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

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Alright gonna lock up, geeze, everytime I think I have you guys pegged behaviorally you swerve on me. I thought this one would actually be a little contentious
I'm eagerly awaiting the repeat of the choice after they've killed one of our scout bros. And yes, that means that all of our decisions from now on carry the threat of EXISTENTIAL MOOK DEATH. One false move, or even correct but unlucky move, and Ling Qi has poor innocent tiny Yellow scout blood all over her hands! And feet, spine, heart, lung, and head.
 
I'm eagerly awaiting the repeat of the choice after they've killed one of our scout bros. And yes, that means that all of our decisions from now on carry the threat of EXISTENTIAL MOOK DEATH. One false move, or even correct but unlucky move, and Ling Qi has poor innocent tiny Yellow scout blood all over her hands! And feet, spine, heart, lung, and head.
red realm, red shirt

makes perfect sense
 
In fairness, Ling Qi didn't quite expect 2 peer+ dudes to show up. With being further on guard, having a larger qi signature to follow, and being closer to the mountains themselves with all of its cracks and crevices to disappear into, and the benefit of her skill insight, I think we could reasonably expect Ling Qi's stealth to perform better.

Wouldn't help much if she got lead back to a Cyan chief though, haha.
 
While it does seem incredibly taxing to use, being able to vanish from an area for even a couple of moments to avoid detection will allow us to more easily hide from probing examinations or getting into places we shouldn't.

Not sure about that, the skill seems to require staying still to work.

But otherwise, yeah, it's incredibly potent.
 
That is not necessarily true.
IRL Mount Everest is fully inside the Earth's Atmosphere and yet a significant part of it's peak is just not livable. As in you literally can not breath enough air to remain at that altitude for more than a few hours, assuming decent physical state. Heck, i doubt the average couch potato could even last a few hours...
I think that and the fact the scouts are all significant greens is more an indication that the higher you personal cultivation realm the wider the range of environment you can survive/live in. Highest mountain peaks, lowest caverns, deepest reach of the ocean, ect...
Obviously, those extreme areas are also where you find the strangest resources, which considering their strangeness require the highest level of skill to process into usable stuff. All in good Xianxia fashion...
Well naturally, but from the narration Ling Qi already passed the "lethal for mortals to breathe" height...back at Zeqing's place, which was expressedly much much lower than this. This is so high the ambient qi from the Earth is getting thin, which is quite extreme.
Perhaps, though if my previous idea is accurate then the fact the scouts are all greens is due to the fact that they need to be at least that powerful to survive the altitude and has little to do with what the average power level of barbarians is. Yellow scouts would simply not be able to work there, hence why the barbarians need to send three green scouts instead of say three dozen of yellow scouts.
Given typical barbarian practices what we are actually seeing should be that the warhost of the barbarians are primarily formed out of restless, newly powerful young warriors out to win glory for social status. I.e. the ENTIRE warhost is probably drawn from a vast area, picking out the fresh Greens of the new generation, who organize together under someone charismatic to raid the settled peoples for goodies, with the rest of their tribe still safe because its still only taking like 3-4 people out of each clan unit of a couple dozen adults.
Barbarians and the Empire seem to be based on Mongols and China, so i'll venture the guess that the first bounded spirit of basically any barbarian is their horse.
I'm referring to OUR Yellow scouts here. They're Argent Sect, they probably have Argent Soul, which means they have above average(for their talent tier) Qi and they can bind a spirit.
 
Thats why it combos so well with ENM.

We use Vanishing and ENM to reset awareness, then use Ling Qis ridiculous mobility to move elsewhere and continue undetected.
I'm not so sure staying still is necessary. My guess is "stationary"/"moving" is one of the invisible-to-us situational (de)buffs that can apply to stealth attempts, but that doesn't impact Vanishing specifically more than other types of B-rank advanced stealth.
 
Yeah people are overreading the staying still thing, its just that when your stealth is close to the limits of its ability, not moving around usually helps you not be spotted.
 
I'm not sure how much we want to invest in stealth at this point. Sure we can sneak around a bit but our fighting style is as stealthy as a fog horn. Edit: Now that I think about it having good stealth skills would still be valuable inside FVM sooo never mind
 
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Using vanish then resetting awareness would really play up the we are a scary spirit angle. Could you imagine being trapped and lost in a mist, and then suddenly forgetting who you were supposed to be fighting? That sounds pretty scary. Plus we would then use one of our somewhat horrifying attacks (destory your soul, freeze you from the inside out, etc).
 
Using vanish then resetting awareness would really play up the we are a scary spirit angle. Could you imagine being trapped and lost in a mist, and then suddenly forgetting who you were supposed to be fighting? That sounds pretty scary. Plus we would then use one of our somewhat horrifying attacks (destory your soul, freeze you from the inside out, etc).
Pretty sure that stealth mechanics don't work this way.
 
Pretty sure that stealth mechanics don't work this way.
ENM does explicitly, actually
There are many passing fancies dreamt of in the late hours of the day. Yet there are some which would be better remembered. Memory is a tricky thing, a tenuous thread, easily severed and even important details might slip from us in time, let alone a passing shadow or a the soft touch of a breeze, and surely that is all that it was.

Passives
+10 to Stealth
+5 to Speed
+5 to Physical and Spiritual Avoid
+5 to Physical and Spiritual Hit


Passing Phantom: D
Duration: Short
The user's presence fades from the mind, forgotten the moment that ones eyes stray from them. Enhances the users stealth and ability to avoid spiritual attacks, as well as slip through spiritual defenses. Allows the user to reset unsure targets to unaware if their stealth is sufficient.

Evening Breeze Flourish: D
Duration: Immediate
In an instant the user pulses their qi in a feint, and for one foe a single second of memory vanishes into the mist of time, leaving them disoriented and open for a blow.
 
ENM does explicitly, actually

If you're talking about Passing Phantom tech and its ability to reset unsure targets to unaware, then I don't think targets engaged in open combat can be considered "unsure" even if they don't know where their enemy is hiding exactly.

And Evening Breeze Flourish can only affect one second at a time.
 
ENM does explicitly, actually
Note that only works on "unsure targets" presumably anyone who saw ling disappear is way past unsure. Edit: Ninja'd

I'm not sure how much we want to invest in stealth at this point. Sure we can sneak around a bit but our fighting style is as stealthy as a fog horn. Edit: Now that I think about it having good stealth skills would still be valuable inside FVM sooo never mind
We can start altering existing arts once we hit foundation, presumably we could then alter our arts to fit in with stealth a lot better. In particular looking at the music elements bonuses:
Special Element, Music unlocked. Music based arts are no longer affected by sound based defences or deafness as long as at least one meridian is attuned to Music.
it's kind of implied the sounds aren't actually the totality of the musical arts, I don't think it would be impossible to limit them so we can play without producing actual sound or limit it so only our target can hear the sounds.
 
Actually, we can literally be fighting, break line of sight and get our opponents to unsure. They know they're fighting Ling Qi, they know she's here. They're unsure of her exact location. In context of FVM and PLR, they know she's in that area over there, but not exactly where. So AoE attacks would still be viable, but high damage 1 vs 1 techs aren't what you want to use because they're not designed to target "somewhere over that way."

From the tutorial:
Stealth and Perception in combat:
The goal of entering stealth in combat is to gain advantage in combat over your foes. In order to attempt to enter stealth in battle, you must either have access to terrain or environmental features which can cut off, temporarily an enemies line of sight, or an art which allows you to do so regardless. When entering stealth, you initiate a skill challenge vs. all enemies Combat Perception. Targets with perception one or more ranks below your stealth total are considered Unaware. Targets within one rank of, but not above your stealth total are considered Unsure.

The Unready condition is only applicable if a target is totally unaware of your presence(I.E they have not sensed you at all at any point in the scene) Unready targets are also considered Unaware for the purposes of bonuses. Unready targets cannot use Responses against the first attack made against them by the hidden party.

In a combat with multiple enemies, one enemy losing the unaware or unsure condition does not strip you of it against others, although it may result in penalties to stealth, depending on the situation.

Y'all are thinking of infiltration stealth again, where if the opponent has seen you and raised the alarm means the game is up. Combat stealth is just "I don't know exactly where my opponent is at the moment."
 
If you're talking about Passing Phantom tech and its ability to reset unsure targets to unaware, then I don't think targets engaged in open combat can be considered "unsure" even if they don't know where their enemy is hiding exactly.

And Evening Breeze Flourish can only affect one second at a time.
At its first level, yeah.

Thats not even going into what it looks like when mastered or any potential Successor Arts that we might wind up taking advantage of as well.

Note that only works on "unsure targets" presumably anyone who saw ling disappear is way past unsure
I mean...
Stealth Bonus activated
Stealth Skill Advanced
Stealth C->Vanishing B


...And when the man rode through the storm, sparks of electricity dancing around the eye holes of his mask, he found only shadows lightning and a rumbling storm. Ling Qi watched him search, her thoughts feeling as unfocused and detached as the qi that had been her body as the man rode through where she had been. It was not a comfortable feeling, it was like holding her breath as a mortal, and every second that passed sent a feeling like the burning of air starved lungs through her spirit, and her focus threatened to crumble as her thoughts tried to float away, like leaves on the wind.

Yet the moment passed, and the man rode back to his companions, departing for the mountain from whence they came.
That's just factually incorrect.
 
At its first level, yeah.

Thats not even going into what it looks like when mastered or any potential Successor Arts that we might wind up taking advantage of as well.


I mean...

That's just factually incorrect.
I wasn't talking about the vanishing skill, Varder basically made the exact point I meant to but better.
 
If you're talking about Passing Phantom tech and its ability to reset unsure targets to unaware, then I don't think targets engaged in open combat can be considered "unsure" even if they don't know where their enemy is hiding exactly.
Unsure is explicitly an open combat state where a character does not know where their enemy is hiding due to stealth (unaware is a "first strike" version of that), and the effect of ENM is explicitly stated in its description and further clarified:
unaware is normally lost after attacking, at least until you act again which might enable you to regain stealth. since attacking effectively gives a large penalty to stealth. Once an enemy has gone from unaware to unsure you can't reverse that without an effect like ENM's or another stealth art

I also guess the CtE on Bai dude last turn might also have benefited from "unaware" while he was super distracted by Cai last turn without the usage of explicit stealth.
 
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At its first level, yeah.

Is there a VOG on ENM's further levels? Because I don't have the inside info about it allowing to make people fighting Ling Qi unsure of her presence in the area that you are basing your argument on.

It's a nonsensical point either way you dress it up.

Pick on or the other, you can't claim the point is nonsensial and then proceed to tell that it's correct within used parameters.

Unsure is explicitly an open combat state where a character does not know where their enemy is hiding exactly, and the effect of ENM is explicitly stated in its description and further clarified:

Ah, I see, thanks; it seems like I misinterpreted unsure as "is anyone there at all" type of thing.
 
Is there a VOG on ENM's further levels? Because I don't have the inside info about it allowing to make people fighting Ling Qi unsure of her presence in the area that you are basing your argument on.
I don't either, but basing your opinion of an art entirely on its first level is faintly ridiculous, especially when your complaint is the lack of potency of a tech at said first level.

Pick on or the other, you can't claim the point is nonsensial and then proceed to tell that it's correct within used parameters.
Literally what
 
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