Inactive [LP CYOA] Overlord

B. Swallow her pride and plead with her for help.

The stark girl is quickly developing a psychological knack. There is a difference between pleading and pleading; when you know it's the most effective strategy.
Anyway. A girl seems to be a promising spy. Amazing. Doesn't mean this mission will be successful though.

Information

I. The current situation in the camp in terms of morale and camaraderie.
II. The Prince that has accompanied the expedition.
IV. The more notable knights in the expedition.

These three topics seem to cover what Mira knows. Shouldn't be too suspicious either. This information does not give us what we want, but it might open up some possibilities in the immediate future. In order to get any 'real' information, we'll have to get closer to the knights/prince anyway. Camp situation might help.

 

Alternatively, we are fleshing out a lie by iterating on the details. Eileen gets the gist of it, while Mira gets a more convincing Enhanced Edition. They don't have to be contradictory.

I am not certain that it's relevant, though, since Aria admitted to never being there anyway:

She does not know who lives there or what's inside, so it's not like we have too much of a story to invent.

 

B

I
II
IV

 

That's more like it! But at least 2 bros are still missing somewhere.

Alright, let's see where whining gets us. I somewhat agree with wjw, and am fairly impressed with Aria's flexibility so far. I am interested in how far can we push her in that direction. How good of an actress can she be?

Hmmm, I wonder if we can get Eileen to open up if we pretend to be Mira's number 1 fan and say we need her help to join our first adventure with the big guys. Screw that, I wonder if Aria can say that with a straight face.

Flopping to B III V. I also dropped the prince vote, because I think the adventurers are a bit more important. Ah, if only more bros were willing to ask about the expedition goals.

 

I'm so disappointed. What was the point in training our disciple if we aren't going to hurl her into a thicket of swords? At least let her retain some dignity before she gets tossed to the interrogation chamber!

 

Dignity is for the weak! The Master has suffered the scorn and mockery of Nostrus to turn it against him and hit on Wisteria in the end, and so she shall suffer to bring ruin upon His enemies and Mira to His doorstep! Her massa wills it!

 

Heh, I didn't expect B to get so many votes at the end. Let's see how it will work, because it won't be easy at all for Aria to disregard her pride like that.

 

They are all useless aside from Zayan. Maybe not if she sneaks in a bunch of level-ups, but I doubt that will happen.

I don't really care about what information she picks up since only gossip actions are winning and I plan on converting everyone present into smoke with Gigadyne. The only thing that she can salvage out of this is some XP from the doomed adventurers and knights to become less worthless.

 

B
VI
II
IV

 

Looks like I have accidentally messed my vote. Should be A II III IV.

 

Locking the votes. Before that, a quick note:

She does remember. In fact, despite her pretenses Mira is keeping an eye and an ear on Aria at this very moment, waiting to see what the girl will do the moment she thinks she has a chance to slip her leash. It's unfortunate that Aria, being Aria, didn't notice and was a bit hasty in digging for information. Sly adults and all that.

 

So C was possibly best because we look like a hot headed idiot instead of a spy. Begin Lesbomancy interrogation, which on second thought, might not be so bad.

 

It's more of the Codex being the Codex. Kunning planning strikes again, twisting characters to squeeze in an extra +1 QUESTIONS.

However, the first thing Aria asks is not about the expedition and its goals (which got ignored by us completrely ), but about adventurers and various people of note. So maybe she is just desperate to join the celebrities on a big hunt for treasure and glory under whatever pretext she can think of, making her less of a spy and more like opportunistic EXP farmer. I mean, she went to the same slime forest rookies go to train and stayed there despite the obvious danger, and she does have a power fetish...

 

Well, no plan survives contact with good intentions/stupidity the enemy, they say. Hopefully it won't end up too badly for Aria. It will probably be interesting to watch, either way.

 

or just independent person who wants to be someone.

Taking into consideration she is from this village and she HATE being on receiving end of social assistance to the point Erdrick training from hell was preferable to staying. I think adventurers could understand her quite well.

 

Yeah, I meant that she comes across as a person who is completely uninterested in what the expedition is doing and where it is heading, as long as she gets to be there as well.

Adventurers probably have a lot of starstruck youths who want to be just like them yearning to join their ranks, but Aria has the advantage of actually knowing a little about that trade, so they may yet let her stay. We'll see.

 

Intervention

The red, translucent figure of Aria wobbles and returns to a puddle-like form on the floor. Having finished conveying the message, it creeps around your feet like a puppy seeking attention and praise. You toss Red a piece of meat which it begins digesting happily with a burbled “Fucking thanks!”. The hivemind of the slimes is a particularly useful thing.

Unfortunately, sending Aria there has not achieved much so far – granted, you had not hoped for anything in the first place, so there was no bar to clear. For some reason she had spent her time asking about the prince. It seems that she was just being a typical girl after all. Pity. Being a prince and not a princess, this brat she asked about is not anywhere near the top of your priority list.

Prince Feyton, son of the Crown Prince Feist, who looked a bit too hungry and ambitious even to you when you saw him at the banquet. Though there is still little you know about him at the moment, he has apparently managed to live quite luxuriously while on camp, maintaining standards of comfort befitting that of royalty. Besides that, you have also learnt that he is more popular than his father, at least amongst the knights. Earnest and willing to learn. Humble, too. In short, the type of person you liked talking with the least, and also the type of person you liked to talk at the most, if they would give you the chance. And they invariably did. However, nothing about this is particularly useful to you. After all, you have handled far deadlier and repugnant members of royalty before.

The second thing Aria managed to find out was about the notable adventurers accompanying the expedition. This was marginally more useful. All you have are names and descriptions of their feats. To gauge their true strength from this report is difficult, and you know far better than anyone else how tricky adventurers can be.

The parties said to be the strongest were:

The Dragonslashers. A party of six adventurers that had slain a mature dragon as their primary claim to fame. Dragons are said to be nigh-immortal, powerful beings on par with demon lords, and slaying one is no small feat. Their leader is a man named Edward Vast, a fighter said to have immense physical might. The other members of his party are a paladin, a ranger, a priest, a mage and a rogue. All in all, a rather well-balanced party rather reminiscent of your own.

The Blue Spinels. An all-woman, all-rounder adventuring party with five members at the moment. Aria has met one of them, a rogue by the name of Mira. They have successfully completed many difficult missions and are ranked just below the Dragonslashers, with each of the members being trained in the three disciplines of martial arts, magery and thievery. Their leader is a woman called Pucelle of the Thousand Weapons, who is said to have a weapon for each occasion. No news on where she keeps them when not in use, but you are interested in finding out.

The Trinity Coterie. A trio of archivists who specialize in exploring magical ruins of ancient civilizations. Their interest is in history and archaeology: the study of the ancients, and the fruits of their discoveries are said to fill magical libraries from here to Byarlant. Each of the trio is a powerful mage in their own right, on par with the best mages of the Royal Caster Society. Their names are stranger than most – Alpha, Beta and Gamma – and though based in Methuss, they do not seem to be locals.

There were also two adventuring parties that have made the trip from outside Methuss to answer the Guild’s call.

Lucius’s Blades, Squad Two Team Three, designated as S2T3 for short. They belong to the largest adventuring party in the world, run by the Byarlantian adventurer Gaius Lucius. Each team consists of five adventurers, and each group of ten teams belonged to a single squad. As of now there are ten squads of Lucius’s Blades. From what you hear, each squad leader takes a cut of the rewards from the teams’ completed quests, and Gaius Lucius himself takes a cut from each squad. Franchised adventuring. It appears to be the realization of an old vision you had for the future of adventuring and heroism…

Crimson Moon, a group of beastmen adventurers from Luna. Their presence is making the knights and some of the adventurers uneasy, but so far nothing has come of it. Their strength is unknown in terms of feats but vouched for by Alexander, so they have been grudgingly accepted.

You look at the silhouette of the castle being built. There is a hole that the golems are busily repairing, the aftermath of your little card game with Rin. You would have to prepare plenty of traps for the adventurers, covering the gamut of physical and magical variants. Having assaulted your fair share of fortresses ruled by demons, you are quite familiar with the preparations that you should make to greet the incoming expedition.

There is time enough to do whatever you need to do. On the other hand, you are slightly concerned about whether Aria can successfully set the narrative required to attract their interest. Even though her prying has been cautious and uneventful, you get the feeling that she will need to do more to earn their trust. Perhaps there is something you can do to assist her…

***

A. Conduct a little raid of the adventurers’ camp to raise tensions and create expectations. Nothing excites adventurers more than a little show of foreshadowing along with the display of potential loot, and nothing creates bonds between strangers better than the camaraderie formed from surviving an attack. The raid will be led by:

I. The Minotaur Firelord. They are expecting it to be around after all. It is a safe choice.
II. An angel. It can double as an attempt to tease out more information about Methuss’s supposed angel.
III. The Dark Lord. You don’t mind operating under his name. He might even welcome the increased reputation.
IV. The Second Coming of Vaalgrahf. This should stir things up a bit, possibly even enough so that they spill more information about their goals.

The lead role will be played by:

i. Yourself. It is the best way to gauge the difficulty level of your opponents and mark out any potential troublemakers.
ii. Rin. You cannot be bothered to interact with these rabble. She still owes you for destroying the cards.

***

B. You merely shoot a powerful bolt of Gigadyne into the sky to draw attention to the castle’s presence and its potential threat. That should suffice to confirm Aria’s story.

C. You do nothing. Aria should be able to handle a simple mission like this on her own.

 

Ah, Aria's adventures have come to an end. What a sad, sad state of affairs.


Yeah, a powerful bolt of Gigadyne crossed my mind. That's what Barzamites came after, searching for the ultimate artefact, and if the Duke has spies among them (he is said to have a contact with them), then that is definitely going to draw attention.

However, I just want to stir their nest a little more.

I think it's too early to declare ourselves Vaalgarf's successor, and Rinotaur should be kept as the castle's boss to reaffirm the suspicion that whatever they seek is there (and I want that role reserved for Rin, obviously).

A III i

The Dark Lord is an entity unknown to them. If Aria is saying that a castle appeared in the forest where none were before, it's another unknown variable. They will probably add two and two together and go investigate it, thinking a new player has entered the game. As far as bait goes, it should work out fine without scaring them too much.

It has a number of implication on our interaction with the actual Dark Lord, but them's the breaks.

Oh, and we should disguise ourselves at least a bit. A voice-altering helmet like Rin's might be handy.

 

How would we launch a raid led by the Minotaur Firelord, treave? Unless I missed something, we never found any evidence that it had regenerated and neither Rin nor Trider appear particularly minotaur-like or wreathed in fire.

 

Rin will support the raid with shadow magic. Bull-like armour isn't beyond her capabilities, and surely you can set yourself on fire.

 

A III ii

 

I would like to go with A x i. I don't quite care what we pretend to be, so long as we a-raiding we go and we hoard the XP for Trider. They might call in more back-up for presenting ourself as something more advanced, though; the second coming of Vaalgrahf is quite the thing to risk the life of the prince with, and they might go so far as to retreat in the face of such a danger only to come back with a much larger force. I'm inclined towards fighting them when they're putting their best foot forward in terms of military might so that we develop more quickly, but it's no good if we just get squished from them calling in all the nations to extinguish Vaalgrahf.

 

Axi

 

Zayan would probably be disappointed if you take away her toy like that.

 

What's so lurid about a corpse nailed up to a piece of wood?

Having some dead corpse hanging around as a warning isn't going to change anything, they knew the place was dangerous before coming here.