Dungeon Crawler Quest(Original Fantasy)

[UrsaTempest]

[X]Relax and hang out with Sera
-[X] Grab dinner and room together in the Inn tonight, spend the night studying the materials you mother provided together, and maybe showing off a little about your understanding of underlying magical mechanics.

 

[Grosstoad]

+pokes+
. . .
+pondering on how to stimulate discussions+

Kay, let's not get too much into the crunch, but what do people expect us to do? As in, what do we want to see Alice do as a Branded?

Do we steer her to be a full-time dungeon delver and demolisher?
Continue feeding her pre-Branded interest in research?
Lay claim to Alkhot?

What do we want to see on our current fellow party-members? Do we try to steer their futures as well? Do we try to expand our circle past the initial five limit (form a Guild or some such)?
Does anyone want to abandon this or that character, and if yes, why?
Does anyone want to bring in other characters, and if so, why?


+puts on hard hat+
Get more shipping going, wedding bells tolling?
+ponders whether a Branded's racial mod affects offspring+

 

[Xicree]

My ideal for Alice is for her to be a Branded version of a mad science mage! Ideally that would involve her figuring out more about the inner workings of magic and learn how to apply these to the problem of the dungeons themselves.

 

[UrsaTempest]

Dungeon delver with EXPERIMENTAL! backing, you mean?

 

[Arkeus]

+pokes+
. . .
+pondering on how to stimulate discussions+

Kay, let's not get too much into the crunch, but what do people expect us to do? As in, what do we want to see Alice do as a Branded?

Do we steer her to be a full-time dungeon delver and demolisher?
Continue feeding her pre-Branded interest in research?
Lay claim to Alkhot?

Click to shrink...

I see Al as clearing dungeons and creating her own city.

What do we want to see on our current fellow party-members? Do we try to steer their futures as well? Do we try to expand our circle past the initial five limit (form a Guild or some such)?
Does anyone want to abandon this or that character, and if yes, why?
Does anyone want to bring in other characters, and if so, why?

Click to shrink...

I want to bring in many other characters for my quest to create our own city/etc.

+ponders whether a Branded's racial mod affects offspring+

Click to shrink...

We already had that discussion, branded can't have children.

 

[Grosstoad]

Eh, I prefer more sedate and scientific method, than SCIENCE!, cause that is hard to quantify and kinda hard on fellow party-members if they are not fellow enthusiasts or potential minion.

That said, a pure mage with scientific backing is interesting, but I think it will be kind of hard to see what Job Crystals will aid them. Most probably, the scientific aid comes mostly from out of the Branded system, like the backing of research centres, experimental tools and methods to test out (cause Branded is pretty robust), delving to seek specific rare materials for components to create some tools, etc.

But those are more Artificer type of duties.

+ponders+
If I can say, Elementalist actually sounds more like a Sorcerer, especially with Branded's way of getting spells.
Are non-Brandeds totally unmagical?
Most non-Brandeds will probably never even reach the level like Oni-Anshelm at level 2 can do. Is it the same with magic?

If there is a Magi/Wizard Job Crystal, who can cast all Elemental spells, and even non-Elemental ones, as well as having some Research-related Skills, that would sound very apt for Alice.



Oh, I missed that part about children.
Sad.

 

[UrsaTempest]

I don't think we can do both, since it'll take shitton of Specialization otherwise. I think becoming professional dungeon delver is more fun, or if we want slower pace (So we can, ahem, settle down), being full Branded Researcher/Artificer is probably best.

Or hell, Merchant. Any Merchant class?

 

[Xicree]

F**k merchant. I'm super soured on Merchant.

Sakura quest says it all.

 

[Arkeus]

I don't think we can do both, since it'll take shitton of Specialization otherwise. I think becoming professional dungeon delver is more fun, or if we want slower pace (So we can, ahem, settle down), being full Branded Researcher/Artificer is probably best.

Click to shrink...

Full Delver with goal to make our own city in uncharted places, as well as learn mysteries never learned of before

Or hell, Merchant. Any Merchant class?

Click to shrink...

Not seeing the point of merchant at all in this quest.

 

[tenchifew]

F**k merchant. I'm super soured on Merchant.
Sakura quest says it all.

Click to shrink...

Sakura quest?

And regarding the question:

Dungeon Delver for the foreseeable future sounds interesting.
Afterwards we can see where to apply our new won might and wealth.

 

[Xicree]

Sakura quest?

And regarding the question:

Dungeon Delver for the foreseeable future sounds interesting.
Afterwards we can see where to apply our new won might and wealth.

Click to shrink...

Sakura quest. Where we played Haruno Sakura... reincarnation of Kusagano Sakura! (Ie Naruto's Sakura with Street Fighter's Sakura's reincarnated spirit)... So Sakura now has the soul of an awesome fighter from an ago before, is an amazing martial art's prodigy...

... and somehow all the voters vote that they want to be a merchant.




...
....
..........


Yeah never ever ever again.

 

[tenchifew]

Sakura quest. Where we played Haruno Sakura... reincarnation of Kusagano Sakura! (Ie Naruto's Sakura with Street Fighter's Sakura's reincarnated spirit)... So Sakura now has the soul of an awesome fighter from an ago before, is an amazing martial art's prodigy...

... and somehow all the voters vote that they want to be a merchant.




...
....
..........


Yeah never ever ever again.

Click to shrink...

That does not sound fun.

Was it here?
Or on SB or SV?

 

[Xicree]

That does not sound fun.

Was it here?
Or on SB or SV?

Click to shrink...

SB, It's one of Bii's old quests.

 

[Grosstoad]

Maybe Smith/Artificer class?
On the other hand though, there are no Vendor Trash/Craftable material style of drops that can be crafte, so probably not.

Or the Smith/Artificer class can dismantle most Equippable Gear to random crafting materials (Warg Spine > Bone, Wood; Warg Cloak > Fur, Leather; some manner of Craft Extract from better tier gear), and then craft a new custom Gear with bonuses that is either randomized or picked out of a list.

Another big question is where all those Potions and Ethers come from? Higher level Brandeds selling to non-Branded merchants so that Gilder can rotate, thus empowering non-Branded economy? Or those Herb missions?
Can mundane materials be used to craft Branded gear?

 

[Guile]

That does not sound fun.

Was it here?
Or on SB or SV?

Click to shrink...

It was actually really fun. I thoroughly enjoyed Sakura 'seriously if I was older I would be getting off on this fight' Haruno, but I also enjoyed 'I'm actually so good at fighting I want to do something for a living that I actually have to try at' Sakura. Also, Akuma took up peach farming at some point after the fall of Bison's floating sky-fortress destroyed civilization. It was that kind of quest.

Pay no attention to the grump.

 

[tenchifew]

SB, It's one of Bii's old quests.

Click to shrink...

It was actually really fun. I thoroughly enjoyed Sakura 'seriously if I was older I would be getting off on this fight' Haruno, but I also enjoyed 'I'm actually so good at fighting I want to do something for a living that I actually have to try at' Sakura. Also, Akuma took up peach farming at some point after the fall of Bison's floating sky-fortress destroyed civilization. It was that kind of quest.

Pay no attention to the grump.

Click to shrink...

Ok, count me interested.
I think I'll do an archive dive, find it and build my own opinion, when I have some time.

 

[yrsillar]

Consumables are indeed made by non-branded for the most part. That herb gathering mission, for example was getting ingredients for potions. As for a smithing/crafting system... I considered it, but seriously, there's already enough stuff to keep track of in this quest for me between the dungeon load outs and loot drops, job crystals, the fusion jobs, tracking a crafting system too is a little too much.

As for the magical ability of non-branded, they aren't totally non-magical but it takes a good decade of training to reach the ability Alice has farmed up in less than a week. So non branded mages are a thing, but they're pretty rare.

 

[Darkened]

The odd way it works, we'd have more advantage finding a mad scientist class and beating things up for knowledge than simply studying, at least in the big picture.

Levels=power, power=options, options=fun.

We should try to maximize our rate of power growth. The book is nice, but we'll auto-learn it. For now, we're actually leveling fairly slowly despite challenging tough dungeons for our level because of group size. Let's take the chance before we outlevel it completely and start rushing Goblin's Glade.

A duo with Sera is fun too and gets the romance angle.

 

[Guile]

I'm not sure your math checks out, Darkened. Gaining levels isn't particularly fun.

Also, trying to challenge a dungeon with only two squishy mages is kind of a bad idea.

 

[yrsillar]

well allthe usual suspects have voted, pretty heavy lead on just hanging out with Sera, I'll give this an hour yet, then the vote will be locked. Update should be out in the morning.

 

[Darkened]

I'm not sure your math checks out, Darkened. Gaining levels isn't particularly fun.

Also, trying to challenge a dungeon with only two squishy mages is kind of a bad idea.

Click to shrink...

A dungeon level 1 characters with no gear can clear without any problems. We will breeze through it even with bad party balance. Hell, a dungeon aimed at 2 level 1ish characters.

The stuff Sera soloed on her own that day she left the party was probably harder.

We are leveling very very slowly because people grabbed a full party. Doing stuff with 2 people is good.

Notice how the groups that started after us have already caught up or passed us?

Building a rep as a decent adventurer, which is everything, will require keeping pace.

The move with the guides is a very good one and keeping ahead on that, staying on top and pushing things requires that we keep leveling.

Rep is everything, especially right now.

All of those crazy pipe dream things people want to do require we actually do pretty good, stay with the curve and advance as an adventurer.

If we can fold social actions into adventurery ones there is no reason whatsoever not to do that, and the risk of this dungeon is really minor.

We can get the book done without penalty without spending actions on it. We're nowhere near powerful enough yet to benefit from the stuff it lets us do, so why the hell should we devote focused time to it over getting powerful enough to actually make those experiments meaningful?

 

[yrsillar]

Well looks like Alice is just taking the day off. Update will be in the morning.

 

[Grosstoad]

Not sure where the Rep thing comes into the discussion from, but I think those are earned through Missions instead of Dungeon-delving?

 

[Darkened]

Not sure where the Rep thing comes into the discussion from, but I think those are earned through Missions instead of Dungeon-delving?

Click to shrink...

Reputation, as in, amongst the branded rather than with towns.

 

[Grosstoad]

+ponders+
Still not seeing it, since we have yet to even see actual realpolitik among the Branded.

+thinks+
Aside from the derogation from that Paladin.

Not to say that they didn't exist, of course, but that might be second place to the overall survival of the humankind as a whole.

 

[Arkeus]

+ponders+
Still not seeing it, since we have yet to even see actual realpolitik among the Branded.

Click to shrink...

Are you joking?

We saw politics with Shimah and her previous group, we saw politics with us talking to the groups that passed by us because we are doing inefficent (exp/money wise) dungeons, we saw politics with actual /mission rewards/.

This isn't a "maybe", almost every interactions we had had some of those.

Also, trying to challenge a dungeon with only two squishy mages is kind of a bad idea.

Click to shrink...

A dungeon for level 1-3 and two people that's supposed to be for new branded being done by 2 people is not a bad idea. Sadly, people dislike doing what is actually recommended, either going insane difficulty or insane turtling mode.

 

[Grosstoad]

Ah, you are using a different size category for that term, I guess. Though, it is also applicable for personal scale interaction, as you mentioned.

Among the Branded though, I assume that levels and reputation as Branded are not everything.

Past interaction (Alice and Alex, Shimah and Alex), ethnic origin (Shimah and Alex), social strata (Douche-ladin, Seraphine), personal history (Maya), personal quirks (Anshelm, Alice, Sera), and even attributes and skills (Alice's low Charisma, Maya's personal Passive), not to mention what Alice's Mom mumbled about the side-effects of chosen Job, all those can affect how Branded interact with each other.

Granted, having a well-established reputation also cuts down or simplifies the initial get-to-know part between Branded.

Statistic & Reputation-based:
"Oh, that's Dragonslayer Baldric. He looks like a fop, but he single-handedly took down an elder dragon that menaced Cymbul last winter."
"That's Mikal. He and his team took down a whole lot of Dungeons. But be careful, the turn-over rate on his party is pretty bad."
"That's... Who is that, actually? Her gears are all Legendaries, and her level is pretty epic. Never heard of her though... Ah, look at her Dungeon statistics. She is purely a dungeon-delver, that one."

Personal interaction-based:
"Watch your mouth! Baldric is... Baldric is real. He is a real damned hero. It was an honor to work with him."
"That Mikal!? He stabs people in the back! What?! N-No! I am not lying! It's true! Really!"
"Oh, that lady? She's pretty okay, actually. You can count on her on delving. Pretty bad with talking though."

I am not sure what my point is.

 

[Arkeus]

No, I was actually talking about things like "These people do not share loot", "Thank you for that guide, I owe you a favor", "This mission will increase your reputation with the city".

 

[Grosstoad]

Yes? Are we at a disconnect?
I did give such examples, right?

Though I did separate them based on Reputation gained through actions and those gained by personal interactions.

 

[yrsillar]

As the two of you take your leave from the campus, you cradle the heavy bundle of leather bound books your Mom gave you. You know perfectly well that these things are expensive, probably worth at least as much as some of the job crystals you've seen. The very first order of business is going to be dropping these off at your room in the Inn.

"So, Sera, you have anything you want to do?" you ask, "I gotta drop these off first, but we already did what I wanted," you want to study later too, but you figure that can wait until evening. You have all day and don't feel like doing anything strenuous.

"Um… it might be nice to go out to eat, Mister Adel's food is good, but I wouldn't mind something different, even if it isn't really…. useful for us." Sera pauses for a moment, "T-that is, if you don't mind, I can pay, I still have some gilder left from the job I took by myself," she rambles.

Wow, a free meal? Nice. It's kind of like a date, which makes you a little uncomfortable, but… eh, it's not like you don't like Sera, you're just not sure where you stand on the, uh physical side of things. She's kinda pretty you guess, in a way that used to irritate you about other girls and women. Oh, right, you're staring at her, and she's starting to blush. Crap. "Yeah, that sounds good, I never really ate out often, so that'll be nice," you babble a hurried response, quickly glancing away. "Just, let's stop at the Inn, first, gotta drop these off."

"Y-yes, of course," Sera seems a little unsettled from your impromptu staring, but it passes quickly enough. You spend a little time chatting about job possibilities on the way back to the Inn, Sera is thinking of just going the Bright Mage route when she can. You… aren't really sure yet, there are plenty of options after all. Once the books are dropped off in your room, you leave with Sera, it being the middle of the day, the Inn is pretty empty, you don't see anyone you recognize around.

Sera takes the lead after that. You start to get uncomfortable as the two of you begin moving into the wealthier part of town.

"Sera, where are we going exactly?" you ask as you pass by a storefront filled with jewelry that looks like it costs more than your house in total.

"My favorite restaurant, why?" Sera asks, seeming a little confused.

"Oh, right, of course." It's kinda easy to forget you guess this is probably around where she lived, "Should I have, like… gotten some nicer clothes or something?"

"No, I'm pretty sure nobody expects branded to wear formal wear." Sera answers, and peers at you for a moment, "Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine, just curious. I don't really know the uh… etiquette for places like this," you admit.

She doesn't seem to get it for a moment, and then her eyes widen, "O-oh, I'm sorry, I guess I didn't really think…" She fidgets with the hem of her cloak for a moment, "We, can um, go somewhere else, if you'll be more comfortable."

"No, no it's fine. I just didn't wanna embarrass myself or anything," you respond quickly. Sera was willing to hang out at the labs all morning despite the fact that you could tell the more esoteric stuff went right over her head, you can endure a fancy restaurant.

"Ah, you, um shouldn't worry. There's um… separate seating for the branded, so we don't… bother anyone else." She frowns, looking thoughtful, "You know… it kind of sounds bad when I say it. I guess some of the equipment is pretty outlandish though."

Yeah, that sounds about right. Soon enough you reach the place. It's exactly as posh looking as you feared, but Sera seems to know the guy giving tables, or he seems to know her. You do your best not to gawk at all the fancy glass chandeliers,thick carpeting and other luxuries.

You notice something tugging at your sleeve, oh, right Sera, time to go to your table you guess. You follow after her and the server being sent to guide you… and are suddenly quite glad for the separate seating. You feel really under dressed, even in your sparkly robe. The branded section is less crowded too, so that's good. Sera and you are lead to an empty table set for two, and take your seats a cross from each other.

"So... this place is really nice," you say idly as the server hands you a menu. You start idly flipping through it, holy crap this stuff is expensive. You also don't recognize any of the dishes.

"It really does have very nice food," Sera assures you, "Please don't worry about the price, I can cover it," she seems a little self-conscious about that.

"Right," you force yourself to relax a little, you're being dumb about this. Just pretend you're back at the Inn and chat with her like you would any other time, "So, what do you suggest?" you say, gesturing down at the menu.

"Um, lets see, my favorite is this one…" Sera and you go through the menu, in the end for lack of better ideas you just get the same thing she does. It involves mushrooms and other stuff, at least there's the appetizer of buttery little bread things, if you end up not caring for it.

As it turns out the food tastes kind of weird, but it's alright, and Sera seems to be enjoying herself, which is the main point anyway. As you work through your meal you bring up something you've been considering, "Hey, Sera, what are your goals as a branded anyway? I've been thinking about it… but I'm not really sure what I want to do in the long run."

Sera toys with the food on the end of her fork for a moment as she considers the question, "I'm… not really sure. I thought in the beginning that I would just do a dungeon often enough to stave off inactivity, with Father's hired branded watching over me… but the last few days have been really fun… aside from the scary parts," she seems to be giving it some real thought as she pauses, "For now, I just want to keep doing missions and dungeons with everyone. We're not high enough level to really do anything impressive yet… "

"That sounds about right," you muse, mortal peril or not, the last few days have probably been the most interesting and…. enjoyable ones you've had. You feel closer to the little group you've put together than you do anyone save your Mom or Uncle, honestly. Then you recall Maya's situation and something in your gut clenches. You won't let that happen. "That's probably the best idea for now, I wanna do more work on fusion, but I guess I need to get to the point where I can level up crystals reasonably fast to really get the most out of it."

"I'm sure, you'll be able to do plenty of amazing things." Sera responds shyly, looking down. "I admit… I didn't really understand most of what you and your Mother talked about, but it seems that you can create some really strong jobs that way." She pauses and smiles slightly, "I like your mother too, she really cares for you."

"Uh… I guess?" you never really thought about it. Mom worked really long hours, so she wasn't around very often, but you suppose you never really wanted for anything. "I could do without the nitpicking though," you grumble.

"I think Al is cute when she gets flustered," Sera mumbles. You're going to pretend you didn't hear that. You wouldn't have if it weren't for your damned perception score. "So what about you, what's your dad like, he sicced that jerkass on you, right?"

"Um… father meant well." Sera hedges, "He was just very worried about me. Mister Cyrille was just a little abrasive, that's all. Father is, well, always busy, but I know he cares."

That sounds… weirdly similar, except for the overprotective part. Mom always encouraged you to go out and do things, even if you're sure most of her grey hairs are your fault.

You spend the rest of the afternoon having a nice chat with Sera, and a bit of the early evening just sort of strolling around the city. You spent most of your time in the magic district, and Sera in the upper one, so looking around the other parts of the city is kinda fun. You actually locate a couple of interesting things. The main office of the 'auction house' in the city, where branded go to trade gear. It's invite only though, and you guess you don't have the levels for it. the other thing is the arena. From what you can tell it's an odd sort of place where branded can duel each other for prizes and gilder. They take bets too. Fighters have to be at least level five though. You don't feel like gambling at the moment, but it might be something to consider in the future, or at least tell Anshelm about. Seems like it might be right up his alley.

You and Sera end the night at the Inn as is usual. You wave to Hiro and his lady friend …Lucia, looks like? They've both gone and leveled again. You decide to spend the rest of the evening studying and chatting with Sera, you go off on tangents about the arcane theory behind what you're looking into and the spells she and you cast, as well as the methods used by non branded in learning and using magic and she nods along. She seems a little lost as you really get into the 'magi-babble' though. Still it's a pleasant enough way to spend the night, and you feel like you've made a good start on your studying, before you go to sleep. You definitely feel ready to take on another dungeon or two tomorrow.

You've discovered the Arena and the Auction House! Both are still locked though, give it a few levels.

Morning Vote time!

[]Shopping/blessings/etc.

What do you want to do?

[]Dungeons
[]Missions!