[LP CYOA] 傳

[Baltika9]

Going by that argument, how do you think you're going to overload a madman with a mountain of stolen qi from over the years with a bit of our relative piddly pool of neigong? I don't think it's actually a very dangerous choice, something can probably work out either way, but you have to consider something unique about Jing's qi.

The fact that Jing's qi is toxic even to demons and celestials, so I think that even mad old Yang Xue cannot handle raw Warpstuff. Give him enough of it, and the dude will either run away in fear or die.

But then again, something tells me that sucking out his neiggong will actually amuse him and give us a different kind of chance: impress him or die.

 

[Rex Feral]

Going by that argument, how do you think you're going to overload a madman with a mountain of stolen qi from over the years with a bit of our relative piddly pool of neigong? I don't think it's actually a very dangerous choice, something can probably work out either way, but you have to consider something unique about Jing's qi.

It's unshackled to meridians. What does this mean?

Well, it's generally spread throughout us rather than being focused on a particular area. Note how the madman was attempting to 'open the floodgates' of our qi by poking our pressure points. Well, that won't work! We don't have them to open up our qi through those focused pathways, so he can't drain more than what was described as a slow ebb from us, and you know he doesn't have any practice in dealing with folks with no pressure points through some sort of alternate strategy.

Now, Jing is skilled with pressure points, and presumably would be fairly capable at opening up these meridians to steal from given how there's an example of how to do it being practiced on him at the moment. I'm absolutely confident that Jing can drain much more from him than he can from Jing if we're willing to absorb from him, despite his experience, due to Jing's uniquely unbound qi.

As Baltika said our qi also seems to be somewhat toxic to some beings. What I'm more afraid is what if his qi is toxic to us? I mean he is mad and capable of doing weird stuff with his qi like emanating some sort of cold wind and the like. I'm not sure it's exactly healthy to absorb it.

Also, I doubt we can use his own technique against him, we never used it before, we don't know how it works.

I don't think our overload will be too useful, unless our qi is really malevolent and poisonous, it's just that I predict some serious drawbacks if his qi is tainted or he overrules our absorption.

 

[Kipeci]

Our qi is toxic to beings that are entirely based off of a specific flavor of qi; our chaotic, unbalanced qi that's aggressive against itself is terrible to creatures that were expecting to be sipping sweet, sweet yang. On the other hand, the madman is already absorbing our qi with no apparent distaste to what he's picked up rather than dying horribly as the toad demon did, so I think that that can be ruled out.

I mean he is mad and capable of doing weird stuff with his qi like emanating some sort of cold wind and the like. I'm not sure it's exactly healthy to absorb it.

I think the reason he's mad might have more to do with his horrible torture than sipping a bit of qi from time to time. At any rate, I don't think it's any healthier to give him what he wants and let loose our precious neigong into him in the sort of torrent that he's aiming to gulp down in the first place. If you're saying that we might accidentally get wind-blowing, mountain-shaking qi then I say go for it.

Also, I doubt we can use his own technique against him, we never used it before, we don't know how it works.

We're seeing him using it on us right now and it's working (if more poorly than expected) for him, he's providing us with a nice object lesson. We don't have to be good at this to balance out his spectacularly crappy qi suction on us, he has meridians while we don't.

At any rate, when was the last time we injected our qi into anyone? Never. The closest we've gotten to that is rebounding the qi of three masters into one of their palms so that they all went flying, but he's not attempting to attack us with his neigong so we have nothing resembling practice with this way, either.

 

[Baltika9]

As Baltika said our qi also seems to be somewhat toxic to some beings. What I'm more afraid is what if his qi is toxic to us? I mean he is mad and capable of doing weird stuff with his qi like emanating some sort of cold wind and the like. I'm not sure it's exactly healthy to absorb it.

Also, I doubt we can use his own technique against him, we never used it before, we don't know how it works.

I don't think our overload will be too useful, unless our qi is really malevolent and poisonous, it's just that I predict some serious drawbacks if his qi is tainted or he overrules our absorption.

I think you're misjudging here. All I was saying is that our qi overload is entirely and equally viable a way to get out of the situation. Qi making wind is a common sign of an extremely powerful opponent in Wuxia, not a sign of taint or anything like that. However, our Yuanshi Hundun also neutralizes any incoming qi, if it can suppress a toad demon, it can suppress Yang Xue.

And if it doesn't, well, becoming a little more unhinged and lulzy like our Master really appeals to me.

 

[treave]

treave : Will these only provide techniques or will there be skill boosts, two? That'd definitely influence my vote for the first part, even if you don't tell us what sort of skill boosts they would (not?) provide us with.

Only one of the choices in the first part comes with a rather significant skill boost. I can't give any further details because you haven't completed deciphering the writing yet.

But it's safe to assume you will only have enough time to learn one out of three.

treave, would 2B be something similar to Yao's Yuhe Finger technique?

Projection, yes. The second choice isn't about gaining a new technique as much as it is learning to do new things with your neigong.

 

[Baltika9]

Only one of the choices in the first part comes with a rather significant skill boost. I can't give any further details because you haven't completed deciphering the writing yet.

It's probably 1B, since we're a complete novice with spears and YX is giving us a real manual.

 

[ScubaV]

I instantly wanted 1C, but now that I think about it, I think I'll vote 1A. I thought C might be a perception type technique, but the claw references makes me think it's an unarmed hand technique of which we already have three (Xianglong Eighteen Palms, Shouwang Mad Claws, Chuzhan Fist). What if someone pins or otherwise disables our arms in a fight? I'd like to have a leg technique in our arsenal just to round things out. Plus that may be one possible ticket to escaping through the hole above.

As for part two, I'm really not sure. It seems more like a "How do you want to define/customize Jing?" type choice rather than a "Which choice will succeed and which will fail?" type. If it is the latter, then the vampirism choice is something of an unknown while the qi-flinging choice could be good (our chaotic qi has worked in our favor in the past) or bad (how can our relatively insignificant amount compared to his have any effect?). If it is the former, then I still don't know which I prefer. I guess I'd go with vampirism. It's definitely an extremely unorthodox type of thing, but we're already so far gone on that scale I'm not sure it matters. Plus, we have a large maximum neigong that needs to be filled. I could also see it working well with our trolling abilites by luring someone to get close to us only to suck out their qi.

AA for now.

 

[Fangshi]

Well from what I can tell the first choice looks like a choice from three possible techniques. 1A specifically mentions feet not the body as a whole so I think it is probably some kind of kicking tech/sweeping tech, if it wins we probably regain the ability to cut grass with our legs. 1B seems fairly straightforward what with the spear and all, could be useful to us if we want more weapon skills... still we have one of the better swords in the setting and a second blade as well, may as well pick 1C then. The claws are probably an upper body technique and I think it may be useful to further develop our understanding of theory in that regard, hopefully by understanding related techniques Jing will get better at using them in general but I could probably be convinced to flip.

Choice two is between DEVOUR SOUL qi and redirecting our disruptive qi into others. Again I am open to flopping since both could be useful but the ability to drain our opponents while strengthening ourselves seems more useful in general, though it does carry some definite risks.

For now CA.

 

[m4davis]

AB

 

[Tigranes]

CB. The case has been made quite clearly already. xA is a more risky option in terms of taxing our endurance, while Cx gives us more technical proficiency.

 

[Kipeci]

Except for that endurance isn't tied to our qi anymore. Jing's not an idiot, if he's absorbing too much for the skill cap of 15 neigong to handle he'll get his claws off of those meridians.

 

[RealDDc]

A, B
I do not trust that qi refuel station.

 

[Baltika9]

Alright, you guys convinced me to get the qi vampirism technique, flopping to AA. If our neiggong can absorb the fire Cult's fire technique, resist Changfeng's qi filled with anguish and malice, and keep us from turning into a demon toad, then Yang Xue's insanity definitely will not rub off on us (my personal opinion is that it's a real damn shame, would have been awesome to get a brutal psychopath mode, but sadly I don't think that will happen from this). Sapping our opponent's inner reserves, either from giants like Guo Fu and lightweights like Yunzi and Miss Bai, will be useful no matter what.

Still insisting ton 1A, though. I initially thought that one of them might have been a stat bonus, but now I really doubt it. 1A is definitely a lower-body technique and we don't have one that utilizes our lower body strength, so it's a definite must over here. Punches are all well and good, but, generally speaking, a kick technique of 8 STR will hurt much more than a punch technique of 8 STR (I'm not factoring in killer moves like Shouwang). Lord Zhang will come and visit us after he receives the Emperor and that's when we can get a Shouwang upgrade from him, he invented it, after all.

 

[Kipeci]

Baltika9 Watch out! If you want the qi vampirism thing, you should flop your vote to AA! B for the second option goes for the opposite thing.

 

[profreshinal]

AB

Don't want to risk going to a DEVOURER route.

 

[Baltika9]

treave, I recall you saying that qi-absorbing neiggong abilities are extremely rare, but can't find the exact quote. Can you confirm?

 

[Grimgravy]

BA

edited as per my later post.

 

[treave]

Yes, it's both difficult to achieve and also has the potential of driving the practitioner mad if they absorb too much conflicting energies. You could call it a forbidden technique.

 

[Baltika9]

Conflicting, eh? As I said before, the unique nature of our qi will give us some leeway there, I expect, because it can neutralize a lot of negative effects of qi being injected to us. If it could smother a powerful demon's essence, then Yang Xue's qi won't be an insta-madness.

 

[Nevill]

Hmmm... can the sanity be restored to the one that have gone mad by draining his reserves?

 

[treave]

There's a chance if you drain all of it. Of course that usually means he dies a few minutes later. And if his cause of insanity is unrelated, then it does nothing.

 

[Nevill]

On another note, I think that since Xue was not meant to roam the pit free and was imprisoned here with someone else, it would be safe to assume that he had eaten the one he shared the cell with, and thus was able to gain enough strength to free himself by a method his captors didn't anticipate.

Such an experience could drive anyone mad, if he was even sane when he attempted that to begin with.

Damn, I want to read his story. And at the same time, I don't.

 

[Baltika9]

Not to mention, whose blood is it on the walls? The scholars at Luoyang said that he rebelled because of his love for an Ashina woman. Were they imprisoned together. Oh boy, I can't wait for that loredump, Yang Xue's story intrigued me the very first time I heard of him. Not to mention, I have a strong suspicion Zhang Jue is his son.

 

[Esquilax]

The funny part is that "Yang Xue" and "Zhang Jue" probably don't even rhyme according to proper Mandarin pronunciation, it's only just that we're English speakers that are butchering it that we think that there's even a connection here.

Nevertheless, totally on board with the son hypothesis. Wang and Fangzhang told Master Zhang the truth of his heritage, and then soon after he became the Southern Maniac. Plus, he's the right age. Fuck it, let's go with it.

 

[Baltika9]

Nah, I don't think like that because of the name at all. Sure, Zhang Jue can be a random dude from a random village that just somehow happened to get the privilege of studying under the whole Frathouse, but I honestly think Wang and Fanghzhang 'rescued' him from the Tujue camp during that raid of theirs, which was total propaganda bullshit, they didn't even kill Yang Xue like they said they did, and looking at him now even after all these years, I can't say I blame them. The dude must have been a true juggernaut back then.