Inactive [LP CYOA] Overlord

Absolutely.

Because anything that costs like a zillion gold-pieces could be taken with a rag-tag diplomatic escort, ten thieves, and a goblin librarian (since we don't have any more goblins with us), without us showing up. Got it.

The point of my post was to say that there should be no survivors, and therefore disguising our forces with the intention to have someone spread the wrong tale is completely irrelevant. Any survivor seeing the angel or a man in a hat in such a sensitive operation is a major liability.

But I think we are getting into pointless speculation. I bet 10 brofists that the caravan is long gone and that we will proceed to the capital instead of chasing it across the country.

 

Hey guys, I got some crazy idea.
You know those guards asking Runde about working conditions? Well, I think there could be two reasons for this.

1) They try to fish out information from nonhuman by befriending with them

2) Dijeh is trying to recruit their own monster liberation army

Or maybe they are just friendly chaps, either way I am interested why those guys are so nice.

 

Also, if monsters have all moved east, where would Zayan get the scent samples for all of them?

Yeah, I think they might be some plot with the non-humans in Dijeh.

 

What more can Barzam do to guard the convoy? We smashed 70 of her elite special ops on their super-secret mission of great importance and intrigue, and we did so without any help at all. And that was a mission where they actually expected an assured battle, not a mere convoy through peaceful lands of a neutral neighbour, through which they are obliged not to cross with an army-sized retinue of troops. A place where the worst known threat is Fortunio harassing small specks of villages and stealing an occasional Lucy.

I doubt the guards are overwhelmingly strong. There's a limit to the amount of guards that can usefully travel beside a convoy without becoming a long slow congested clusterfuck. Already, 70 is getting up there to the point of a small army.

And, actually, it sounds like Zayan is worth far more to her country in value than the crude material which she shapes to her craft. Yet look at her escort, which is so puny... or is it even really that puny? Maybe Talal and his company of unstated size and capabilities are actually fit to guard such a precious asset and beloved family member?

And she is being escorted by Talal and his merry men alone. Makes you wonder how many of our underlings will die, if we think we have adequately set up Talal for a quick slaughter here merely by giving him the first sucker punch.

The Incan silver trains and gold-laden fleets of Spanish galleons were also worth a kingdom and were far from untouchable in real life, because no one expected them to get hit.

 

And nearly got raped by Athos. Well, Rin did, but it could have been us just as easily.

Their super-secret mission was kind of a covert one where they didn't expect much in a way of resistance, too. Not sure where the 'elite special ops' come from.

A mere convoy that is guarding a shipment that might cost half a city. No, I would not think them to be lightly defended.

An assault on such a thing would require careful pre-planning, which is what the option in Ontoglia was for.

The numbers really mean little. Most of the important battles and close fights are between super-powered guys. See: the heroes and the Demon Lord, Demon Lord and Erdrick, Erdrick and Rin. The mooks are rarely anything more than an afterthought, something to mop up before or after a boss fight.

So I wouldn't be too confident because of being able to kill 70 schmucks. There is always a bigger fish in the pond.

Personally, I'd expect some sort of artefact or a magical trap.

I would estimate Talal to be a high-level fighter, yes. Somewhere on a C-level, maybe. Not of a hero caliber, but good enough. His men, though... probably nothing to write home about. We'd be lucky if they reach D rank.

The science of judging a character level by a description is not a very precise one.

 

... sure, I'll break down and go for it.

This is going to bite us in the butt, but I guess it's better for our character to not start out so jaded and rather become that way after he's betrayed. Killing them when they seem like a close band of bros seems more likely to make things go poorly than if we try to launch some scary fireworks, though.

A2 > A1.

 

Don't forget magical/enchanted weaponry guys, especially those made with magnatite ore. If Tal and company carry magical gear, their threat level increases significantly. Moreso if they know magic/their squad has mages/know special fighting techniques.

PS: Also, if Dijeh is somewhat friendly to non-humans, that means there's a possibility at some point we'll encounter non-human soldiers, be these employed by Dijeh, or other armies. Most likely these will be more dangerous than normal.

 

That's possible.

That's pointless sadism.

That's making assumptions.

 

C
Unfortunately for him NO witnesses. It would be entirely different thing, if we wanted to sabotage this kingdom.

 

Both A's are bad ideas. Regarding A1, it's one thing to ask these men to join us, and it is quite another for these men to be fine with us murdering their brothers-in-arms and committing treason for the honor of serving under some random fucking guy who lives in the woods. And A2 is possibly even worse - so many headaches. First, there's the problem of knowing that they're sincere in defecting to us, and not doing it because they're terrified. Then, there's making sure that they are watched and accounted for at all times - these men are skilled, professional fighting men who will probably be a lot tougher than the goblins that comprise most of our forces. Given the conditions, it's remarkably easy for these guys to escape if either Erdrick or Rin are away.

We have to also remember that we made a fucking deal with the governor, and we should honor it in the finest of Lawful Evil traditions. Zayan disappears with us, the status quo at Ontoglia remains, everybody's happy. It only takes one of these assholes getting disgruntled and disappearing for this excursion to go from a success into a disaster.

Based on that, I think that we should retain Talal. No question that this act will break his psyche and make him unstable, but he is just the sort of competent person that we need in our organization to turn it from a ragtag group into an army. Gotta break a few eggs if you wanna make an omelette.

B1 > C

 

Interlude: The Methussian Factbook

Official Name: Kingdom of Methuss

Government Type: Absolute monarchy

Capital: Yuiria City

Background:
Founded in 1314 AD by Festhus Yuiry, Methuss claims an unbroken royal lineage that can be traced back to the Five Heroes of Light.

Religion:
Like nearly every other human power in the world, Methuss follows the Five Gods Faith. Following in the footsteps of their heroic ancestor, the Archer-Queen Yuiry, their patron deity has been Elmeth since the founding of the kingdom.

Economy:
The Methussian economy involves an extensive agricultural sector and internal trade for self-sufficiency, with a significant contribution from foreign trade, particularly in rare ores and minerals from the Asteronto region.

***

Military :

The Knightly Orders of Methuss

Divided into three knightly orders, with each order boasting of approximately a hundred knights. Each knight may have a retainer of up to a dozen men. The orders are:
Grand Order of Yuiry, led by Knight-Commander Belbro.
Order of the Azurelion, led by Knight-Captain Wisteria.
Order of the Cobaltlion, led by Knight-Captain Ordmung.

The Royal Army

A standing army of 25,000 men commanded by the royal family and generals loyal to them.

The Noble Army

A force levied from the nobles of the kingdom. Numbers vary, but are estimated to be at about 100,000 men in total when at full strength.

***

Notable Personalities of Methuss:

The Royal Family

King Fowyl Yuiry (59), the monarch of the kingdom, who has successfully reigned over periods of both turmoil and peace, and brought his country through intact. Currently preparing the way for his successor, and plans to retire when the time is right.

Queen Natasha (52), the king’s first wife. Twin to Queen Natalia. Known for her charitable endeavours.

Queen Natalia (52), the king’s second wife. Twin to Queen Natasha. Known for her diplomatic banquets.

Crown Prince Feist Yuiry (34), the ambitious first prince. Has been designated as the successor to the throne, and is keen to drag the kingdom into a brighter future. Child of Fowyl & Natasha.

Second Prince Feyl Yuiry (32), the second born son. Deceased. Child of Fowyl & Natasha.

Third Prince Fillipe Yuiry (29). Dashing and popular with the nobles. Child of Fowyl & Natasha.

First Princess Filomena Yuiry (28), the eldest daughter. Currently in Dijeh on a diplomatic mission with her husband. Child of Fowyl and Natalia.

Fourth Prince Fennick Yuiry (25). Widely considered a lazy wastrel who does nothing but womanize and drink all day long. Child of Fowyl and Natalia.

Fifth Prince Farstalt Yuiry (23). Is interested primarily in art and cares little for matters of the court. Child of Fowyl & Natasha.

Sixth Prince Farland Yuiry (22). Youngest son. Popular with the people, but has drawn criticism for his populist pandering. Child of Fowyl & Natasha.

Second Princess Faislin Yuiry (17). Youngest daughter. Recently graduated from the University of Hazel in Gran Byarlant, and returned to serve her family and country. Child of Fowyl & Natalia.

Notable Nobles

Duke Hargreave Brescia (49). One of the most powerful men in the kingdom, and spokesperson for the nobles as a whole. His support has allowed Prince Feist to be granted the official title of Crown Prince.

Marquis Ondore Hastwell (31). A talented strategist that masterminded the repulsion of the Holy Barzam Ecclesiocracy’s invasion ten years ago. Married to Princess Filomena. Has little interest in court intrigue.

The Knight-Captains

Knight-Commander Belbro Wickman (32). Sworn brother of Ondore Hastwell. The strongest warrior in the kingdom, and is granted permission to wear two sacred artifacts of the Archer-Queen. His might is feared even in other countries.

Knight-Captain Wisteria Brescia (24). The first female Knight-Captain of her order, and the second youngest Knight-Captain in Methussian history, after Belbro Wickman.

Knight-Captain Ordmung Milhaus (44). A veteran of war that has an established record of loyalty to his kingdom and neutrality in all other matters.

***

Foreign Relations:

Gran Byarlant Empire – Good relations and close ties, particularly since the King’s wives are Byarlantian nobility.

Holy Barzam Ecclesiocracy – Bad relations ever since the Barzamite invasion a decade ago, but it is improving thanks to Prince Feist’s efforts.

Kingdom of Galbaldy – Frequent border skirmishes occurred up until five years ago, when Belbro Wickman defeated the Mercenary-King of Galbaldy in a famous duel. There has been peace since.

Royal Republic of Dijeh – Good relations. Dijeh is the largest trade partner of Methuss.

Luna – Uneasy but cordial contact with the beastman kingdom. Partners in the slave trade.

 

target acquired

 

Well, the idea - at least on paper - is to get the captain to follow us, and then use him to police his own men. He has a great degree of influence on them, to the point where they are said to take after him. If he goes with us earnestly, that would do a lot to mitigate the displeasure.

One could try this by explaining to him that returning Zayan to Dijeh would be against her will, that she needs to disappear, and that this needs to be kept under wraps lest two countries come to blows and Methuss drags her ass all the way back home to clear their name. What is he going to do, force 'a fate worse than death' on the woman he loves?

Killing the dissenters would not be a popular measure, but the alternative is harming Zayan, and these men do have a choice. It is possible that those who will be left alive would not require keeping our eyes at them at all times.

Yeah, I know, I know, pretty chancy. However, I find it quite amusing that you advocate secrecy and want to retain Talal at the same time by breaking him. Do you mean to have his loyalty by robbing him of a place to return to?

Here is one of the possible scenarios. His blind love for Zayan takes a darker turn as it turns into an obsession (killing your men to 'protect' the woman you think you love does that to you). He becomes desperate to make Zayan love him back, because otherwise everything he did would be meaningless. And if she didn't give a damn about him when he was a dashing officer bro, she is not going to like him more when he is a deranged obsessive psycho either. She is a scholar, and he is a soldier - that sums it up.

You are going to have a person who has a grudge against the world and nothing worthwhile to live for. A complete wildcard. What did you say about one of the assholes getting disgruntled and disappearing? Do you want to make bets if this outcome is more probable with regular soldiers under a sane commander, or with a mad wreck of a human being? 'cause I wouldn't know whom to bet on.

There is only one way to honor the deal with the governor in both letter and spirit, and that would be to remove all witnesses. Anything less, and you are taking chances for additional benefits. The only difference is that you want to take yours with Talal, while I do so with his men.

 

Are you sure about that?

 

I see no reason to believe she cares about anything but science.

And a mad stalker desperate for her attention would be quite distracting.

 

I see at laest two royalties we must contact ASAP.
First is the youngest princess, because she is youngest princess and those are usually pretty up in hotness scale.
We must meet up our soul brother fourth prince and have drinking and womanizing festifal

As for Captain...Well he could be a practice dummy for our corrupting skills, if we make him to murder his men.
If we succeed that then no deed is too dark for a man, who killed his own men....Not to mention maybe it would finally cross that invicible moral line that we never ever dared to cross.

Sure we betrayed the world for titties and half of world and tortured some men to get information and make rin happy, but making likeable captain to murder hs bro soldiers only to get one broken male captain?
I mean there isn't even extra hot female coming with this deal and that makes it truly evil for us.

Corrupting noble captain due his one-sided love for moraless scientints and killing his bro soldiers under his command to prove it?
Captain isn't even a woman, let alone hot one that could easily persuasive codex to do evil deeds to get him to harem.
Doing one big evil deed, so we could get one capable but broken man to serve as minion....Without even them being dick to us, but nice chap...
That is the level of evil we haven't done so far in this quest!
Corrupting and breaking nice chaps for rather small - medium selfish compared to tragic deed we must to do if we want him.
This is the time to prove yourself, do we have the stuff to be corrupters of men and get some practice on it.


Flopping to B1>A1

 

We might want to take a lesson from the king here. Not with our twins, though, but I hope there would be more.

Curious. Byarlant Empire is said to have been at odds with Dijeh about 50 years ago when Zayan (the Twelfth?) sunk their whole fleet. And the governor said there were rumors about them making a move soon. I have also speculated that the black figure Rin fought is one of them. Are they secret allies with Barzam?

The impression I have of them is that of incessant plotters, and I suspect the whole Erise operation to be their doing. A lot of careful thinking went into that one - a plot within a plot within a plot. The Barzamites we've met - not that there were a lot of them - never gave me a reason to view their countrymen as very sophisticated.

Already hate him with a passion. Tried to antagonize the monster-bros, to take Zayan all to himself (a rival!), and is a filthy Barzamite whore at heart. I wonder what was the deal with Duke Hargreave Brescia and the title of a Crown Prince. I suspect that something fishy is going on with him. Wouldn't be surprized if he fell under someone's influence - a proper heir to the Kingdom wouldn't have been eager to piss off the only allies it has for a superficial gain.

Not that we are concerned too much with the well-being of Methuss, but that's where we are based at, and we don't want someone who is dancing on paladins'/plotters' strings - if that is indeed so - in charge.

Interesting. I wonder what the cause of death was and when it happened. Is it a coincidence he was the next in line for the throne after Feist, whom we know to be ruthless and somewhat short-sighted?

I have to say, based on the list of kids I vastly prefer Natalia to Natasha. Might have something to do with them being two princesses and a womanizer. I think we will have a lot of common ground with them.

The second princess, even though a bit too old for our tastes and married, has diplomatic contacts with Dijeh, and her husband, Mr. Hastwell, is known to have shown those Barzamites their place in the past. Seems like a nice couple.

Also, the famed BelBRO is a sworn brother to Hastwell. That is positively an interesting family.

Whatever happened to the Mercenary-King? Sounds like your typical barbarian kingdom with all the finesse of a hammer. Might be an interesting place to relocate to.


TL: DR - suspect the Barzam and Byarlant to be in cahoots, suspect the Crown Prince to be a puppet for them, suspect that Dijeh and Byarlant are still at odds and that Byarlant is trying to get back at them by estranging Methuss from them.

I wonder how we will fit into this mess.

 

Well, that infodump confirms that right now a straight or a sneaky assault against the Methuss Kingdom would end with an horrible defeat, regardless of if they possess an Angel or not, they have enough manpower to literally drown our village with bodies. Same for the other regions as well.

That Luna region sounds interesting: A beastmen kingdom that trades with slaves (I assume both human and non-human ones)? Quite interesting, we'll have to do something about these guys in order to acquire more followers. They must be quite powerful if Methuss or the others have not attempted to conquer/exterminate them outright. Since non-humans are usually reviled, an entire kingdom of them would be considered a blasphemy.

By the way, in which update was it mentioned that all monsters fled to the East? And was the reason ever explained? I forgot the specifics.

 

Possibly, though I think we might have landed in one of the stronger ones. Takes some serious stability to have the royal line unbroken for generations, and such stability does not happen without power.

I would assume Galbaldy and possibly Barzam to be weaker. Methuss and Dijeh must be a really powerful combination of money and technology working in concert.

Not an update, just random goblin lore:

 

Hm, didn't Barbatos say that three of the Demon Weapons betrayed their Big Boss and were wielded by the humans (possibly re-purposed as "sacred/holy weapons)"? I bet there's at least one of these Demon Weapons hidden somewhere in Methuss. Perhaps said weapon is the one responsible for influencing the Crown Prince.

 

Sneaky edits.

So, the Sword, the Bow and the Staff.

Does Barbatos know what connection is there between the Staff and the phase dagger Rin was stabbed with?

Do other Kingdoms claim they were founded by the descendants of the Five Heroes? I know it has been several thousands of years, but t is just too convenient - five Gods, five Heroes, five Kingdoms. It's like each Kingdom has a patron deity.

Wonder who the founders of Byarlant Empire were. These guys are the ones that interest me the most now.

 

I thought about it and I believe keeping these men alive is not worth the effort, they would require constant watching and there's little doubt the squad would be strong enough to make a mess in the goblin village before escaping. If we had something better than overgrown cats for their guards though, I would consider it. For now, it would be better if we only keep Tal alive and ensure his loyalty by allowing Zayan to perform experiments on him, giving the poor bastard enhancements/horrific mutations that will allow him to surpass the human limits, for the small price of losing his sanity and sentience. I believe that's the closest thing to love he will get from his object of affection.
However, if he understandably is not mad enough to betray his comrades, then he'll have to be shown how Gygadine can make his head disappear (along with everyone else). Besides, that's the laziest and therefore most in-character option.

Therefore, I'll switch my votes to B1>C.

EDIT: Talking about experimentation: treave, does the C option allow us to take a few survivors so that Rin and Zayan can use them for "practice"? Just to know.

 

How do you plan on transporting them back? Fortunio and his bandits can guard a few of the prisoners you take, but don't expect them to be sent back together with Zayan immediately.

 

What do we expect to do with them in A1, then? Do we not possess the capabilities of transporting a group of people with the help of a teleportation circle?

 

Ah yes, that slipped my mind. Sure, go ahead and have Rin bring a few of them back immediately then.