[LP CYOA] 傳

[ERYFKRAD]

That occurred to me as well. But I figure it's better to keep most of them in our line of view so they, particularly BJ, don't do something stupid.

 

[Baltika9]

No way in hell we should send BJ to the Lord's mansion, the dude is a streetwise guy that will be able to pull the wool over his eyes in a second and make it so that he is the guy walking away with the advantage, the scene at the gate made it obvious how naive the guy is (man, thank God we fell in with the streetwise unorthodox crowd, as much as I love some of the sects, all of them are naive gullible idiots). That, and I just don't trust BJ to go alone yet, even if I am open to the possibility that we were wrong about him, but we gotta keep him in our sights.

Sending Bro Fu to the tavern is a good idea actually, not like anyone is going to dare fuck with a guy of his size and CHA, and he can definitely hold friendly conversations and learn something from there, especially if we send the Wu brothers. with a guy that size around, no one will pay attention to them.

 

[Jester]

A
1) Jing - to make sure that authorities are not involved in this.
5) Gou to drink and BJ to filter what can be interesting.
6) rest of party - get to know if there is any place where beggars selling the info, or if they got any leader Jing can discuss with.

 

[Azira]

Splitting the party; always a good idea. No GM is ever going to take a cheap suckerpunch when the group is split. Nope. Not a chance.

I'm soooo tempted to vote A.

 

[Baltika9]

Bai Jiutian:
+- Very notorious

This made me think of something: after our battle on the Minamoto island, it was mentioned that BJ's rep outclasses ours because of the deeds he has done. treave, I would like Jing to ask BJ and the Nie twins, right here and now, if they participated in/led any actions against the bandit kingdoms or pissed off any prominent bandit lords themselves. If we walk into that mansion with BJ and the Bandit Kingdom has an axe to grind with him, well, we're done.
That being said, I think our standing up for the Minamoto pirates gave us a lot of street cred in places like these and the Bandit Kingdom won't have an automatic "loot on sight" attitude towards us, and well be commanding some small amount of respect around here.

 

[XenomorphII]

B5

 

[Elfberserker]

B1>B2
I think it would be wise to first pay token respect to the boss of this place, if only to see what kind of man is running this whole place. If Wu brothers and JB manage to keep their cool then Jing can perhaps assure the thief that they aren't here to cause havoc despite our reputation and having bunch of highly talented orthodox guys. Personally I wouldn't trust our group to work well in this kind of town, they are like fish out of water.

If the thief is a man then there is good chance that he could have visited brothel recently and maybe had loose tongue. Fortunately Jing being the streetwise guy that he is won't have trouble to talk with prostitutes.

 

[treave]

To treave, What is the nature of our recovery? I don't need any spoilers, but it it going to be a "drink the magic potion and instantly regain your stats at the proper time in the story" type of recover or will we slowly regain points in our wounded stats as time progresses?

The latter.

treave, I would like Jing to ask BJ and the Nie twins, right here and now, if they participated in/led any actions against the bandit kingdoms or pissed off any prominent bandit lords themselves.

He's done his fair share of peacekeeping, though even if they do recognize him they'd be suicidal and retarded to attack him. But that has nothing to do with the lord's mansion. The guy's not a bandit.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

B1

 

[Nevill]

Let's review our options on how we can split the team optimally.

First things first, I am not letting Guo Fu wander alone. The stories of a farmer boy coming into a big city only to be conned out of his last shirt by the first scoundrel he meets are so common, they are almost a cliche. And something tells me that if it happens, the guy would not just meekly stand aside and weep in a corner, but, given his natural talents and a keen sense of justice, will try to restore it, oblivious to the fact that he will find none in this town. The big guy is staying with us, both for his good and ours.

Next, Wu brothers are a natural choice for another team. They know each other well, they are accustomed to teamwork, and so they can be trusted to watch each other's backs. Taking them with us seems like a waste, though. They do not add insight to our group, nor do they pack too much of a punch. They are a good choice to cover more ground. Splitting them further than that would be stretching our forces too thin, as one of them would have to wander the city by himself, or with Bai Juitian that they all come to dislike, neither of which is great.

Finally, Bai Juitian. I have to admit, I find it disturbing how complacent cooperative the guy have become in a matter of minutes, considering both our standing with his sect and with him personally. This is a far cry from a man that had challenged us, wounded, to a duel that would put our life at stake, yet claimed it to be a non-lethal match. I can presume that he was manipulated into issuing this challenge by a third party, the same one that provided him with a healing powder he so conveniently happened to have on him at the time. Still, I am wary of him. Keep your friends close, and your enemise closer, as they say. Which is why I would designate him to the same team with Jing and Guo Fu. It maintains a nice balance between brute force (BJ&GF), smarts (BJ&XJ), and morale (Guo Fu will support Jing, whatever we choose, so we should be in control of the situation).

Of course, Bai Jiutian can form a one-man team on his own, but that would require you to trust him to do his own thing, which I am reluctant to do yet. Pairing him with Wu brothers seems unnecessary, and bad for the morale of all involved.

Two to three teams seem optimal to me.

Now we just have to decide where to send them. I would not send the brothers to the brothel, nor to the bandits. These seem like bad ideas. I didn't notice much diplomatic talents in any of them, so that excludes the Manor, and probably the beggars, too. The market and the tavern seem like a good bet. They can look at the wares and collect rumors as well as anybody else.

If we want to make Bai Jiutian a separate team, I would probably send him to the brothel. Not only for shits and giggles, but he is a natural charmer, he is the one with the money, and maybe getting laid will loosen the stick that is stuck in his ass.

I am not sure what I would like to do myself, though.

Edit: All right.

A1,5 - Jing & Fu & Jiutian to the Manor, brothers to the tavern.
Failing that, I choose what The Brazilian Slaughter did and switch Fu to the Wu brothers team.

I wouldn't worry about splitting our group, as long as we are reasonable about it. Wu brothers are the best young disciples from the most powerful orthodox sect in all of China. They can handle themselves. As for the trio of BJ&XJ&GF, they are, basically, unstoppable.

I am hesitant to pair just Jing and Juitian, though, without Guo Fu as a buffer between them. Should irreconcilable differences in opinions arise, what are you going to do? Should Bai Juitan decide that he knows better how to handle the case, how are you going to convince him otherwise? It is better to maintain 2 against 1 ratio in such matters, and Guo Fu is the only one that has somewhat normal relationship with Young Master Bai - that increases the chance that Jiutian would actually listen to him.

 

[Tigranes]

Nevill is on the right track. Look, schematically:

Split If Possible. It is better to split if possible, because we can potentially cover more ground, but more importantly, so that the likes of BJ does not screw up Jing's investigations. Six lumbering around together confers no advantages, if we can split reasonably.

Bai Jiutian Must Stick With Jing. He won't be of any help for investigation on either end, except to pay for whatever Jing does, but if Jing is not around to watch him he will fuck something up. No matter what instructions we give, we have no formal authority over the team as a whole. Best case scenario BJ will try and 'help', worst case scenario he will scheme against us.

Two Teams? What emerges naturally is a Bai/Jing/Guo team + Wudang team, or Bai/Jing team + Wudang/Guo team, depending on which locations. These would be the only sensible ways to split the teams, unless we decide it's just safer for everyone to go together. I'm leaning towards the former, just so Guo is there as muscle when we/BJ screw up, since that team will take the more risky location. So, go where?

Wudang Team: These guys are probably reasonably discrete and competent, but still not much better than BJ in terms of streetwise. I think sending them to the Tavern is really the clearly best option here. It's the easiest job because you sit and listen, and they're not asked to do anything unorthodox in particular. On the other hand, Jing's talents are a little wasted here.

Jing Team: After that, I think we can pick just about anything for the Jing team. I'm not sure how useful the Lord's Manor will be and feel that the Beggar street and the Brothel are the most conducive to Jing's talent. Now that we're working together for now I'm not sure how much we want to antagonise BJ though, provoking him to get in our way even more.

Bai/Jing/Guo to Beggar Street, Wudang to Tavern is my vote for now. I'll keep thinking to see whether Guo's talents, etc. could be distributed better, but I think the basic principles are solid: keep Bai with Jing, stick the Wudangs in a low-risk low-difficulty Tavern location.

 

[Esquilax]

Great post, Tigranes. However, I can't help but feel that the END powerhouse known as Guo Fu would be well-suited to hitting up the Tavern. The Wu brothers don't strike me as the sort who are familiar with bars or particularly sociable, but I have a feeling that if we combine their relative intelligence with the big guy's winning personality and insane tolerance for liquor, we might have a successful option on our hands.

I also see B2 as an interesting option as well. It would allow us to maintain the group without splitting up and provide us some good cover (we're here to provide the Wu brothers with some ladies). We'd do the talking, and BJ would be the one footing the bill.

The Brazilian Slaughter, Du Yao is a bureaucrat, not a bandit:

Youxia City is not governed by any official of the government, but lies under the protection of the Bandit King Pang Hu, whose territory has expanded in recent years. The current lord of the city is Du Yao, who was once a minor bureaucrat in Chang’an.

I just want to point out that Du Yao is the Bandit King's underling, not the Godfather himself. I made the same mistake when I read it first as well.

A few observations:

“Did you notice the little boy that ran down the street? If we had been suckered into paying sixteen coins per person, you can bet every single stall and establishment here will know about it.”

News travels in this place quickly, and it won't be too long until people know about us. treave, are Guo Fu and the Wu brothers wearing Wudang robes? I just want to know how lacking in street smarts our party is. I'm assuming the nice clothes that Bai Jiutian is wearing are not standard Huashan issue. Side note: Maybe the money and nice clothing hint at some corruption at Huashan. I find it rather strange that Wudang, Shaolin, Emei and the Beggars are known for some level of asceticism, yet here we have BJ walking around in some fancy digs in the worst place possible. It's a little suspicious to me; the other sect that we knew was raking in a lot of money was Qingcheng, and they're corrupt as fuck.

On another note, I think that we've actually encountered the Bandit King, or someone close to him, before:

“If you’re lucky, the fall will kill you. There are wolves in this area. You don’t want to be alive when they find you.”

You scream a muffled curse at the man.

“Curse the misfortune of your birth, dog of the Court.” His voice is a low and lethal whisper, spoken for your ears only. Then, he gives you a shove.

I don't think that this is Pang Hu, but it might be someone high up.

 

[Elfberserker]

Flopping to A1,5 ( Wudan brothers to Tavern, Jing/Bai/Guo to the manor)

Sitting and listening in Tavern should be pretty low-risk to Wudang brothers, so they won't be backstabbed or blunder diplomatically and they do have best possible teamwork between our group. As for Jing\ Bai Jiutian\ Guo team, I think it can work very well. Bai Jiutian knows that he is out of elements and as much as it hurts his pride this operation is pretty much in Jing alley of specialization and Guo pretty much knows that we are better guy in this situation than Bai Jiutian. Do I trust completely in BJ? No, but for now we have mutual interest but I don't know what happens when we find the sword. And lastly Bai Jiutian is the guy with money and he is pretty naive in this enviroment, Jing needs to keep eye on him that we have actual money when we need to bribe or buy something.

As much as I like Guo, I wouldn't trust wander alone or with other orthodox disciplines. I think that there is decent chance that Guo actually has experience dealing with seedier side of society due his wandering with his wife, but I think that Puerr was the brains behinde the duo and Guo the brawns. So naturally we become the brain with our good buddy Guo.

 

[RealDDc]

That's easy. First the crew head towards the tavern (would love to lose Bai Jiutian somewhere on the way but shit he's the guy with the cash) get drunk and then we move on to the brothel. What was the reason to visit Youxia again?

At least I'd love to read that update in the new year... won't happen I suppose.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Guys, first things first, nick some cash off BJ. He might be a bit stingy with it.
I guess I'm not averse to A if we can pull it off.

 

[m4davis]

A3 For now may change my mind if I see a particularly compelling argument

 

[Anabanana]

A
2, 5

Let's have Jing take Bai Jiutian out for some good old-fashioned whoring and information-gathering. I'm wary of going to the manor - even if the rumors are right and Du Yao knows everything, we have no idea what kind of price he'll ask for that information, and why would he want to sell the thieves out anyway? Beggar Street is too much of a shot in the dark. I think the brothel is the best option that takes advantage of both Jing's street smarts and Bai Jiutian's purse.

The Wu brothers and Guo Fu can hang out at the tavern. Given that the younger brother has a bit of an aggressive streak, it's probably not a bad idea to have Guo Fu there to do some restraining if necessary.

 

[RealDDc]

A
2, 5

Let's have Jing take Bai Jiutian out for some good old-fashioned whoring and information-gathering. I'm wary of going to the manor - even if the rumors are right and Du Yao knows everything, we have no idea what kind of price he'll ask for that information, and why would he want to sell the thieves out anyway? Beggar Street is too much of a shot in the dark. I think the brothel is the best option that takes advantage of both Jing's street smarts and Bai Jiutian's purse.

The Wu brothers and Guo Fu can hang out at the tavern. Given that the younger brother has a bit of an aggressive streak, it's probably not a bad idea to have Guo Fu there to do some restraining if necessary.

Given that B doesn't allow to select the next location, I should arrange myself with this. And even the reasoning behind it appears to be solid.

I'll have the same.
A
2 - Jing and Bai Jiutian
5 - Wu brothers and Guo Fu

 

[Tigranes]

I can get behind jing team to manor and wu team to tavern. We should indeed think carefully about what we present our group as. In that respect the brothel os the best but I juat don't trust our crew to handle it. Watch BJ get mugged clean in bed or in black market, and refuse to deal with bandits. I believe guo fu will follow our lead but wudangs will become more uncomfortable if we become clearly antagonistic with bj.

 

[Baltika9]

I believe guo fu will follow our lead but wudangs will become more uncomfortable if we become clearly antagonistic with bj.

No, I don't think so, they don't like the stuck up prick any more than we do.

Your little band begins moving towards Youxia City. On the way here, Bai Jiutian had kept mostly to himself, as the Wu brothers seem to have taken a dislike to him. No surprise, given the humiliation he dealt to them recently… though Wu Jin did admit it secretly to you that it was Wu Yin, his younger brother, that started the fight. Guo Fu was the only one who regularly approached Bai Jiutian, and though you kept an eye on them, the Huashan swordsman had not been making any suspicious moves to trick Guo Fu.

With Guo's word, they like us much more than they do BJ. Which is exactly why the guy came along, I think: our personal opinions aside, BJ seems like an intelligent guy who is very savvy in politics. He knows exactly will happen if we help the Wudang and how bad for it will look for his school if Jing will be the one to retrieve the items, namely the relations between their sects will deteriorate even further, Huehueshan and him are risking a refusal for the items, and Jing comes out of this looking the reasonable hero willing to put his differences aside and work with the Orthodox Sects. Can't have that, can he now? So, yeah, I definitely don't want this guy having any alone time with Guo Fu, who is the most impressionable of the group, but I think the guy is willing to follow Jing's lead for now, the scene at the gates implies that he'll trust our street smarts for now.

About Du Yao:

The Brazilian Slaughter, Du Yao is a bureaucrat, not a bandit:

Youxia City is not governed by any official of the government, but lies under the protection of the Bandit King Pang Hu, whose territory has expanded in recent years. The current lord of the city is Du Yao, who was once a minor bureaucrat in Chang’an.

I just want to point out that Du Yao is the Bandit King's underling, not the Godfather himself. I made the same mistake when I read it first as well.

A few observations:

“Did you notice the little boy that ran down the street? If we had been suckered into paying sixteen coins per person, you can bet every single stall and establishment here will know about it.”

Du Yao was a bureaucrat, and from what that line implies, Pang Hu controls everything related to this city, which definitely means that whoever the ruler is, bandit or no, answers to him. Considering that we have a somewhat good rep in the city already:

Youxia City: +15 (Neutral)

A ton of street cred from standing up for the Wo Pirates against one hundred men, a rep as a bad motherfucker and the BDS with the Secret Police on our ass, I think it is definitely in our best interests to go introduce ourselves to the governor and see what kind of support, if any, we can get from them (if we're lucky, they'll even agree to buy BJ as slave, which will fix our financial problems). Worst case scenario, paying our respects to the lord and the Bandit King through him won't harm our chances any. If these guys are involved in the theft, they already know who we (BJ and Xu Jing are big names nowadays) and why we're here; and if they aren't, we can definitely work something out. If they decide to get frisky, well, we have two awesome fighters and a dude that won't hesitate to kill.

A
1- BJ+Xu Jing+Bro Fu.
5- Wu Brothers.

 

[Anabanana]

I can get behind jing team to manor and wu team to tavern. We should indeed think carefully about what we present our group as. In that respect the brothel os the best but I juat don't trust our crew to handle it. Watch BJ get mugged clean in bed or in black market, and refuse to deal with bandits. I believe guo fu will follow our lead but wudangs will become more uncomfortable if we become clearly antagonistic with bj.

I think Bai Jiutian should be fine in the brothel if Jing goes along with him.

 

[treave]

You are all in street clothes.

 

[Tigranes]

Good point, Baltika9 - that makes things a little easier. I don't think BJ can turn the group against us at the moment (and Guo Fu loves us no matter what), but I'm less worried about that, and more worried about BJ trying to help out of his own initiative. Hence the short leash.

 

[Elfberserker]

It just occured me that we should think how well each members would work with each other:

Three members teams:

Wudang Brothers:

Work well with each other, but lacks certain diversitywhen task requires social or streetsmarts. They are not stupid, but their thinking may be are very similar which leads to less ideas to pass between group members. They also have plenty of fighting power and teamwork to win any ordinary bandits or unorthodox members in face to face match.

Jing, Bai; Guo:

This group certainly have couple silver tongues in Jin and Bai, not to mention wildly different life experience with outcast imperial servant who has become one streetwise badass, other is intelligent and charming icon of young generation orthodox disciplines but seems to be very naive in underground elements of life, third is that of simply farmer who has traveled couple of years across china.

I think Guo works nicely as neutralizing element between Jin and Bai rivalry, since he neither has any reason to dislike. Perhaps most surprising factor is his simple minded outlook, because neither Jing or Bai wouldn't suspect his guy to have malicious intention towards either of them nor they should have...Unless Guo is some kind of mastermind at fooling people. If Bai has any intention to use Guo to shame Wundag school, then I am sure that Jing is able to spot it mile away. After all Jing isn't new kid in the block in plotting department nor naive kid anymore.

Both Jing and Bai are charismatic, intelligent and skillful speakers with both in theory should cover each others lack of social knowledge in diffrent situation, but these guys work together in group as water and fire. Not to mention both suspect that each other malicious ulterior motive against each other and are probably righ in this regard. Not to mention fighting department this group should wipe floors in any challenge that they may face, even if Jing was crippled.

Bai and any two Wudang brother:

In fighting department this group is not bad, even if they won't have any teamwork advantagers. However in any other situation this group is just bad. They won't work well together, dislike each other,none of them have any streetsmarts and most likely start stupid dick waving contest between each other. Bai may be a charmer and rich enough to get some info, but will get scammed as a result

Jing and two wudang brother:

Perhaps most weakest in fighting, since Jing is crippled in fighting power but Jing and Wudang guys have at laest neutral relationship. Jing has streetsmarts and none of brothers are stupid, but one is bit of hothead but Jing silver tongue can smooth any situation that may arise from that. All of them have mutual interest, but lacks that certain comrade in arms realitionship...For now. Perhaps most professional and neutral working relationship in the party.

Guo and Two wudang brothers:

Well it's better than Bai and brothers. They should work relativily well in battle with each other and are brothers in arms. Biggest disadvantage is lack of streetsmarts, social butterfly character and lack of money.

Two member teams:

Jing and Bai:

They certainly have the social skills in order and Bai can fight for both of them, but they end up antagonizing each other all the time during investigation. They have streetsmarts, money and charm to pull of good amount of information, if they don't start killing each other.

Jing and Guo:

Work well together with Jing as brains and face and Guo as muscle. Jing should have enough charm and streetwise to get any information that doesn't require money. Not mention that these guys work well.

Jing and Wudang brother:

Well not much to say here. Mostly same as Jing and two wudang bros.

Bai and Wudang brother:

Same as with two brothers:

Guo and Bai:
Well this is interesting pair. Both of them are powerful fighters and most likely have respect towards each other in that area. Naturally Bai will take the face role with his charisma, speech skills and intelligent even if he lacks streetsmarts, but Guo could in some ways fill that gap. Guo may be slow, but he has seen and experienced what life without any fancy school or reputation to hang in high class places. They should work relatively well with each other, But I fear that Bai Jiutan does have ulterior motive using Guo for something...Of course that is just pure speculation in this point.

 

[Ganymede]

Jing and Bai is classic buddy cop material. They should go together.

That leaves the three wudang disciples to do whatever. Go get munted in a tavern it seems.

A
1: Jing/Bai
5: Wudang