Fertile Ground (Cultivation Riot)

Powers rise and powers fall. The wheel turns eternally, and only those that attain true immortality rise above it. Will you be one of them?
While many think of the Immortal Path as lonely, and it is, few truly walk it alone. For some it is individual teachers that help them rise, for others it is clans. For you, your path starts in a sect. You have the great fortune of a new sect being founded in your area! Perhaps you may become an ancestor to glory! Or the witness of utter devastation of everything you built, but try not to dwell.
What kind of region is this new sect in?
[X] Red Peak Range
These mountains lack in both resources and people. However, their very obscurity allows for the rise of a new power in relative security.
-Lacks Resources
-Has Security
[X] ShiSa Boglands
While not entirely swamps, these lands are consistently choked with mists and filled with all manner of bizarre plants and beasts. The negative energies do create many dangers, but also allow the flourishing of rare and unique resources.
-Has Resources
-Constant Pressure from the Environment
[X] City of Glorious Jade
A great city situated on a nexus of Heavenly Jade mines, this rare and powerful resource is extremely useful for cultivators. This has lead the city to have many cultivator factions, from old monsters to mysterious clans. Now you are dipping your toes into these waters.
-Resources Variable
-Danger Variable
-Many Diplomatic Encounters
[X] The Realm of Whispering Trees
A pocket realm discovered recently by the Sect Leader, the Realm of Whispering Trees is strange and mysterious. Seemingly a holy land of some long fallen sect, it is impossible to tell when the gate that lets you in and out will close...or open again.
-Resources?
-Danger?
-Lots of Exploration
-Replacements for Dead Characters actually Tallied
Of equal importance is the head of you Sect. As a person with enough confidence to found their own power, you can be sure that they are very strong indeed. And as the central figure of the Sect, they are the one you will place your life in the hands of.
Who is this figure?
[X] Daoist Heavy Feather
A traditional cultivator, Heavy Feather wandered for centuries before finally settling down and creating the Sect. According to Heavy Feather, the reason for creating the Sect is to give a safe place to cultivate while seeking to cross the threshold to Immortality.
-Techniques: As a wanderer, Feather has had exposure to a lot of different techniques and has reverse engineered many of them.
-Body and Qi: As a dual cultivator, Feather has experience with all aspects of traditional cultivation.
-Resource Hog: As traditional cultivators, both you and Feather need many resources to grow smoothly.
-Enemies: Many enemies would do anything to strike at Heavy Feather. Some are unjustified, but others...
Attitude: Everything is expendable.
[X] Brother Death
An enlightened monk, Brother Death is not as villainous as his name would imply. He is an expert in the Sutras and Mantras of cultivation. He apparently decided to found a Sect to see if ordinary cultivators could rise above the ordinary poor karma of their kind.
-Sutras and Mantras: An enlightened monk, Brother Death has many ways of cultivating the soul.
-Good Karma: As students of such an enlightened monk, heaven has a way of putting a finger on the scales in your favor.
-Restrictions: Brother Death will not be happy if you start doing evil things and interfering with his Karma.
-Slow growth: Soul Cultivation is not a quick progress.
Attitude: Fate will decide.
[X] Wang Fu
Perhaps the single most obvious example of heaven defying luck, this was once a simple mortal in a random city. Then a falling star hit him, and now he has the power of a Peak Dao Seeker. His given reason for opening a Sect is to have someone around as he figures out cultivation.
-Precious: Not having the perspective of one that has lived for thousands of years means that Wang Fu considers those in his Sect valuable.
-Strange Insights: Sometimes Wang Fu can understand things that might baffle even other Near-Immortal monsters. Other times he just doesn't.
-Inexperienced: Wang Fu simply has no experience in the Cultivation world. This will cause problems. (This is his only known flaw as it is so broad as to affect everything.)
Attitude: Everything is great! I'm invincible!
[X] The Beast of Blackened Bamboo
An ancient beast of primordial times, none have ever seen it out of its human form. None know its power, and there is not a cultivator alive that claims to know its bloodline. As to why it is setting up a Sect? It claims to simply want the experience.
-Primordial Power: By far the most powerful being on this list. Possibly Immortal, possibly more than that.
-Unique Resource: It provides unique cultivation aids to those that follow it.
-Social Distrust: While many cultivators are trained by beasts at one time or another, and many Sects have beast Elders, a Sect Leader being a Beast is very odd indeed.
-Inexperience with Cultivation: As a Primordial Beast, Lord Blackened Bamboo has limited knowledge of cultivation techniques.
Now go forth Cultivators, and challenge the Heavens!

Spoiler: Author's Note

A few notes:
The Sect Leader may have hidden intentions in building their Sect. In fact, I will tell you now that 3/4ths do.
Sect Leaders do not necessarily constrain you, however their specialties are their specialties.
You are not the Sect Leader, you will be young cultivators underneath them. The Sect Leader is an NPC, with all that that entails.
This isn't a Riot vote yet, that will come either in the next update or the one after that.
Plans are fine, but I will be counting each vote individually by line.

 

Ah, power truly does attract many, the Beast of Blackened Bamboo mused. Or perhaps merely opportunity would be enough. It was quite surprising really, how many humans were willing to take a chance on going into a pocket realm with an unknown Immortal Beast. It was time though, to address the mortals.

With a simple flick, the Beast caused a gong sound to echo over the small army of recruits. "Follow me."

He wasn't much of a public speaker.

Turning, he floated forward into the cave that served as the entrance to his new pocket realm. Behind him he heard the confused mutters of the crowd as he failed to deliver the expected speech. Oh well, the quick would catch up. Anyone else was not only not necessary, but would likely be a burden where they were going.

Going through the cave quickly, the Beast allowed his Essence to propel him into the air on the other end. From above, the nascent Sect grounds were quite pleasingly set out, with good feng shui leading to a lucky bowl shape. Also reminding him of home, which was most of what he cared about. In the center was his temple, properly glorious with strong Goldsteel struts to support the Transcendent Diamond windows that helped his garden of Ferocious Tiger Bamboo grow in proper Star Essence.

All the less important buildings were surrounding it. He had put all the human dwellings on the far edges of course. Sure, the jade slips weren't actually all that valuable, but it was still easier to go out and grab more humans than finding Pure Qi Jade.

Finally he alighted on the closed gates to the Sect, settling on the very peak to watch the various cultivators come streaming through the portal. Shockingly, the vast majority actually managed to get through before the portal closed! As the last ones that would make it cam through, he stood his human form up and called attention to himself with another bell tone.

"Welcome to the Blessed Bamboo Sect," he started, infusing his voice with Essence so it rolled across the crowd without deafening any of the delicate little morsels. "I am your Sect Lord now, the Beast of Blackened Bamboo as your world knew me. I prefer to be known as Lord Qi e though."

He waited for the inevitable titters, but it seemed that the humans were too intimidated to laugh at his little joke.

Or they thought that he was actually a penguin. Shaking himself free of that thought he continued, "As you may have noticed, the portal back out is closed." That got some reaction, as many of the mortals looked back, only to find the cave that they had exited was now blocked with a giant boulder covered in creeping vines. "This pocket realm is special because it has some connection to the Dao of Time. I have chosen to cultivate here while investigating these mysteries. You are here because I didn't want to get bored."

The mortals shifted nervously, obviously wondering if perhaps Lord Qi e had less benevolent fun in mind that he had told them. He smiled widely at the expressions on their faces. Mortals were so much more emotive than cultivators most of the time! "I have set up this sect to train cultivators in this unique environment and see how your growth is affected. For this, I have prepared a single God Pellet per month for each of you. This will allow you to cultivate with reasonable speed in whatever Dao you chose to pursue as these are unaspected medicines. More pellets or even pills can be earned as rewards for services to the Sect. More, I have made Jade Slip repositories for the three major forms of cultivation, Body, Qi, and Soul. The scriptures there are basic, but fairly broad. If you want better? Make it yourself. You are the ancestors of this Sect now."

No mutters this time, though the stink of both eagerness and stress was beginning to get overwhelming. Time to wrap this up then. "Finally, I require a single service out of you this year. You must spend at least some time exploring this new realm. Now get to it." With that, he Earth Shadow Stepped back to his temple. A year of cultivation sounded nice right now.

YOU CURRENTLY HAVE FOUR ACTIONS. AT LEAST ONE (1) MUST BE USED FOR EXPLORATION.

[X] Cultivate
[X] Train Specific Abilities
[X] Explore realm

Make your first character with the following format:

[X] Name
-[X] Kind of Cultivation (Body/Qi/Soul)
-[X] Dao

Welcome to cultivation!

AN: Feel free to ask questions, but please look at the Mechanics threadmark first as I have put a lot in there.

 

Lord Qi e twitched as Time raveled around him. Good progress had been made-at this rate he might actually manage to pierce the first layers of mysteries in this little realm within five hundred years! Now if only he could figure out what was bothering him...

Oh! A year! His little pets had been doing their own thing for a year now! Maybe they had done something noteworthy now? He began bustling about, putting on a decent robe and pulling his hair into some vague semblance of order. He would be so happy to see their smiling faces!

XXX

Standing in the dormitory currently being used to house the wounded mortals, Qi e could feel a purring building in his throat. How? Just how? There should have been no real threats in reach of mere mortals walking, but somehow he was now surrounded by groaning bodies. Worse, fully half of those that had active Destinies were wounded, some quite severely for mortals!

Swallowing the sound rolling in his throat, Qi e pointed at the most wounded mortal with current Destiny. "What did you encounter to wound you so?" he demanded.

"Reporting to Sect Master," the man whispered, bowing as much as he could while sitting in bed, "I was exploring the area when I stumbled across a creature."

"Yes?" Qi e prompted the man, Feng Shi his perfect memory provided, as he hesitated.

"Lord, please do not disbelieve," the man said. He seemed to shrink on himself before gathering his courage, "I found a great ox, blue as the sky on a summer's day, prancing through the trees. It was too close by the time I noticed it lord, and I could not quite get out of the way in time. I dodged the hooves, but the beast hit me with its tail!"

Qi e stared at the man for a moment, considering the news. Noticing the man's trembling, he waved a calming hand through the air. "Do not be concerned, I have heard of such creatures before. To survive being brushed by a Core Formation beast is already quite fortunate. Do not seek it out though-you are neither strong enough to handle it nor its master."

"Master, my lord?" Feng Shi inquired.

"Yes, it is a creature that is only found where Giants live. And you would be no match indeed. Even the entire Sect besides me would be no real danger to the weakest giant."

With that he turned away to continue his rounds of the wounded. Ho Chi Min had taken some severe wounds when he was exploring by stumbling into a patch of White Blood Glories, a kind of carnivorous plant that would send out creepers to drink the blood of its prey. He should have been able to get away, but apparently something in his body hated movement techniques, causing him to be unable to cultivate them at all. Those would actually be quite a useful ingredient for the mortals if they could be harvested, being good for Blood cultivation as well as just generally good for any budding Body cultivators.

The next mortal he visited was Lo Kwan Lam, a mortal attempting to cultivate the Five Venoms. In order to do so, he needed to find materials related to the Venoms. The good news was that he did! The bad news was the same really. He found a Shining Clover Toad, a very venomous variety of toad that lived in forests and hunted by glowing to lure prey in and poison it. Fortunately for Lo, even paralyzed by the venom the toad was only able to nibble off a chunk of flesh instead of killing him.

Sigh. Mortals. How was there any pride after being chewed on by a toad of all things?

The injuries Qi e was actually interested in were Meng Lee's and Yang Chen's. "You were subjected to soul attacks?"

"I believe so," Meng Lee offered with a deep bow. "For me, I was in the woods when suddenly I heard some sort of sound. Before I could react, the sound had overtaken me, whispers that seemed unintelligible, causing me confusion and twisting my perception. I passed out, and when I awakened I had persistent phantom pains."

"Mmm," the Beast mused with narrowed eyes. "And you?"

"Reporting to the Sect Lord," Yang Chen hoarsely whispered from his chair. "I was exploring when I found a stream. As I approached I heard quiet voices whispering to me. I could understand them, and they were urging me forward. I tried to resist, my lord, but my body..."

Qi e nodded. "Soul attacks done in clumsy fashion are often very noticeable."

Yang Chen shivered miserably. "I was controlled into wading into the stream. As I stood there, I could feel my very vitality being pulled at...my life was draining into the water..." The man mumbled into nothingness as his eyes unfocused.

"I would assume some sort of water spirit normally," Qi e mused aloud. "But what sort of water spirit would let prey go after they were helpless? How strange."

"As my lord says," Meng Lee nodded in place of his fellow sufferer, who seemed to have drifted off a bit.

Lord Qi e inclined his head politely then left the room, deep in thought. It appeared that things were not so simple as he had assumed here. A Blue Snow Ox when he had been using his Immortal senses all year and sensed no presence of Giants? A Water Spirit that merely snacked on prey instead of drowning them and devouring them entirely? Soul attacks with no apparent source of a soul? Finally, the stress purr that had been building in his throat escaped the Beast entirely. What was going on in this Realm?

XXX

Lord Qi e chuckled as he looked at the results of the Destined that had avoided having absolute dogshit luck. Jake Yong, a Body cultivator focusing on the Twelve Yearly Animals, had managed to find a bit of luck in exploring a stream. In a hidden pool, he had found a clutch of Rainbow Barb eggs. Recognizing that he had no real way of preserving these natural treasures, he had immediately eaten them. His cultivation had managed to take an immediate rise as a result.

Another cultivator by the name of Long Tea had managed to find a Pepper Mint plant, an extremely minor cultivation resource. What amused Qi e so much was the fact that this clever cultivator had managed to harvest just enough leaves from the plant to make himself the qi tea, then turn the plant in anyway for a Sect contribution bonus of a single God Pellet. Qi e had put it into one of the auxiliary gardens as a minor ingredient.

Far more interestingly, Hei Zhu had gone into the woods exploring and found a person. One claiming to be a wandering cultivator of a school of cultivation focused on different kinds of "wings". While the Pig cultivator and the Wing cultivator might not seem like a great match, it seemed that the two had hit it off and wandered the forest together for a month, with a promise to meet up again some time and explore again. Frankly, the idea of there being more cultivators in what Qi e had thought was a small pocket realm was intriguing enough to almost make Qi e go out and investigate himself. However, he had the feeling that if he moved too far, the realm would destabilize to adjust for him, which would set him to square one on his research. For the information though, Qi e had given him one God Pellet.

Even better was the find of Fei Gao. A Soul cultivator of the Five Beast Kingdoms method, Fei Gao had found an "ancient" beast "statue". Qi e knew of course that this sort of stone beast statue happened when a beast encountered overwhelming Earth, Stone, or Curse energy and petrified in place, leaving a perfect stone corpse behind. What was fascinating was that Qi e could feel the age of the statue, or rather of the Primordial Soul inside.

The thing was less than a millennia old! Qi e knew the pocket realm was older than that-he had found records of it in a book well over three thousand years old itself. And the world that they came from was well out of its Primordial stage. Therefore, wither the realm was connecting to previously unknown worlds, or something about Time her was far stranger than he had ever encountered. How exciting! For bringing him such a treasure, Qi e only gave Fei Gao a single God Pellet. That might seem unfair, but he was also inscribing the statue with a Soul Enervation Array to allow the Primordial Soul within to gather and release Qi. WHich would, in turn, give a bonus to cultivation to anyone cultivating a Beast Dao.

The real treasure though was Lei Ying Lo's find. "I have heard rumors of a powerful insight," Qi e stated to the bowing man.

"Yes, it is true," Lei Ying Lo affirmed. "I stumbled onto a stone carved with a symbol of Taijitu, but without any mixing of the elements. Instead, there was a large black circle partially filled in so that half of its area was white and half was black, but with the black surrounding the white and the white up against the very edge of the black circle. I could not fully understand the symbol itself, but I saw the very edges where the black and white met sparkling with strange lights. I meditated on it, and found that if I matched my flows of absorption with the balance of qi in the symbol, I could feel the energy rise higher."

Qi e smiled, "Yes, that kind of symbol does contain that Dao. Very good!" He didn't have the heart to tell them that it was a Boundary Stone, a way of marking property edges for immortals. Even that was a wonder and a marvel in the mortal world though. "And what about your alchemy?"

"Milord?" The man looked confused.

"You didn't notice?" Qi e questioned incredulously.

The man shook his head and bowed, "Apologies Lord, but I don't understand."

"I keep my senses active at all times within the Sect," Qi e explained. "I have noticed that as you create your medicines, the flow of qi in the surrounding area is altered. That is a clear sign of using the qi of the heavens to boost your medicine's effectiveness."

"I thought all cultivator's medicines were made with qi?" the man questioned, his overly formal manners falling away as his confusion showed through.

"True, but inaccurate by being incomplete," the Lord replied. "There are two sources of power that are generally applied to any cultivator medicine; the power of the ingredients and the power of the preparer. In the case of those on the Cultivator level, that power is usually Qi. You, having no ability to produce your own qi, have managed to luck into forcing the heavens to support you, drawing qi in from the environment. This is usually done with the aid of very expensive array formations."

"So it's a good thing?"

"Yes," Lord Qi e replied, "A very good thing. That sort of insight is very difficult to teach and many may never learn. I would suggest not wasting your good luck-you never know when the heavens woll frown instead of smiling." Qi e turned away after giving his words of advice. It was very true honestly; the talents this man had displayed would mark him as a potential asset in any Cultivator Sect. And people had thought he was crazy for establishing a sect purely from mortals. Already a total of eleven Destined in his sect. Sure, five had found bad luck, but five had found found good luck and one might be a true talent! Or just really lucky!

...

Wait.

Five good, five bad, that was ten.

Where the hell was the last Destined?

XXX

Qi e just shook his head as he watched Xue Dongmei stumble her way back into the Sect. Apparently this particularly unlucky cultivator had ended up with some sort of space seal, causing her to wander out into the woods only to find herself wandering right back into the city.

A stubborn woman, this one.

He would have to spend some time next year trying to unlock her seal. The good news was, since she didn't have any foreign qi or essence on her, the seal was a natural occurrence of the realm. Therefore unsealing her should help his studies a bit.

As he swooped down to grab the discouraged cultivator, he spread his Immortal senses to all of the cultivators of the Sect.

"This is Lord Qi e. For those that have been wounded, I will not demand that you explore this year. For those who are fine, you must. I would suggest that the wounded recover before they do anything else, as if you attempt cultivation while hurt, you will be hindered in your attempt unless you are cultivating one of the methods that benefit from being hurt. I don't think I have any of those though. And if you explore while hurt, you might die."

"Oh, and all of you have gathered enough qi to break through from the Mortal stage to the first Cultivator stage, Qi Condensation. The basics of a Mortal breakthrough are in your jade slips. I will tell you though, how much you cultivate as a mortal determines your future potential. I was never mortal though so I don't know anything more than that."

"Finally, for the wounded, should Lei Ying Lo be kind enough to practice Alchemy during the first part of the year, he should be able to turn one of your God Pellets into Healing Pellets. What price he puts on that is up to him though."

Lord Qi e clucked a little as he entered the building next to his temple where he would be trying to unseal Xue Dongmei. Five out of eleven Destined injured, and one sealed by the realm itself. These cultivators might have an active Destiny, but they also had some dogshit luck!

Actions:
[X] Cultivate
[X] Train Specific Abilities
[X] Explore realm
[X] Challenge

Spoiler: Available Challenges

-[X] White Blood Glories
-[X] Shining Clover Toad
-[X] Whispers in the Stream
-[X] Whispers in the Trees
-[X] Blue Snow Ox No. By Word of Sect Leader, you are to stay far away. Or you will die.

[X] Heal

Special Actions:
For Everyone: You have passed the bare minimum level necessary to break through into the Qi Condensation stage of Cultivation. There are benefits to waiting to gain more cultivation, but the question is whether they are worth it.
LordEdric Should you choose to practice Alchemy in the first action of the year, any cultivator that gives up a Pellet to you can gain a bonus to their Heal roll. Of course, you could choose to charge for this service if you wished.
For the wounded, if LordEdric chooses the practice Alchemy action in the first action of the year, you can choose to give up a single God Pellet for a large boost to your Healing roll. If he chooses to charge for this service, you must pay that cost as well.
Ckxsl023 should you choose to Explore as your Second action this year, you can meet up with the cultivator your character met last year.
Vanestus Make your turn with three actions instead of four this turn, but be aware that there is a chance that you will lose two actions. Actions will be taken in priority order, so the lowest will be kicked off first if you lose an extra action.
For Alchemists: If you choose to practice alchemy with an [Alchemy Ingredient], you may produce a Pill that can actually be saved and used.

AN: I think I got everything updated and ready to go.

Also, seriously. There was only a twenty percent chance of you hitting a dangerous encounter. SIX of you doing so is just... And technically Vanestus had the worst Explore roll (3/100), but the best injury roll. I decided the fairest way to split the difference was to make him lose actions independent of any Heal rolls.