Previous Threads:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Valen+Quest

Where things are said: https://twitter.com/Riz_QM
Where things are asked: http://ask.fm/RizQM

Assorted Supplemental:
Current Abilities - http://pastebin.com/PchcdWpw
A List of Forgotten Things - http://pastebin.com/kPEscJ3h
Irue's Memoires - http://pastebin.com/sWnicrK7

Write-ups:
Kara's Day Out - http://pastebin.com/8ZbiSKLs
Adventures with Asche - http://pastebin.com/RNviCBJu
The Reclaimed Doll - http://pastebin.com/n6miP1qT
In Your Shadow - http://pastebin.com/EfeeHFAE
Friends Forever - http://pastebin.com/Yn0QaTVB

Misc notes:Memoires are nearly complete, and the Forgetting list is up to date.

Memo:
1. Ask Priat if he saw Nymph's wood in Teranford and about the terraforming in general
2. Invite Marchovic on adventures next time there's a chance.
3. Mim said "When are you going to tell her?" Tell what to whom?

>>587759
>Apologize

>>587876
Writing!
It almost seems like I'm starting too early, lately.

>>587759
>>Ask for an explanation

>>587909
I just got here.

But I was going to vote for

> Ask for an explanation

Buuuuuuuut too late. That's alright, we can get her to walk us through the strange and foreign land of "friendship" that everyone else seems to get.

>>587909
I'm saying we should still apologize for dumping a bunch of stuff on her that isn't her fault.

"I shouldn't have said that." you swallow past the disgusting taste lingering on your tongue as you apolgize... Or as close to an apology as you could manage. Be what it may, the method of simply saying 'sorry' caught stubbornly in your throat even now. "Listen... What I did said was uncalled for, I didn't mean-"

"Nn." She shook her head, using the motion to amateurishly hide the fact she was wiping her eyes. "I'm one of Luna's precious children. You remember, right?" You wondered if anyone would actually fall for a smile that obviously fake, and your thoughts as such must have been obvious given the way it faltered after a moment. "I can't read minds, but I know when someone is being honest. You meant every word."

...You had. You also remember that Mim had served indisputably as the judge of legitimacy during your meeting with the Shrine some time ago. But that was exactly the reason why-

"Then you know I still mean it when I say it was unnecessary. You didn't deserve that, and I... I was using you as an excuse to vent." Your apology hiccuped, warping into an excuse that could have excused you of your sin... A mistruth, one that wasn't wholly a lie, but didn't tell the entire story.

You saw a shadow flicker across her face as she looked up at you once more, her exit paused in favour of listening to you.

"Do you not trust me?" She gripped the hem of her shirt as she stood her ground ineffectually, "You said no help was coming, but every time I tried, you said 'no'."

>Of course you trust her.
>How could you trust a Luna Adept?
>Admit you never thought of her as an ally.
>Other? (write-in)

>>588234
>Admit you never thought of her as an ally.

We chose the honesty train, now we're going to ride it.

Clarify with

> The thought of someone allying with me, anyone at all honestly never really occurred to me.

> I . . . Might not know how to make friends. I don't think I've ever had one.

On an embarrassed and slightly miserable tone.

> Just . . . People doing things around me while I tried to figure out how to get them to notice me.

>>588234
Given the political situation and your wording every time you reached out, I though it was a power play or a ploy. I had and have enough headaches to deal with without that. Funny how being a shut in all your life makes it so you can't tell someone is trying to be friendly isn't it?

>>588234
>>588269
We could even add

> I really think it would be nice to have one, but I don't know how good I would be at it.

And then explain about Ari being kidnapped and it's our fault and even though her feelings towards us make us uncomfortable and a little scared and a little sad, she's still someone we want to protect and we fucked that up hard.

>>588269
>>588281
>>588287
...I'm almost curious if you noticed.

Oh well, writing!

>>588366
Almost curious? I didn't notice.

But I want to lead up to a confession where we tell Mim that we want a friend, and we want to be her friend, and if she's really able to tell truth from lies she should know that's the truth.

But we're kind of fucked up and have a lot of problems to solve and being our friend might mean more blow ups where we hurt her accidentally because we're kind of terrible like that.

And that we have our testaments that we have obligations to, but they're still really nice, sort of, Rinnier can also be a bitch but she should meet them because they're going to be in your life for a while as well.

And it would be nice if she could help you learn to be friends with them too. Because you suck at that.

>>588366
Also, would it help if I wrote in the tone I wanted us to talk in? Or is that disruptive? Like shy, apologetic, distressed, anxious, impatient etc.

>>588399
>would it help if I wrote in the tone I wanted us to talk in? Or is that disruptive?
If you feel it helps get your case across, you're welcome to add it. If it seems awkward in conversion, I'll rearrange or discard it as necessary - Otherwise, it's entirely up to you.

tl;dr - I don't find it disruptive, but I can't guarantee it'll make a difference. The content is more important than the tone its presented to me in.

>>588435
So you want general statements with intent and tone instead of word for word write ins.

Also, now I'm curious about what you were curious about.

>>588483
Any kind of write-in is perfectly fine, anon!

I can extract what I need from them, and I'd prefer they be heartfelt in the best way you can convey them, than try to shift your own thoughts and feelings around to fit a format. Don't be overly concerned with me, and do your best!

>>588501
She's just like us isn't she far too smart and shut in for her own good?

Hey, I'm actually still awake for this for once. Dunno how long I'll be up, but I'm here for now.

>>588501
. . . My best is why we're in this situation. I was so wrapped up in asking "would Iruelen rant like this" that I didn't stop to question if she should.

Haha I would have done it anyways. Now we get some actual development with ourself and with Mim instead of just checking a flag.

I feel.

That might be different for other anons.

And hopefully Mim can give us some insight on how others see us.

Ari thinks the sun is our countenance, Kara isn't really good at that or representative of most people, Rinnier is as much of a bitch as us, our Aunt is fucking Gendo, our cousin is Shinji, Priat is political although slowly getting better, Jill the barmaid was under an assumed identity and is lost, Asche is an autistic homonculi, our Uncle is wacky and enjoys playing silly buggers too much, and I think we're out of people around us.

But yeah, none of them are great sources of feedback.

>>588564
Welcome! Stay! Tell me of I'm also being autistic about stuff.

"I've never considered you someone I could trust." There wasn't room for manipulations now, and you felt unsteady as you stepped off the edge of known territory just to speak your mind. Your mouth had run on its own time and time again in the past, undeterred by the fact your brain had struggled to find the right answer... But now that you were voluntarily trying to just speak from the heart, it was as if your well of words had come up dry. "You're the Representative of Luna- No, not like that." You shake your head quickly, feeling your elegance just abandon you midconversation.

Honesty was so much harder than just manipulating people.

"I'm the Heir to House Valen, it had nothing to do with Luna. When you tried to contact me, I thought it was on behalf the Shrine. Given the position of my house, and how I was still trying to..." You trailed off, realizing that you had begun to ramble. "Despite what it looks like, I don't have many people supporting me. The things I've done, I've pulled together with my own hands and the few people who were willing to throw their lot in with me."

"You don't have the backing of the rest of your House?" Mim squinted skeptically, "How could you have come this far, then? What of your knights? The resources you pulled to handle the restoration of Carona?"

"It's... Complicated." You stroke an errant lock of hair back behind your ear. "My point is that when someone in a position like yours started be friendly... When I rejected your offers, I meant to reject the Shrine, I didn't even consider they might have just been you. I mean... What I'm trying to say is..."

Say it. Just say you were sorry. Why was it so hard to dislodge that word from your throat?

"I didn't mean to reject... You. I've not been in a position to make friends easily, so even now, I'm not..."

"It's okay!" Mim's voice cracked as the warmth of a genuine smile began to creep through the hollow thing she had been wearing. "It doesn't have to be right now, I know you're busy!"

>Promise to talk about it later
>Pet Mim
>Bring Mim with you
>Other? (write-in)

>>588634
It's not even that i'm busy, more like I don't know how....... Most of what I know and do was finding what people wanted from me and using it to get them to help or follow. Someone doing it to be nice.... That's as alien to me as shade is to wisp, Undine is to Salamander, Djinn is to Gnome or the Fey are to Luna.

>>588634
>Other? (write-in)

Offer to bring Mim with you. Tell her that it's possibly dangerous, and honestly her being an adept of Luna probably isn't a good idea, but if it's to build up trust as, as friends, then you trust her to do what she thinks is best. If that's coming, you'll find some way to make it work. Maybe she can use the cutting from the nymph wood or you can meditate more on the golems, or maybe Luna can help her.

But you don't want her to get hurt just to try and prove something, and if she does go back you promise that you'll talk to her as a friend and explain everything. And that you'll want to know about her too, because despite how you seem you actually have been curious about some things but didn't want to pry.

If she wants to be friends, she doesn't have to prove it though. You've had enough of that in your life, you don't want to put someone else through it.

Then give a soft, happy laugh and say you have your first friend.

> emotional whiplash, doing what Irue does going full steam no brakes on the feels express.

I kind of like the idea of her as someone who feels more than she thinks, and even though her means is manipulative and thinky, her motives are ultimately purely emotional.

>>588634
>Promise to talk about it later

"See? There's so much more to learn about each other if we're friends. Like how bad I feel that Ari is still out there, and how guilty that I wasn't looking after her, and how scared I am that she'll be hurt or lonely or afraid or cold or . . . Worse."

"I'm busy, but when I get back I can make time for you. Until then, if you want you can take the books. Just if anyone else wants to read or copy them, charge them whatever you can. I really do need any money I can get for the town. I'm not even paying my knights, I think."

>>588664
Were you intentionally letting slip we know about Fey and Luna anon?

>>588634
>Actually, I want it to be right now but I have to go save Ari and before that make sure the forest doesn't burn down and I can't take you along because the golems may go berserk and ARGH! Why do things always have to be so pressing and complicated!?
>I'd like more time to apologize properly, but in short... I want to be your friend.

>>588664
>>588674
>>588715
Stuff!

>>588692
But we'll talk later!

Writing!

>>588715
Didn't we kind of . . . already do that when we were discussing that they didn't like her?

Gotta re-read that part now.

>>588738
Nope, that was all in our head.

But hey, it couldn't hurt to casually drop that I feel. Give Mim something to think about while we're gone besides chewing over the fight we just kind of had at her.

Also, while re-reading

> King and the land are one

Something to keep in mind when we go visit the Fae. All this with the house and Faedka and golems suddenly being more aggressive, might be because we were A Valen before, but we're THE Valen now.

Also reminder to check Ari for changelings. And maybe read up on her bits in previous threads in case they make us try to pick her out.

Or I suppose we could just ask them to grab the nymph wood clipping, or meditate on Luna or something else risky and dangerous and probably offensive to the Fae.

>>588755
>something else risky and dangerous and probably offensive to the Fae.

Something makes me think that's exactly what we'll do.

>>588762
Well, part of me thinks they might need a little bit of the firm hand in their lives. Like, we can play along with their games when it's just us, but when it comes to our testament - well, that's OURS and we don't share well either.

I'm going to be honest. I'm going to need some of you guys to work with me on talking to the Fae.

This

> http://pastebin.com/GHWBJ6rM

is why. I go way too deep with that shit.

>>588773
> 50,000 words

Uh. Riz doesn't take THAT long to post.

How easy it would be to just accept that out and leave. It wasn't even a lie; You were busy. Every moment you spent here was another that the trail of the wooden golems could get lost, or that fire could start smouldering in the woods, or that Ari herself could suffer more. She was the reason you were out here in the first place, and what were you going to say if you put that on hold and showed up too late? Would Ari just accept that you left her alone because you were busy making friends?

Even if she did accept it, you wouldn't. You couldn't.
...But just because you couldn't, didn't mean you would accept leaving this where it was, either.

"If you're really concerned, then I won't make you leave." It would be dangerous if she came, and you heavily doubted you'd be able to control the golem you had... Domesticated... once it encountered her again. The sheer hate it felt towards the light of Luna that had blessed Mim was beyond your capacity to even understand, much less try to curb. Just trying to empathize with rancour that deeply seated was a task which practically guaranteed loss of self. "We can find a way for you to come with us, but-"

"No." She blew her nose on a handkerchief, wiping away the less glamorous remnants of emotional distress even as seemed to draw herself up more positively... Alongside the persisting sniffle or two. "I saw what happened, I know why you wanted me to leave."

"...Alright." You leave the matter alone. Honestly you had hoped she wouldn't push herself to try and prove something. "After Priat and I come back though, I'll come find you. There's still more that I want to say." There was still more that you felt needed to be said... But the fact it would have to wait for later was a blessing in disguise. It gave you time to think it over, and not feel so raw. "...And if you still want some, I don't mind you taking a book or two."

Mim stared at you for a moment, before wiping the corner of her eyes with her sleeve and nodding. "I believe you." She murmured, "But if you don't, I'm giving your books to everyone."

"...Please don't." You deadpan, "Mim... For the record, if you're still fine with me, then- I mean, I wouldn't-"

"I still want to be friends." She cut you off furtively, "But... Later?"

"Later." You agree thankfully, feeling something in your chest unclench. You ran a hand back over your face, brushing away the stressfully dislodged hair. In a moment's recollection, the trail of golden blonde hair practically snapped through the air as a twirling veil when you turned on your heel.

"Mim, do you know anything about Duality?"

You paused at the door, glancing back as the little Luna Adept began to fidget with the hem of her shirt. Her face jerked up when you called, jumping reflexively in shock. "What kind of duality?"

"Reflections. Peculiar dichotomies. Particularly among the Mana?"

"..." She made a difficult expression, and for a few seconds you simply watched her consider something in the soft light. "Yes."

"...Add that to what we'll talk about later, then."

You raised a hand in parting, and left the library with a far lighter heart than you had entered it. Even if you still felt emotionally wrung out, it wasn't nearly the weight you had expected to have to carry with you when you left.

It was always like this, wasn't it? You never made progress with anyone until push came to shove, and feelings got hurt. This wasn't how normal people interacted, was it? Was it just expected to have to hurt like this every time you wanted a meaningful connection?

At least this time you didn't have a spear through your gut.
Or a half-broken spine.

"Is everything okay?" Priat met you down the hall, glancing back towards the empty library door illuminated by the Nymph's Wood.

>Shrug and keep moving, you have things to do.
>Vaguely mention a misunderstanding, it's none of his business.
>Talk with him (about what?)
>Other? (write-in)

>>588878
>Vaguely mention a misunderstanding, it's none of his business.
>Talk with him about Teranford
Was he present there during an invasion? Did he see anyone of the nomadic army? How do they generally look? Did he see the terraformed land? Does he recognize Nymph's Wood from anywhere?

>>588878
>Talk with him (about what?)

Ask him about what Mim is like. As a person, not an adept of Luna.

Also if the remains of the fire summoning will be any risk to Rinnier later on.

Finally, if he knows anything about the Fae.

Then as an afterthought, if we could ask him to spend some time with Kara before he goes. Not just because she's interested in salamander, but also because she has a bunch of emotionally wounded demi-humans to look after and we are partly responsible for the situation but don't know really how to help or fix it.

And that while he's not just the only person we can really ask, who seems to be the wisest, but the way he talks makes it seem like he's lost his way, or how he viewed the world, or his meaning before and seems to have made it through or at least be making his way through.

And we could really use any insights on how he found the strength to do so. Heck even if he could just tell us as we walk, it would help us, and we know he has to leave but could he please help you and Kara?

We don't have anything to really give him, and we won't hold it against him if he can't or feels it's too much. We'll still look out for Mim, we're actually friends now.

Alternatively, we could instead ask if there's anyone in Carona or the Shrine that could help with that. Or, DarkRue, if there are any political landmines or secrets we could use to get people to help us or behave or tie them to the town.

Any opinions?

>>588878
Actually, more concise vote.

Supporting >>588888

> Ask about Mims likes and life, mentioning we're going to meet her when we get back and work on being friends. Cancel watching over her as a favour and say he doesn't owe us for that.

> Then ask for him to help with demi-human issue. Make a point of saying it's out of our depth and he's the best person we know to help. Or if he knows someone who can help Kara deal with it.

> Bring him up to speed on the effect the nymph wood had on the house and Golems,and that they're apparitions and probably connected to the Fae, and you through your families connection to either the Fae or the Land or as a bridge between them. See if Teranford had anything similar with Salamander that he might have known about.

Maybe there's some sort of corrupting influence in the Nymph Wood that ruined the royal families connection and that resulted in Salamander getting his hate on. I mean, we haven't seen if it can corrupt other mana like it did the Fae wood in our house.

Which hopefully regrew our kitchen.

But it sounds like we're in a kind of similar position as the Royal Family.

>>588888
>>588907
Meh.

>>588888
About Teranford and the army.

>>588907
About Mim.

>>588907
About... Demihumans...?

>>588907
Man this conversation is going to get weird.

Writing.

>>588773
Stream of consciousness writing is really effective when trying to provide a disorienting experience for the reader, and on the topic of Fae, it fits rather well. Even if you read it slowly, adapting your logic and general speed of thought to someone else feels rather foreign, which serves to amplify the otherworldly nature of a topic that's difficult to describe.

It's still a pain in the ass to read though.

>>588907
>>588878
Yet another side note. Sorry, Priat is bouncing soon and we already missed one discussion opportunity with him!

Also I would like to practice our new skill of "friendship" by asking him for things instead of trying to wheel and deal.

but I would like to add, when asking him if there's anyone who can help Kara, we should specify that they don't have to be from Carona. We ARE the head of House Valen, our name alone should be enough to get someone to come check it out. If the novelty of the situation isn't enough to get them to stay, out of compassion or professional interest, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Also,

> Ask Priat about anything he might have seen or thought of in our house that we could use or sell to help the town.

It'll be nice to hear what his trip was like through our house in more detail, even if he can't help us with that.

I can't believe it wasn't our library! Come on, Mim even said they weren't allowed to copy without payment. We could market it as the new head of the Valen Household who completed a triple trial recently is opening her personal library for a brief period. Pick one book free to copy, and do a meet and greet at the Carona Charity Event! Demi-human butlers, waitresses, and entertainment! We could also use that to help them feel better about themselves, get our soldiers who know Kara to help raise their reputation in the town and build a place for them to feel good without booze.

>>588924
>Stream of consciousness writing

The beginning is especially rough, because I'm trying to tie together half-remembered philisophical concepts and some vague ideas with an incomplete command of the very specific terminology used in philosophy.

Which I just like to read books of, I have no formal logic or philisophical education.

Did you get to the part where it's the rambling tale of a man who traveled? At first I felt kind of gross, like the first time doing a kinky sex thing for your partner, but after a bit I felt like my only option was to make it prose so purple that if you could transmute it into a dye no Emperor would dare wear it for fear of being accused of arrogance.

Yeah, it really, really needs to be edited. And unlike now and when I wrote it, not when I'm bored and doing blow at home.

> About... Demihumans...?

It's a weird, weird situation. And Priat is the most knowledgeable person we have access to. As I recall, our Aunt didn't have much interest in helping. Our Cousin would be another good resource as he probably knows some academic or other with theories they would want to test out, but he's missing.

So hopefully Priat knows someone who helped him after Terenford fell, an old war veteran, or a healer that worked with peoples hearts as well as bodies, or a philanthropic noble that takes care of old soldiers and helps them find jobs and such.

Update: I'm working on it.

So many questions. So few logical connections between them other than curiosity. Priat is having a confusing day.

>>589146
The logical connection is that this is simply shit we have to get done, and we just realized that we can have friends, and Priat is the closest candidate and we're kind of not great at understanding how big of a deal some of the stuff is so it gets mixed in with our more personal (petty?) issues.

Like, hey, so there's an eighth mana and it might be eating the world and responsible for your country falling, and I have a bunch of genetically sociopathic PTSD supersoldier that I broke and am relying on another, differently broken one to fix but you seem wise and worldly.

Also new obsession/interest with the girl you asked us to look out for that we're now friends with and have no idea what we're doing and this panics us more than any of the other shit.

And I guess we burnt our house a bit maybe? But that's cool, seems to be fixing itself, not the first time either.

OH! And you forgot

> Check to see if the remains of the Salamander summoning will affect Rinnier, and if we should put another counter over it.

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>>589160

>>589177
It's just . . . one more. Not a new one, that was in my first post even! Just a quick "That should be covered again" or "Wait for the new priest of Salamander to deal with it" or "Nope, it's gone for good" is fine.

Demihumans is just "I know a guy (in town, at the shrine, from Teranford, or around but you have to look) who does this for soldiers, or works with Demi-humans, or is studying PTSD as a scholar/shade adept etc.

Mim is whatever you have for her backstory. C'mon, she's 15 in the church. How did she get placed there? Why such a high position so young? Parents, if any, and their importance or lack of any exceptions? Interests and social group, any friends (no!), how the Shrine members see her, if Lunas cult is grooming her or getting her out of the way, if she would like a gift from the Fae woods.

Nymph wood and all that and the Fae Golems can be "You bring him up to speed and he says he has to think on that, or he might have some theories for later" unless it's relevant in the next little bit. It's mostly making HIM aware in the plot.

Teranford, I believe he already said he was absent when it happened? So that's just letting him know we suspect a link between nymphwood and the terraforming and the wonky mana.

Actually

> We should get him to try to test the cutting we have and how it reacts to his mana.

Sorry. Another thing.

I guess it's easier to outline than write.

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>>589177
It's this terrible cycle where the more time it takes to update, the more time I have to think of questions.

> We'll also have to try his mana when we get back on the nymph wood in our house to see if it reacts the same.

Actually, should we be leaving that there like it is? I'm gonna be sad if we come back and our house is a tree house.

>>589322
Tree houses are cool anon, what are you saying?

"There was a misunderstanding."

Priat had pledged himself as your ally, on the condition that the two of you share information regarding the search for his fellow countrymen. What had happened in your library just now had nothing to do with Teranford, and even less to do with Priat. In short, it was none of his business.

You motioned for him to follow as you strode past, because there was little time to waste and so many questions to ask. Where to even start, though... "Did something happen with Mim?" The former Salamander Representative quickly caught up to you with a face creased in worry. "If she was being unreasonable about the books, then I can talk to her. She's always had a tendency to let her pursuit of stories go to her head."

Seems the topic was chosen for you. "There's nothing you need to involve yourself with." You shake your head lightly, watching the early morning sunlight filter in through minute gaps of rootwork, "Are stories really that important to her?"

"Yes." Priat's answer was swift, and brokered no room for misunderstanding. "They're the only time she can still be a child." That explanation again.
"Just how long had she been the Representative of Luna?"
"Longer than I've been here. I remember her being part of the greeting party when I was sworn in... That must have been at least four of five years ago."

Quick mental math... She was barely into her teens now. If you took that way, had she even been over ten when she herself had taken up the mantle? It was a little humbling to think that she had more practical experience as a Representative than Priat did. You didn't need to bother asking why it had happened so young, though; The Representative of a Mana was inherently the one most favoured under the care of a region's Shrine... It was common knowledge that the love of a Mana could be considered a curse in the sense of the more physical manifestations, but the notion of someone that young being placed into a position of authority simply due to being born beloved was discomforting.

Not for the first time, you found yourself wondering if the Mana were aware of the chaos their flippant affections wreaked upon the world. If they so truly loved someone, would it hurt them to understand the pain they cause? ...Or did they already understand, and simply couldn't help their affection?

"She was in the care of the Shrine that young, though..." You scowled. The Shrine would take in orphans in times of need, and raise them accordingly. Help them get started independently. It was part of the way they maintained such a flawless reputation in the public's eye. The fact that Mim had been sworn in either meant she had been given to the cause by her parents, or, more likely...

"From what I'm told, Mim was taken in as a babe. She's never known life outside of the Shrine."

You sighed.

"What about you?" You shifted your head marginally, favouring the man with a single crimson iris. The abrupt shift in topic seemed to draw him up short as he stumbled beside you. "Me?"

"Teranford hasn't had a break for nearly a decade, yet you've been here for half that." You let that statement sink in for a beat before continuing, "I can't say I'm entirely aware of the timeline, but that would have you leaving during the worst of it, wouldn't it?"

"...I suppose it only got worse after I left, yes." He confirmed dryly, "Has the princess taken offense to you working with me?"

Prickly. Though you recall Rinnier wasn't enthusiastic about actually meeting with Priat, you didn't think they had the kind of relationship to warrant this kind of response. "I would guess Rinnier appreciates any help she can get." You surmise half-heartedly, "My question is more to do with the invasion, though. Were you there during it?"

"Haa." He sighed heavily, but despite the fact that this was a line of questions he would have preferred not to go down, the man seemed resolved to weather them. "If by invasion you mean the actual war, then no. They were still... Colonizing... When I left." Your brow quirked curiously, and you prompted him to continue. This was the first you were actually getting to hear about what went on. "Everyone thinks it was a prolonged siege these past ten years, but it's not so simple. When they showed up initially, it was more like... A desert tribe. We thought they were just some eccentrics."

"Over time, more and more of them started showing up. Larger groups, but none of them were hostile; They acted almost like refugees. The king tried to take them in at first, but... More would show up. We couldn't support them - Even what we had was starting to tax our resources."

Teranford was a desert country, to be sure. It relied somewhat heavily on La'Fiels natural bounties to supplement their own hunting; An agreement of mutual benefit, as the southern country also claimed unparalleled abundance of minerals and precious metals.

"The La'Fiel Crown had closed their borders around that time, and it left us in a difficult position. We were being pushed into a corner, and no one understood why... Eventually, blame turned to refugees." Priat slowed to a stop as he spoke, subconciously raising the palms of his hands as if to hold something at his waist. "War broke out not long after... But not the war you probably expect." He took a breath, fingers curling in helplessly in the process. "Civil war."

"...I was told that Teranford fell to a nomadic army." You turn back towards him skeptically. "If it was something as simple as the nation tearing itself apart, how..."

"That's not a lie." Priat grimaced, "The civil war was as short as it was vicious, and it left the country reeling... Reeling and vulnerable." The former Salamander Representative let his hands drop, "What came after the royal's clash is after my time, though. I fled, unable to act as my country turned on itself."

Given his timing, you doubted he had seen of the nomadic army proper... But no matter how you think of it, the 'refugees' were likely their forerunners. Who knows where they had come from, though. You fished out the clipping of Nymph's Wood, its gentle luminescence dispelling the remaining darkness of your halls as you held it aloft. "Do you recognize this?" He had seen this tree before; You knew before he answered. It was clear in the way his brows furrowed, and the reluctance as he recalled something he would rather not. "The refugees liked to try and sell these when they first showed up. They were laughed off as fools, though; Who would sell saplings in the desert?"

Priat snorted derisively, "At least, that was what we thought until they actually took root. You've heard of Teranford being forcibly teraformed?" Priat pointed humourlessly at the clipping in your hand, "Look no further... Though it's not the only thing of its kind. Those saplings were almost like a... Trigger. They could take root in the harshest sands, and rapidly convert it into legitimately farmable land."

The two of you stared at the innocently glowing little clipping of Nymph's Wood in your hand, before you finally pocketed it once more. "I don't suppose you realized something was off about it when your dunes started glowing."

"First time I've seen it glow." Priat shook his head with a frown, "It was just a normal tree back in Teranford... Unusual vitality aside."

>>589329
Only if they can stride the land and tear down the walls of our enemies, and learn how to tan their skin before draping themselves in it.

"Speaking of vitality..." You murmur as the two of you resumed your retrieval of the wooden golem, "Do you remember Kara?"

"The demihuman you brought with you that first day?" He asked, audibly thankful to have moved on to a different topic. "With the unusual fascination with Salamander?"

"Mm." You nod along easily, lightly smiling at the nostalgic memory of Kara excitedly getting some tinder to burn as an offering. "This may be an unusual request, but you wouldn't happen to know anyone experienced with leading demihumans, would you?"

"...What?"
You stare at each other flatly.

"Due to a series of events, Kara has become the leader of her pack recently. She's inexperienced, and I'm concerned." You explain shortly, "Right now her pack is... Subdued, but I don't know how much longer they'll remain that way."

"Is she losing her control over them?" Priat frowned, but you shook your head. "It has nothing to do with her, really. They're depressed, and following the only one still capable of making decisions."

"D..Depressed? Demihumans?"
"Suicidally, yes."

You deliver your explanation as neutrally as you can, leaving Priat to stare at you as if you were informing him there was a secret eighth Mana that no one ever told him about. "M..Marchovic, maybe?" He hesitated, "I wasn't aware demihumans had emotions, but if they're imbalanced then someone more knowledgeable in Shade may be able to help." Your lips purse unconvinced. Shade was the entire reason they were imbalanced in the first place... Throwing them right back at it to solve the problem...

Though, while you were thinking about it...

Did you actually want to share your theory about the Fae's relation to the wooden golems, and the possibility of an eighth Mana? Currently it was a secret between you and Mim alone, and even she seemed hesitant regarding it. On the other hand, he was going to be following you into the heart of things... If anyone deserved to know what they were about to make an enemy of, this was probably it.

>Tell him
>Just give him the Nymph's Wood as a charm
>Keep quiet

...I think 4chan ate my last post. It's not showing up for me, but it also says I can't post a duplicate reply for another 4 minutes.

Have this in the meantime, I guess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZiYFFDGoh0

>>589368
>>Just give him the Nymph's Wood as a charm

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1.08 MB GIF

>>589368
AHHAHAHAHAHA!
My theory was right!
It's so rare an occurance in this quest...

>Break the Nymph's Wood branch in two and give one to Priat.

I think we shouldn't reveal the existence of an eighth Mana without considering the fallout, which we don't have enough data to speculate about.

>>589436
Do you really want to break the clipping in half, anon?

Also what theory

>>589368
>Tell him

No reason not to except shadowruns, and he seems to be used to that. Telling him makes him more prepared for what might happen with it in the Fae woods, cautious about revealing it, and when he leaves he'll know to be on the lookout.

Also,

> Get him to see if his mana interacts with the cutting.

and if not, then

> Ask if he knows about duality, and if Salamander has one

and

> Give him the nymphs wood as a charm

I don't want to find it suddenly eating his magic or growing into him when he tries to use it, because I assume at that point shit will already be going wrong.

>>589443
It would be better to get another clipping, actually. We're still not far from home, right?

The theory was that Yuri is a nomadic army agent and that Nymph's Wood was the thing used in terraforming Teranford.

>>589443
Can I vote against breaking the clipping?

If anything, can we go back and grab another one instead?

Or better yet, move the main Nymph wood itself and maybe get Mim to cart it back to Carona, with instructions for Asche and Co. to use it to come get us if we take too long?

Fae time could be wonky.

>>589452
You've not even left home yet. You have been walking through an endless hallway while SHAFT levels of dialogue occur in the background.

If you want to go back and get another clipping, that is entirely doable.

>>589466
Let's get another clipping then.

>>589452
I remember that! Makes sense, Nymphs are attendents to Gods as opposed to regular nature spirits. Also, I want to extrapolate that the not!China empire closed their borders because they knew that shit was coming and wanted to prevent being contaminated by it. Now, we just have to somehow tie the situation in with the Royal House of Terenford clamping down on literacy among the peasants. Actually, that could be as simple as trying to halt or slow the spread of the religion of the Nomads. Keep them from passing underground bibles as it were. A lot easier to kill an exceptionally charismatic man spreading ideas by word than a book written using those oh so convincing words.

>>589471
It was the La'Fiel crown that clamped down on literacy spread. Unless Teranford did it too and I missed it.

>>589470

Oh, and one more vote: ask Priat what caused the civil war.

>>589466
Can we see Priats reaction when he realizes that we've been walking for far too long, and yet once we decide to get the clipping we get there far too quick?

And "Thick as two short bricks" Iruelen Valen doesn't even seem to notice, or be alarmed by the whole "Nymph wood eating the already spooky Fae wood, establishing itself as a magnitude of creepiness higher than something associated with the Fae?"

And really guys, I feel that we should not do the "mysterious magic" thing and if not explain about the possible eighth mana, at least explain that while Mim seemed okay, it messes with both the Fae wood in your house AND the golem, and lead into seeing if he knows about duality.

If not, get him to discuss it with Mim afterwards.

If he does, pursue possible existence of Salamander duality being affected by the trees.

I'm saying again, test Salamander magic around the Nymphwood now while it's relatively safe. Well, maybe when we're out of the house.

Also, I would REALLY like to grab the Nymph wood from our house. We know the Fae wood at least CAN listen to us, all we know is the Nymph wood hasn't attacked us yet.

Speculation: The 8th mana actually has something to do with the creation of duality, and it's materialization as nymph wood is abnormal, alternatively a corrupted form, or possibly it's original form that is incompatible with the current Mana structure, alternatively alternatively it's either like white light and undivided or purified mana, or white paint and it's raw mana lacking whatever differentiates it into different types.

>>589396
>>589436
Just give him a clipping as a charm.

>>589451
Actually tell him.

>>589451
m-more questi-
>>589501
-ons.

I'm just gonna start writing...

>>589503
The hallway was only figuratively endless, it's nothing eldritch. Your house stopped being deliberately mean after you pet the wood golem.

>>589475
Actually, I believe you were right that the literacy issue was La'Fiel. Interesting that they have much lower ambient mana and weaker adepts, something to keep an eye on if we get any info about nymph wood taking root there. I know the Teranford RH is also having some class war issues with Nobles screwing peasants somehow. That's how we got our Onion Knights. Dissidea Chronicles "the Onion Knight tries to offer the meek heroine his support through bravado and continual assurance of their victory. In truth he is easily frightened and uses his head to escape from conflicts." Also works with GoT where the Onion Knight saves the day with his trade skills and not his sword. Still, an interesting chain of events, and it's actually rare a revolt or revolution occurs without serious men having Saturday afternoon discussions about murder on Sunday evening.

>>589515
Hey, to be fair it's less "more questions" and "an experiment, and possible explanations".

I'm on to how to play this quest, ask everyone everything and decide who to share that info with.

Priat is in the perfect position of being here now, alone with us, a subject of our Testament seeking redemption, possibly a little terrified about how seemingly unconcerned by all this we are and also how shit seems to be working out, trusting us to look after Mim, and being a person more knowledgeable than most as well as an adept and a member of the Shrine.

C'mon bro, >>589501 back me up on trusting him here. He's already made it clear a couple threads back when he talked about leaving that his primary loyalty was to his nation, and he only hit up the shrine when it fell and the Royal lineage seemed lost.

Now that he knows Rinnier is here, he's ditching the shrine in under 30 seconds to try and go redeem himself for leaving in the middle of it falling apart, because he feels like he can make a difference again.

> Meta Question feel free to leave it until after the thread

So, since we actually are Mana dead, and it's the bracelet we're working through, and it isn't actually tied to any individual mana . . .

Does that mean we could, instead of replicating ShadowRue, make an apparition of a different Mana?

Like, say, and I scream internally as I type this, but maybe a Fae apparition? Something to think of when we interact with them, maybe it could be a way to compromise on getting Ari back.

Like, instead of having them keep her or us as a hostage there, we could be a hostage wherever we go and they would be our closest friend literally so they wouldn't have to be jealous.

I feel like we could not fuck it up this time if the Fae were helping us, or giving instruction and we do it with Asche around when we get back so she can make sure we don't get possessed.

>>589515
Could I vote for telling Priat?

I refreshed this time at least but I always seem to come in right behind votes/posts lol.

At least enough that he will know how to use the clipping, maybe warn him that we don't know much about it really aside from what he can see with the roots and that the golem doesn't like it.

Which I guess means letting him know that they're Fae apparitions.

>>589515
I want to tell Priat, too.

Sorry man I was sitting with the Thread Watcher on the old thread, waiting for a >>link to the new one. It's much handier than checking twitter or refreshing the catalogue.

>>587759
> Just read Friends Forever

Jesus. I hope that's not Irue they did that to.

Because if she finds out she was essentially stolen from a position as an adept and beloved of Luna and fed Faedeka . . . .

I mean the berserk biting and general distemper sounds like her. Would explain our berserk rage against the oakenbear.

Imma go reread when luna took some memories.

>>589588
Nah man, it's Irue and it's written from the POV of the Fae.

deepest lore

>>589595
Ah, I meant to say Ari.

>>589578
Riz seems to be having difficulty with all the questions we're throwing out.

Rough thread? Last one was really emotional, so this one is a lot of damage control and trying to be thorough.

Is it the number of questions themselves? I can understand not wanting to give too much away, trying to figure out how much Priat would know, maybe fleshing out politics in the shrine a bit more on the fly.

I know you do a lot of prep work for the background so as to tie it all together with plots and such, and make our decisions and actions relevant later on.

And that slower pacing like we discussed last thread is more difficult for you.

And that you were dying from sickness last thread, I hope you're recovered and this isn't pushing you.

Would it be easier in the future if we planned out "Companion interaction" time a thread before it occurred like we did for things to bring up with Mim this thread, that way we could split threads with 1st section being companion interaction, and the 2nd section of the thread being more action and events that you can be a bit looser with or write easier?

Then have a Q&A prep session after, so that people who missed the thread can also participate, and we can talk it over among ourselves and you can kind of let us know what sort of things in general the person would be able to tell us, or willing possibly, from an in-character POV so we don't go off all over the place?

Just an idea so you come into the thread with some expectation of what you'll need to have prepared, we get less stress and more participation in preparing questions and setting the direction if not the details of conversations.

>>589605
If Riz needs more prep time he just have to say the word. We're heading way off the beaten path right now so no wonder it's getting difficult.

I'm all for a Valen Gaiden intermission if that makes things easier.

>>589598
I thought about that.

It being Ari. Could explain the whole slave thing if she was a foundling, and she does have an interest in Luna. I can't remember if she tested as having affinity with mana though?

Still, double birthday cake for the Fae if true. Ari returns and calls Rue to them also. Rue is still probably going to be super fucking pissed if she ever finds out that they did that to Ari, and even the possibility of them doing it to her would IMO make her flip out. The knowledge that they could, and they would if she was beloved of Luna do it - I'm telling you right now, I'm going to vote for some harder questions if it comes up. Not a rant, because Rue CAN learn, but pointed demands to explain why they would do that, and why its wrong even though it's "love". Although I suppose we could ask if they would be willing to do it for people who want to get rid of their affinity as adults.

Also, I'm 100% going to write in accusing them of betrayal in turn if any of that happens. Ranging from "fuck you rage betrayal smash shit" to "What you did was also a kind of betrayal, and nobody gets to be the one to decide for another if it was a betrayal. Gotta talk this shit out first and not just talk but make sure each other understands."

After all, if they get to decide for us if their actions were a betrayal, then Luna would get to decide for them if her actions were a betrayal.

I don't know how tightly Fae here are bound to telling truths or old rules of courtesy and honour so I have no idea if that would make them accept that their actions were a betrayal of us, if a betrayal is an absolute state or if you can have greater or smaller betrayals with them, or how forgiveness works and if we could take proving they betrayed us and choosing to forgive them to start accepting the possibility of reconciling with Luna, something to work on as the quest progresses. Or if that's right out.

On second thought... "Hold onto this." You fish out the clipping once more and hand it over to Priat, patiently holding it aloft as he stared at it warily. "...Consider it a good luck charm." You deadpan, "You saw what the sapling was doing to the roots, didn't you?"

"Admittedly that's part of my hesitation, yes." He grimaced, gingerly taking hold of the clipping with some reluctance. "What is it?"

"A repellant. Sort of." You clamp on an addendum after a moment's thought. "The wooden golems we've been encountering seem to avoid the sapling as much as possible. Given where we're going, having one of them on hand is probably the best way to keep safe." And since it had been enough to even temporarily deter one of them from trying to slaughter Mim, you were relatively certain there wasn't going to be much else stronger in dissuading a hostile golem from perforating you.

You watched the clipping closely after handing it over, and almost wanted to wince as motes of flame drifted past it casually. Whatever casual ambient flame Priat had convinced to wrap around him, he was evidently still remiss in letting it drop. You suppose it was more difficult to feel safe when you hadn't spent fifteen minutes or so petting the abomination that stalked you.

Errant thoughts aside however, the clipping didn't seem to react at all to him. Much like how it had remained near Mim for who knows how long without issue, it certainly didn't appear to carry any of the associated rancour as its more threatening cousins.

"Are you..." He looked up, as if to hand you back the clipping, but paused... And finally pocketed it. "No, you wouldn't need it. I'll try and make good use of it."

You looked at him strangely as you cracked open the door to your room and almost immediately found the wooden golem from before staring out at you from within.

"Come baaack."

"Yes, yes." You slide your eyes away from Priat. You had actually planned on going back to get a second clipping, he was just getting the spare one. The fact you had managed to tame one of these had been fortunate, but you still remember the debilitating state it had left you in... And where you were going, only L-

. . .

-Who knows how many were left. You gently stroke the golem's ivy-like hair, until the tension drained back out of its body. You're not even sure if this one would be any help to you against its... Kin? Siblings? Fellow apparitions? Typically speaking, apparitions of the same Mana never fought. At least not on their own. You recalled a few select instances where they would take offense to being put into conflict with themselves, and you're relatively sure none of those cases apply here.

Still, one tree against a forest wasn't exactly encouraging odds. If you went in there explicitly looking for a fight, you likely weren't coming back.

"Priat, do you know anything about a duality in Mana?"

"Duality?" He frowned, visibly baffled by the question. You had asked him so many questions today, and there were probably more questions you COULD ask him, but even you were getting tired at this point... You can't imagine how turned around he must have been at this point. "In individual Mana, there isn't really?" His answer was expected, but he said it as if he expected you to correct him. You continued to pet the golem as you hummed an acknowledgement, and prompted him to continue. "The only thing I can think of would be... Like, take Salamander for instance. If you think of an opposite, then naturally it's Undine, isn't it?"

He continued to expect some correction from you, but he was just repeating what you had already realized. Duality in Mana meant that each of them had a balance. Something that served as a foil, which both mitigated and complimented them. It wasn't quite right to call them enemies... They were inseparable, even if diametrically opposed.

Salamander and Undine.
Jinn and Gnome.
Shade and Wisp.

You adjusted your late sister's bracelet, feeling the dual rings curve smoothly beneath your fingertips.

"One last question, then." You turned back to face him, because this wasn't something you felt you could pry out of Rinnier without someone getting hurt. "What caused the civil war in Teranford?"

"..." His mouth opened, only to halt - The former Salamander Representative blinking back as his brows creased in thought. He had been there, hadn't he? The question should have been simple. "It was... Mana." He muttered slowly, "No, no it was the refugees that caused it at the source, but... The royal family had a schism. One side came forward advocating the expulsion of the refugees in order maintain the country's resources, while the other was determined to try and keep everyone afloat at once."

You blinked, raising your head.

"They proposed requesting a powerful Undine Relic from Ephlesia in order to help cultivate parts of the desert in conjunction with the saplings."

...Simply carrying the Diary of Reflections had made Salamander's dominion in Carona's Shrine near unbareable. They had wanted to willfully bring a Relic from Ephlesia into the throne of Salamander's territory?

Seems like there was more to Teranford's plight than you had realized... You hummed neutrallty, and moved on. There was nothing else to really say on the matter, and the longer you spent having history lessons, the more you delayed rescuing Ari. It took Priat a while, but eventually he fell in step behind you and the golem - The Adept falling silent as if he had gained something new to think over.

As for you... Thoughts of how you would broach the topic to Rinnier now happily made their home right behind the ever present concern of Ari's well being, lingering worries about the demihuman pack being left under Kara's dubious management in Carona, and now your tentative appointment with Mim to discuss how you were bad at being friends.

The sun was rising, and you were exhausted.

>>589662
Huh. It looks like Luna got rid of its own checks and balances.

>>589646
"Yes, yes." You slide your eyes away from Priat. You had actually planned on going back to get a second clipping, he was just getting the spare one. The fact you had managed to tame one of these had been fortunate, but you still remember the debilitating state it had left you in... And where you were going, only L-

. . .

-Who knows how many were left. You gently stroke the golem's ivy-like hair,

> Honestly thought we had lost time there.

>>589662
. . . . wat.

And nobody was able to piece this together as a possible reason? Was Rinnier REALLY part of the Royal family, or she wasn't like a really distant one maybe? The Shrine wasn't involved in this? Priat couldn't piece it together as a cause?

> He continued to expect some correction from you, but he was just repeating what you had already realized. Duality in Mana meant that each of them had a balance. Something that served as a foil, which both mitigated and complimented them. It wasn't quite right to call them enemies... They were inseparable, even if diametrically opposed.

>Salamander and Undine.
>Jinn and Gnome.
>Shade and Wisp.

And the seventh, Luna. And the Fae. And now this eighth mana.

I wonder if the Eighth mana is Lunas diametric opposite. Not just Secrets, but knowledge, and it's opposite is then Ignorance, or unknowing, or the destruction of knowledge even of self.

Makes sense it's a plant, alive but not aware. And that it opposes the Fae.

Hrm, I wonder if the split between Luna and the Fae was to somehow tip the balance between her and her opposite, or provide protection or sacrifice them. Or just an accident.

Does this mean it could have the opposite effect on Luna? Was this a way to turn her foil into fuel, to be able to use it's power to drive her own?

Going to pause the thread here, because skyfire is rising and I am likewise a little exhausted. Expect to pick this back up monday!

>>589536
>Can we make a Fae apparition?
Yes and No.
Meditation is the act of manually and deliberately changing the entire way you think of and view the world to more closely resemble a given Mana. Without an understanding of the Fae's perception of the world, you don't even have a "Square One" to start with in trying to reshape your mind to resemble them.

If you did, you could begin to make progress however, and eventually the Fae apparition could be a possibility. Though at that point you might actually hate yourself due to the result.

>>589547
>>589578
Sorry anons, I was fairly far into writing it when these cropped up. Also an anon fussed at me a while back about changing votes after I closed the thing, so I've tried to be really careful about that ever since.

>>589578
I... Never considered plopping a link into the old thread. I'm not used to it even existing.

>>589605
The questions were very difficult. Both due to the sheer number of them, and how varied in topics they were.

One thing I abhor is the notion of a simple questionnaire. When you list questions you wanted asked, it's simple to tally up your curiosities, but I'm concerned about keeping the conversation flowing, and how one thing moves to the next, and how to even broach some of these subjects. Then on top of that, there's if the character themselves would even be willing to talk about it. The quality of the conversation being had is very important to me, so I start to stress out when there's a constant, varied interrogation.

It doesn't feel natural, and when the flow is broken, the world suffers. More prep work can't really help that any.

If you guys do want specific companion interaction time, then it is probably best you mention it ahead of time, otherwise I'm prone to move past it, as you've probably noticed. Irue's life, and Valen Quest in general, is one forged in fire.

I wouldn't mind giving you some general ideas as to what a character may know, or be willing to tell you, but only so far as confirming to you what Irue would already suspect.

Ultimately however, you DID have a rare opportunity to talk to someone at length that knew a great deal more than you about a topic, and was willing to share. This kind of opportunity is exceedingly rare, so I wanted to indulge as much as I could.

don't expect such opportunities often.

>>589667
Also, hey! Forgot to ask him if the Fire apparition or summoning whatever would be a risk for Rinnier if she came to the manor again.

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>>589705

By the way guys the 8th mana's name is Artemis!

>>589703
Huzzah! Give us a note when this sort of thing is coming up if possible and we can try to structure our questions better then.

This was not going to happen here, in fact I tried to condense my questions as much as possible because there were so many about different things.

I thought point form would help, sorry, and we could tell Priat we're feeling overwhelmed and want to get his advice on a bunch of different things before he goes because he seems to know a lot and also understand a lot so he could walk a dumbass like us through it.

As for the votes, well, Priat is still going with us to the Fae woods yes? So we can wait and see, and tell him later or get him to ask Mim about it since she is part of the shrine and a keeper of secrets.

>>589711
I mean, I did ask that several times man.

It's okay, we can try to remember some time down the road when Rinnier comes by.

>>589700
>nobody was able to piece this together as a possible reason?
The people from Teranford knew the cause of the civil war. The people outside of Teranford have only really heard of the Nomadic Army and associated Bad Things.

Though if you were referring to the possible reason the royal family lost the favor of Salamander, then it should be noted the Relic never actually made it to Teranford. The victor of the civil war became a moot point, as the Nomadic Army crushed them immediately there after.

>>589728
I'll just tell you now that it won't. For various reasons.

One of which being she lived in the house next to the core for a month and nothing happened.

The other being that the core you used to summon an apparition from dispersed alongside the apparition this time, since you had Priat peacefully handle it rather than rip out its flaming heart.

Which would have been a very painful and loss filled fight where Pyrrhic only begins to describe the level of no winners involved. Irue is at adept at summoning unfairly powerful apparitions as usual, and this one had a pre-existing core to pull from, rather than your own soul.

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>>589741
Fair enough. I mean, I was just concerned because of the core letting it resurrect this time, I thought maybe the big stone counter burying it in the ground was maybe responsible for keeping it down before.

Thanks for answering that though!

> MFW we left the Nymph Wood.

We're going to come back to this again, I just know it. It'll combine with Stick V.2 into a nega golem. Not cancelling it out, because the Fae aren't it's actual opposite, but like the roots it'll empower it and make it an empty shell. Within which we will call down Luna and trap her within it, and use her knowledge of secrets to finally win a verbal battle with our Aunt.

Or better yet, get a Fae Shadow that feels no affection for us at all. No hate either, it's just completely and totally it's own being. But because the Golem is tainted by us and changed by the world to less pure than Fae, it's not completely unknowing. Instead, depending on how impure the golem is when we come back, it has anterograde amnesia like in Memento and can carry out orders and plans but only for (x) amount of time. So lets get on corrupting Stick V.2!

This is all madness.

>>589700
>I wonder if the Eighth mana is Luna's diametric opposite.
That make a lot of sense, actually. We should try to medita-
>>589703
oh. Nevermind.

Ignorance, instead of Secrets? kinda a thin distinction, but I can see it. There'd have to be more than that though. All the other Mana aren't just one aspect; they're several interwoven. If we could get a better understanding of what Luna covers, I think we could figure out what the 8th deals with. But we studied Mana for a long time and didn't make any headway there, and I'm not sure where else we'd even look.

>>589662
but the way, It's really nice being able to ask about Teranford with risking stepping into the minefield of Rienner.

>>597172
>Ignorance, instead of Secrets?

I think it's Celestial vs. Terrestrial

>>597172
>>597182
Yeah, the 8th mana seems to be ignorance. Being a plant and all.

Sooooo . . . I wonder why it was sealed away in the first place?

It occurs to me that it might have been something Luna did as a necessity, not for any benefit of removing her checks and balances.

Actually, I think now it's more likely that while it may have made her able to resist it, she must have lost a lot when the Fae left.

Like, she's now all logic and they're all emotion.

>>597182
Luna, the moon. Fae, literally a living forest. Oakenstuff, weird apparitions made from plant material. Plants, photosynthesis, the Sun.

File: TheDawnisYourEnemy.jpg (64 KB, 400x300)

64 KB JPG

>>597381
Riz wouldn't give the antagonist of the quest Sun motifs, that's going too far.

Rolled 96 (1d100)

Does anyone remember what timezone Riz lives in? It's Tuesday where I am.

Second clipping of the Nymph's Wood... Check.
Slightly unexpected ally in the form of a Wooden golem... Check.
Trail of fire and smoke leading into the forest as a clear sign of which direction to go... Check.

"Priat can you get that?"
"I'll do what I can."

Purpose found for otherwise useless Representative of Salamander... Check.

Despite having pulled a literal all nighter due to being surprise attacked, you feel like you were making good progress. It only took you about a day after arriving to get your house back, and your effective fighting force had increased almost infinitely! That is to say, you counted Priat's combat stats as nearly nil, and were even less enthusiastic about your own. The fact that anyone in this group could actually hold their own without potentially making the situation even worse in their attempts to help was... It was novel, really.

Even if just having it around was enough to set Priat on edge, you were actually pretty happy about the golem that had taken to following you around. For all intents and purposes, it also seemed pretty thrilled about getting to follow you around as well, so it was with a light step that you could take in the morning forest air and enjoy a brief calm before the metaphorical storm.

There probably wouldn't be anything to really bother you until you crossed the river to the Fae's domain. So until then, you could relax and take in the ambient sounds of the wood that had lulled you to sleep for the past ten years. Even knowing what could be lurking in the trees now, the forest felt safe. It felt like a home, and one that you had sorely missed.

Pity about all the smoke and newly discarded charcoaled apparitions loitering the path. If you hadn't brought Priat along, you'd probably have been forced to make a choice between keeping the forest from catching on fire, and continuing on to Ari.

In the meantime, however, you had time to think. You had a lot of time to think, really, but usually you spent it thinking about how everything was about to be horrible.

>Interact with the wooden golem. (how?)
>Fiddle with your bracelet.
>Weave a web
>Other? (Write-in)

>>599320
>>Interact with the wooden golem. (how?)
Apply headpats and see how it reacts

>>599374
Applying liberal head pats.

Writing.

>>599320
>>Fiddle with your bracelet.
If It's not too late to chime in.

We should maybe not weave for a while; last time we used it there were... alarming side-effects.

Besides following you around, it seemed like any kind of physical contact with the wood golem was enough to lull it into something not alike a trance. You had taken to occasionally stroking the ivy that served as its hair, and while it had initially been somewhat of an awkward action for you, the golem had become positively mystified over the whole ordeal.

It was almost like finding the perfect spot on a kitten, and the additional rustling of its leaves would almost sound like purring... If it didn't also elicit the vague sound of you laughing. The ones outside of your house had done something similar, and no matter how often you heard it, the warbled mimicry of your own voice never failed to weird you out. It was more than simply familiarity, it was the way that they would affect the tone of what they were copying regardless of the situation - The looping laughter that you could only assume to be this golem trying to purr was linked together from various tones and pitches which made it painfully obvious that it wasn't even a single sequence.

It was just chaining together every time you had laughed in a dissonant mash-up. The fact some of the 'track' seemed to cut out, or overlap, as the leaves rustled around only made it worse.

And yet, the moment this bizarre reaction brought your curious ministrations to a halt, the sound would die down as it swiveled its head towards you plaintively.

You hadn't gotten the courage to do anything else besides stroke its 'hair', though. It didn't really matter how it reacted, it was weird petting yourself. It brought to mind horrible thoughts. Things that you wished never been considered.

You wouldn't purr if someone brushed your hair, would you? That was a golem thing. It was definitely a golem thing. There's no way.

Thoughts like those would inevitably bubble up to the surface if you continued attempting to poke or prod the golem, no matter how happy it seemed to be with the attention, and would always lead you to losing interest in pursuit of maintaining your own dignity. In times like those, your attention had turned towards your late sister's bracelet - An accessory you had been content to merely keep around as a memento of your sibling until the day your Rite had well and truly begun. Thinking back, you could barely remember the day... But Asche had presented it to you back then, almost as if she knew you were going to need it.

...And at the time, you had needed it. More as moral support than anything else, but she had known it was a Relic, even back then. She knew that when she had offered it to you.

You fiddle with the bracelet absently; Twin rings rings intersecting around your wrist, glimmering faintly in the spots of sunlight that filtered through the canopy. This unassuming thing had been the inadvertent cause for your sudden habit of running into apparitions of abnormally high potency, and it was only through nearly a year of repeated usage that you were beginning to understand what it was capable of.

If you were less educated on Mana, all you would have cared about was what it could do for you... And while that was a sincerely concerning topic, there were far more mysteries that worried you about the comforting memento.

There was no doubt this had been your sister's bracelet, but where had she gotten it from? Had she ever used it? And given that it really was a Relic, why had it simply been left with you?

Beyond questions of the mortal variety, you knew for a fact that Relics didn't just pop out of thin air. They were a legacy, unearthed from within Ateliers, which contained the crystallization of an Aeon's life. Nothing you knew about this Relic even remotely seemed to hint at what nature Mana it had been born from, and if anything, its varied and esoteric capabilities only seemed to obfusicate it. Asche had told you, in what was an abnormally prolonged string of speech for her, that its ability to conjure forth apparitions was just an unintended side-effect. While something like that would have been enough to warrant trepidation in dealing with it, it was just 'an accident' born of misusing it - An accident which had left you with wounds of the metaphysical variety that had gradually been building up with each subsequent clumsy activation.

Though, with experience came wisdom, and you'd like to think you had enough experience (accidental or otherwise) with this Relic's abilities that you could at least work it reliably now... To some extent.

The now secured bond you could faintly feel with the wooden golem was certainly a testament to that. Thanks to your time weaving webs, you didn't find it too difficult to tap into a sense that you didn't physically have - And through it, glimpse the unsteady flow of empathy which trailed along between you.

>Immerse yourself in the thread
>Try tugging on it
>Sever it
>Other? (Write-in)

>>599791
>>Try tugging on it

>>599791
>>Try tugging on it

>>599791
>>Immerse yourself in the thread

>>599800
>>599814
Tugtug.

>>599826
Synchronicity!

Looks like we're gonna pull on things!

Writing.

With the familiar feeling of weaving a web, you let your attention drift away from the trail as you focus on the linking thread. After it had formed, any potential hostility the golem had harbored seemed to have completely vanished... But it wasn't until the morning came that you really paid much attention to the connection. In short order, it was like an errant string had suddenly started to wrap around you, and the strange link's presence had risen from the state of only being intellectually understood, to a very tangible feeling that proved its existence.

Which left the question of what, exactly, it was supposed to be. You had a vague idea of its uses in letting you communicate with the golem, but much like your use of the bracelet, communication almost seemed like a side-effect. It was inefficient, and you doubted you could get anymore than a general intent through it... Which made you wonder if what was being communicated in the first place wasn't a translation at all, but literally your general intent. If that were the case, then the golem still didn't actually understand anything you told it.

...It was just trying to divine what you wanted or didn't want, and then attempting to do its best.

While the notion of an empathic cord was interesting to you, your history weaving webs left you more interested in the 'physical' properties of the link than what it was actually for. You could twist, and weave, and manipulate the threads of your web to achieve all manner of results... And the possibility that this could be similar was almost too tempting to ignore.

The problem, however, was that this thread wasn't like your web. There was no slack there to play with, which made manipulating it all but impossible. You needed more of it to really experiment.

And so, you were forced to try and do it the most primitive way you knew how: Tugging it, and hoping some came from the spool.

At first there was nothing. You didn't even feel the thread move, and you wondered briefly if your grip had just slipped. Another pull, with a tighter grasp on it, and you felt the it begin to strain. You were pulling on it, certainly, but there was no extra slack coming for you... If anything, it was as if you had grabbed onto a rope attached to a boulder and began to try and physically haul it towards you.

In a way you would be hard pressed to describe, you could feel slack loosen on your end... But only because your efforts were reeling you towards whatever the other end of this empathic line had latched onto inside of the wooden golem.

>Keep pulling
>Let it go
>Other? (write-in)

>>600091
>Let it go
But tie it in a slip knot first

>>600091
>>Let it go

>>600110
>>600127
Ropes never bothered us anyway!
I... Don't know how to tie a slip knot. Internet don't fail me now!

Writing.

>>600091
>>600137
..crap, missed another one.

>Priat hears us making noise
>looks over
>""is.. is she miming tug-of-war?"

yeah, I know weaving isn't physical movement

>>600137
Could we maybe, somehow use OUR web to affect the string? Maybe thread it into it so we can send more complex meanings through with less energy?

While you had managed some slack, the sensation of feeling yourelf start to slip towards something was... Unsettling. In the same way that you were wary of letting the bracelet add any new metaphysical injuries to you, you couldn't imagine that coming into contact with whatever constituted that self-same internal identity for the wooden golem would end well for you.

Your heart clenched painfully as you swiftly tied off some semblance of a knot in what little slack you had acquired, leaving you dangling just that much closer than you had before. The distance between you hadn't changed drastically, but you couldn't shake the feeling that the action of growing closer in the first place meant more than the actual space closed.

With the act completed, you tentatively release the thread and let the slack tighten once more... And in the moment of truth, the knot holds. It feels wrong to you, as if you had just tried to kink a hose. There was so much getting both literally and figuratively tied up in the knot you left that what managed to filter through was confused and garbled. Taking a step back from your efforts, you blink haze out of your eyes and try to refocus on your physical senses.

The golem seemed to have stopped walking with you at some point. You glanced back, finding it just staring at its own hands some ways back; For as much as it was moving now, it may as well have been petrified... Or an actual tree.

Did you break it?

Double checking on Priat's location, you leave him to his firefighting as you wander back towards the paralyzed golem and try to prod it back into action. At first there was no reaction, and even the unsettling attempt at purring was absent.... Until it finally seemed to realize something was happening, its hands rushing towards its own neck in a constricting vice that fractured wood beneath relentlessly fastening digits. Belatedly, you felt the trickle of empathy finally work its way through the tied knot in a tidal wave of volatile panic and stricken desperation.

░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░

>?

>>600268
Untie the knot.

>>600268
Not a thread then, a pipe
>slip the slipknot
and make it quick

>>600283
>>600290
Rip knots.

>>600246
The sensations are similar enough that you likely could attempt it. To be certain, if it's clearer communication and senses you're after, then there's nothing more dear to a spider than its web.

Would you like to weave?

>>600290
You could think of it like a string connecting two cups. Meaning is conveyed along the thread via vibrations; When you tie a knot, those vibrations become jumbled, and have a harder time getting across.

I'll start writing in about 10m, in case anyone has more input given the above notes.

>>600298
If we're going to weave, we should probably do it at night. Weaving is a acceptable substitute for sleep, right?

>>600321
...This is an interesting question, but the general answer is "Yes".

The specific answer is that weaving removes your senses from your physical body and places them fully within the web, so even if you fell asleep, you would still be entirely conscious of what was happening within its domain. The distinction between "sleep" and "waking" would be thin to the point that it would be more accurate to describe the state as waiting.

You broke it. Whatever voiceless screaming was accosting you was impossible to decipher, but you didn't need a translation to understand that the golem was starting to freak out. You ripped the knot free with as much haste as you could manage, feeling the slack in the line leave you 'floating' before it snapped taught once more with a disorienting crack.

░░░░░░░░lea░░no░msorr░░on░t░le░░em░░░ere░g░inCOMEBACK

Your ears popped viciously, leaving a deafening ring in the wake of a wash of words lost in the resolving static. There was a brief moment where you could almost put a meaning to the desperation being frantically slammed against the now loosed knot, and it was enough to leave you faint and unbalanced. The absolute loss of your balance was sealed moments later as you were bowled into the ground by the golem, its abruptly found determination to break its own throat in half being redirected towards new and significantly less self-destructive purposes.

It took a few seconds for you to find the thread once more, and realize that just because the knot had gone, didn't mean that the desperation it had caused went with it. It flowed unceasingly, and you realized belatedly that its stubborn clinging to you was more than just a hug; The ivy hair was starting encircling you, and you could feel your limbs being restrained.

The golem pinned you to the ground forcibly, hands wrapped aside as it mounted you with all the rigidity of an oak and ran its trembling hands along your face, seeking something even as its roughly hewn finger tips traced their way down your neck, and eventually back up their own body... Before its fingers dug into its own chest and began to pry open a jagged wooden maw in an attempt to rip its own torso in half.

>Call Priat
>Sever thread
>Start weaving
>Attempt to grapple a tree
>Meditate(Which Mana?)
>This Is Fine.
>Other? (write-in)

>>600385
>>Attempt to grapple a tree

>>600385
>This Is Fine.
Where does this lead?

>>600385
>>Attempt to grapple a tree
Counter-pin? Mainly we just need to restrain it long enough for it to stop panicking


"I'll just give it a little tug, what's the worst that could happen?"

>>600394
>>600405
We are about to grapple a tree.

>>600397
Where indeed.

Best of three, guys. 1d100!

Rolled 90 (1d100)

>>600424
How much worse can it get, right?

Rolled 11 (1d100)

>>600424

Rolled 58 (1d100)

>>600424

>>600424
Remember anons: rolling is a bad sign! We've done fucked up.

>>600464
It's probably going to think we're copying it and redouble it's efforts.

Really wish I had been here to vote.

Starting to feel like ShadowRue all over again.

For a moment, you just closed your eyes and laid there. This was fine, really.

The hell it was fine!

In a single abrupt moment ripped your hands down from the ivy and bucked your hips, catching the golem off guard and sending it crashing face first into the dirt just above your head. You wasted no time rolling out from under the shocked thing, offering a mental thanks to the unprecedented amount of practice you had been getting with the art of physically wrecking someone's day lately as you extricated yourself from its motionless hair. Whatever it had been expecting you to do, this obviously hadn't been it.

The confusion which bled through your connection attested to that. Confusion was swiftly being subsumed beneath further panic. It was enough to make you hesitate, and you had a single moment to make a choice when you finally rolled free from its pinning body... And in the end, that choice wasn't to put an end to this. With Priat's help, you could have easily turned it into just as much charcoal as any of the others; For that matter, it would have only taken a moment to summon a Bigger Fish with the bracelet.

This wooden golem, this apparition, wasn't truly alive. Physical impact wouldn't stun it, nor slow it down. The only reason it had stopped was because it was confused, and simply didn't know how to react. It was too confused, and you as you were well aware, far too lost in its panic to even understand what it was doing as it acted on a desperate impulse. More than anything, the fact it was panicking like this was a direct result of something you had done.

And so you would trust in that vague feeling that this wasn't meant to hurt you, and do something that would have otherwise been incredibly stupid.

You met the slowly recovering golem hand in hand as it rose up uncertainly, grasping onto its smoothly carved palms as you dug your feet into the ground to push forward. You pushed it back slowly, wrenching its hands down to its side a little further with each step. It was confused, but the unexpected contact was sapping its desperation. It was confused, very confused, but it that confusion wasn't mired in the violent panic that had driven it to act before.

Out of habit you met its carved eyes, disregarding the smile that it physically couldn't remove from its face, and felt your muscles burn as you forced it to step back - To step down.

...And though it honestly had nothing to do with your own physical strength, it finally calmed enough to relent, and hesitantly let you push it around however you wanted, even until it was pressed down to its knees and staring up at you in an act of almost palpable submission.

>Pet golem
>Weave thread
>Order it
>Other? (write-in)

>>600504
...Whew that's a lot of typos. That's just embarrassing.

>>600504
Yay, we didn't screw things up bad enough to be unfixable.

>Order it
Something minor; test the waters, see what we can see.

Despite the horrific results, if we can figure out how to manipulate the thread, we might be able to control bracelet-apparitions. That's too temping to pass up. We just need to take things slower, make sure we've got a backup plan.

>>600507
Didn't even notice.

I'm about to fall out of my chair. Night Riz & anons. Thanks for running!

>>600504
>>Weave thread

>>600527
Remember how exhausting ordering was last time? You want to do that again, now, when we still haven't slept and the Golem is all wonky?

I mean, yeah, but lets try to mitigate the strain BEFORE trying instead of after.

>>600504
>Weave thread
and
>Order it
Let's see something minor...Make it roll over?OOH! I know, DO A BACK FLIP!

>>600504
>Pet golem
>Weave thread
Very carefully

>>600541
How about we use our energy to order it to do something useful, like try to use the thread to communicate.

>>600527
>>600541
Order! Roll over? Speak? It's not a dog, anons.

>>600533
>>600541
>>600544
A spider always returns to its web eventually.

>>600544
Pet golem.

Writing!

>>600527
good night, anon.

>>600563
>It's not a dog, anons.
Cats can learn tricks to!

>>600569
So, are you new here?

Because votes like this can and have ruined everything.

>>600576
Oh trust me, I know.

You close your eyes with a heavy sigh, and feel out the thread that linked you. What panic it had been thrown into was receding, even as it focused on you. You could feel its attention, the deeply seated willingness to try and please. In holding your ground, you had given it the option of fighting against you or simply surrendering... And between the two, it had submitted without so much as a regret. As long as you didn't abandon it, it was ready; It was willing.

...But though the body was willing, the mind was weak. The connection tenuous, and good only for vague interpretations. You had a better understanding of how it worked now, and fortunately... You also had a working understanding of just how to weave together the most from a thread. If the failings were that the thread was inferior - That the senses were inferior then that could be solved.

You could feel the frigid coil of your awareness pooling along the tips of your fingers, and for several precipitous seconds, you felt the siren's call to weave a web once more. To abandon your eyes and ears, and command absolute dominion over a web that would suffer no delusions...! But you had felt this, not the day before. You had barely wrenched yourself back into your body back then, and were wiser to its lures. Besides... As tempting as it may have been, the threads you so carefully let drip from your pale fingertips weren't the sturdy and familiar strands of silk with which you could waste on something so mundane as physicality.

It was a hunch, one that unique circumstances alone had provided you insight towards, that led you to bending the blessing of the Ice Queen's Atelier in a way you sincerely doubted it was meant to be used... Just as the bracelet on your arm had yet to be used properly, even once. If the purpose was close enough, if its concept could be twisted close enough to achieve what you needed, then wasn't that enough?

And so you were willing to try that gamble, and weave a thread meant to remove something deeper than physical sensation. With that, you could create a web more beautiful and reliable than this disgustingly inefficient connection that you had developed naturally.

>Externalizing Mana Link

You have the following options:
>Best of 3; Mitigates backlash on failure, but success will be heavily flawed.
>Worst of 3; Success is absolute, but failure is cripplingly dire.

>>600625
>Worst of 3; Success is absolute, but failure is cripplingly dire.

Choose all three testaments.

>>600625
>Best of 3; Mitigates backlash on failure, but success will be heavily flawed.

/qst/ dice people

...Normally I'd put this up to a dice roll, but I feel like doing that right now would probably be unforgivable.

I'll leave this vote up until some time tomorrow, to get a final consensus. Then we'll see how things go, for better or worse.

>>600677
I'll vote for go big or go home. Just wrassled a tree.

Besides, even if it's a failure at leas it won't be our fault.

Just for the information of anyone who decides to "make things interesting":

We are currently trying to save our daughter figure captured by a yandere supernatural phenomenon we have no chance against in open combat and have no idea how to parley with.

We are also saddled with a yandere killer golem, bunch of superstrong sociopaths led by a retard, forbidden knowledge that might get us in trouble with another supernatural phenomenon, a ruined city we have no money to restore, and several artifacts we don't know how to use without tactical nuke-level collateral damage and/or ripping our own soul to pieces.

Ant to round it up our country is a target of at least three different plots and is looking forward to a civil war and an invasion.

I personally think this is interesting enough as it is.

>>600625
>>Best of 3; Mitigates backlash on failure, but success will be heavily flawed.

>>600698
You talk that that makes it so we have a choice about what to pick.

We're just as fucked with a flawed success as a a catastrophic failure, that's what your reasoning says to me.

>>600698
But Anon, what if going big or going home is how I wanna fucking roll?

>>600739
>>600744
Not my fault if this vote goes down as "that time anons killed a second Rue"

>>600751
It's cool, we can switch to Ari.

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>>600625
>Best of 3; Mitigates backlash on failure, but success will be heavily flawed

>success will be heavily flawed
So business as usual then?

I'm really surprised people actually voted for weaving as opposed to petting the golem. It was stated to have a calming effect earlier in the thread.

So anyway about the payment for powers used, is the healing time required after each power use longer than the the running time of the quest or what? We still weren't healed from using the bracelet even though we spent all that time getting mana purged and then travelling to/from Aunties. At this point would it be prudent to never use my favourite power/spider-webs again? Given the leap in difficulty I wouldn't be surprised if we just autofailed next time.

Is there a price we pay for the teleportation power too? We're not reducing our lifespan by ten years every time we use it or some shit, right?

>>600815
Dude, we actually get stronger with our spider powers when we use them.

It's over use that ruins it.

> We still weren't healed from using the bracelet even though we spent all that time getting mana purged and then travelling to/from Aunties.

After a YEAR of using it wrong, you mean?

>>600815
> So business as usual then?

Heaven forbid we have any hope of things getting better.

The dice rolls should be clustered together anyways, give how the engine seed works.

Still. Let's jew a modifier and let Priat know shot might get wacky.

>>600820
Admittedly I have a very poor recollection of how often we used the bracelet and how much time was between each use during the first act.

Sure our spider powers are super cool, I'm sold on that idea, what I'm worried about is that we don't know what constitutes over-use. We're unaware of what the cool down should be between uses.

>>600848
It's the option that with the most likelihood of allowing us to keep moving towards our goal, regardless of the outcome. I don't want to stall now and catastrophic failure will likely keep us in spider-mode indefinitely. We'll lose a lot of time regardless but at least this way we'll be able to keep moving forward once we pick ourselves up. Maybe.

>let Priat know
We just entered spider-mode, we can't communicate with him until we leave it. I would like to inform him of all that shit we figured out last thread though, I remember a good few anons felt the same way.

>The dice rolls should be clustered together
lol good luck with that

Rolled 35 (1d100)

>>600872

Rolled 19 (1d100)

>>600872

Rolled 62 (1d100)

>>600872

>>600872
Maybe not.

I guess . . .that's an improvement over /tg/?

I stand by RNGesus still

>>600910
So how is it supposed to work anyway? I've heard it mentioned that it has something to do with time but what are the mechanics?

>>600926
It uses the seconds number as the seed, so posts close together have similar values.

>>600965
Really?
If you scroll up there's 90 and 11 one second apart.

>>600625
>Worst of 3; Success is absolute, but failure is cripplingly dire.

I feel like good things can happen.

>>600872
> We just entered spider-mode, we can't communicate with him until we leave it.

Well let's leave it then?

>>600978
It's a trend where there are variations in the individual instances but over time a pattern of grouping together appears. Or so I've heard, I didn't build it.

And even then, that's just for /tg/
He shouldn't assume /qst/ is the same.

Let's do some math anons.
Let's assume we need to roll 21 or more to succeed.
In this case the probability of failure on worst of 3 is 1 - 0.8^3 = 0.448
If we need 51 or more it's 0.875
If we need 71 or more it's 0.973
You mustn't get enticed by the promise of absolute success, because the probability of it is low to nonexistent.

>>600625
>Best of 3; Mitigates backlash on failure, but success will be heavily flawed.


>>601004
Funny thing is if we roll poorly we may never leave it. Wish you fucks had pet the golem but no voters are fucktarded.

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102 KB JPG

>>601107
If that happens then at least our suffering would be over.

>>601118
Just leave the quest then. If you're intentionally voting to kill it you're being a dick.

>>601125
Just sayin'.

I voted for and argued in favour of best of 3.

>>601107
Pretty sure we don't have to roll to not do a thing.

Like shit dude, let's calm down.

I'm gonna vote to not do this after all, the sudden realization that knowing more details might actually make the golem less comprehensible.

Maybe wait to chat with the Fae before metaphysically tying ourselves to this golem.

>>600677
And if >>601332 don't fly I'll vote to do

>Worst of 3; Success is absolute, but failure is cripplingly dire.

Because I feel that will encourage people to reconsider this action.

>>600625
Can we seriously not vote to abort? Is Rue so deep in the web already that she can't see that this might be one of the worst ideas she's ever had?

>>601553
Woah. I think it's a pretty fucking good idea, and it deserves to be given the proper preparation to make sure it works instead of winging it on a fucking whim.

>>601575
I mean we know Rue is impulsive and irresponsible but yes for once I'd like to put this on the back burner and conduct some research and find a way to stack the odds in our favor before we commit.

>>600625
>Best of 3; Mitigates backlash on failure, but success will be heavily flawed.

No suicides on my watch

>>601342
I really doubt Riz will allow us to back out of an action once we learn the odds of succeeding, in which case you're deliberately voting for something that you think is the worst choice.

I'd prefer to be wrong, I really don't want to do this.

>>600625
>>Best of 3; Mitigates backlash on failure, but success will be heavily flawed.
There's no way I'm trusting the dice, not for anything high stakes.

>>601676
Wow. If there was only some way to find out what he thinks about it, when he's the one suddenly throwing dice into the mix.

Like, walking away is a valid choice I feel.

>>601676
It's a situation we are in control of. We aren't rolling because we are forced by outside influence or factors out of our control.

>>601690
Chill out nigga, I'm confident Riz will address our cold feet once the sun sets. I seriously hope it is a valid choice but I'm pretty confident it won't be due to the addictive nature of the power, it's clear that Irue is already under its sway.

>With that, you could create a web more beautiful and reliable than this disgustingly inefficient connection that you had developed naturally.
>Externalizing Mana Link

I'm kind of fucking pissed that a minority of anons have voted to risk life and limb to get this thing to roll over or do a backflip but shit like that is the price you pay for enjoying Riz's writing.

>>600872
>failure will likely keep us in spider-mode indefinitely.

As a reminder, you succeeded on resisting reliance on it last time. It was noted when you started the weaving experiment here that while the temptation was still there, you weren't going to fall for it again that easily. Failure here won't subject you to any kind of addiction or web-based reliance.

Rather, Irue notes that A Spider's Web is specifically not meant to be used this way... But neither is how you've been making use of the bracelet. The working theory is that if you can successfully misuse the ability, then you can apply it to something it isn't directly meant to affect. That said, you are well aware that "misuse" of things like these, while they can be terrifyingly effective, also inherently carry the danger of a painful backlash.

To put this into complete context, so there can be no misunderstanding about what you're rolling to do: You are attempting to weave your soul into a web, instead of your physical senses.

>We don't know what constitutes over-use... We're unaware of cooldowns
Asche offered to help you learn how to use it, because she is very concerned. The offer was acknowledged, and then anons voted to spend your spare time with her by practicing with A Spider's Web.

You've actually gotten a lot of practice with A Spider's Web, as a couple of anons wanted Irue to practice with it during the timeskip after Arc 1, so you have canonically been drunkenly weaving for a while.

>>601332
>>601553
It is true that nothing is forcing you to do this externally. It is a choice Irue made, and one Irue can stop at any time of their own volition. In this sense, choosing to abort is a valid option.

It is also true that the vote to weave in the first place was the majority vote, and thus isn't as if a dice was rolled and RNG decided Irue would go 'why not?'. It is a course of action you were not strong-armed into, or forced to accept. It is something Irue willingly and voluntarily decided was worth doing. What reason is there to stop?

I doubt I can make everyone happy, but I intend to hold you to the decision to try this. I will accept votes to abort, and treat them as hesitation or second thoughts, and IF the abort votes exceed the amount Weaving had, then we'll see where it takes you.
___

I'm going to make a snack and then go back to bed. I set my alarm to wake me up after a few hours specifically to try and answer concerns, but I really shouldn't be up for another several hours.

I'll keep an eye on the thread while I'm eating, but I won't be up for long.

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>>602303
kek looks like I was wrong about all the shit I posted. Thanks for the clarification Riz. Sorry for overreacting, anons.

>You are attempting to weave your soul into a web, instead of your physical senses.
How utterly terrifying.

Anyway, changing my vote to
>ABORT

>>602303
> You are attempting to weave your soul into a web
holy balls. I'll stick with it, but I'm glad I voted for Best of 3.

>>601004
>>602303

Changing my vote to

> Abort! Abort!

>>602447
So you want to choose between possible destruction and guaranteed crippling of our soul, as opposed to trying it when we're a bit more rested and maybe can spend some more time investigating the golem and the mana font?

Because that's what best of three is. Guaranteed crippling.

>>602303
>abort!

>>603281
>Guaranteed crippling
That's not right. It's flawed success. That could mean any number of things, including, yes, crippling. But it could simply mean partial success.

>>603380
It's our soul. You are okay with a guaranteed flaw in our soul? Somehow you don't view that as crippling?

>>603398
>guaranteed flaw

partial success =/= failure

>>603512
When you're transmuting your soul, yes, yes it does mean failure.

>>602303
>I doubt I can make everyone happy, but I intend to hold you to the decision to try this.

No matter what happens I will always love you Riz

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>>600632
>>601342
>>600696
Wo3!

>>600643
>>600705
>>600815
>>601107
>>601670
>>601683
Bo3!

>>601332
>>602402
>>603344
>>603281
4 votes to Abort vs 3 to Weave.
It was nearly 3:3, because I missed 603281 like four times.

I'm in the middle of baking sugar cookies, but I'll start writing in a bit.

>>604779
And a huge sigh of relief.

>>604779
ded?

You had the frame of mind ready to begin weaving. Half-recalled memories of the time you had personally spent inhabiting the web served to help guide your hand with each careful thread, giving you time to focus on the subtle distinctions between the materials you were trying to weave.

The physical. You had intimate experience with weaving this web by now, and had spent much of your drunken month playing with the ways you could string it. You knew the ways your senses could flow, and the beautiful patterns you could bring about by crissing and crossing your domain into a truly splendid web. While this was the web you were used to weaving, its threads were meant for something baser; Something tangible and easily explainable. While they were undeniably superior vessels for your senses, they were too rough.

The Mana. It was the conceptualization of A Spider's Web which instantly brought the image of a thread to mind, and it was that image which shaped your understanding of it. You had spent most of your life studying Mana, and you knew the principles behind how Mana interacted with people, as well as the plight of communication between two entities that fundamentally viewed the world in different ways. With your most recent use of the bracelet, you had stumbled upon a strengthening cord which had inexorably tied you to something you had tentatively categorized to be an apparition, and it was with that connection that you had gained the ability to empathically commune. For all intents and purposes, that connecting thread was your connection to the apparition, and thus on a larger scale, you could theoretically consider it the apparition's connection to you. It was a representation of affinity...

But it was wrong. Stunted. The cord which should have connected you to a Mana led only to the single apparition. Rather than an affinity with an entire Mana, it was almost as if you had established an affinity explicitly with this one, individual, apparition of it. An infinitesimally miniscule drop from the swell of a great tide. Given how little affinity you had ever displayed for Mana in the past, this was depressingly expected, actually. Even the existence of the thread itself was likely only due to your use of the bracelet, and with that in mind, you were uncertain whether it was something natural that was simply undeveloped, or if it was an artificial side effect of the Relic's usage.

What you did know was that regardless of its inherent nature, it was a thread; One which you could use to sense the general disposition of this oddly devoted apparition, and vice-versa. In that way, it wasn't unlike a thread spun from A Spider's Web - It just carried a different sense. It was a thread that was wholly inefficient in at its intended purpose, much like your own natural senses had been... If you wanted to improve that, it was simply a matter of weaving a thread fit for the task. Fit for the sense.

Fit for the Soul.

So you twisted your web, and discarded spool after spool of worthless failures. You needed emotion to course their lengths, you needed the beat of your heart to thrum intrinsically within its every pattern. More than an extension of yourself, the very identity of who you were must be imprinted upon every unseen iota of the fabric which would be woven together by the end of it all.

As it turned out... Adapting an ability you had no part in creating was difficult. More than difficult, the more you tossed away failed prototypes, the more you realized the length of the gaping chasm between the way you understood the world and what it must have taken for the Ice Queen's Aeon to be so far removed from humanity that they could even separate their senses from their body at all, much less the notion of the soul.

Second thoughts clouded your efforts, and frustration mounted with each addition to your pile of failures; Attempts that you knew had failed, even before they were born. You possessed the vision, and with the aid of A Spider's Web, you feel you possesed a tool from which you could derive, but in the end your mind was still so stubbornly human. If you persisted and threw everything you were into it, the idea that you had set to work upon an iceberg sent a chill down your spine. That even if you believed you saw a glimpse of success, it would be just the tip of progress - The first step of so many, which was visible above the impossibly deep abyss of a domain whose only masters were the World itself.

This was the bottom line, and the immutable truth.
No matter your vision, no matter your tools.
In the end, you were forcibly reminded that you were only human.

The bluster which had spurred on your actions was almost embarassingly cowed, but you refused to step back from the brink. Some part of you refused to believe it wasn't possible, and it railed against the notion of backing down simply due to your failings. If it were an impassable wall, then you wouldn't have 'A Spider's Web' in the first place! There was a path beneath the surface of humanity which others had walked before you, and doubtlessly would walk after you.

...And every path would remain out of your reach, if you never took the first step.

>1d100

Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>606022
here we go

>>606046
aand I'm immediately glad I didn't vote for Worst of 3 like my first reaction had been.

>In the end, you were forcibly reminded that you were only human.
'm getting the impression Worst of 3 would have a different thought line here; something about not progressing without changing who(what?) you are?

>>606069
This is the result of both overwhelming hesitation, and taking the moderate approach.

Worst of 3 would have been more like ignoring the abyss you didn't understand, and just seizing on the first thing that seemed like it would work. Given the description provided here, you can imagine how that would have gone (and thus understand the overwhelmingly bad odds of success Wo3 provided you).

I was really late getting this out, and my only excuse is that it took me a while to be happy with what was written. I figure we'll be waiting for a bit until two other anons show up to roll.

Rolled 34 (1d100)

>>606022

Rolled 90 (1d100)

>>606022

>>606046
>>606167
>>606176
>90
Writing!
I sincerely believed the last roll was going to be <34

>>606176
You are a God among men

>>606234
Indeed anon. Indeed.

Even that first step was mindbending, though. It taunted you with every attempt, with the persistent feeling that you were approaching a breakthrough lingering just out of reach. When every avenue forward hit a wall, you grew closer and closer to wanting to physically slam your face into something, if only to see which would break first. For what felt like forever, your thoughts were a whirlwind of possibilities; Endless minor changes, and little tweaks. Each one of them felt as if you were making the final touches - As if with just this slight adjustment, you could finally understand... But each of them were dead ends. You could stare and stare at the thread before you, and compare it all you liked, but there was something you were missing. Something vital that prevented this from working, even when you knew it should. Stress and strain wound tighter and tighter, yet no matter how you tried to stretch your understanding of A Spider's Web', you couldn't recreate the string you needed.

...Then, maybe the answer you were seeking couldn't be found within a web at all. While it was the most inherently integrated tool you had to work from, the path of departure it represented ultimately never touched on the level you were seeking. It provided you the vision, but not the understanding; You had smashed your head against a set of blueprints without ever trying to understand the underlying reasons behind them. Nothing you altered from within 'A Spider's Web' mattered, because it was different on a completely fundamental level. Adapting it... That was wrong. Completely wrong. What you needed wasn't a quick solution, but the right solution, and that was something that could only be created to suit you specifically.

You took a step back from the web. From the threads you had ceaselessly woven. From the amateurish and half-witted ways you had tried to simply reinterpret the legacy of an Aeon just so it would casually fit your whims. Before you could create something as elegant, as flawlessly complete, as 'A Spider's Web', you needed understanding; A basis to begin from. A place where you could tear apart your misconceptions and delusions time and time again until all the was left was a foundation entrenched in absolute certainty.

>Cur░ent ░bil░ty: I░░or░ ░um░n Nat░re

You swept aside the wasteful attempts and turned your attention towards the bracelet. This was your late sister's bracelet, a Relic of unknown origin, with powers you had yet to understand. It was the last memento you had of a happier life, and it had been with you during every step of the burning crucible you had walked to make your life happier. It was your key, your treasure, and it had single handedly led you down one of the most self-destructive paths you could have ever walked.

And buried somewhere within its dual rings, you felt it waiting. Always waiting, ever since it had found a home upon your wrist, and with every hamhanded attempt to become its master. It had waited for you - For a moment like this. For your first steps.

In an instant, you found the eye of a storm which had plagued your mind since birth.

Relic Catalyst Confirmed.
Mana... ... ... Undetermined.
Origin... Corrupted. Fragmented.
Aeon Foundation Recognized.

You stupid, stupid child... What have you done?

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http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Valen+Quest

And we are archived.

I'll lurk the thread for a bit to try and answer some questions if I can.

Apologies to all anons who participated in Valen Quest but died at their keyboards wondering when QM would finally stop.

To those who did not make it to the end, we will never forget your sacrifice.

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>>606272
>Current ability: Ignore Human Nature
>Aeon Foundation Recognized.
What have we done?

>>606274
WE DID IT

We finally did something!

>>604779
> 4 votes to Abort vs 3 to Weave.

>>602303
> I will accept votes to abort, and treat them as hesitation or second thoughts, and IF the abort votes exceed the amount Weaving had, then we'll see where it takes you.

Man do I have some questions about how this worked.

>>603380
I hope you're a big enough person to admit you were wrong.

>>606271
Current ability ignore human nature

>>606272
Welp

>>606274
So how badly did we fuck up?

>>606674
I have serious concerns about how Asche will react to this.

Although it will be interesting to see if she feels any guilt for letting use wear something as stupidly dangerous as the bracelet without telling us all about it. Especially after the ShadowRue incident.

Will she even recognize us?

>>606680
She'll probably try to kill us

>>606674
>>606279
I thought it started with a lower case L, all I could come up with was labors but that didn't make any sense.

>>606089
I thought Worst of 3 meant rolling low to succeed, christ why did people vote for that.

>>606279
>Mana... ... ... Undetermined.
>Origin... Corrupted. Fragmented.
>Aeon Foundation Recognized.

I fucking told you guys, The Reclaimed Doll IS talking about Irue! She's the homunculus, not Asche.

>>606787
> http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/470612/

Hey, I remember writing this.

Reeeeeally high while in the hospital on painkillers.

>>606816
Yeah, I wrote http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/470612/#p483970

I have the smuggest anime girl ready for you all when I'm proven to be right.

>>606819
If she isn't smug enough you'll be forever shamed.

>>606819
> http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/470612/#p472815

Forgot to link my direct post sorry.

I concur with the smugness.

Also I win either way for claiming both Asche AND Rue are homo.

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>>607872

>>606645
>How this worked
Without any specific questions, I can't actually answer anything. As a general address though, I mentioned that I would hold you to the decision to try what you were doing, regardless of the votes.

The votes to abort were thus treated as hesitation and second thoughts. By exceeding the vote to weave, it was enough to discourage Irue from going all in and trying to 0-100% immediately. Or, in other words, you took the first step and treated the endeavor with due respect, rather than trying to brute-force an adaption just for results.

>>606674
>>606279
>Ignore Human Nature
This isn't a new ability. I don't know if anyone keeps up with the little pastebin things (they don't update often, honestly), but this is an ability Irue has had since around the time of Dopplerue. It was gained from Irue's experience trading places with Dopplerue and acting as a shadow as Shade saturated them.

Gaining it was a pre-requisite for this being possible, and yes I do pay attention to things like that. You covered a few other pre-requisites for this path to be an option as well.

>>606384
I wouldn't get terribly excited. Practically speaking, nothing has changed; You haven't gained any new capabilities. If anything...

>>606674
>How badly did we fuck up?
The danger starts from here on. You've taken the first step into this, but that just means our palette was wiped clean. How you develop and the choices you make will be responsible for how your Foundation is constructed, and it is entirely possible to slide back into traditional humanity, or (arguably worse) to progress forward with an unsteady and fragile Foundation.

There is no such thing as change without consequence, nor power without cost. To gain, you will lose; It is up to you to decide whether what you gain is worth what you part with.

Also are you the anon who asks this at the end of every thread? It never fails.

>>607872
>Asche and Rue are homo
AntiYuri anon is screaming somewhere.
That's all. I wanted to comment on this because it made me laugh.

>>608116
So there's no tangible benefit. Is there any tangible flaws? Yet?

Please offer us any insight that you can into the implications that follow our mother (presumably) seeing our first steps. Is she able to witness us through the bracelet? Is that why our sister reportedly viewed the bracelet as her greatest treasure? Tell me your secrets Riz!

>>608251
>tangible flaws
No. As I mentioned, nothing has really changed yet.

When I say there is no change without consequence, nor power without cost, this goes both ways. Minor changes are a pittance, and if the status quo hasn't shifted, then it hasn't shifted. The difference now is that the status quo can shift in directions it previously couldn't.

>Insight into implications
You actually treasure the bracelet far more than your sister ever did. She thought very highly of it, and she wore it proudly, but it meant something different to her than it does you.

Ariel was the kind of person who would shamelessly say her greatest treasure was her friends. Or adventure. Or friends on an adventure! And somewhere towards the end of this proclamation, Caylen would belatedly receive warning from his survival instinct and fail to act on it in time to escape her clutches.

As for the other things... Well, the bold bits came from the bracelet, not Irue. It wasn't telepathy or vocalizations either, but more like a glimpse behind the curtain for the readers. It isn't something Irue is personally aware of.

You can make of that what you will.

>>608116
>I wouldn't get terribly excited.

You just don't realise how good it feels to figure out your puzzles and mysteries.

>>609073
Or even, just, ya know, have a conversation without everything going tits up.

>>608444
Hey Riz. I tried to shill Valen Quest in /qtg/ the other day, and an anon brought to my attention the quite possible reason this quest has relatively few players: it doesn't catch people's attention in the catalogue. The title and the OP picture don't tell anything about it,

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>>609213
I am aware. Of the shilling attempt and that the title/OP pic aren't terribly descriptive.

In regards to the second thing, it was something brought to my attention not long before /qst/ was made, and it is something I've kept in mind... But Valen's run for over a year now, and I am led to believe that the sheer density of the archives alone is intimidating. I think it's safe to say that Valen is well past the stage where better publicity would really help garner a playerbase. Trying to swap up OP images or change the name now would just be confusing, and honestly I feel like I'd have betrayed something if I finished this quest as anything other than Valen.

Another issue is that if you asked me to describe Valen Quest to someone, I'd just give you a blank look. It's difficult for me to really distill down what the quest is about (which may very well be a sign that it's about too much) and present it in an easily digestible format that would be appealing to someone. An anon recently posted a neat summary of current events in an attempt to dissuade "make it more interesting!" from being a motive, and I really enjoyed it because... Well, I've failed pretty hard at summarizing my own quest for a year. Even if it's only current events, it made me smile to see someone manage it.

And finally, in regards to the shilling attempt, I appreciate the effort. I'm very happy with the players I have, and you are all quite dear to me; The fact you've stuck with it for this long means a lot, and I worry about letting you guys down. That said, I'm more or less at peace with the fact that Valen won't ever have a really large crowd/following. It is my first quest, and it's been quite a learning experience (still is!) so I've made various mistakes along the way and learned what I could from you guys to try and get better.

If the occasional new player trickles in from a casual archive binge, then I'd welcome them warmly, but I don't want you guys to potentially stir up any bad blood. Historically speaking, whenever one of my anons tries to sell Valen on /qtg/, they end up getting too enthusiastic or frustrated and then it leads to bickering from people who get annoyed.

All the same, the thought means a lot. I'm lucky to have you guys.

>>609246
Awwww! I could hug you right now.
Glad you liked the summary.

>>609246
What the hell IS the OP pic anyway, where did you find it? It looks like it was cut out from a psx era vidya FMV.

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>>609252
>>609246
Riz a cute!

CUTE!

>>589703
>If you guys do want specific companion interaction time, then it is probably best you mention it ahead of time

After we have Marchovic take a look at Kara's pack I'd like to see if we can requisition a bottle of wine or something and have a chat with him. Ask about what he's been up to and see if he's willing to listen to us talk about our fucked up problems, that's part of his job, right? Depending how things go I'd like to tell him about Doppelrue, follow our own advice to Rinnier about seeking out help.

I'd also like to take a second and thank Priat for his help. Let him know we appreciate the effort he's been making on our behalf, tell him we'll honestly miss him when he leaves but we understand that there's some shit you just gotta do. Finally, at the risk of giving you a seizure could we ask what the deal is between him and Rinnier? Maybe fill him in on our strained relationship with her, I think he has the wrong idea about how often we talk to the bitch.

>>620593
>what the deal is between him and Rinnier?

My theory is that either he reminds her of what she lost (the connection to Salamander was clearly very important to her), or she dislkes that he fled Teranford when shit had only started to go down.

>>624090
Yeah you're probably right but I'd never forgive myself if we don't get as much as we can after Riz gave us a second chance with Priat.