Glasbowl14
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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If Little Bee became blind, I'm thinking almost definitely yes; since the ability states "in lieu of sight"
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Those Blessed with Talent
Darkened
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You have ears and eyes. Also Battlefield Awareness and Analyze. You probably can get it deep enough in your plant skill tree, but it wouldn't serve much purpose directly.
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Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
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I'm not too sure about that. The cost of Spear Proficiency seems to be a full level worth of XP. If it is the same for other weapons, I don't think we should buy skills for many different types of weapons.
Using claws or using whips are both good types of weapons- especially as they can be actual weapons that takes advantage of our affinity, which is the big thing here-, but I don't know if they are the best use of XP for Little Bee, at least for a while yet.
As an example, here are my 'current priorities' for XP expenditures:
-Friendship Bond, because we are in a monster forest and it's a good time to make a wave of chaff as we hunt. Also, while the probability is low, if we do end up finding another good beast, friendship bond gives us at least 2 more days to try and get another slot, and maybe more if it chooses to say.
-Analyze 3, as it is becoming super important to actually be able to know the details of monsters/etc when we analyze them. We really do need those so we can choose the best skillsets for our Blood Bonds at least, and it seems like Little Bee might end up as the tactical leader of the group, so knowing the weaknesses of enemies is good. Too bad our Perception is only average.
This is already 40XP, which means 20 more than we have, for example. From there, well, I am myself more interested in learning what are behind the various affinity tree. Regrowth is also very, very tempting (but so expensive).
Basically, I think we should get either Whip or Claw proficiency studied, but not both. Whip is mid-range, Claw is close range, and I think given our role mid-range is best. Hard to say though, especially as we do have skills that are claw-specifics, and they are probably the stronger ones. OTOH, we do have the ability to gain a bit of agility as damage for whips, so....
decisions, decisions.
JENTHULHU
Know what you're doing yet?
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Well, undergoing training in both, without buying proficiency should allow us to figure out which would work best, but i suspect we will get more synergy in claw as we get more beasties, claws are really common monster features after all, whips less so
wayne82444
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We might want to get at least the first weapon skill for both- if we are primarily a whip user and something gets into close range switching to claws instead might be a good idea. And as we saw before, sometimes one damage type doesn't work well against an enemy, so we have to go with a different one. That said I'd agree whips first at least- it seems to fit Little Bees build better. Either way we can't train new weapon skills until this mission is over.
Sirrocco
Tiny but ambitious squid
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So... I'm looking at our experience of acquiring followers, and the discussion around followers and... and I think that the game we are playing is not the game that some people think we are playing. Thus far, we're two for two on "Run into random awesome/adorable beast. Bind it to our service." I suppose that if we'd gone to work for menagerie lady, we'd have been able to pick and choose and optimize, but we chose the Divine Thoughtless Villain Conquering Buddha as our boss. That has certain implications. I think everyone will be happier, and we can handle this most effectively, if we just accept it for what it is and move on. Implications as follows.
- Little Bee won't generally be plotting ahead on who she bonds. There's going to be a yes/no vote on "do you want it", but assuming that the critter in question is reasonably cool (ie, B or higher), we're pretty likely as a group to vote "yes". It's possible that our standards will rise seeing as how we already have two solid minions, but my guess is they won't rise *all* that much. At best, we may fill *one* of our slots with a quest reward monster, that we get to research beforehand. That's likely to have a "pick the quest" vote between three-to-five options, and I wouldn't count on it happening more than once.
- Our QM is coming up with this stuff more or less on the fly, and is willing to be pretty fluid about it. Thus, while votes aren't going to have a huge impact on what we bond, Omakes, analysis, and random discussion likely will. This plant creature, for example. Given its perception, and the fact that its agility was 2 with no increase before we bonded it (since that second star came courtesy of Autumn Shade) it's pretty clear that this thing is largely immobile... which means that it's probably built as a "lives on our body and possibly hides under our clothes" ally. It also gives us access to non-str attacks, a plausible place to start building whip skills, some extra tanky, the start to some additional ally-buffing skills (heal tree), access to some debuff, and what looks like it might even be a non-strength grapple. I don't think it's overpowered (for one thing, all of this stuff is expensive in exp, and exp is our big chokepoint right now) but it covers a lot of what I was suggesting we might wan/need a while back when I dumped out a bunch of analysis. Autumn Shade was, as people have noted, the direct result of an omake. Thus, if you want some influence on what we're likely to make friends with, the way to do that is to come up with and write an appropriate omake (or two, or three - the more the better) or to sit down and knock out a few blocks of analysis on what you think we want/need and why.
- Our QM is not looking to hork us over. The options that get "would you like to bond this thing, yes/no?" are highly unlikely to be traps. If you just want us to be awesome, and don't much care what kind of awesome, it's likely that we'll get there regardless of who our furry (or leafy/scaley/etc) friends are. If you want us to be awesome in a specific way, or you want to make sure that we acquire a specific kind of awesome, then omakes and analysis look to be the way to do it. Also, they feed the QM, which is always a good thing.
Other thoughts. It's a bit odd for someone who took charisma as their high stat, but we're starting to get some decent stuff for a stealth build. Our two companions are a shadow-themed cat, and something that almost literally has "No really - I'm just a normal plant. Nothing to see here" as a power. Between that and standard studied presence concealment, we might wind up being quite the infiltrator, even if we don't pick up any other sneaky companions. I suspect we might wind up picking up other sneaky companions... and hey - we already have Pick Pockets and Open Locks studied (but not bought). Combo that and some of the wackier forms of ally-based movement (like, say, using impossibly long vine-tentacles to lift ourselves multiple stories in the air to an open window)... well, you can see how that all might work. I'm not saying we have to go that way, but the option is totally there.
Our real limiting factor right now (and probably throughout) is going to be exp for skills. We have studied skills and supplementary skills, and every time we bind a new ally, we get entire new supplementary *trees* to wander down. These skills are not cheap, and in many cases, grabbing a skill will just unlock other skills. Bear this in mind when we're thinking about things like spending omake rewards on getting skills into the "studied" column.
As far as mutually exclusive affinities go, I'm thinking the ones we have currently available are pretty solid.
Darkness: stealth, doing things in the dark, and probably drains/debuffs
Light: direct attack damage, doing things in the light, maybe healing/buffs, maybe perception, maybe brief stun/blind effects
Stealth can be handy, drains/debuffs are always good, but more importantly, now that we have direct access to the healing tree, there's nothing that light would have that we *need*. Taking darkness won't be a mistake, and Autumn Shade is kind of awesome.
Healing: Healing, healing, and more healing. Status removal. Probably a few buffs in there, too.
Death: direct damage, almost certainly some debuffs, possible life drain, maybe some undead stuff.
Healing is a great way to make friends, and to help keep the friends you have alive and well. We're pretty much built to be a tanky buffer/healer by nature, and this is a huge boost to eh "healer" part of that role. It's directly in line with our core competences, and we should embrace it. Anything we could get from death we can do well enough with other things. Undead are interesting, but they're generally a way to get minions, and we already have a built-in way to get better minions.
Earth: Tanking/resisting hits, tunneling, pinning (eath grasp stuff), battlefield control (creating walls, etc) possibly some sidebar stealth stuff, attacking people close to the ground.
Air: dodging hits, flying, movespeed, weather control, possibly some invisibility, attacking people with wind and maybe lightning.
This one's closer - Air does have some nice stuff in it, especially if we eventually get a flying mount - but earth is a lot more in tune with our strengths, and I certainly don't think that going earth would be a mistake. (by comparison, going Death would absolutely be a mistake)
Suggested path: once we get to the point of actually having the exp on hand to start opening these, I'd think go healing first. Beyond that, we can wait until our followers develop a bit more, to see what kind of shiny stuff *they* get in their particular areas of expertise.
- Little Bee won't generally be plotting ahead on who she bonds. There's going to be a yes/no vote on "do you want it", but assuming that the critter in question is reasonably cool (ie, B or higher), we're pretty likely as a group to vote "yes". It's possible that our standards will rise seeing as how we already have two solid minions, but my guess is they won't rise *all* that much. At best, we may fill *one* of our slots with a quest reward monster, that we get to research beforehand. That's likely to have a "pick the quest" vote between three-to-five options, and I wouldn't count on it happening more than once.
- Our QM is coming up with this stuff more or less on the fly, and is willing to be pretty fluid about it. Thus, while votes aren't going to have a huge impact on what we bond, Omakes, analysis, and random discussion likely will. This plant creature, for example. Given its perception, and the fact that its agility was 2 with no increase before we bonded it (since that second star came courtesy of Autumn Shade) it's pretty clear that this thing is largely immobile... which means that it's probably built as a "lives on our body and possibly hides under our clothes" ally. It also gives us access to non-str attacks, a plausible place to start building whip skills, some extra tanky, the start to some additional ally-buffing skills (heal tree), access to some debuff, and what looks like it might even be a non-strength grapple. I don't think it's overpowered (for one thing, all of this stuff is expensive in exp, and exp is our big chokepoint right now) but it covers a lot of what I was suggesting we might wan/need a while back when I dumped out a bunch of analysis. Autumn Shade was, as people have noted, the direct result of an omake. Thus, if you want some influence on what we're likely to make friends with, the way to do that is to come up with and write an appropriate omake (or two, or three - the more the better) or to sit down and knock out a few blocks of analysis on what you think we want/need and why.
- Our QM is not looking to hork us over. The options that get "would you like to bond this thing, yes/no?" are highly unlikely to be traps. If you just want us to be awesome, and don't much care what kind of awesome, it's likely that we'll get there regardless of who our furry (or leafy/scaley/etc) friends are. If you want us to be awesome in a specific way, or you want to make sure that we acquire a specific kind of awesome, then omakes and analysis look to be the way to do it. Also, they feed the QM, which is always a good thing.
Other thoughts. It's a bit odd for someone who took charisma as their high stat, but we're starting to get some decent stuff for a stealth build. Our two companions are a shadow-themed cat, and something that almost literally has "No really - I'm just a normal plant. Nothing to see here" as a power. Between that and standard studied presence concealment, we might wind up being quite the infiltrator, even if we don't pick up any other sneaky companions. I suspect we might wind up picking up other sneaky companions... and hey - we already have Pick Pockets and Open Locks studied (but not bought). Combo that and some of the wackier forms of ally-based movement (like, say, using impossibly long vine-tentacles to lift ourselves multiple stories in the air to an open window)... well, you can see how that all might work. I'm not saying we have to go that way, but the option is totally there.
Our real limiting factor right now (and probably throughout) is going to be exp for skills. We have studied skills and supplementary skills, and every time we bind a new ally, we get entire new supplementary *trees* to wander down. These skills are not cheap, and in many cases, grabbing a skill will just unlock other skills. Bear this in mind when we're thinking about things like spending omake rewards on getting skills into the "studied" column.
As far as mutually exclusive affinities go, I'm thinking the ones we have currently available are pretty solid.
Darkness: stealth, doing things in the dark, and probably drains/debuffs
Light: direct attack damage, doing things in the light, maybe healing/buffs, maybe perception, maybe brief stun/blind effects
Stealth can be handy, drains/debuffs are always good, but more importantly, now that we have direct access to the healing tree, there's nothing that light would have that we *need*. Taking darkness won't be a mistake, and Autumn Shade is kind of awesome.
Healing: Healing, healing, and more healing. Status removal. Probably a few buffs in there, too.
Death: direct damage, almost certainly some debuffs, possible life drain, maybe some undead stuff.
Healing is a great way to make friends, and to help keep the friends you have alive and well. We're pretty much built to be a tanky buffer/healer by nature, and this is a huge boost to eh "healer" part of that role. It's directly in line with our core competences, and we should embrace it. Anything we could get from death we can do well enough with other things. Undead are interesting, but they're generally a way to get minions, and we already have a built-in way to get better minions.
Earth: Tanking/resisting hits, tunneling, pinning (eath grasp stuff), battlefield control (creating walls, etc) possibly some sidebar stealth stuff, attacking people close to the ground.
Air: dodging hits, flying, movespeed, weather control, possibly some invisibility, attacking people with wind and maybe lightning.
This one's closer - Air does have some nice stuff in it, especially if we eventually get a flying mount - but earth is a lot more in tune with our strengths, and I certainly don't think that going earth would be a mistake. (by comparison, going Death would absolutely be a mistake)
Suggested path: once we get to the point of actually having the exp on hand to start opening these, I'd think go healing first. Beyond that, we can wait until our followers develop a bit more, to see what kind of shiny stuff *they* get in their particular areas of expertise.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
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Keep in mind, our current quest is such a one. Likewise, as we grow in power we will have a lot of friendship bonds (and with our charsima we'll try to keep them on the mid-term) that we can then change to blood bond as we research creatures.
Going "I want to research stealth-type creatures" is a totally valid path. Likewise redaeth who wanted to learn about creatures with horns, etc etc.
Agreed, though I also think LB spending time researching creatures will also work.
I am actually thinking small-team mercenary group here, SWAT-like, is very possible. E.G, we can be special forces.
Also, Little Bee is a former street rat.
Very much this.
Another very important factor, and why I am insisting on research: our Blood Bond beasts influences each others. As Autumn Shade/??? Level up, we'll be able to see their strength, as well as what they lack. From there, researching a next Blood Bond beast that fits them too might be good. E.G, not only think of the tree it will unlock for us, but also the trees it will unlock for them.
We can teach them what we know, after all.
Life Element also has poison, for one. It should have quite a few other things beside healing/status removal/buff, from there.
Life is a very tempting first one, but is also twice as expensive as the other ones. I do agree that it might be the best one to grab first, though, given the poison/etc that are gateway'd behind, as well as increasing our tactical abilities.
Sirrocco
Tiny but ambitious squid
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I was talking about a quest specifically to catch a partner... which this one is not.
We can teach them what we know, after all.[/QUOTE]
That involves learning the skill for ourselves, teaching it to them as a studied skill, and then having them learn it. I can see how it might be useful in some ways - especially if they somehow run out of thigns to spend exp on - but I doubt it's going to be something we want to do a lot of.[/QUOTE]
I'm not sure about the poison thing, unless you caught something I missed. Regardless, I say go for it first because it's the one we can be most certain that we want (and because healign is a great way to make/save friends).
I agree with you on friendship bond. You make a good point on the "try before you buy" value, having temporary friends is good... and it might make actually catching the fox a *lot* easier. Also, note the synergies between friendship bond and having a healing power or two.
As for critter research... honestly, I'd rather focus in-character research on event skills (for us and our crew) especially given the influence we can wield with OOC analysis and omakes, but I suppose it's not useless.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
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Ehhh, The Idiot specifically wanted to help us catch a partner, and he gave us a choice of quests, one of which was 'catch a phoenix', the other was 'catch a fox'. It's pretty clear this was a quest tailored to find us a partner.
I'm not sure it involves learning the skill ourself, maybe blood bonded beasts can teach each others. Also, see how Auntumn Shadeand ??? both got a skill from each others.
As a rule of thumb, I want Omake rewards to be as minimal as possible- Important stuff should be gotten through effort of the players, and not just handed in for player stuff, and I consider "who we bond to" as Important.
YMMV, of course.
JENTHULHU
Know what you're doing yet?
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I am not entirely sure light is necessarily worse at stealth, so much as it would do stealth differently, such as bending light around us or creating illusions. I also think our quasi-berserk skill might be worth taking to offset our weaknesses in a pinch situation.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
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Our Berserk Skill is basically only good for pinch situations where we lose most of the advantage of being the leader in order to get out of them. I might be seeing Little Bee in a specific light, of course, but given her stats something that deprives her of her reasoning and raise her close combat spec is basically textbook "make us weaker at what we are best at in order to get good enough at our weak point to survive".
We aren't going to compete with a Melee-specialist on our weight class with this, we might just be able to survive a bit longer for our team to rescue us. Worse, still, this skill basically must be used when we failed at running away, and once we used it we won't want to run away.
So yeah, it's a good skill, and one we want as a panic button, but not one we should rely on as part of our main suite of ability, ever.
Sirrocco
Tiny but ambitious squid
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Nooo...
The idiot specifically wants to help us catch a partner - that's true - but that's nto what this quest was about. This quest is to catch a fox who we then turn around and give away to someone else - not a fax that we blood-bond and keep forever. The phoenix quest was a "just tell us where he's going" quest. The idiot may have intended it as a "hey, I'll catch you a phoenix", but that's not what the quest was.
Those are event skills. My guess is that each partner is going to give each other partner an event skill of some sort - but there's no way to predict what any given partner is going to get from any other. Research won't help because it's a unique effect about the combination of two rare animal types under the auspices of a character class that's maybe seen once every thousand years or so. As for the animals teaching each other... given our skill progression, I suppose it's possible that they'll eventually get enough intelligence upgrades from associating with us to make that happen, but it's certainly not happening at this level.
I consider "write omakes" to be a solid example of "effort of the players". Writing those things takes a fair amount of effort, if you're putting together a good one.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
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I'll just disagree there- he was talking about ways to let us catch beasts, and gave us various quests that hinted at beasts/were in places we could find some.
We are changed on a basic levels while blood bonding, and a great deal of our class is about teaching our beasts, so I am expecting some pretty damn decent ways for this to happen.
Given that Autumn Shade got a Poison ability that has a 1 from this, well, this means it got the entry to a new tree of poison skill at least. Will it only get that tree free without us needing to buy the skills and then teach them? Maybe, but given the class I doubt it.
I really, really do not. I do not consider omake to be part of the game, and any rewards for them whatsoever already makes me wince. Game-changing rewards from meta-effort that I do not consider 'playing' are, well, really, really game-ruining in my view.
Obviously, given how rampant omake meta-gaming is in this forum, well.... My view is pretty rare here.
redaeth
Stubborn pedantrist
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Well, you can go overboard with omake rewards, and its a balancing act that some quest makers outright ignore... but I like participating in quests, and writing omake is one way to do so which has a much greater impact than just being one voter amongst a dozen or two others.
BFldyq
It's pronounced Be-Fled-Ick
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Well, I view omakes as something like the side-quests or mini-games in a video game: not part of the main story or gameplay, but are fun additions and you can neat stuff from participating in!
Also, I'm now tempted to start up an "Omake Quest", where all progress requires an omake.
Frakir's brother
Experienced.
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Do it.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
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Better analogy would be inputting cheat-codes or console codes. Something you can do that's sort of supported by the game, but it's not part of gaming and it's basically making the game worse for everyone else.
LeoAbogos
Versed in the lewd.
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This is the part that I can find vaguely distasteful. Very case-by-case thing, of course. And a mildly hypocritical position of mine, given that the alternative method of making impact beyond your numerical value as a lone player is general persuasiveness which isn't by any means an equally accessible quantity itself.
C'est la vie.
LeoAbogos
Versed in the lewd.
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True. I just don't value my own whims enough that I'd seek to bypass a willful majority, so I attempt to form a willful majority in my own favor. If they don't bite, it's obvious I have no place influencing events.
redaeth
Stubborn pedantrist
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Heart Shaped Blossom.
"All I'm saying is if you like her you gotta tell her. She isn't going to stay here forever you know." Whisper knew it was a lost cause. Nothing could convince Peach Blossom of something once she had made up her mind, unless of course it was Owl's fists, but he had no chance. But this was important enough he had to try. It was the first time he had seen Peach interested in anything but training or battle. Which she was doing right now but her heart wasn't in them, nor was her her attention. Her forms were jerky and her gaze kept on slipping to the forest where the subject of their conversation had passed them by several hours ago.
"No! " Peach hesitates. "I mean I don't like her, she is my rival. R-I-V-A-L. It was a joke. She was joking."
"She may have been joking. But I know you Peach Blossom. It wasn't a joke to you. You like her. Tell her. Or at least stop stalking her."
At that Peach puffs up in outrage, stopping to glare at Whisper who was moving through his own practice forms besides her. "I was not stalking her."
Owl speaks up from behind them, seemingly out of thin air. "Oh? Has Peach been following the little prodigy around?"
Whisper turns to their mentor. "Umm, yes. And I followed Peach Blossom since we are supposed to stick together. We spent the entire time on yesterday's patrol watching her cat pounce at shadows. I heard she managed to level from torching treant babies as well. She seems to like to talk to her cat. "
Owl crossed his arms and leaned against the side of the inn, his smile widening. "Ahahaha, yes. And most likely her cat likes to talk back. Of a sort anyway. Her class allows her to do such. Now since you are both interested in her, I've done some asking around. Apparently our young prodigy was a street urchin, and managed to piss off some hoity toity official a day after she got her class appraised. The only ones interested after he spread some filth about her were the Mu clan and the Yuwen clan. She chose Mu obviously."
He brought his hands together in a ringing clap. "Now continue! I wish to see no more of that poor form Peach, practice is what trains you for real battle and to not give it your all will see you killed."
He nods seriously at both and watches them go through their forms, correcting minor errors as they progress. He then speaks again after about an hour. "Her contract is up in seven years. I want you two to leave a good impression of the guild, and following her will leave her suspicious should she notice. Don't do it again."
Peach falters at that and a cloud of gloom descends on her face, her next swing with her practice weapon goes wide. Owl turns to Peach and steps inside her broken guard in a single flowing motion, before bopping her on the head, which she clutches in obvious agony. "If you have taken a liking to her Peach, then I suggest you pursue it. She will be a true terror by the time she is let loose and will have many suitors. It's best to start early, before the Mu clan leverages their own influence on her and tries to marry her to one of their own."
Peach, starting from the beginning of her form, manages to trip on her own feet and Whisper has to step to the side as her halberd goes flying. She stares at him with a vivid blush on her face. "Ouch. Owl, c'mon not you too. I don't like her. She is my rival. "
"Hmm, then perhaps you should cement your rivalry then? Whisper is right in that she will not be here forever." Owl nods at them both even as he seems to fade from view. "Tomorrow you will again make sure nothing gets near the inn. This evening I will go patrol the nearby forest. Keep on practicing your forms."
"All I'm saying is if you like her you gotta tell her. She isn't going to stay here forever you know." Whisper knew it was a lost cause. Nothing could convince Peach Blossom of something once she had made up her mind, unless of course it was Owl's fists, but he had no chance. But this was important enough he had to try. It was the first time he had seen Peach interested in anything but training or battle. Which she was doing right now but her heart wasn't in them, nor was her her attention. Her forms were jerky and her gaze kept on slipping to the forest where the subject of their conversation had passed them by several hours ago.
"No! " Peach hesitates. "I mean I don't like her, she is my rival. R-I-V-A-L. It was a joke. She was joking."
"She may have been joking. But I know you Peach Blossom. It wasn't a joke to you. You like her. Tell her. Or at least stop stalking her."
At that Peach puffs up in outrage, stopping to glare at Whisper who was moving through his own practice forms besides her. "I was not stalking her."
Owl speaks up from behind them, seemingly out of thin air. "Oh? Has Peach been following the little prodigy around?"
Whisper turns to their mentor. "Umm, yes. And I followed Peach Blossom since we are supposed to stick together. We spent the entire time on yesterday's patrol watching her cat pounce at shadows. I heard she managed to level from torching treant babies as well. She seems to like to talk to her cat. "
Owl crossed his arms and leaned against the side of the inn, his smile widening. "Ahahaha, yes. And most likely her cat likes to talk back. Of a sort anyway. Her class allows her to do such. Now since you are both interested in her, I've done some asking around. Apparently our young prodigy was a street urchin, and managed to piss off some hoity toity official a day after she got her class appraised. The only ones interested after he spread some filth about her were the Mu clan and the Yuwen clan. She chose Mu obviously."
He brought his hands together in a ringing clap. "Now continue! I wish to see no more of that poor form Peach, practice is what trains you for real battle and to not give it your all will see you killed."
He nods seriously at both and watches them go through their forms, correcting minor errors as they progress. He then speaks again after about an hour. "Her contract is up in seven years. I want you two to leave a good impression of the guild, and following her will leave her suspicious should she notice. Don't do it again."
Peach falters at that and a cloud of gloom descends on her face, her next swing with her practice weapon goes wide. Owl turns to Peach and steps inside her broken guard in a single flowing motion, before bopping her on the head, which she clutches in obvious agony. "If you have taken a liking to her Peach, then I suggest you pursue it. She will be a true terror by the time she is let loose and will have many suitors. It's best to start early, before the Mu clan leverages their own influence on her and tries to marry her to one of their own."
Peach, starting from the beginning of her form, manages to trip on her own feet and Whisper has to step to the side as her halberd goes flying. She stares at him with a vivid blush on her face. "Ouch. Owl, c'mon not you too. I don't like her. She is my rival. "
"Hmm, then perhaps you should cement your rivalry then? Whisper is right in that she will not be here forever." Owl nods at them both even as he seems to fade from view. "Tomorrow you will again make sure nothing gets near the inn. This evening I will go patrol the nearby forest. Keep on practicing your forms."
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Sirrocco
Tiny but ambitious squid
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2015
- Messages
- 15,991
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Cheat codes and console codes are *trivial*. They're various forms of easy-mode, and they take no effort. They're the moral equivalent of voting "Easy" when the QM asks if you want an easy game or a hard game... and cheat codes only make the game worse when they're ruining multiplayer. A lot of people find that in single-player, their enjoyment is increased.
Regardless, you are missing an important distinction. QM resources. The health of a quest is tied directly to the willingness of the QM to keep creating it... and that, in turn, is fed far more effectively by things like well-crafted omakes and in-depth analyses than it is by, say, bandwagon voting. If done well, those also help to provide the QM with ideas, characters, or even scenes to play around with - meaning that they're an energy discount as well as an energy feed. This is a fundamentally worthwhile thing for a quest, and worth encouraging.
Pandemonious Ivy
Making the rounds.
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2015
- Messages
- 48
- Likes received
- 36
Redaeth, I love how your response to complaints about omakes....was to write an omake. 10/10
A Greedy New Friend
Darkened
Experienced.
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2014
- Messages
- 3,553
- Likes received
- 7,938
"Blood Bond"
Desperation and the sheer amount of blood exchanged between you help the skill activate on your first try this time, tearing through you into the desperate hungry creature wrapped around your neck. It leaves you emptier than before, drifting for one brief and terrifying moment as the alien thoughts at the other end of the offered bond consider. Even with comprehension you can barely grasp the factors it weighs. Hunger, growth, soft sunlight and fertile red soil. Risk, danger, fire and cutting and constant movement. You let the vine coil tighter around you, choking the last gasps of your life. Acceptance; the circle completes itself.
And everything that poured out of you and more rushes back in. You feel yourself growing flexible, limbs dissolving into twisting boneless vines, veins stretching into networks of roots able to rebuild you from the smallest surviving speck. Simultaneously you feel harder, compact, immovable. You can feel Autumn changing, melding, becoming more like a flower even as the vine becomes more like you.
The unsettling, agonizing sensation of two opposing natures as one gradually fades. You clench and unclench your hands, marveling at the fact that you're human; joints and bone and blood. Gently you run a finger along the length of your newest family member, careful to avoid any of its delicate crimson flowers. Gently you pull it away from your neck and set it down on the ground. Your clothing is positively soaked, but at least you don't seem to be bleeding any more.
The vine is decidedly snakelike. Its main body is only a little thinner than your arm and perhaps twice as long. Countless Fragile twigs and tendrils extend outward from the central body, none more than several inches long or thicker than a finger. Seven petaled flowers blossom across its length in all shades of crimson. Despite the fact that the creature has no eyes or mouth, a pair of quiet gray flowers amidst the red and green give one end the pretense of a head. Methodically it coils into a circle and raises its head into the air like a serpent rising from the ground. It brushes your hand affectionately, then wraps around your arm and winds around and upwards, heedless of its broken petals and the fact that it's leaving you dangerously unbalanced.
"Heavy! Too heavy. Carry yourself." Your protests merit only a comforting nudge on the cheek as the vine settles. Autumn growls a little at his junior stealing Autumn's resting place, but the vine pays your kitten no mind at all.
"Oh fine, just this once, but this isn't going to happen."
Permission is rewarded with a dozen flowers blooming in joy.
Anyway, you could keep hunting, but you're feeling a little dizzy and you don't want to waste a potion if you don't have to.
------------
"Hmm, no fox again today! Well then, a few questions!" Oddly, the Idiot's the only one who greets you as you enter the inn. There are plenty of servants around, but even Winter Breeze is just staring at you oddly. How is the idiot still drunk?
"What, err, how may this servant help the young master?" You're not sure if the room's swaying because you're wobbling around carrying a too-heavy pet, or because you refuse to waste an expensive potion when you can just walk back.
"Whose blood is all that covering you?"
You glance downwards at yourself. There's more than a little red. "Probably mine?" You fight back a yawn, and the desire to fall down here and let everything fade to sweet darkness.
"Oh, well, I guess it's not a problem if it's yours... What's with the necklace?"
"It's cute, B ranked and the poor thing was so hungry it snuck up and tried to eat me; so, I tamed it!"
No one seems to muster up a response tot hat.
"Just because I'm from the slums doesn't mean... doesn't mean I can't like flowers you know!" Well, you've never paid them that much mind before, but they're growing on you a bit.
The Idiot nods as if what you're saying is the most sensible thing in the world.
"Last question, you do realize it's sucking your blood right?" He points down to your chest where a bit of blood
You stare down at your neck, then glance down your top where the plant's extended a few tiny vines to siphon off blood where you couldn't see.
"Bad flower. Bad!"
The tendrils sheepishly pull away and the little glutton wilts in pitiable shame.
"Nope, not falling for it. I need most of that blood. Don't give me that look." Two brilliant gray flowers stare up at you, the picture of innocence, "Well Autumn may beg a lot and turn traitor for a dried fish," your cat huffs indignantly, "but he almost never attacks me without permission and he never just drinks my blood."
Autumn gives a soft purr filled with smug superiority. Your vine droops low, the head retreating appropriately abashed.
"Good, now I think I'm going to..." the room tilts sideways, and there really is a lot of blood where the vine stopped sucking just now. Ah, it's so nice and dark.
-----------
The devil laughs and howls and dances with the storm. His voice is the screaming wind itself; his feet strike the earth as thunder; his blade crashes down, swift as lightning and just as lethal.
Today they brought forces worth an army, enough to hunt a true monster. But monsters don't think, don't plan. They can be predicted, guessed, tricked. An army this small isn't enough. But still, not even the devil should find it this easy. The devil, despite its laughter and screams, seems relaxed, utterly at peace as if it was enjoying a pleasant stroll.
A kinder beast might grant such poor desperate enemies a few last words, a moment to realize their own failings, or a chance to make their peace with death. But the devil doesn't care at all for the lives and deaths of such small souls.
A few are are different: wolves hiding amongst the sheep. A pyromancer reveals herself to set the devil aflame, turning his arm to ash for the few moments it takes the devil to heal. A guardian blocks one blow, then another, then a third without dying. An assassin manages to escape his sight almost long enough to escape. To these talents, the devil extends a moment of respect. Instead of killing, he crushes. Dozens of skills activate as one, enhancing the same attack in a way that shouldn't be possible. There is nothing sudden or fierce about such attacks. A sword flickers forward and a dozen yards behind the devil, the pyromancer falls, her throat slashed open with utter precision.
Finally the last warrior fades, never quite understanding what beast they provoked, and the forest is silent, save for the devil's gentle humming and the fading pitter-patter of a quieting storm.
-----------
It's dark and quiet when you wake up and you're not sure what time it is. A glance around reveals that you've actually beaten Autumn awake for once. The cat's plopped down on a bed of flowers, head to toe, silently chewing on a piece of vine trapped below him.
Shakily your vine extends a tendril toward you, begging for help. "Hmph, you have four levels on him. He can't bully you at all if you don't let him, and I'm still mad at you for before, no matter how hungry you are."
The branch dries and crackles away. You only last a few more minutes before you crawl over and wrap your arms around both kitten and snake.
"No blood sucking, got it?"
The plant's head bobs up and down in response. You mostly trust it this time.
For a while you lie there, listening to the sounds of the rain on the inn's roof, enjoying the warmth of Autumn's fur and the soothing fragrance of your newest companion's petals.
Eventually Autumn cracks an eye open, stares at you for a little bit and takes a swipe at your nose as if to say that crawling into bed with you is his job not the reverse. You let the kitten go and rise up to follow the little king. You guessed someone must have bathed you and cast a few healing skills since you're a lot less blood-stained and a lot steadier on your feet than yesterday.
The young master's just entering the inn as you head downstairs. He's soaked in rain and mud from head to toe and clutching a strange stick a good deal taller than he is.
"Oh, good morning!" he pauses to crack open another drink and down it in a single swallow, "Anyway, one of the scouts I brought with us was saying that something dangerous happened a bit deeper in the woods and it looked really flashy! So catch the fox today and we'll leave in the night."
You frown, "But..."
The Idiot's face goes oddly serious for a moment, before blooming back to a drunken smile, "You found a new pet, and it's probably a pretty good fit since you both seem so obsessed with food," someday he'll pay for that, "So we won't be able to get you another bond anyway for a while, so that means it's time to be lazy again! It'd be good if you find a fox, but the princess is just a spoiled brat anyway," like he can talk," and it's fine to fail if you're still leveling up."
You're not sure if he's disappointed or pleased at this outcome. Still, you're not happy at the thought of coming here, running around in the forest for days and then just giving up.
You'll find one today for sure! Even if you have to change up your tactics.
What do you name your new pet?
[ ] Mountain Peak Blossom
[ ] Fragrant Ruby
[ ] Write-in
It's your last chance. How do you go about things?
[ ] Ask the adventurers to help
[ ] Set some kind of trap (Give details)
[ ] Just wander around like before
[ ] Write-in
Desperation and the sheer amount of blood exchanged between you help the skill activate on your first try this time, tearing through you into the desperate hungry creature wrapped around your neck. It leaves you emptier than before, drifting for one brief and terrifying moment as the alien thoughts at the other end of the offered bond consider. Even with comprehension you can barely grasp the factors it weighs. Hunger, growth, soft sunlight and fertile red soil. Risk, danger, fire and cutting and constant movement. You let the vine coil tighter around you, choking the last gasps of your life. Acceptance; the circle completes itself.
And everything that poured out of you and more rushes back in. You feel yourself growing flexible, limbs dissolving into twisting boneless vines, veins stretching into networks of roots able to rebuild you from the smallest surviving speck. Simultaneously you feel harder, compact, immovable. You can feel Autumn changing, melding, becoming more like a flower even as the vine becomes more like you.
The unsettling, agonizing sensation of two opposing natures as one gradually fades. You clench and unclench your hands, marveling at the fact that you're human; joints and bone and blood. Gently you run a finger along the length of your newest family member, careful to avoid any of its delicate crimson flowers. Gently you pull it away from your neck and set it down on the ground. Your clothing is positively soaked, but at least you don't seem to be bleeding any more.
The vine is decidedly snakelike. Its main body is only a little thinner than your arm and perhaps twice as long. Countless Fragile twigs and tendrils extend outward from the central body, none more than several inches long or thicker than a finger. Seven petaled flowers blossom across its length in all shades of crimson. Despite the fact that the creature has no eyes or mouth, a pair of quiet gray flowers amidst the red and green give one end the pretense of a head. Methodically it coils into a circle and raises its head into the air like a serpent rising from the ground. It brushes your hand affectionately, then wraps around your arm and winds around and upwards, heedless of its broken petals and the fact that it's leaving you dangerously unbalanced.
"Heavy! Too heavy. Carry yourself." Your protests merit only a comforting nudge on the cheek as the vine settles. Autumn growls a little at his junior stealing Autumn's resting place, but the vine pays your kitten no mind at all.
"Oh fine, just this once, but this isn't going to happen."
Permission is rewarded with a dozen flowers blooming in joy.
Anyway, you could keep hunting, but you're feeling a little dizzy and you don't want to waste a potion if you don't have to.
------------
"Hmm, no fox again today! Well then, a few questions!" Oddly, the Idiot's the only one who greets you as you enter the inn. There are plenty of servants around, but even Winter Breeze is just staring at you oddly. How is the idiot still drunk?
"What, err, how may this servant help the young master?" You're not sure if the room's swaying because you're wobbling around carrying a too-heavy pet, or because you refuse to waste an expensive potion when you can just walk back.
"Whose blood is all that covering you?"
You glance downwards at yourself. There's more than a little red. "Probably mine?" You fight back a yawn, and the desire to fall down here and let everything fade to sweet darkness.
"Oh, well, I guess it's not a problem if it's yours... What's with the necklace?"
"It's cute, B ranked and the poor thing was so hungry it snuck up and tried to eat me; so, I tamed it!"
No one seems to muster up a response tot hat.
"Just because I'm from the slums doesn't mean... doesn't mean I can't like flowers you know!" Well, you've never paid them that much mind before, but they're growing on you a bit.
The Idiot nods as if what you're saying is the most sensible thing in the world.
"Last question, you do realize it's sucking your blood right?" He points down to your chest where a bit of blood
You stare down at your neck, then glance down your top where the plant's extended a few tiny vines to siphon off blood where you couldn't see.
"Bad flower. Bad!"
The tendrils sheepishly pull away and the little glutton wilts in pitiable shame.
"Nope, not falling for it. I need most of that blood. Don't give me that look." Two brilliant gray flowers stare up at you, the picture of innocence, "Well Autumn may beg a lot and turn traitor for a dried fish," your cat huffs indignantly, "but he almost never attacks me without permission and he never just drinks my blood."
Autumn gives a soft purr filled with smug superiority. Your vine droops low, the head retreating appropriately abashed.
"Good, now I think I'm going to..." the room tilts sideways, and there really is a lot of blood where the vine stopped sucking just now. Ah, it's so nice and dark.
-----------
The devil laughs and howls and dances with the storm. His voice is the screaming wind itself; his feet strike the earth as thunder; his blade crashes down, swift as lightning and just as lethal.
Today they brought forces worth an army, enough to hunt a true monster. But monsters don't think, don't plan. They can be predicted, guessed, tricked. An army this small isn't enough. But still, not even the devil should find it this easy. The devil, despite its laughter and screams, seems relaxed, utterly at peace as if it was enjoying a pleasant stroll.
A kinder beast might grant such poor desperate enemies a few last words, a moment to realize their own failings, or a chance to make their peace with death. But the devil doesn't care at all for the lives and deaths of such small souls.
A few are are different: wolves hiding amongst the sheep. A pyromancer reveals herself to set the devil aflame, turning his arm to ash for the few moments it takes the devil to heal. A guardian blocks one blow, then another, then a third without dying. An assassin manages to escape his sight almost long enough to escape. To these talents, the devil extends a moment of respect. Instead of killing, he crushes. Dozens of skills activate as one, enhancing the same attack in a way that shouldn't be possible. There is nothing sudden or fierce about such attacks. A sword flickers forward and a dozen yards behind the devil, the pyromancer falls, her throat slashed open with utter precision.
Finally the last warrior fades, never quite understanding what beast they provoked, and the forest is silent, save for the devil's gentle humming and the fading pitter-patter of a quieting storm.
-----------
It's dark and quiet when you wake up and you're not sure what time it is. A glance around reveals that you've actually beaten Autumn awake for once. The cat's plopped down on a bed of flowers, head to toe, silently chewing on a piece of vine trapped below him.
Shakily your vine extends a tendril toward you, begging for help. "Hmph, you have four levels on him. He can't bully you at all if you don't let him, and I'm still mad at you for before, no matter how hungry you are."
The branch dries and crackles away. You only last a few more minutes before you crawl over and wrap your arms around both kitten and snake.
"No blood sucking, got it?"
The plant's head bobs up and down in response. You mostly trust it this time.
For a while you lie there, listening to the sounds of the rain on the inn's roof, enjoying the warmth of Autumn's fur and the soothing fragrance of your newest companion's petals.
Eventually Autumn cracks an eye open, stares at you for a little bit and takes a swipe at your nose as if to say that crawling into bed with you is his job not the reverse. You let the kitten go and rise up to follow the little king. You guessed someone must have bathed you and cast a few healing skills since you're a lot less blood-stained and a lot steadier on your feet than yesterday.
The young master's just entering the inn as you head downstairs. He's soaked in rain and mud from head to toe and clutching a strange stick a good deal taller than he is.
"Oh, good morning!" he pauses to crack open another drink and down it in a single swallow, "Anyway, one of the scouts I brought with us was saying that something dangerous happened a bit deeper in the woods and it looked really flashy! So catch the fox today and we'll leave in the night."
You frown, "But..."
The Idiot's face goes oddly serious for a moment, before blooming back to a drunken smile, "You found a new pet, and it's probably a pretty good fit since you both seem so obsessed with food," someday he'll pay for that, "So we won't be able to get you another bond anyway for a while, so that means it's time to be lazy again! It'd be good if you find a fox, but the princess is just a spoiled brat anyway," like he can talk," and it's fine to fail if you're still leveling up."
You're not sure if he's disappointed or pleased at this outcome. Still, you're not happy at the thought of coming here, running around in the forest for days and then just giving up.
You'll find one today for sure! Even if you have to change up your tactics.
What do you name your new pet?
[ ] Mountain Peak Blossom
[ ] Fragrant Ruby
[ ] Write-in
It's your last chance. How do you go about things?
[ ] Ask the adventurers to help
[ ] Set some kind of trap (Give details)
[ ] Just wander around like before
[ ] Write-in