But with Ling Qi taking point on it, Sixiang screening the nasty and maybe throwing a buff our way, Zhengui helping tank hits for the squishies, and the Yellows working backup or even taking point if they have some relevant Wux I think this could work.
Also, this is a hella tight opportunity for us to show off the fact that since Sixiang got her Groove Back Wind aspect and Hanyi is on board, we have 2 skill B backup singers.
If failure is never possible, is winning meaningful? I'm okay with this option going bad, I was okay with any option going bad. In fact I doubt that there was a good option. A bit a failure is good to keep you humble, and appreciative of your successes.
If failure is never possible, is winning meaningful? I'm okay with this option going bad, I was okay with any option going bad. In fact I doubt that there was a good option. A bit a failure is good to keep you humble, and appreciative of your successes.
I agree. There needs to be risk and danger to make a quest like this truly fun. Like, it adds so much to the needed concentration and focus to making a choice. I'm kinda hoping one option was the bad choice. And another more dangerous.
In this case we already know Sempai is on his way back and he could absolutely suplex it to death if necessary.
Collateral damage is the predominant concern here, since Ling Qi can shield her subordinates well enough that they can retreat if she runs low, and unless she's literally in melee range she's too fast to take more than one or two whacks.
Well that and however the corruption reacts with Wood qi, since its noted to be super effective on Wood and Earth stuff when we found the site(probably because both elements are about absorbing energy), but Fire works great on it.
Personally, I feel like having to rely on Senpai to bail us out to be a failure condition since it looks really bad that we needed to use our safety net due to choosing to be reckless when we need to look as good as possible for Cai Mom
I've been picturing this as the Reaper-Rachni event from Mass Effect 3. Put it down or rescue it and let it spread corruption and death. On my playthrough I saved the thing and was somehow surprised when it went crazy again and started killing my techs. Made me more discerning on who I'd help, knowing it could go badly for me down the line.
I don't think trying to pacify the corrupted creature is going to end well, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. As had been said, sometimes losing is more intetesting and can lead to deeper understandings of the world.
No, I'm not rationalizing to make myself more comfortable before the update why would you say that.
I've been picturing this as the Reaper-Rachni event from Mass Effect 3. Put it down or rescue it and let it spread corruption and death. On my playthrough I saved the thing and was somehow surprised when it went crazy again and started killing my techs. Made me more discerning on who I'd help, knowing it could go badly for me down the line.
I don't think trying to pacify the corrupted creature is going to end well, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. As had been said, sometimes losing is more intetesting and can lead to deeper understandings of the world.
No, I'm not rationalizing to make myself more comfortable before the update why would you say that.
Uh...pacifying the creature is explicitly putting it to sleep for long enough that the army proper can get here and have the seniors specialized in purification/rituals to decontaminate, kill or seal it properly, as well as for the auxillaries to potentially get a better study of a live specimen once they pin it down with formations and flay the taint out.
It in no way suggests the Hill-Turtle-Dragon is redeemable in its present state, its half-bone, half-stone, and full of Death Qi, Stellar Qi and Underworld Impurity.
The primary difference at the army utility level between pacification and killing is likely that a successful pacification has the least collateral damage to terrain, and an intact, dormant spirit is easier to backsolve the root cause than a corpse.
Uh...pacifying the creature is explicitly putting it to sleep for long enough that the army proper can get here and have the seniors specialized in purification/rituals to decontaminate, kill or seal it properly, as well as for the auxillaries to potentially get a better study of a live specimen once they pin it down with formations and flay the taint out.
It in no way suggests the Hill-Turtle-Dragon is redeemable in its present state, its half-bone, half-stone, and full of Death Qi, Stellar Qi and Underworld Impurity.
The primary difference at the army utility level between pacification and killing is likely that a successful pacification has the least collateral damage to terrain, and an intact, dormant spirit is easier to backsolve the root cause than a corpse.
Also, Liao Zhu is arguably one of the top 5 Puirfier of spirits in the empire at the green level, if his Twin Moon diplomancy arts have to do with purifying.
Uh...pacifying the creature is explicitly putting it to sleep for long enough that the army proper can get here and have the seniors specialized in purification/rituals to decontaminate, kill or seal it properly, as well as for the auxillaries to potentially get a better study of a live specimen once they pin it down with formations and flay the taint out.
It in no way suggests the Hill-Turtle-Dragon is redeemable in its present state, its half-bone, half-stone, and full of Death Qi, Stellar Qi and Underworld Impurity.
The primary difference at the army utility level between pacification and killing is likely that a successful pacification has the least collateral damage to terrain, and an intact, dormant spirit is easier to backsolve the root cause than a corpse.
IMO, the reason pacification is unlikely to succeed is that we're counting LQ's mix of Spirit Ken (C) and musical skill to have a greater effect than the double corruption and intense, agonizing pain the spirit is under. This corruption is causing so much agony that the hill is acting like the exact antithesis of a hill, the complete opposite of its nature and it happened at the slightest touch, which could hardly be considered provocation. It speaks volumes that hills' nature usually involves someone having to headbutt them just to get their attention. Don't get me wrong though, I don't think we would've succeeded at the Kill option either--SS30 health? That's a lot. I was for containing and retreating but it became clear early on that the Contain option would be the losing vote. I'm just saying though, it wouldn't look like we were trying for glory with that option (like we would have with Kill option). And there wouldn't be any chance we'd need rescue from Moon Senpai. I could see Moon Senpai stepping in to help out with either Pacify or Kill scenario because there's a good chance we'd need the help. It would not do a lot of good for our reputation if Liao Zhu has to step in. It'll look like we can't handle our own shit, like we're reckless. It may reflect badly on CRX too.
Edit: I also don't see why people think leaving it on its own, contained, was such a bad idea. With no one bothering it, there might be a chance that it would revert to its original form as a hill. If it doesn't, the main army is still far better equipped to handle pacification and/or putting the poor creature out of its misery. It's our job to scout and report things to the main army that are worth reporting as well as smooth over any issues we feel we're able to tackle. I can't help but feel that LQ isn't sufficiently equipped for the Kill or Pacify route but I guess we'll see how well she can pacify it. Maybe we'll get a really good diceroll for our MC.
Eh, looking at the numbers, sure, if the challenges are made equal...but our Spirit Ken C at Green 2 is really pretty dang good in general(if not as refined as we would like), and our Music is both with an advanced skill and an exotic element which allows us to communicate meanings without a common language.
I wouldn't sell it that short. Since we talked to the uncorrupted hill, we also have a basis for comparing and understanding.
Basic problem with that assessment is treating it as a hill. Its not.
Hills are Earth/Mountain qi.
Earth qi is passive, receptive and ignores everything
Mountain qi is still, unyielding and ignores everything
This isn't. This is loaded with Stellar qi and Death qi.
Stellar qi we know a little of through the Moon, its chaotic, and disordered.
Death qi we know a little of through Zeqing's Ending, its implacable(we don't have a full picture of it other than that).
Of course a being of Stellar and Death qi would be reacting to the slightest disturbance. The challenge is completely different rather than moving along the scale.
An Earth/Mountain spirit should be hard to get the attention of, but otherwise a fairly amiable spirit as long as you aren't trying to make it do something different. You need music that is loud and authoritative to get through. Drums should work.
A Star/Death spirit should be hmm...closest guess is a grumpy, freshly awakened sleeper lashing out. Death qi seems likely to be perfectly happy to go take a nap.
Eh, looking at the numbers, sure, if the challenges are made equal...but our Spirit Ken C at Green 2 is really pretty dang good in general(if not as refined as we would like), and our Music is both with an advanced skill and an exotic element which allows us to communicate meanings without a common language.
I wouldn't sell it that short. Since we talked to the uncorrupted hill, we also have a basis for comparing and understanding.
Basic problem with that assessment is treating it as a hill. Its not.
Hills are Earth/Mountain qi.
Earth qi is passive, receptive and ignores everything
Mountain qi is still, unyielding and ignores everything
This isn't. This is loaded with Stellar qi and Death qi.
Stellar qi we know a little of through the Moon, its chaotic, and disordered.
Death qi we know a little of through Zeqing's Ending, its implacable(we don't have a full picture of it other than that).
Of course a being of Stellar and Death qi would be reacting to the slightest disturbance. The challenge is completely different rather than moving along the scale.
An Earth/Mountain spirit should be hard to get the attention of, but otherwise a fairly amiable spirit as long as you aren't trying to make it do something different. You need music that is loud and authoritative to get through. Drums should work.
A Star/Death spirit should be hmm...closest guess is a grumpy, freshly awakened sleeper lashing out. Death qi seems likely to be perfectly happy to go take a nap.
So we're going to play this hill spirit a lullaby? That is a perspective that makes me feel better about this vote winning, if for no other reason then it's a cute mental image.
Personally, I feel like having to rely on Senpai to bail us out to be a failure condition since it looks really bad that we needed to use our safety net due to choosing to be reckless when we need to look as good as possible for Cai Mom
IMO, the reason pacification is unlikely to succeed is that we're counting LQ's mix of Spirit Ken (C) and musical skill to have a greater effect than the double corruption and intense, agonizing pain the spirit is under.
I really don't think we are, because Ling Qi is not alone on this mountain. Admittedly, Sixiang will be busy keeping our face tightly attached to our cheekbones where it belongs.
Sixiang
Spirit Ken: C(max)
-Revelry B
Empathy: C(Max)
-Subconscious Cues: B
Music: C(Max)
-Vocals: B
...
Everchanging Moonlight Promenade
Passives
+5 Persuade and socialize with spirits
+10 Social Perception with Spirits
+3 Persuade and socialize tests with humans
+10 Social Perception
Chang He, was the oldest, as well as the strongest, being nearly seventy years old, he was at the peak of the second realm... His specialties were in earth and wood arts, with a lean toward defensive and social arts.
The three of them worked well as a team, strengthening her suspicion that the three were quite familiar with each other. Chun Yan was the spear, Chang He was the shield. Mo Lian was the odd man out, acting to support the other two with a more varied set of skills.
[X] Go in for the kill, and call Zhengui to help. You have underestimated your own killing power before, and the things cultivation is not superior to your own. Hill or not, you can End it.
I like the pacify option because it fits in with Ling Qis recent epiphany about her treating spirits as lesser in some way compared to humans. If it was a human in agony and corrupted by some foreign qi then Ling Qi seems to be more likely choose the "pacify and let people who know more figure it out" than the "I don't know what's happening and I don't like it/care about it so I'll kill it" option.
I think it shows that she's trying to regard spirit lives as equally important as humans. Spirits are people too and all that jazz.
I mean if you find a human sprouting tentacles and additional heads and doing its best to kill you while screaming a lot of people's reactions is gonna be "Oh God Kill it with Fire."
I've been picturing this as the Reaper-Rachni event from Mass Effect 3. Put it down or rescue it and let it spread corruption and death. On my playthrough I saved the thing and was somehow surprised when it went crazy again and started killing my techs. Made me more discerning on who I'd help, knowing it could go badly for me down the line.
If I'm thinking of the right event, that only occurs with the artificial Rachni Queen the Reapers made, which only shows up if you kill the actual Rachni Queen back in Mass Effect 1
The real Rachni Queen is peaceful, and if you spare her in both ME 1 and ME 3 she never betrays you
I like the pacify option because it fits in with Ling Qis recent epiphany about her treating spirits as lesser in some way compared to humans. If it was a human in agony and corrupted by some foreign qi then Ling Qi seems to be more likely choose the "pacify and let people who know more figure it out" than the "I don't know what's happening and I don't like it/care about it so I'll kill it" option.
I think it shows that she's trying to regard spirit lives as equally important as humans. Spirits are people too and all that jazz.
I'd prefer she go into opposite direction, and realice that humans are not that special compared to spirits.
Not saying she should go hunt humans for food or anything.
Just that there's no need to feel guilty about the bandits, and it's ok to kill in certain circumstances (like this one right here).
She just wasn't confident that she could kill it with the qi she had left, and there were few enough targets around for her to drain, most spirits and animals having long fled. Nor did she feel comfortable just walling it off. Not only would it prevent them from finishing the last of the survey, but it also meant letting the danger linger for longer still. No, she was going to have to try something unorthodox.
"And here we go," Sixiang chuckled distractedly.
'Don't you start," Ling Qi thought ruefully. She darted in then, feinting toward the beast. It swung its twisted heads toward her and howled, but most importantly, it started trundling in the opposite direction from the others. The moment it fixed its eyes on her, she vanished in a blink of shadow, and reemerged far on its other side. She had to relay her plans to the others.
When appeared in a swirl of shadow just behind the soldiers and Zhengui, they did not even flinch. "I have a plan," she announced.
"I would love to hear it ma'am," Mo Lian said distractedly. The youngest man looked like he would be tugging his beard out by the roots if both hands weren't occupied with shaping the stone that he was raising from the earth, piling and fusing it into another wall. Behind him Chun Yan stood, clutching her spear with a white knuckled grip. Ling Qi could feel the tense pattern of the older woman's qi, preparing to defend from a stray attack.
Chang He was the calmest of them, crouched in the branches of a tree behind the growing wall, peering at the rampaging hill beast with narrowed eyes. Zhengui stood at the base of the wall with his stubby claws dug into the earth, while the ground writhed with growing roots that climbed up the wall as it was built, weaving between and through slabs of rock to bind the construct together all the tighter.
"We're going to pacify the beast," Ling Qi continued confidently. Chang He shot her a surprised look, his greying eyebrows climbing his forehead. "I'm going to get closer and try to calm it down. Once I do, I need the three of you to begin a pacification ritual."
"I am not certain my arts will be sufficient for the task," Chang He admitted, giving the thrashing creature a worried look. It's bony heads were beginning to swing wildly about as it searched for her vanished qi.
Ling Qi smiled tightly. "That's why you'll only start if it looks like we're getting somewhere. Zhengui, you'll stay here and make sure to protect them, okay? They need to be able to do their work for me to win."
"Yes! I won't let you down Big Sister," Zhengui agreed.
"Sis, leave me here too, I can help," Ling Qi was brought up short as Hanyi spoke. Up to now, the young spirit had remained quiet.
"Are you sure?" Ling Qi asked aloud, drawing some confused looks from her subordinates. "You can stay with me and be safe."
"But then I can't help! Your doofy friend can't protect me too. I'll stay with these guys and help. I remember the songs Momma used to sing to the mountain when it shook," Hanyi replied.
Ling Qi hesitated for a moment. "If you're sure."
"I'm not that fragile," Hanyi grumped as she materialized, looking up at Ling Qi with her hands on her hips. "Just get going big sis."
She worried though, Hanyi was still lacking in defense. Ling Qi didn't say that though. "This is Hanyi my other spirit. She'll help with the pacification when the time comes," she introduced hurriedly.
"As you say Ma'am," Chang He replied, giving a worried look to the beast which was slowly turning back their way. "We'll work out the details."
Ling Qi gave a quick nod, then shot off into the air. The wind rushed past her ears as she buzzed past one of the beasts heads, immediately drawing it's attention again. She flickered into shadow as a glob of stinking blue black corruption passed through where she had been and spun in the air, contemplating the screaming beast below her. For all her bravado, she really wasn't sure how to even begin approaching this. She couldn't just play a lullaby or a cheerful tune here.
She could feel the beasts directionless hate and agony, but it gave her very little to work with. If she was going to soothe it, even a little, she would need further understanding of the problem. The moment she had the thought, she felt understanding from Sixiang. Materializing her flute, Ling Qi flew straight backwards as she raised the instrument to her lips and began to play the Spring Breeze Canto.
A moment later, she felt Sixiang's qi bolstering and reinforcing the patterns of qi from the song as they spread like ripples through the tainted air. Ling Qi felt the burning sensation on her skin deepen and spread, but she needed this. Ling Qi felt her senses expand and deepen, the world around her growing sharper and more defined. More than that, her spiritual senses grew sharper, transforming the general haze of 'visible' qi into forms and patterns. She saw the channels in the sky, where water rose and become clouds, she saw the crumbling patterns of rot in the ground, where death transformed into earth, and the patterns in the air that guided the weather.
Most importantly, she saw the hill, and flows of corruption running through it, like mud smeared across a watercolor. Ling Qi saw the bubbling poison at its core, transforming the dead and rotting detritus in the dirt into twisted life, and the twisted whorls of chaotic eye searing energies that gathered in little nodes throughout its channels, like sharpened gallstones, inflicting never ending pain. It was her own presence that caused them to pulse and throb. She cultivated stellar qi, heavily changed and purified, but all the same, like called to like, however weakly.
It was too late to simply leave though, she could tell, the reaction she had triggered in the creature was self sustaining as long as it kept thrashing and moving like this, going against its nature as a hill. It's own actions were hurting it now. As the vision faded, and Sixiang's own ephemeral qi washed the burning toxin away, she twisted and darted in the air, avoiding snapping jaws and bursts of poisonous light and ooze, frantically composing.
As she rose on a spiral of heated air from a plume of fiery gas, she hit upon her theme. As she soared back down, she began to play. It was a slow song, and a sad song, but most of all it was a peaceful song. With her music, she wove a spiritual tapestry, and in her mind's eye, she could see it. A vision of little hills rising from a sea of mist, and a peaceful river valley. A song of stars and sun passing over a landscape largely unchanged for a thousand years. Of rough edges worn smooth by wind, and little hills growing with centuries of sediment, one speck of dust and dirt at a time.
It was a song of mountains and earth, a song of how things should be, and as she suppressed her own qi, leaving only the ripples created by her song, she felt the beast react. It let out a keening double throated wail, full of anguish and grief. The earth shook as the hill itself did, thrashing limbs drumming against the earth as it shook its heads crazily, like an ox bothered by flies. Yet, all the same, while she continued playing, building a new verse even as she finished the first, she felt the warm and cool qi of mountain and earth increasing just a little, and the toxic aura of corruption weaken
Through her extended senses, she saw Chang He and the others rising on a platform of rock. Mo Lian was crouched in the front, controlling the construct, and Chang He kneeled beside him, with his fingers embedded in the stone. Absently she saw the array forming in the rock, lines carving themselves in stone around a jar of smoking incense sticks, which carried heated purifying qi into the air.
In front of them was Zhengui, forming a bulwark with his sheer bulk, vital qi coursing from the earth up through his stubby legs. Hot ash rolled off of him in waves, hissing as it met and purified poison air. On his back, standing just behind hiss tortoise head was Hanyi, and Ling Qi felt and heard as she raised her own voice in song. Hanyi's melody was colder and more remote but the young spirit followed the rhythm of Ling Qi's song, and with only a small adjustment, the two songs wove together into a seamless duet.
The hill was slowing, though keening bone rattling cries still rose from its throatless mouths. Rot still flowed from it, staining the earth around, but its limbs no longer drummed the earth, and the jaw on one of its heads hung loose, dangling as the thing seemed to struggle to hold together as it was reminded of what it was and should be.
But, Ling Qi realized with a grimace, it was not enough. One of the nodes of corruptive qi inside of it throbbed, and a geyser of burning gas erupted from it's back. Another pulsed, and the beast wailed. Pain warred against peace, and despite her best efforts, despite their best efforts, it seemed that pain was slowly winning. Even as Sixiang joined her in song, voice carried on strands of wind, it was only slowing the regression down.
As Ling Qi began to think furiously, trying to figure out what to do, what she could do, another voice joined them. Not in song, but in something that sounded more like a ritual mantra. Spoken in a tongue that sounded more like the grinding of rocks over eons than the noise made by a man or a beast, it was nonetheless rhythmic and soothing, and Ling Qi's eyes alit on a figure standing at the base of the hill, one hand resting against a flat plane of rock. Liao Zhu met her gaze as the knife in his free hand flashed and carved through stone with no visible effect.
Ling Qi felt the spiritual ripple however, as the spirit was severed from its pain. The corruptive nodes remained, but she could feel that the spirit could no longer perceive them. Without the driving impetus, its heads began to crumble and fall apart, as the song and the ritual soothed the hills anguish and rage. With a wet tearing sound, rotting muck came apart and the first of the heads fell.
The other came soon after, and soon the hill was just a hill, if one surrounded by rot and stinking of earthly gasses. Ling Qi flitted away the moment it became clear that her song was no longer needs, not wanting to start the problem all over again, and rejoined her spirits and subordinates.
"It looks like I overestimated myself in the end," Ling Qi said ruefully, dipping her head a little. "My apologies for that."
"Big Sister did good," Gui disagreed. "It was a really pretty song! It definitely would have worked if…"
"If I had been a little better," Hanyi huffed, crossing her arms and looking away. "Sorry for being rusty," she added in a mumble.
The humans present shifted uncomfortably at her apologies, but it was only Chang He who spoke. "No need for that Ma'am. I should take fault as well. If I had prepared better materials, perhaps…"
"None of that now," Liao Zhu said lightly, making Ling Qi jump as he clapped a hand on her shoulder. She could not help but shoot him a glare. "Given the situation you handled it as best as could be expected. Polish your skills and improve for the future."
She joined the general chorus of agreement as they hastily moved away from the affected region to avoid setting the slumbering beast off again. "What did you do to it at the end there?" she asked in a low voice as they moved off, hopefully to finish their survey without any MORE surprises.
Liao Zhu glanced her way briefly. "I mentioned that my father is a physician, have I not? A good doctor must know when it is time to simply end the pain and allow nature to take its course."
Ling Qi nodded slowly. She could read between the lines. Whoever came here to deal with the problem was going to do so in a more permanent fashion. Having looked upon what was left of the creatures core, she could not imagine a better scenario.
Over the course of the next few days, things went peacefully enough as she returned to the main force, and joined the detachments dealing with the issues she had helped map out. Soon enough they were on their way back to the Sect and she had been commended for performing her duties well. It irked her a little to just 'do well', but… standing out was hardly the point in an exercise like this.
She would just have to be satisfied with that.
+5 Contribution Points
Str +1
Dex +1
Stm +2
Int +2
Wits +2
Prs +2
Mnp +3
Domain +25
Athletics +1
Perceptiveness +2
Stealth +2
Survival +5
Beast Handling +3
Empathy +2
Music +2 Maxed
Spirit Ken +10
War +5 Rank Increased!
With the exercise over, Ling Qi found her mind turning back to cultivation, her tutoring of Xiao Fen, and her time with her family. While she knew she wanted to help her Mother select a cultivation art from among those provided by Cai Renxiang, she was less sure of other things. Given everything that had happened recently, she wanted to spend time with her little sister as well, but she was unsure of what she wanted to do with the little girl.
[] Spend time indoors and in the garden, reading with her. Biyu would be old enough to start learning her letters soon, so why not encourage her?
[] Spend time outside, the land around the Sect was beautiful, and some of it was even mostly tamed. You can easily keep her safe, and it will be good for her to run around more.
