedom XP Freedom Advances from II to III
And Freedom grows only when shared, one alone is only ever as free as the strength in their arm allows
They erupted from the side of the mountain in a plume of dust and mist and fire, the mountain quaking behind them. It rumbled, it shook, it cried. A million voices and more rising in accusation, that in defiance, they only gave it strength, that in seeking change, they could only worsen suffering. To deny the inevitability of conquest was only an act of extending its reach
"And yet, there is no path which does not lie in defiance."
She glanced to Xuan Shi, who floated now beside her, carried up on the soaring wind that came from the tug of earth's law. The ship came apart, a scattering cloud of whirling plates, and all of them flew suspended in the crisp, cold air.
All the world stretched out around them, a cloud filled sky, mountains without end, stretching like a rumpled blanket of ice and dirt and stone a thousand kilometers below. There on the far horizon, lay the sun and the rays of the dawn.
"The only thing worse than trying is acceptance," she mused, fixing Kongyou with a glare.
The nightmare spirit, tumbling and upside down in midair, merely sniffed. "If it was that easy, I wouldn't exist."
"If it was impossible, I wouldn't exist," Sixiang shot back, clinging to Ling Qi's back like a cloak.
Behind them, far below, the mountain and the mineshaft shook violently, swelled tumorously, and burst apart. A cloud of numberless glittering wings taking flight in every direction, and something massive, bearing a terrible resemblance to a great mouth snapped shut with a sound like a breaking mountain and vanished into the rising cloud of dust that concealed the earth behind.
"The horizon, it is beyond this one's poor words," Xuan Shi said. He, alone of all of them had righted itself, standing upon an assembled platform of plates, his boots locked to the ceramic surface by crackling qi.
Ling Qi considered the view herself, the great rolling line where mountains touched the great blue sky, forming the line between heaven and earth. The infinite, painted colors of dawn washing over the stone. There was a crisp chill in the air and the wind that flew past her falling frame. She reached out, brushed her hand against Zhengui, and the world twisted, their frame's fading into shadow and dissolving until she stood atop his back, her little brother now falling belly down, his heads just poking out of his shell.
"You're right, it's a sight worth a song," Ling Qi said, her voice easily penetrating the roaring wind. Her eyes picked out things in the distance, shapes that were not of the fabric of the mountain. Towers of iron, towers of ice. Great bonfires, shards of sunlight, embedded in the ice and stone.
"Come! This way!" she shouted, pointing down toward the tiny, distant silhouette.
Xuan Shi nodded, squinting into the distance to follow her point. He extended his arm, and the tumbling Kongyou, beat their glittering deaths head wings, shrinking to the size of a child as they alit on his arm like a hawk.
And they fell and fell guided onward by the wind.
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
A lot of Xuan Shi's plotline has been related to Narrative, how stories show life to be vs how life actually is. The Forever King and Kongyou think that life is just an endlessly repeating story of tragedy, a Nightmare, but Ling Qi and Xuan Shi believe that things can and should change and that there can be Dreams. Gaining an insight into Narrative will be a good way to put this Xuan Shi plotline to rest.
Plus, Xuan Shi struggles to really include Dream in his Way, and I think advancing Narrative will help with that more than Travel. Both are deeply personal to him, but Narrative is a better connection imo.
And well, Narrative is related to Ling Qi too, and she *did* apologize for dismissing the power of stories. I hope it'll lead to another reply to her apology apart from silent acknowledgment.
Edit:
After reading some arguments for Travel, I think Travel can work too for the Crowfather, so I'm voting for both for now. Plus, since we got the concept XP, we'll probably get the Sable Grace trait upgrade next turn so something related to Travel works well imo.
[X] Approach the towers base and offer respect as travelers, then walk the ridgeline and witness what can be seen( Xuan Shi's gains in his Travel Concept, 60% Chance of additional Reward)
But if the hut *is* the Crone, maybe we can get stuff for FSS+ (unlikely) or roll for Void for SNR (hopefully), so I'm also excited for that.
I hope we get some advancement in Expression, since stories is one of the ways to self-express, just like skeleuncle said to us.
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
Xuan Shi is definitely not someone we can afford to leave to his own devices; he doesn't live in a healthy state of mind. Kind of like Suyin back in year one after the incident.
The question is: is voting for or against Narrative better to this end?
I disagree heavily with this, especially the thought that he can't be left to his own devices. That's part of the reason why he thinks Ling Qi didn't respect him, and why she apologized. Like, I do agree that he's not in a good place currently. He did find out that a lot of his stories were lies covering more sinister things, first from Yuan He, then from the Sword, but that doesn't mean he can't be left alone to his own devices. Like, at first, we were worried about Kongyou, but we've seen that that worry was unnecessary.
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
He has both concept, so its fine~
but he wanted to learn about the people of the south, right? he can see the sights himself, later on.
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
[X] Approach the towers base and offer respect as travelers, then walk the ridgeline and witness what can be seen( Xuan Shi's gains in his Travel Concept, 60% Chance of additional Reward)
Both options look cool, and rocket turtle was extremely cool
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
Both seem good but I want more creepy aunties.
Some questions and observations:
1. Is there a Word of God repository somewhere? I've seen a bunch of lore mentioned here that I can't find in any of the chapters or sidestories. For example, people have commented that one reason the Guo are nervous about the Han is that the Han have a tiger that's going to become White soon, so they'd have a spirit that equals Grandfather Fortress. Where did Yrsillar mention this?
2. How long do cultivators live? It was mentioned in the story that Prisms can last 800-900 years, and Whites 1000. What's the average lifespans for the other six realms?
3.
Are the smaller bordered areas within each County the territory of the Viscounts?
4. If a commoner is unlucky and reaches Green a year or two after they turned 17, so they aren't awarded a title, do they still automatically become a Baron if they reach Cyan later in life?
5. I know that "arrogant young master" is a staple of the genre, but even so it seems like a lot of the noble brats sent to the Argent Peak Sect are idiots. Why? Because of the way they shit on commoners sent there by the Ministry of Integrity like Ling Qi. By definition they are all kids with high talents, or else the Ministry wouldn't bother. Recruiting people like that for one's clan seems like a no-brainer to me, but the only one I can remember who was actively on the lookout for commoner talent was Cai Renxiang.
It costs nothing to at least be polite to the "charity cases", so that if one of them turns out to be a real catch like Ji Rong or Ling Qi you can scoop them up. But evidently that requires more brainpower than the typical "filthy peasant you dare?!" noble kid possesses.
The ache in his bones and soul was growing worse, Khashin thought. His armor and harness hung heavy on his shoulders as torrential rain pounded down from (...)
www.royalroad.com
After a pause, Galidan said, "Besides, Taghai will be seeking the right to name himself Khagan, no matter what words we speak."
His words brought Khashin up short, his expression twisting in furious incredulity. "I know his ambitions. Who would listen to that ice-addled madman?"
"Many," Galidan replied, crossing his arms. "These past five winters, his tribe was untouched."
Khashin's eyes narrowed. The further south one flew, the harsher the winters grew, carried on icy winds from the dead-plains south of the Mother Mountains. "I assume you do not merely mean that luck favored him." He had flown all this way, Khashin decided. He would hear what tale this young man wished to spin.
"The Crone ignored him to feast on his neighbors," the younger man expanded. "And why not? He has married an Ice Witch from the south and offers the beast sacrifice."
I had forgotten about this, but by ice witch don't they mean someone from the White Sky? That would mean that the faction among the Cloud tribes with ties to the Polar Nation is really influential, if one of them had a real shot at becoming Khagan, which if I recall correctly means Khan of Khans.
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
Both seem good but I want more creepy aunties.
Some questions and observations:
1. Is there a Word of God repository somewhere? I've seen a bunch of lore mentioned here that I can't find in any of the chapters or sidestories. For example, people have commented that one reason the Guo are nervous about the Han is that the Han have a tiger that's going to become White soon, so they'd have a spirit that equals Grandfather Fortress. Where did Yrsillar mention this?
2. How long do cultivators live? It was mentioned in the story that Prisms can last 800-900 years, and Whites 1000. What's the average lifespans for the other six realms?
3.
Are the smaller bordered areas within each County the territory of the Viscounts?
4. If a commoner is unlucky and reaches Green a year or two after they turned 17, so they aren't awarded a title, do they still automatically become a Baron if they reach Cyan later in life?
5. I know that "arrogant young master" is a staple of the genre, but even so it seems like a lot of the noble brats sent to the Argent Peak Sect are idiots. Why? Because of the way they shit on commoners sent there by the Ministry of Integrity like Ling Qi. By definition they are all kids with high talents, or else the Ministry wouldn't bother. Recruiting people like that for one's clan seems like a no-brainer to me, but the only one I can remember who was actively on the lookout for commoner talent was Cai Renxiang.
It costs nothing to at least be polite to the "charity cases", so that if one of them turns out to be a real catch like Ji Rong or Ling Qi you can scoop them up. But evidently that requires more brainpower than the typical "filthy peasant you dare?!" noble kid possesses.
The ache in his bones and soul was growing worse, Khashin thought. His armor and harness hung heavy on his shoulders as torrential rain pounded down from (...)
www.royalroad.com
I had forgotten about this, but by ice witch don't they mean someone from the White Sky? That would mean that the faction among the Cloud tribes with ties to the Polar Nation is really influential, if one of them had a real shot at becoming Khagan, which if I recall correctly means Khan of Khans.
2. The general rule of thumb is a century per realm. So red lives a 100 years, yellow 200 and so on.
3. Yes those are the viscounties.
4. Seems very unlikely to get to cyan if you couldn't make it to green by 17 (especially since you won't have the resources of a noble) but maybe? It's definitely extremely rare for that to happen.
5. Remember that a lot of these kids are just that, kids. Recruiting is definitely going on as we can see but a bunch of the nobles are spoiled kids leaving the nest for the first time and expecting the same deference they receive at home.
6. Yeah they are talking about the White Sky. Jaromilla's father in law is making an attempt for Great Kahn and gathering tribes under the white sky and supporting that plan seems like it's gonna be the best solution for both the empire and cloud nomads.
Finally have the time to write a decent post, so I'm going to promote the Tower option a bit, here. I've got a few reasons of varying sizes. What fits the premise of the arc, what's good for Xuan Shi, what's good for Ling Qi, and a brief analysis of Travel and Narrative.
So, first, the primary objective of this adventure arc was to show Xuan Shi a good time. In general, I think we should stick to the main purpose of any given arc for the sake of continuity and fewer headaches. The exception is if something game-changing comes up mid-arc, but that hasn't happened here. In which case, we should really be looking at following through with the arc's premise and keeping an eye out, in character, for what plays nicely with Xuan Shi.
In the vein of what plays nicely with Xuan Shi, when we've talked to him his aspirations and goals have generally aligned with seeing more of the world, for some fairly complicated reasons I'm not going to break down here. At the same time, his attempts at traveling the world have had mixed results, he hasn't experienced a large number of opportunities to really tuck in and explore, and there's a sense he's not entirely sure what he's even looking for. Sounds to me like he could use a boost in the area. Fortunately, Ling Qi knows that the Crowfather is a mysterious wanderer who walks in forbidden and impossible lands. He's directly relevant to a known core interest of Xuan Shi's, and poking him for advice might be fruitful.
On Ling Qi's side of things, first and foremost centering the narrative progression of this choice on the welfare of a friend is a pretty substantial reward in and of itself. But besides that, peeking over the border at things she can spy in the liminal sounds really informative? It's an opportunity to glimpse wide before our upcoming face-to-face, which just seems useful. It's context, and maybe even glimpsing opportunities, and it looks more spread out, which seems more likely to proc relevance when engaging with Polar Nations folks, and at more stages of engagement. It's also more likely to be more contemporary information, which seems more immediately useful.
And now, Travel vs Narrative. To get it out of the way, Narrative is fine. It's good even! It's something that's very important to Xuan Shi, both as a way to process the world and a driver for him. That said, it's both where he's been at and not where he's been trying to go. Xuan Shi's understanding of Narrative is probably more developed, exactly because he's so practiced in its examination; Travel has had less opportunity, even as it's something he's wanted to try. Travel could just use the boost? A solid go at it seems overdue and timely, if he's going to be joining up with our team. It's a perfect segue into a revitalized revisiting of his Concept.
Going back to in-character considerations for a second, remember that Xuan Shi doesn't know anything about the southern people or their spirituality, not even the scraps of info Ling Qi has scraped together. He can't make an informed decision here or even an informed guess. Which is why the choice falls to Ling Qi. So, does she make a choice that centers consideration for him, or does she make a choice for some other reason? I'd prefer the former. As described above, there's a tangible link between Crowfather as a figure and Xuan Shi's aspirations, within the bound of Ling Qi's knowledge. I'm not seeing the same for the Crone for this decision, because Narrative isn't obviously linked to anything Ling Qi knows about the Crone, which is mainly that she's the hyper-cold-on-steroids god and is allegedly unusually active in the world.
[X] Approach the towers base and offer respect as travelers, then walk the ridgeline and witness what can be seen( Xuan Shi's gains in his Travel Concept, 60% Chance of additional Reward)
Hut winning would not be the end of the world, but the issue with it that I keep coming back around to is that picking it looks like a really awkward transition. There's just no clear objective Ling Qi is setup to pursue with the Hut, that I can see anyway. I'd strongly rather Ling Qi were deliberate in her choice, and the logic for the tower is plain, while the hut's isn't.
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
I have a discord account (I think), but I really hate discord and still haven't figured out how it really works. At first I just got a bunch of "you do not have permission to view blablabla" stuff, which went away after I clicked on some confirmation thing, but threads like threads-wog are still empty, can't find any of Yrsillar's word of god posts. And there's a #commissioned works section too, but all I can find there is the names of the commissions. Some have available written after the name, but I can't find any link to the actual story anywhere.
In short, I'm baffled and discombobulated. -_-
Edit: Fuck my life.
[X] Approach the towers base and offer respect as travelers, then walk the ridgeline and witness what can be seen( Xuan Shi's gains in his Travel Concept, 60% Chance of additional Reward)
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
[X] Approach the towers base and offer respect as travelers, then walk the ridgeline and witness what can be seen( Xuan Shi's gains in his Travel Concept, 60% Chance of additional Reward)
Ah, looks like I was right to think "Man, fuck the Xi." Found an interesting WoG on Discord:
well people from the southern foothills, the cloud tribes and the high peaks ice folks are all sorta ethnically linked, so that's not wrong
Okay, so pre-empire the emerald seas had four major ethnic groups
Forest People-the precursers of the Weilu
the southern Hill People-who the old tribes and the diao arise from
the High Peaks people-who would migrate south
and the Cloud Tribes- who occupied most of the mountains
Tsu united the forest people and opened relations with the Hill and Peak folks
this later fragmented and turned violent
when the Weilu vanished the Xi conquered and subjugated the hill people and the Peaks folks had either migrated or merged with the Cloud
the Cloud and Hill folks have always had a lot of cross polination genetically
hill folk people who didn;t fit their communities could fuck off to join nomad tribes and nomads who couldn't or wouldn't manage that lifestyle would settle with the hill folks the imperialized Xi that came in and conquered things really disrupted all this and that's where the raiding culture of the northern wall started to turn nastier since it shifted from reciprocal skirmish and raid warfare to the more complete kind of violence practiced by the imperials, which in turn brought escalation to the raiders
[X] Approach the hut and seek the right of guests, listen to what can be heard. (Xuan Shi Gains in his Narrative Concept, 60% chance of additional reward)
[X] Approach the towers base and offer respect as travelers, then walk the ridgeline and witness what can be seen( Xuan Shi's gains in his Travel Concept, 60% Chance of additional Reward)
