This is giving me Xiulan's Tribulation flashbacks.
Now I'm getting paranoid about what the rolls were about.
Are we going to suffer an Ith Ia terrorist attack?
Is the meeting hall going to explode because of clashing formations?
Did a couple of ES and WS soldiers kill each other?
Did Sun Liling fuck something up somehow?
clearly those are the "general efforts to find the infiltrator" and "infiltrator staying hidden" rolls, respectively, and everything's gonna be ok
Also, yrs qutes from discord:
"Man the diceroller has really turned against you guys tho huh?"
"but as said these are not related to the vote, you're not the only one doing stuff at the summit!"
I think we missed the free concept levels again when creating the successor project from dead Hui's recordings. At least our rolls got better, back then it was 14 and 4.
Arts Bonus: The gathered writings and materials taken from the storage ring of a dead man, give much to think about in the development and modification of arts. When cultivating a Successor Project or Creating an Art you have a chance of gaining additional insight into the concepts being cultivated. Roll two d100's on a roll of 50+ gain +1 XP toward a concept which is part of the Art Project. On a roll of 90+ gain an additional narrative bonus, based on the art in question.
The extra Concept Xp doesn't really matter. We are pretty well served on that front.
But the missed narrative bonus stings, even if it was quite unlikely to get.
It sucked with FFS and it sucks now.
A narrative bonus for ToN would have done wonders for the Summit.
Oh, right. That was a thing.
I think you are actually right.
Here, I found it.
The extra Concept Xp doesn't really matter. We are pretty well served on that front.
But the missed narrative bonus stings, even if it was quite unlikely to get.
It sucked with FFS and it sucks now.
A narrative bonus for ToN would have done wonders for the Summit.
Yrs implied that it wasn't related to that. He said that other people are also doing things at the summit. So presumably this would affect the efforts of someone else at the summit. Whether that works out in our favor or not we don't know but I kinda doubt it.
Also, yrs qutes from discord:
"Man the diceroller has really turned against you guys tho huh?"
"but as said these are not related to the vote, you're not the only one doing stuff at the summit!"
I see. Nevermind my previous post then. That doesn't sound as if it's related to Art Successor.
Maybe it was Jaromila trying to improve the Polar Theocracy's favouribility or something like that?
We don't even actually know if a low roll is good or bad. @Alectai might have turned his curse in the benefit of the greater good.
[X] Promise to push for comprehensive, if very basic sharing when the time comes. (Promise support for Minor Tech Sharing. +1 White Sky Favorability. MoI, White Plumes may dislike these options)
We do not gain trust if each other don't know what is dangerous and how something is safe.
[X] Promise to push for comprehensive, if very basic sharing when the time comes. (Promise support for Minor Tech Sharing. +1 White Sky Favorability. MoI, White Plumes may dislike these options)
We do not gain trust if each other don't know what is dangerous and how something is safe.
I'm not so sure. This is what the winning vote said.
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)
That wording tracks, actually. Ling Qi's time isn't taken matches with mysterious off-screen rolls of doom. And 'no penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults' is best read as raw rolls, which these were.
Basically, there's no specific evidence, but it would fit, and there's no evidence against.
No, see, Liling is trying to start shit, so this low roll surely means that she accidentally wooed the Pines to our side with the empire's rustic charms :)
I hope we get some payoff for all these relationship values for different factions soon. It feels kinda pointless right now when we don't even see why they matter.
"I can promise to support comprehensively sharing our foundations. That is the base theories of our arts, which all experts know," Ling Qi said after a long moment of thinking on it. They had shared the absolute minimum that they could get away with here, and that had contributed to the slowed and somewhat haphazard work on the hall. Even now most of the infrastructure in the valley was cleanly split with only basic connections where they needed to meet and some minor sharing of geomantic theory to avoid outright obstructing each other.
Frankly if this business was going to last long term and not leave their security full of holes, they were either going to have to secede all infrastructure to one side or the other, or share the principles of their cultivation and formationwork to a greater extent. The first option simply wasn't viable, for trust reasons.
So she was going to have some arguments to make. If promising it now bought her a little extra good will so much the better.
"It will be a good point to begin from, and prevent misunderstandings such as what happened here," Inzha said.
"Rough edges aside, it is a good proof of things, yes?" Rostam said, gesturing to the hall.
"Would that everyone saw things that way," Ling Qi said wryly.
"Hah! Not everyone can be as intelligent and handsome as me," Rostam chuckled, puffing out his chest.
"They cannot," Inzha said fondly. "Better to try something innovative and fall short of a lofty goal, than muddle on in mediocrity."
"The conventional wisdom simply says that it is better to succeed than fail."
"There is a difference between coming short and failing. Do we not stand under these eaves, negotiating as intended?" Inzha said with a shrug.
"It can be improved. So much the better! There is much to learn from missteps, so long as you don't go tumbling into the bog facefirst," Rostam said, holding out his hand. "To better designs?"
"To better cooperation," Ling Qi said, clasping his arm. "I will argue around my people as we need."
"And Emissary Jaromila will be arguing ours," Inzha said, glancing over toward that gathering.
Ling Qi considered Jaromila, who stood with her husband behind her, surrounded by older women and a handful of men. While she naturally could not perceive them with great clarity behind an active social screening technique, there was a certain frost in the air. Stern expressions and very…. Polite words. "If it is not too rude, may I ask what is being argued precisely. It was my impression that there were no significant tangles in negotiations?"
"Not with you," Rostam said dryly. "Hmm… what can be said…"
"There is some disagreements on which…" Inzha paused, carefully searching for a word. "Sects within Sudica's clergy will be provide for our magistrates. I am afraid that there is little more I may say."
"Understood," Ling Qi said, casting one last glance at Jaromila, she could see everyone's faces more clearly now, a sign of the screening being lessened. She was not happy precisely, but seemed as if she had…. Won, in a way, the air of a victor dragging themselves out of the mud of a bloody battle. There were many pinched expressions among the clergy around her as well, but she thought it was grudging rather than rebellious.
Jaromila vs. Polar Clergy debates
29 vs. 14 Costly Success to Jaromila. +1 Polar Theocracy Favorability, ??? Owed.
"Well, our time is running out. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me," Ling Qi said. She stopped herself from bowing and instead only crossed her arms. "I look forward completing this first step with you, that both of our people may prosper."
Inzha smiled faintly. "Of course. I am most interested in seeing where negotiations go. This project that Emissary Jaromila and yourself have begun is fascinating."
"And your wine is quite good!" Rostam chortled, stepping forward to loop his arm through Inzha's. "But we should be getting back to our places, no?"
"We should," Ling Qi said. "Please give the other Emissaries my regards."
They parted ways after that, making their way back to their places at the table. Them to their side, her a step behind Renxiang.
"Any further complications?" her liege asked quietly. "I have been informed of the Luo promise."
"We will need to push for a little more sharing of formation and cultivation basics, for better infrastructure cooperation next week," LIng Qi said quietly. "I believe there are no remaining obstacles to the Legal project though."
Renxiang gave a shallow nod, turning her head back toward the table. "Very good, then let us proceed, and lay this first stone."
"Lords and ladies of the Emerald Seas, agents of the Imperial throne, worthies of the Polar nation, I hereby call the summit back to order. These deliberations have been most fruitful despite their brevity. The time has come to take what we have discussed and lay down the foundational document which will guide our efforts to keep an equitable system of conflict resolution between our people. I am certain there will be much to add to what we lay down here today, in the years that follow, but your wisdom today will inform and guide it. Let us begin the drafting process…"
She was glad that Cai Renxiang could be so passionate about this kind of thing, Ling Qi thought. She cast her gaze over everyone gathered, and the hall alike. It wasn't merely her imagination that there was something in the air now. The beginning of something.
Letting her senses peer over the veil loosely, into the liminal realm beyond… The hall had settled, the twisted caricature of it with its patchwork construction and shifting foundations, was a little less ugly, it shook a little less, creaked a little less. The groaning chaos of the valley was a little more settled.
And that extended here, to her eyes in the physical realm. The Polar Nations held a united front, the creaking cliff of a glacier, grinding down a mountain before it. Pockmarked, there were knots of conflict in it, cracks in the ice, clashing wills, but it was steady in its primary purpose.
Her own people were less united, a mixed grove of trees, grasping roots fighting for the most nutritious soil, branches straining to steal the light from their neighbors. Too busy, too disinterested or occupied to strangle the saplings sneakily growing in the light let in by the narrow break in the canopy. Yet for all the knife fighting among themselves, she thought there was a growing notion that this whole endeavor had real value.
For both the good and ill that interest brought.
Even the old watchmen, glaring from behind his mask, had settled now, if not in acceptance, than at least grudging resignation.
She looked at all of this, feeling the flow of information, seeing it in a way she could not before, treaties as bonding chains, tensions as splinters and thorns and chips of frigid ice. It was not what the Prime Minister had shown her, back at the tournament, that crushing all consuming empathy.
….But it was something she could endure, seeing how the egos in this room clashed and colluded, getting a sense of what could guide them to one or the other.
+2 Expression XP from completing the creation of Thief of Names, +1 Mystery XP, +1 Choice XP from the events of the arc. +1 to Inquisitive Eyes Trait
Permanent +5% to all negotiation success rolls for the summit and Social rolls in the future so long as Thief of Names is active.)
"Four judges, with a majority of three required to to pass a judgment upon a case, ensuring that some consensus must always be found. Three such panels rotated in and out of the Embassy to ensure there is always availability," She heard Cai Renxiang say. "Housing here, commensurate with what is needed for such worthy experts and their staff."
The first seeds of joint settlement drawn here, a reason for both nations to have a fixed presence.
The establishment of an investigatory force, with a similarly mixed staff. Headed by a pair of experts, one of each of our nations, with authority to investigate claims along the borders we will establish in the following weeks negotiations. These experts will act under the command of My mother's court through our magistrates on site, and the Polar althing, acting through your magistrates. Their duties shall include…"
Ling Qi's eyes fell on Meng Dan and his uncle. There was discomfort there, something stirred up. Animosity in the air between Cao Chun and the older Meng, anxiety from Meng Dan, for all that his smile never wavered.
She would have to talk to them too. Their ducal watchers too would be involved next week, with the first appointed meetings and the need for the Sun's input on border negotiations. Zheng Fu was diffuse in her vision, as difficult to grasp as a cloud of mist, but he was… unhappy? Fretful over a failure. Sun Liling and Bai Meizhen were very similar in their aloof boredom, though she would certainly never say that to either. Xuan Shi was full of eagerness though, scribbling away in his book. He had a meeting scheduled, the first of them, for soon after this meeting.
"The decisions of the judicial panels will be backed by the will of the Duchess Cai and the authorities of the White Sky, and its punishments enforced with the full extent of their authority, neither polity will shield its members from justice as decided here, so shall be sworn in the oaths establishing the court…"
Experts began to speak up, pairs of lawmakers and clerks, establishing a handful of foundational legal codes which everyone had agreed on. Land ownership, life, and cultivation being the basic subjects. Codes and categories of offense laid out. Still only the beginning, but a thing for precedent and law to be built on over time, with clear mechanisms for addition or removal of items from the foundational document.
Said document took shape as everyone spoke, written in alternating sections, with elegant imperial characters beside the harsher strokes of polar runes. Right now only paper, later to be carved into iron and jade tablets in the courthouse when it was constructed. Densely written, but perfectly legible, laid down by skilled scribes and scrutinized a dozen times over for any discrepancy as it was passed around the table.
Finally, it was done, with the text seeming to take up only a single sheet of the finest paper, text shifting under a reader's glance to scroll along the dense contents. Everyone stood as it was finished, the arrangements shuffling as Jaromila and Cai Renxiang came together in the center with their entourages, the document laid out before them, with the small blank space at its bottom awaiting them.
"Let this seal mark the beginning of our peoples cooperation, the first sign of oaths to be sworn upon the success of this summit," Jaromila said, as the completed document was laid before her. Straight backed, with metallic flecks glittering in her eyes. Her voice held an authority beyond her cultivation as she was given an iron seal by the priestess surrounding her. Its press left the impression in dark blue of the rune that she recognized it as being the symbol of the White Sky as a whole.
"Let this signing mark the truth that law is the foundation of civilization, that in its understanding the sword may be set aside," Cai Renxiang said. The brush held in her hand was mundane, but the ink she set it in, the container held by Ling Qi, was more potent, a deep crimson that glittered with wavering lines of other colors. And thrummed with the tiniest breath of the power that shone out of the eyes of the Duchess. The character of Cai was laid down in neat, perfect strokes beside the seal of the White Sky.
The liminal chaos settled just a little more.
Cai Renxiang and Jaromila turned, first bowing to one another and then clasping arms. A quiet susurrus of noise broke out among the observers, discussing the finalization of the legal agreements
Ling Qi merely let out a quiet, relieved breath. The first step had been achieved. The small part of that worried if this was even possible, if they had far overreached themselves, shrank a little more. Because they were succeeding. They would find success here.
She would not accept any other result.
AN: So ends the first arc, going forward we now advance into more difficult negotiations, settling borders and military matters. Please vote for one of the Art Projects below to be explored in the coming arc. Due to your full time presence at the summit, you will not receive any site bonuses, however selected projects will complete to the minimum level automatically.
[ ] Boundaries Untrodden
To slip between, through and around, through the tiniest keyhole or the open window. Round the mountains or through even the veil of death. So walks the thief, who must bypass boundaries in the same way that a bird must fly. But to step across or through, one must understand that which they will violate. Alters and advances the Breeze in the Vault technique. +1 XP to Want and Mystery. Unlocks a new project.(0/6)
[ ] Bear God's Fury
The Bear God, avatar of wrath, whose crushing paws sundered trees and reshaped hills, Learn the stanzas of the great ballad which spoke of his coming and the ruin of the wolf gods plans. Learn the Bear God's Fury technique, which summons the phantom limbs of the titan to crush and pin down foes, and breaks the chains of power in his fall. Unlocks One Project. (0/3)
[ ] Lake Hei is Wide
The great lake is bottomless, but it is also wide, a sea in its own right, there is nothing which cannot vanish into its depths. So to can you render inert even assaults that would strike down a whole company. Improves Rippling Starless Shroud and adds +1 modifier to your Primary Defense Trait in the arts passive. (0/3)
Emerald Seas Nobility: 5 (+2 Ducal Support, +2 Personal accomplishments, +1 Historical Proofs, +1 Expansionist Interests Catered, -1 Incomplete Hall)
White Plumes: 2 (+1 Satisfactory security, +1 Heron General's Patience)
Modifiers:
Next Polar Theocracy Roll +20% Success Chance
All Xia Ren Rolls +5% Success Chance
+5% All rolls
The art of a scholar and a thief, a seeker of secrets, stepping beyond the foundational ideas of divination, this is an art developed and driven by Ling Qi's desire to understand and communicate. Few will hide from her eyes, and no treasure will escape her plucking fingers.
Passive Effects:
+2 to Primary Perception Trait
Passively allows the viewing of cultivation echoes of those interacted with and a deeper understanding of intentions and motives.
Active Effects
Scholar-Thief's Assessment: G4
Type: Construct, Perception
Duration: Scene
The gaze of a seeker of knowledge and secrets, passing over the locked displays all around them, parsing their contents and defenses, all to better understand which treasures which ones hands might reach. Enhances the user's senses, or may be used to conjure up to five invisible points from which the users perception can emanate.The user's senses extend from the wisps, and when they overlap, the user's perception is improved in the area. The wisps ignore obstacles below potency 10, but cannot travel very far from their creator. Wisps are fragile and may be destroyed easily by the direct actions of peer cultivators if noticed, but are quite subtle and hard to detect.
Alternatively you may create a single perception point, at greatly extended range, and a potency of 12.
Seeking the Name: G6
Type: Scry, Noncombat
Duration: Scene
An advanced and dangerous liminal technique, allowing the user to visualize a targets mind as a physical space which they can infiltrate, pilfer and otherwise interact with. A very risky art, as such a close connection to anothers mind opens the user up to being damaged in many ways by the targets will and memories, and which risks significant and permanent harm to the minds of low realm and mortal targets. However a skillful thief can find many treasures indeed in such a vault.
Can currently only be used on targets unaware of the users presence, and outside of active combat situations.
