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ChaseSP
Mar 25, 2013



Blue stones man. Better vote to experiment with it guys or you're throwing away a chance to .make our own artifact. Blue stones don't just pop-up out of nowhere all the time!

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There Bias Two
Jan 13, 2009
I'm not a good person

Infinity Gaia posted:

Oh great because of that vote we'll never get any kind of magical crafting done ever again, most likely. Fantastic.

Might as well dismantle our whole forge right now, for all regular or even blooded equipment matters against top tier demons.

I don't buy this at all. It's just a matter of getting to the point where we have trained our brain to be able to handle these things consciously.

Infinity Gaia
Feb 27, 2011

a storm is coming...

I'm pretty sure handing the stone to Tudiya like a good doggie is currently winning by quite a bit. So he can toss it on his giant pile of blue stones with a sign above them that says "For when things are dire".

There Bias Two posted:

I don't buy this at all. It's just a matter of getting to the point where we have trained our brain to be able to handle these things consciously.

It's all about time. It's always been about time. We have no idea how long we have, and I'd rather not plan things out for the long term when we don't know how much time we really have left before demons overwhelm Ur. Wanting to leave everything for later is LITERALLY adhering to the "Things are not yet so dire" phrase that has become so memetic.

Infinity Gaia fucked around with this message at 14:48 on May 21, 2018

There Bias Two
Jan 13, 2009
I'm not a good person

Infinity Gaia posted:

I'm pretty sure handing the stone to Tudiya like a good doggie is currently winning by quite a bit. So he can toss it on his giant pile of blue stones with a sign above them that says "For when things are dire".

...Orrr we could feed it to Aaron......

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree
lol gg no more Masterwork pieces for another century. see y'all in 5 years time

ThatBasqueGuy
Feb 14, 2013

someone introduce jojo to lazyb


ChaseSP posted:

Blue stones man. Better vote to experiment with it guys or you're throwing away a chance to .make our own artifact. Blue stones don't just pop-up out of nowhere all the time!

Eh, experimenting with it seems like almost as much of a waste as 3Dad hoarding them. At least with the latter we'll still have them in the back pocket for a rainy day, using it now is prolly like burning down the forest for the offchance the toothpick we make will have a fortune cookie secret on it.

Infinity Gaia
Feb 27, 2011

a storm is coming...

ThatBasqueGuy posted:

Eh, experimenting with it seems like almost as much of a waste as 3Dad hoarding them. At least with the latter we'll still have them in the back pocket for a rainy day, using it now is prolly like burning down the forest for the offchance the toothpick we make will have a fortune cookie secret on it.

It's not like we're gonna find an instruction manual that says "Here is precisely how to craft with blue stones with no waste and perfect accuracy", we know exactly two people who can make anything out of them and we're on BOTH their shitlists, with no more forthcoming. So the only way to learn how to artifact craft is to figure it out on our own.

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree

Infinity Gaia posted:

It's not like we're gonna find an instruction manual that says "Here is precisely how to craft with blue stones with no waste and perfect accuracy", we know exactly two people who can make anything out of them and we're on BOTH their shitlists, with no more forthcoming. So the only way to learn how to artifact craft is to figure it out on our own.

It's ok I'm sure in time Ishamal will teach us how to use them

Task Manager
Sep 5, 2008

A weird time in which we are alive. We can travel anywhere we want, even to other planets. And for what? To sit day after day, declining in morale and hope.

ChaseSP posted:

So does his conscious mind, but yeah Ishamal kinda confirms that trancing is really dangerous and almost like letting another being control us.

Not only just like letting another being control us - but in the past allowing that other being to be in control of our men (Ball Trance) as well; and self-preservation didn't seem high on the list there. It's unfortunate but it seems that anything Enkidel wants to become really, really, really good at, he doesn't have the power to stop his divine heritage from seeping in and showing him it could be ten times better if only he'd fully surrender to the divine side.

Want to make some cool arrows? They'd be much cooler if you just sliced open your hand and poured your own blood into them. Need a new breastplate? The Zuu suddenly is missing half their deer population and Enkidel's got an admission bracelet on his wrist he doesn't remember buying. Unconscious mind, just let us try to make a really, really good breastplate only using our man skills, drat it!

Our unconscious mind is a one-upper, and those people are the worst.

Infinity Gaia
Feb 27, 2011

a storm is coming...

Shiiit, the blue stone came from a tree demon, right? Imagine the kind of sick bow Indor could craft out of that thing. God I wish we were on team Indor. She'd probably be just as obtuse, but at least she actually made magic gear for us every now and then.

ChaseSP
Mar 25, 2013



It's not like were gonna become king either and have access to Zepath's scrooge mcduck blue stone pool either with our past votes. Take the chance while we can please.

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

There Bias Two posted:

...Orrr we could feed it to Aaron......
Aaron: "You want me to eat a rock?"
Enkidel: "Yes."
Aaron: "A rock? "
Enkidel: "Yes."
Aaron: "I can't eat a rock, its a rock."
Enkidel: "Look, I eat them all the time, just trust me."
Aaron: "Are you sure about this?"
Enkidel: "Totally, you have nothing to worry about."
Aaron: "Well, alright, if you say so..."


Aaron tries to swallow a rock and soon begins to cough, then gasps at his throat for air as his face begins to turn blue. When Tudiya later performs an autopsy....

Tudiya: "Enkidel, do you know why Aaron choked to death on a blue rock?"

Enkidel looks guilty down at his feet...

Travic
May 27, 2007

Getting nowhere fast

Infinity Gaia posted:

I'm pretty sure handing the stone to Tudiya like a good doggie is currently winning by quite a bit. So he can toss it on his giant pile of blue stones with a sign above them that says "For when things are dire".


It's all about time. It's always been about time. We have no idea how long we have, and I'd rather not plan things out for the long term when we don't know how much time we really have left before demons overwhelm Ur. Wanting to leave everything for later is LITERALLY adhering to the "Things are not yet so dire" phrase that has become so memetic.

We're not going to make any progress anyway. It's pretty much hopeless to expect we're ever going to get anywhere. After 5 years we've made so little progress it's really depressing.

The main thing about the blue stone is that the last one exploded quite violently. There's a lot of power stored in those things. I don't want to hit one with a hammer. And we're never going to get the knowledge to use one.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
You know, before I popped back in here I was actually thinking about the "Not so dire" thing. Maybe this argument has already been hashed out, but maybe things AREN'T so dire - mostly because in equipment in question is extremely, extremely dire.

As an analogy, suppose ISIS popped up in the United States, attacked Atlanta or something and seemed on the verge of managing to take it. OK, poo poo is clearly pretty bad - but the President is still unlikely to release NBC weapons to counter them, because even though it will work it leaves a HELL of a mess. Sucks to be the guys in Atlanta, but it doesn't really help the US overall to release Turbo-Anthrax or a nuke or two to kill the invaders, and it'll take things getting way, way worse before the NBC is broken out.


Just checking, but did you notice my last set of questions?

Swedish Thaumocracy
Jul 11, 2006

Strength of >800 Men
Honor of 0
Grimey Drawer
Diogines: How old does Jalitha look now?

Ribella: I don't suppose you got any souveniers from Seir? Like say, a master-craft bow?

Ribella: You mentioned there were two temples, did you enter both? What was the difference, how fancy were they compared to Zepaths? Was there anything else odd about them, aside from the fact that there were two?"

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

Tomn posted:

What exactly would the offended Donut Kings expect us to do? Hunt down the bandits, pay compensation, make a public apology, hunt down the bandits personally, convince the bandits to stop, turn them over to the Donut Kings for justice, what?
It is really unclear. The city they are harassing is distant and you have no relations with their king. It really might be any of those things. Or they may be too embarrassed to ask you to do anything, to ask a foreigner for help would be to show weakness.


Tomn posted:

What would the Donut Kings not affected by the raiding think if everyone learned that the raiders were from Kavodel, but we refused to do anything about it?
Well first they would think it is incredibly weird, because the point of raiding people is to get loot. After that, it depends on which Donut king in particular it is and how much they've heard or believe stories about you. Enemies of their victims would be happy, their allies would not be. And no one would like the idea of radical lunatics killing slavers.


Tomn posted:

What would the nearby kings closer to home expect us to do if they find out the raiders came from Kavodel? I'd ask about more specific cities but, uh, I'm a little unclear right now who's left. Like, for example, would Tudiya expect us to hunt down the raiders, or is he unlikely to give a toss what a Donut King thinks he's entitled to?
Well, Awan, King of Dor just drastically curtained slavery in his city. Khabba tried to restore the normal order and was forced to overturn it.

That concludes the list of the "nearby kings". There are two. If you count Megido, with memories of what Tudiya did to their LAST king...

SniperWoreConverse
Mar 20, 2010



Gun Saliva
Not all experiments will have acceptable results, and blue stones are extremely rare, too rare to risk wasting. Plus there from El and really shouldn't be squandered even if they were pretty common.

I think this covers both the arrow thing and what to do with the stone. Doesn't mean don't continue the work, just we need to be careful what avenues we try to go down next. Maybe go back to Zen forging later when we are more in control, bring the stone to pops and hang out with the guy when we get a chance, learn from him more.

Still would like to make a statue with him like when we made the sweet table with ish. If giving the stone to dad wins I'd be pleased about it, bit I would still vote to continue working on weird techniques. It's the only way to get good except for going out and getting stuff we can't make at all.

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

Swedish Thaumocracy posted:

Ribella: I don't suppose you got any souveniers from Seir? Like say, a master-craft bow?
They did not buy any souvenirs. You did not ask them to. Also, they were supposed to try to be low-key and avoid notice if they could, so they didn't want to buy anything special. They also lacked the wealth to do so.


Swedish Thaumocracy posted:

Ribella: You mentioned there were two temples, did you enter both? What was the difference, how fancy were they compared to Zepaths? Was there anything else odd about them, aside from the fact that there were two?"
Rabila says "The temple for "low-men" " he sneers when he says the word "is large but not richly decorated. The other temple was even bigger and very richly decorated, every surface was carved and there were great bones from monsters and demons carved to decorate the place as well as gold, silver and many beautiful things. But not so grand as our temple in Zepath. They have an image on the ceiling of the place so profane and foul I dread to speak of it Magistrate."

SniperWoreConverse
Mar 20, 2010



Gun Saliva
grimly ask what the pervert pic is on the ceiling

Swedish Thaumocracy
Jul 11, 2006

Strength of >800 Men
Honor of 0
Grimey Drawer

Rabila posted:

They have an image on the ceiling of the place so profane and foul I dread to speak of it Magistrate."

"... Do go on?"

ChaseSP
Mar 25, 2013



lenoon
Jan 7, 2010


1. C
2. H
3. B
4. C
5. C
Q - give to 3dad but request it for sanctifying the temple in Kavodel, maybe there's something we can do with the altar or place of sacrifice with it
S

6. A, sadly
7. B



Ask Lefkandi if he has any ideas involving stone cutting - if Kavodel is slowly being replaced with lovely stone, I wonder if the asawheels can be put to any kind of sawing motion.

Spend more time with Ruth.

SniperWoreConverse
Mar 20, 2010



Gun Saliva
if they're already hammering, maybe they can be used in a chiseling motion? Prob need blooded bronze either way. Also would probably gently caress up somebody's ears, but worth looking into.

Mexican Deathgasm
Aug 17, 2010

Ramrod XTreme
Ishamal, is there anything else about the state of the world your rear end in a top hat puppet masters the Watchers will allow you to share?

I mean, since we just voted down our only chance at learning anything until 2023.

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

SniperWoreConverse posted:

grimly ask what the pervert pic is on the ceiling
It takes repeated requests but eventually you get it out of Rabila, who held nothing from you previously. The man says "Depicted on the ceiling of their temple shows a figure, Esau, seated at the base of a mountain meant to be Mount Har upon a marble throne. Around him men kneel to pay homage to him, many of them prostrated with faces on the floor, men depicted to be the sons of Labaras and even Labaras himself hands him a bow as he steps towards the mountain. Behind the chair are Ophanim, watching on in approval."

The other two shudder, one of them adding "It is so, Magistrate". Rabila then turns to his side and spits.

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

Mexican Deathgasm posted:

Ishamal, is there anything else about the state of the world your rear end in a top hat puppet masters the Watchers will allow you to share?

I mean, since we just voted down our only chance at learning anything until 2023.
"The weather is nice today?"

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

lenoon posted:

Ask Lefkandi if he has any ideas involving stone cutting - if Kavodel is slowly being replaced with lovely stone, I wonder if the asawheels can be put to any kind of sawing motion.
"I am afraid not Enkidel. Maybe a giant hammer or chisel or something? A big blooded bronze saw?"

Mr. Nemo
Feb 4, 2016

I wish I had a sister like my big strong Daddy :(
Did the King and noble said of Seir try to convince you that their claim to the throne is legitimate?

What arguments do they make for it?

Did you try mammoth meat? How good was it?

Task Manager
Sep 5, 2008

A weird time in which we are alive. We can travel anywhere we want, even to other planets. And for what? To sit day after day, declining in morale and hope.

Diogines posted:

It takes repeated requests but eventually you get it out of Rabila, who held nothing from you previously. The man says "Depicted on the ceiling of their temple shows a figure, Esau, seated at the base of a mountain meant to be Mount Har upon a marble throne. Around him men kneel to pay homage to him, many of them prostrated with faces on the floor, men depicted to be the sons of Labaras and even Labaras himself hands him a bow as he steps towards the mountain. Behind the chair are Ophanim, watching on in approval."

The other two shudder, one of them adding "It is so, Magistrate". Rabila then turns to his side and spits.

Ask Rabila if El is depicted whatsoever in the painting, similar to the way he is depicted in other works (a shining radiance just off to the side, out of eye sight)

Diogines, I can't remember but is a blue orb one of the accepted depictions of El in Urian society? Couldn't remember if that's only something we saw to the south, or Urian works also depict El as a blue orb.

Either way, also ask Rabila if there were any depictions of a blue orb in the painting anywhere.

SniperWoreConverse
Mar 20, 2010



Gun Saliva

Diogines posted:

It takes repeated requests but eventually you get it out of Rabila, who held nothing from you previously. The man says "Depicted on the ceiling of their temple shows a figure, Esau, seated at the base of a mountain meant to be Mount Har upon a marble throne. Around him men kneel to pay homage to him, many of them prostrated with faces on the floor, men depicted to be the sons of Labaras and even Labaras himself hands him a bow as he steps towards the mountain. Behind the chair are Ophanim, watching on in approval."

The other two shudder, one of them adding "It is so, Magistrate". Rabila then turns to his side and spits.

"I'm starting to think this king might be kind of a jerk."



and god drat. Every time anything happens goons will be the first to wail and gnash their teeth and rub ashes on their head because now everything is doomed and nothing good will happen again. I was pissed about the kids who didn't make the cut for the balls going off and starting their own balls, but mostly because they might be doing stupid poo poo, or they're pointlessly getting killed, or going AWOL while highly skilled. Not what i wanted to see.

It's not like we got dumped into an unrecoverable situation with these adventuring companies, just like it's not unrecoverable cause we accidentally made evil arrows or give an El stone to Dad, like he specifically requested, or trust Ish & the Trio that it may be a hosed up spiritual problem that we're not ready for.

Also did you notice we're basically immune to mundane disease? We might have soul sickness or something and the watchers are thinking we might freak out thinking it's spirit aids
(It's not, it's some kind of situation where knowing is half the battle and it's the kind of battle that will get us hosed up)

Infinity Gaia
Feb 27, 2011

a storm is coming...

I'm rubbing ashes about people automatically assuming our cool blood arrows are evil. I just want cool poo poo and people just want to not know anything, not get anything, and just sit still getting beaten with sticks trying to abolish slavery while demons continue to improve their techniques and gently caress Ur up at every turn. We've been successful in our personal endeavors so far, but I give the Donut as a whole maybe another 2 Jubilees. Maybe.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007

IT *BZZT* WASP ME--
IT WASP ME ALL *BZZT* ALONG!


Diogines posted:

The man says "Depicted on the ceiling of their temple shows a figure, Esau, seated at the base of a mountain meant to be Mount Har upon a marble throne. Around him men kneel to pay homage to him, many of them prostrated with faces on the floor, men depicted to be the sons of Labaras and even Labaras himself hands him a bow as he steps towards the mountain. Behind the chair are Ophanim, watching on in approval."

That's heretical, kitschy, and vulgar at the same time.
It'd be great if that thing is left as an "ozymandias" type monument in an abandoned ruin of a city.

Chatrapati
Nov 6, 2012

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

lol gg no more Masterwork pieces for another century. see y'all in 5 years time

Or we just ignore Ishamel's advice?

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree

SniperWoreConverse posted:

"I'm starting to think this king might be kind of a jerk."



and god drat. Every time anything happens goons will be the first to wail and gnash their teeth and rub ashes on their head because now everything is doomed and nothing good will happen again. I was pissed about the kids who didn't make the cut for the balls going off and starting their own balls, but mostly because they might be doing stupid poo poo, or they're pointlessly getting killed, or going AWOL while highly skilled. Not what i wanted to see.

It's not like we got dumped into an unrecoverable situation with these adventuring companies, just like it's not unrecoverable cause we accidentally made evil arrows or give an El stone to Dad, like he specifically requested, or trust Ish & the Trio that it may be a hosed up spiritual problem that we're not ready for.

Also did you notice we're basically immune to mundane disease? We might have soul sickness or something and the watchers are thinking we might freak out thinking it's spirit aids
(It's not, it's some kind of situation where knowing is half the battle and it's the kind of battle that will get us hosed up)

If you took setbacks more seriously you might have a roof by now

Infinity Gaia
Feb 27, 2011

a storm is coming...

Chatrapati posted:

Or we just ignore Ishamel's advice?

Yes, obviously. God drat people are overly trusting of Ishamal. Has it never occurred to you guys he might have ulterior motives? Are we so drat certain the Trio's motives are pure? There's a chance we're just being held back with much, much slower power progression than what we can actually reach. If you get down to it, we just don't know jack about the Trio or about Ishamal overall. I see no particular reason to trust him any more than anyone else, except for Snarls Barkley who is at 100% trust ratio.

The only person who can decide what's best for Enkidel is Enkidel, imho.

SniperWoreConverse
Mar 20, 2010



Gun Saliva

Infinity Gaia posted:

I'm rubbing ashes about people automatically assuming our cool blood arrows are evil. I just want cool poo poo and people just want to not know anything, not get anything, and just sit still getting beaten with sticks trying to abolish slavery while demons continue to improve their techniques and gently caress Ur up at every turn. We've been successful in our personal endeavors so far, but I give the Donut as a whole maybe another 2 Jubilees. Maybe.

even if blood arrows are NBD to El, the monument was pretty explicit. That's the kind of Traditions that really matter, and shouldn't get hosed around with, imo. That's not like loving with slavery or foreign kings or whatever, that poo poo is CORE.

I agree that the demon situation is hosed and we need to work much harder to both resist them, and eventually overthrow and crush them completely.
We need to make sure we are hitting this from every possible angle though. Yes, we are going to need powerful artifacts. But we can't carry the whole Urth on our back to salvation. Part of why I was all about Balls (strong balls fixation), was because they can not only be used to directly kill smaller level demons, but they can do stuff like find and recover artifacts, and get blessings from El or whatever. They're critical.

If we're going to survive the demons, we can't just fight with our arms or with our fancy brain crafting techniques, society has to also be a weapon. The fact we have guys like Elezars and all them and we're not constantly using them to push our other shittier fighters to greater expertise is ludicrous and negligent. Same motivation for backing Zimran. Even the total unbloodeds need some form of combat experience, should the worst fail. Zim was a dick tho, it's wrong to try to get them to do stuff they literally cannot accomplish. Hard patrols is fine. Everyone is going to have to be the best they could have possibly ever been for when poo poo hits the fan.

Hattie Masters
Aug 29, 2012

COMICS CRIMINAL
Grimey Drawer

Infinity Gaia posted:

I just want cool poo poo and people just want to not know anything, not get anything, and just sit still getting beaten with sticks trying to abolish slavery while demons continue to improve their techniques and gently caress Ur up at every turn.

We all want cool poo poo. Dear lord did I love the Eagle Arrow being a thing.

But waking up out of a trance to discover that we've sliced open our hand and turned it into arrows is seriously loving bad news. We have no control over our actions when we're in that state, and what if next time it's not our blood we use. I'm all for cool poo poo, but we need to be in control of our own body.

SniperWoreConverse
Mar 20, 2010



Gun Saliva

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

If you took setbacks more seriously you might have a roof by now

alternately, I could have had an ulcer by now

Sogol
Apr 11, 2013

Galileo's Finger

There Bias Two posted:

I don't buy this at all. It's just a matter of getting to the point where we have trained our brain to be able to handle these things consciously.

Yup. We need to find the trance boundary and carefully, slowly extend it. It’s potentially related to a bunch of other things. And we need to become really good at it so that now that we can go into trance, we don’t do so accidentally.

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Theglavwen
Jun 10, 2006

Frankly, I don't know anyone who likes Chinese bronzes, but I have one of the finest collections in the country.

Diogines posted:

I am glad and relieved you asked me about it.

Woooooooowwww

I love you Ishamal but fuuuuuck oooooofffff, we tried to ask you about this poo poo over a decade ago and you ran away. Obviously there are differences between the Eagle arrow and this, but you knew we wanted to ask you what was going on and even if you couldn't talk about the Eagle arrow, the general message could have been delivered any time.

I mean gently caress, I would have actually voted against asking him explicitly because I took this to be more of the same poo poo he noped out on previously. Would have ended up punished for not phrasing the question right when it should have been obvious this strange unconcious forging we were doing was something we were trying to ask him about ages ago.

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