Tsaimath
patreon
Interlude: Profiles of Power VI
🕑 Added 2020-10-19 16:01:03 +0000 UTCOfficial Road to Purgatory-Beta Forum
- -Kelgarn, confirmed Beta-Account
Hey Guys and welcome back to the Profiles of Power
Last time, we looked at the apparent fan of Dad-humour that is William of the Shaking Spear, whereas today we are looking at someone much less prone to induce groans on mental anguish, instead you get a sharp, stinging pain as a well-placed, single arrow pierces a vital target. She is, to our current knowledge, the deadliest hunter and archer amongst the Travellers on Mundus, making her a good topic of investigation and discovery.
I am, obviously, talking about Sameera, the Desert Stalker.
What do we know about the stealthy huntress? Let’s start with the basics, as always. These are things she said in her videos, so let’s just roll with them.
Race: Sunseeker-Daimon, giving her a bonus to Agility and Dexterity, while also adding some resistance to heat and bright light.
Class: Started out as Hunter, was taught a method to gain the advanced class Sandstalker, after crossing the first Divide. The class allows her to move easier across sand, increasing her ability to sneak and strike from concealment.
Relevant Skills and Abilities:
Most of her videos seem to be centered around hunting down specific targets, her prey. The interesting part is that she is able to get close-up footage of those various beasties, without them engaging in combat with her. What does that mean?
That she is able to get close to them, without getting spotted, often even invading their dens, apparently even setting traps that allow her a secure path to retreat, with her foes hindered by her preparations.
Her main mode of combat is quite simple, a massive ranged alpha-strike, attacking from a concealed position. There have been videos of her attacking a single foe, dealing enough damage and inflicting lasting wounds to massive monsters, some of which are incredibly scary, even if it is difficult to estimate their power without them having a chance to use it.
Maybe that is why she is making the before-hand footage, showing them living, at times fighting, before getting hunted down later. But back to her alpha-strike.
She almost has to have a weapon-speciality centered around her compound-bow, so we know that. Other than that, we can be similarly certain about a couple of her other skills, namely Stealth and Athletics or maybe an acrobatic-version of it.
Magically, we have seen her use a variety of magic to buff her first-strike damage, allowing her to inflict massive wounds as stated. Those wounds also add a rather sizable bleed-debuff, magnifying the damage she deals. After all, a small arrow-wound is bad, an exploding arrow that rips holes big enough to drive a truck through is worse. A lot worse.
I would also assume that she has some way to magically augment her stealth, but as often it is difficult to recognise concealment magic, especially if the person using it is not willing to share and controls what you can see. But I would think the ability to sneak into a pride of magically augmented, fire-breathing lions is not something you can do without magic.
Finally, her traps. They seem to be a mixture of mundane and magical, or maybe alchemical and magical, however you want to place your distinctions. Again, the information we have is simply too limited, we have seen weighted nets and harpoons being propelled by explosive force, tying pursing creatures down for a moment, but is that explosion magical, alchemical or just chemical? There is no such distinction made by the natives of Mundus, so maybe it simply doesn’t matter. Whatever mechanism they are based upon, the traps seem to be focused on ensnaring and hampering movement, allowing the nimble huntress to take advantage of her prey.
Now, those are my insights after watching a couple dozen hours of footage, mostly of her going all David Attenborough on the desert-dwelling creatures of Mundus, only that she regularly hunts down the creatures after describing and studying them.
On to you and your observations.
- Goliry, confirmed Beta-Account
Ah, yes, I wondered if you’d feature her.
I quite like the videos she puts out, especially the parts that focus on the original exploration, studying and observing the creatures before the later hunt.
Did you notice that she seldomly hunts the creatures she has been observing? With that I mean, she hunts an example of that species but unless I’m wrong the markings on the creatures themselves change between the two parts of her videos. I’m rather curious why that is, or if I’m even right at all.
Regarding her magic, I’m relatively sure that there is wind-magic involved, probably for both the shooting and the sneaking, after all being not seen is only a small part of stealth, against creatures like lions and other predators I’d think that not getting smelled is even more important. And what can you use to stop being smelled, other than very good deodorant? Obviously, wind-magic.
- Sameera, confirmed Beta-Account
So, it’s my turn?
Well, I’m not a huge fan of player-combat so I guess I can explain part of my Character, namely what I’m doing in-game and how my shooting works. That way, players that try to hunt me still have to figure out how my stealth works and ways to beat it. Good luck following me if you can’t even catch my track.
First of all, about the style Goliry mentioned: It is true, I try to separate the prey I hunt as much as possible from the creatures I study, for two reasons. The creatures I study are quite often the healthy populations living in my tribes territory. Those creatures are seldomly hunted, my tribe trying to maintain a balance between the predators and the prey in our territory, taking only what is needed from the prey while reducing the amount of predators as much as needed.
To that effect, my missions often focus on hunting down singular predators that have been cut from their group, be it a pride, a pack or a pod, depending on their species, now hunting alone. Why those?
Quite often they realise that they are no longer able to hunt for their previous prey, due to not having a hunting team of their brethren, thus they start hunting for other prey, often disturbing the delicate balance. A lone wolf poses little danger to a deer but going after easier prey, that they normally wouldn’t bother until hunger forces them? Quite likely.
Anyway, that is the reason for the split of my videos, the exploration is to make sure the healthy populations are maintained, the hunt is to cull the creatures that need to be put down. A little like a game-warden on Earth might.
Now, about my magic. My teacher does not work in distinct elements, he told me he was taught by a shaman at a young age. He speaks of a cycle of life, teaching about the wind carrying something or the scorching rays of the sun, how it all forms a great cycle.
The magic I was told all fits into that cycle, always focusing how the world will return to balance and how to facilitate or use that process. It’s quite interesting, really, but just too much to get into it here. But if you are interested, come watch and subscribe to my streams, where I visit the fascinating creatures of Mundus, observing them in their natural habitat.
- Jeanyra, confirmed Beta-Account
I think I’ve heard about that cyclic-worldview and that there is no agreed truth, it is still debated amongst the scholars of magic. The Guild I am part of teaches that the cyclic worldview is wrong, that the world came from one extreme and will ultimately fade into the other extreme, that everything else are merely short disruptions of that slow swing.
Curiously, one of my teachers gave me the mental exercise to describe such a process, a swing from one extreme to a different one, and the best I could come up with was a pendulum. Which would make it quite similar to a cyclic process.
For some reason, my example and reasoning made him rather happy, giving me some books with information on the cyclic school of thoughts, helping my spellcasting a great deal.
Maybe you would be willing to tell me a little about your thoughts of the cyclic concepts relating to Fire-Magic?
Rachant, confirmed Beta-Account
A sneaky hunter, going after their prey with stealth and single shots? Maybe it is good that you have no interest in PvP, otherwise you might be as scary as Morgana, just in another way. I mean, what’s worse, dying without ever knowing what hit you, where the attack came from or how to get away?
Or dying to an icicle to the chest before your corpse is used to fuel some necromantic ritual and used to kill more people?
Actually, I’m not quite sure which I would like less, so let’s avoid either.
- Gloinar, confirmed Beta-Account
Given that Morgana is able to, and maybe even likes to, strike from ambush, there might be more similarities than you think.
Our group lost one of our players, before getting blanketed in fog. No idea where our enemies were, no idea who our enemies were, no idea what had hit us or how. Makes things really fun, believe me.
Not!
Back then, we used their fog-cover to quickly log out but other than that? Stealthy attackers getting the drop on you really, really sucks.
- Malaf, confirmed Beta-Account
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you try to do just that to Morgana and her group a little later, only for you to get rekt, again?
Maybe it wasn’t about stealth but simply about skill?
- -Kelgarn, confirmed Beta-Account
Guys, can we please stay on the topic for this discussion? If you have something to discuss on Morgana, there is a thread for it, please use it, if you have something constructive to say. If not, might I suggest you take to the Free Discussion, where you can discuss whatever you want to, from politics to religion, without anyone caring?
