Inactive [LP CYOA] Overlord

But possibly, noone really liked Amesdan, and they're all relieved that he's finally gone? ...

 

Uh, why would they be strangers to horrible things happening to other adventurers? It's an occupational hazard. Kinda comes with the territory. Even goblins can do something like this and have. Not seeing any reason for emotional outrage here.

 

Eh. Luring them in is hardly a problem. A or B do that perfectly fine. Any irregularities would. It's more about whether or not we want to initiate contact first.

Assuming that B and D work as intended, what would be the difference between them?

I suppose it could be the fact that a flash might be observed by some entities other than adventures...

 

A1 i > A2 ii > A3 ii

 

ITZ back!

Edrick continues to show little faith on his subordinates. And Rin an incredible restraint in spite of being a tsundere.

So is Aria contacting one of the slime girls (who's probably lurking near the camp) in order to convey her message, or is she somehow carrying a slime hidden under her attire? I believe it is the former, if only because by now Mira has already taken the opportunity to "fully explore" Aria.

Hmm, could they be?

Even furries inhuman adventurers came. I bet they have wolf-themed techniques. More importantly, their surely heightened smell sense might be a problem if they can track us back to our own headquarters.
Anyway, the course of action is clear:

AIIIi

I say this is the perfect chance to throw Barbatos a bone and do something fun and unexpected for once: Erdrick should use magic and disguise to assume a dark persona of sorts and then, with the right combination of magic, a dark and stormy weather, plus a "medieval-style" English (gladly provided by Barbatos himself), taunt the intruders while laughing evilly and killing a few of the unnamed adventurers, daring them to come at him. Anime rules say that as long as he's talking, he won't be attacked and the heroes will happily stand still while he one-shots his comrades.

A disguise like this should do the trick:

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A I ii

 

A III i

 

A IV II, why not let Rin put her demonic heritage to good use and shit on everyone's plans at the same time?

 

C

 

My guess would be that it could very well shit on ours as well.

The second coming of Vaalgarf is a big event. The first one was what united the Five Heroes and Five Gods in their struggles against him. It is a bit counter-productive to try and be discreet in Ontoglia and with Zayan/Fortunio, only to drop a bomb that would put our previous activities to shame and make them look like firecrackers in comparison.

Would be very Codex-like, though.

 

But our plan has so far been all about destabilizing the regions do that we can exploit them. The bigger the chaos, the greater the gain for us. We really have no solid assets at risk, except for Grahferde. If it works and the whole realm loses its shit, then that only gives us wiggle room.

 

Without explicitly announcing our presence, mind you. It works because things happen and people can't link them to us, so they have no common enemy to blame and turn on each other.

We could have stolen Zayan in the broad daylight and boasted about it, too. Would that destabilize the situation and cause chaos/make people lose their shit? Sure would.

We could have attacked Ontoglia instead of working with the Governor behind the scenes. Would that provide us with magnatite and put Methuss on edge? Sure would.

The goal is not just to instigate chaos. There is also a matter of remaining relatively unnoticed so that people pay you no mind while you reap the benefits.

As far as common enemies go, Vaalgarf takes it by a margin. So if we want to be consistent with our previous low-key approach, I think we should aim a bit lower.

 

It's true that we played it more low-key before. There was a rather legitimate fear that all of getting our pretty inventor dragged off to suffer either an ethics trial or some sort of Operation Paperclip snatching, our cute goblins gruesomely murdered and enslaved, the village and all of its contents being put to the torch, that sort of thing. After all, there's only so many places where Erdrick could be with his overwhelming firepower to stand guard, and with his orientation towards offense even a successful defense of Grahferde would probably have left much of it in cinders... such a confrontation was pretty likely to happen, considering that he can only keep going back there unless some other base is set up and there's no ideal alternate site that we've managed to come across.

I think that now we are starting to move a bit past those concerns so that we may act more recklessly. The village can at any moment be cloaked in a massive forcefield capable of tanking a direct strike from Erd's full-powered Gigadyne, and we are seeing already how quickly the golems can construct fortifications while they aren't even quite done in building more of their number. Zayan has plenty of further schemes to enact, and it takes a lot of time for forces sufficiently developed to crack that nut to be organized-- time that can be used well by Zayan to bolster our defenses.

I still don't think I want to go with the second coming of Vaalgrahf idea, there's simply too high a risk of spooking them so that they scatter prematurely instead of bringing them to the castle like we wanted them to. That said, I think it's okay to act in a more risky fashion than we have been to get that little bit of extra reward.

 

By the way, how did the game end? We are faster than her, and Mystic Eyes only affect spells IIRC. If we were found, how did she do it?

Of course, we also could have won and Rin just could be a bad sports about it.

Knowing our luck, though, it is very possible that she was holding the very cards we were palming.

 

That's the beauty of it, though. Vaalgraf isn't us, he wouldn't even be our sockpuppet, but Rin's. Anyone who would be looking for a demon wouldn't even find us unless we cock it up bad, since Erd is an angel.
Something that huge is the perfect smokescreen if we use it right. Whenever we need to do something big, all that has to happen is for 'Vaalgraf' to make an appearance elsewhere and we pretty much have free reign. It's absolutely a high-stakes choice, but it has potential to be both hilarious and very effective.

 

But we plan to cache in on being his successor personally... eventually. Aren't we? We are the God Emperor of Monsterkind, not Rin.

The coming of Vaalgraf also marks the Forest of Ruin as a special location, since that's where his castle was the last time. As we are getting more and more entangled with Grahferde (for example, by discovering ancient ruins that actually belonged to Vaalgraf at one time), I am less sure that making appearance elsewhere would be very convincing. I don't think that moving elsewhere would remain a very appealing option for long, especially if we find something of value down there.

Frankly, even pretending to be the Dark Lord is a big enough gamble that draws his attention (as well as that of his three still living lieutenants) to the area. That's not counting the upcoming invasion of Cloakies (surely you didn't forget about them?), and possible Athos' plots. It's a bit concerning that we are making enemies at a faster pace than we've been dealing with them.

 

Why not the minotaur then? It's what they are expecting after all.

I could be convinced to go with B also. Gigadyne is what started the whole thing and it could take some of the heat off from Erd.

 

I have a few reasons, but they might not work for everyone.
- I partially buy Baltika's rationalisation, I just disagree about the extent.
- The Dark Lord has no established traits. We can do whatever the hell we want, and it won't be out of place. We also get to shape his 'first impression' as he has not come in contact with Methuss openly yet. There may be opportunities there.
- I grew fond of the idea of Rin playing the part of the Minotaur Firelord (as the only thing the monster was known for is his ferocity and savagery, and also because she has her shadow armor that can take any shape she wants), with us supporting the show from behing the curtains (adding pyro effects, stealing important people in the midst of the battle, and generally directing the performance). The reverse... does not quite work. Yet I want to conduct the raid personally, because Rin is not particularly great with planning and on-the-fly decisions.

So to me Minotaur is claimed as Rin's character, and Erdrick should pick from the rest.

I thought about B, and found it a bit lacking. The adventurers are not the only ones watching. I do not want to give the sign that whatever caused the first flash is still there, because it's definitely not what Minotaur Firelord was known for. That artefact the Confessor-Princess was searching for was extremely important, perhaps important enough to warrant some action that we may find unwanted.

But yes, to me the preferred choices are either a Minotaur Lord (safe, if a bit boring) or the Dark One.

 

A thought has occured to me.

I remember some of us wanting to get Aria closer to the prince at some point or the other. And the girl has expressed a (voter-affected) interest in the guy, and made her interest known to the adventurers. Why not indulge it and make her turn it into something more tangible?

Erdrick thinks Aria is just a 'normal girl' after all, but can he turn it to his advantage as well?

If we get to do a battle recon, I think we could, among other things, make a show of attacking the most sacred cow in the expedition - the princeling. It would be something that both knights and adventurers would find hard to ignore, something that would force them to seek the perpetrator out. But we can do this with a twist, which would allow Aria to save him at the last possible moment and push him out of harm's way.

I have a few ideas how to communicate our plan to her without being obvious to the third parties - that is, if she does not grasp it straight away.

Having royalty owe you one is never a bad thing (provided that you can cache in on a favor properly ), and neither is being recognized as more observant/resourseful/lucky than trained bodyguards, who would not be able to stop us. On the other hand, it does not require Aria to be anything more than a right girl in the right place, and should not appear too suspicious (we do not require her to best us in single combat, only to dodge a blow). It might boost her rep and possibly position her better to learn more, perhaps from the prince himself, who is not a 'sly adult' and might fall for it out of gratitude.

It kind of ties in with our recent attempt to make Aria better at manipulation, and Erdrick's love for con jobs.

 

I don't like the idea of posing as the Dark Lord simply because we have no knowledge of his/her contacts. Who is to say the adventurers or the duke haven't run into him/her before, and the moment we announce ourselves as him/her they'll know something fishy is going on?

I thought we are using the slimes as a communication device. Or did I misunderstand that part of the update?

 

The Duke was confirmed not knowing about his existence, and Shara (who is the Duke's main informant) haven't heard of him either:

I think this is the relevant quote (open) I think this is the relevant quote (close)

No idea about the adventurers. By the sound of it, the Dark Lord is making inroads into Methuss through his lieutenants, so he is unlikely to operate by himself. Even though I can't prove it, I doubt the choice affects the adventuring party. They may act big, but they are, in the end, small fries. It's more likely to put us at odds with the Dark Lord himself, or facilitate his connections with factions that would think he opposes Methuss after our stunt. That's where I expect the consequences to lie.

Regardless, 'something fishy' is exactly the kind of thing that warrants an investigation.

It's correct, though I have no idea how she smuggled a slime in.

She can use it any time she thinks she is not observed, but we might not be able to do the same without blowing her cover away, so there might be a few difficulties on that front. I just mentioned that communication should not be a problem even if we didn't have this channel.

 

A III i

Maybe we can finally play our hand at acting like an evil overlord. "Muahahaha"s should ensue.

 

Indeed, it is concerning, but what if these enemies of ours can be manipulated into fighting one another rather than going after us? If we manage to either entice the Adventurers towards the Dark Lord, or lure the Dark Lord here so that they wear each other down, well, that's the sort of lazy success that Erdrick can be proud of. Not saying that it would be easy, of course, but since they don't know who the Dark Lord is, controlling the narrative will be easy.

A III i

 

I would say what's most likely to happen is that the Dark Lord himself will come after hearing someone was taking advantage of his reputation... Only to be followed by the Cloakies as well, the whole thing ending up in a free-for-all clusterfuck that the Codex is so fond of.

 

The only one who could take his name is the one who has heard it before. Not sure if he is famous (doesn't look like it, certainly not in these parts), so he would have to presume it was learned from TopKek who went MiA in Methuss. From there it logically follows that the pretender is the one who killed TopKek.

TRADITION demands he sends his minions in to punish the upstart - in small, manageable groups. He'll probably send his second lieutenant first.

IT IS TRADITION (open) IT IS TRADITION (close)

Tally (open) Tally (close)

Nevill A3 i
Kipeci Ax i
Kz3r0 A3 ii
Azira Ax i
archaen A1 i > A2 ii > A3 ii
lightbane A3 i
TOME A1 ii
ScubaV A3 i
Baltika9 A4 ii
Grimgravy C
Lambchop19 A3 i
Esquilax A3 i
Jester A3 i
Storyfag A IV i

A1 - 2
A3 - 7
A4 - 2
Ax - 2
C - 1

i - 10
ii - 3

OR

A1i - 1
A1ii - 1
A3i - 6
A3ii - 1
A4i - 1
A4ii - 1
Axi - 2
C - 1