In Progress [LP CYOA] Tower

Sounds fun, but I think if we start suggesting different books we will have 800 different ones and never get anywhere. It's not exactly going to be a life-defining choice with said book shaping ev erything we say for years to come. Probably.

 

1E Edgar Allan Poe
(correct the spelling maybe, treave - Allan, not Allen?)

2B
these kids sound like a dull bunch, who in their right mind would want to hang out with them?
if anything goes wrong they'll blame the lowest CHA dude, btw

 

CB

 

1: B > D > C

I agree with Tigranes on that.

2: A2

Onward to adventure!

 

C > E > Anything that isn't G
B - We will be the patsy if anything goes wrong with A. Don't fall into the Popular kid's trap. Plus, I bet the knights will try to steal or kill Rain if they see her so taking her into the ruins is a particularly bad idea.

 

That's a good point. We can be very sure that something will go wrong in the ruins and the kids will get themselves into trouble. So we know that the kids will try to blame it on us and sic the angry parents / knights on us, for example, or that even if we come out 'heroes', it might put Rain under the spotlight. Maybe that's an argument to leave her with granny if we do go in.

Of course, there's also the off chance that they find an astra then the spoiled 'im a heroe!!!' boy will claim credit...

 

Well, that was just to troll us, wasn't it?

Let's kill him.

1. D>Anything not G - We have wisdom, so being thoughtful and methodical would suit us. There's a great deal to be learned from Sherlock Holmes in that regard.

Those of you falling for the trap that is the Prince etc are going to get a well-deserved slap in the face. The choice flat out says you don't understand it and are just pretending. If you wanted a character that could actually use such books to his advantage, you should have gone with ambassador's child, scholar's scion or merchant's heir for the background, and not burnt wood hermit with a bow.

2. A2 - We don't need to be on nursemaid duty 24/7 just so Sophie can go fuck some guy in the woods.

 

Something is bound to go wrong but my fifth and a half sense is telling me a strange alien child might actually turn out to be more helpful than... Scotty. With all due respect to him.

But of course, you can never be too careful with toddlers, so I agree with A2.

 

Gentlemen, I think that going on this expedition is, put simply, stupid.

First of all, we aren't in top shape. Our DEX is still at 4/6. treave, I'm assuming that this isn't a typo and we still haven't recovered fully.

Something has been bothering me about this, and I finally figured out what it is: just because we chose to become an adventurous lad, this doesn't mean that we have to be a stupid adventurous lad. And this little excursion sounds extremely fucking dumb to me.
Let's take it from the top:

Let's get this straight: a special airship filled with Knights flies up to the twentieth floor to investigate ruins potentially filled with Astra. These chuckleheads then decide to go play hero and go down into these ruins to retrieve the Astras...for what, exactly?

Several items don't add up.

1. If the ruins are safe, why is there a special detachment of knights coming in by ship to investigate them? Could they be full of the Hentai Nazguls?

2. What, exactly, are they taking us along for? Andrew has the muscle to protect his group. Either he isn't confident in his ability to do so and is lying to them to make them feel safe, or he has an ulterior motive for bringing us along (I'm not saying he's Theseus-Shulgi, but...). Of course, there's a third option: he's a decent guy who's trying to help out the weird loner. It happens, good people exist.

3. Why does Andrew want to go there in the first place? He already has an Astra and, given his noble birth and talent, should have no difficulties in getting admitted into an order of his choice. Is he doing it out of concern for his friends, for adventure, or (much more plausibly) some hidden goal?

4. As others have mentioned, if things do go to shit, we are the odd one out: we have no serious connections in this village. The priest may like us, but will he stick his neck out for us in front of the Knights? And can we even afford to put ourselves in such a situation to begin with? ItsChon, you mentioned that you don't want to put our life on hold to take care of the child, but I think that this is exactly what we ought to do in this situation. Part of being a good parent/guardian, which is what we are to Rain, means that sometimes we need to put the child's needs ahead of our own.
Edit: also, I fear that we will be the first one to get ditched in the ruins if things do go wrong. Again, we are a no nobody in this village, so these children will value their own hides way ahead of ours.

5. What's their emergency plan? If there is, say, a cave in, what are they going to eat? Each other? More importantly, who are they going to call for help?

TL;DR

In other words, this whole adventure is stupid. These children want to go into ruins they know nothing about, for goals that are unclear and with a support network that is unreliable. Considering our tenuous social situation in the village, our injured leg and the infant that we need to take care of, I don't think we should be joining this expedition at all.

Hence, 2B is the smart choice for a smart adventurer.

In fact, I think we should tell Father MacClellan what it is they're trying to do, so that we don't have to set out on a search-and-rescue party when they get in trouble, which is exactly what I think will happen with 2B. However, this is the bitch snitch option, so I don't think it has a chance of winning.

I agree with the Sherlock Holmes choice. Edited my original post.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

I DID!

 

All right changing my vote to:
E
B

 

Guys, the correct book option is obviously Jane Austen. Our stoic, isolated hunter being obsessed with romance novels is hilarious and completely in-character. There are enough faggots irl with 6 INT that claim to have read Das Kapital cover to cover. I get that this is the Codex and that we aren't exactly the demographic for that kind of book, but that's why it's so perfect.

1F>D, for the reasons that Lambchop outlined.

As far as the adventure in the ruins is concerned, I don't think that they're inviting our character out for the sole purpose of being a patsy (after all, Sophie would rather not have us around at all). These kids don't seem particularly mean, just regular kids. That doesn't mean that if they get into trouble, they won't just decide to blame things on the weird new kid with the fucked up face. On to the update:

I have a feeling that Mr. Howell might know more about this situation than he's letting on to Scotty. Sure, there are ten floors further up than the one we're in, but I'd wager that these ruins have to be a pretty big deal for them to bring in this level of resources. Possessing an Astra might make you special up here in the boonies, but I have a feeling that it's completely unremarkable down in the lower floors. There's definitely something more to it.

As for what to do for this update - seems to be that it's pretty normal for us to carry Rain everywhere, so it's not weird (by our character's standards, weirdo that he is) to bring her. Still, paranoia for leaving her out of our sight aside, not sure I can justify bringing her along, though I'm happy to flop.

A2

 

Look at the B choice carefully.

Is it dangerous? Yes. Is doing chores the reason we are in this LP? No.

Those knights wouldn't be here without something very valuable being at at stake and we *might* just get a piece of it.

 

===Early poll===

==1st choice==
A - 0
B - 5
C - 4
D - 2 (4)
E - 4
F - 1 (0)
G - 3 (2)
==2nd choice==
A1 - 3
A2 - 7
B1 - 8
B2 - 1
C1 - 0
C2 - 0

votes (open) votes (close)

Tigranes - B A1
Baltika9 - G>D B1>B2
Nevill - E
Absinthe - G B>A1
ItsChon - G A1
Kz3r0 - E B
Kipeci - B>!G B2
ERYFKRAD - C A2
Nahel - D A2
Azira - B>E>F>A>C>D A2
hello friend - E A2
CappenVarra - E B
Storyfag - C B
baud - B>C A2
Grimgravy - C>E>!G B
Lambchop19 - D>!G B
Life of the Party - B>C>D A2
Esquilax - F>D A2
oscar - C>E B

===

Bro, I think we're the meatshield.

This cliche is up there with 'no one could have survived that fall' and 'I have one more day until retirement.'

Perhaps. Why do we care about this valuable something? My concern is that we may not survive this shindig, what with our still-injured leg.

 

I agree broadly with Baltika9 and wonder -

treave, could 2B be an option where we let the morons go in, and then tail them at a distance? We can catch up and join them if it's innocuous, we can call for help if we need, we can bail if we need?

 

C>E
B

While the chance to make some friends and have an adventure is tempting without our dexterity we aren't bringing much to the table beyond being a damage sponge. I also doubt that the arrival of a contingent of knights is coincidental towards the ruins discovery. Even if we do manage to find an astra it will probably be confiscated off us by one of the other loudmouthed kids blabbing.

 

The leg injury is a decent point. But with Theseus--I mean pretty boy there, we don't need to be throwing ourselves into danger like last time.

As for what concern the item is, that should be obvious: these astras are clearly the equalizer of this world. Without one, we could be bringing a knife to a gunfight. And just how are we supposed to find one on our own as a poor village freak?

Kind of pointless. Our stealth is low and we'll probably be detected.

 

That's my point: we don't know what's in the ruins. It could be a walk in the park, where we get a perfect outcome with astras, knowledge of Rain's people, a blowjob from Sophie and a hero's welcome when we get back to town with the Pope himself showing up to place a laurel wreath on our head. Or, there could be cave-ins, monsters, ghosts, betrayals and all that good stuff. Currently, we are in no shape in no shape to assume such a risk. We can't really afford failure.

First off, no one is confident that there are Astras down there. And second, what good is an astra to a dead man?

 

As if we aren't weird enough, you want us to be the village stalker?

Good point about the leg injury, Baltika9. I might flop, depending on treave's answer wrt to our recovery.

 

Sincerely I don’t think we should leave Rain alone, either be both safe at home or bring her along.

 

Assuming no Haggard et al.

B>C>D

 

We don't know what is anywhere. This is a magic tower...

All that interesting stuff, yeah.

I will admit: you're right. this is a very risky idea.

My main concerns are missing out on a potential power up and turning our character into a boring loser who stays home and changes diapers while all the cool kids are getting into adventures.

I doubt simply accompanying them will be an insta-death choice. We may have a way to back out should things get really hairy.

But again, I do concede it is a big risk for an uncertain reward.

 

Good point, forgot about that.

I have a feeling that where these knights are from Astras are as common as cars on the road are here. I think it's the ruins that are the important part, Astras have fuck-all to do with it.

He's on the level about this; the ruins are in the woods, we know how to find our way through the woods, so he's inviting us to tag along despite Sophie's protests. Don't find anything suspicious about this at least.

Now here is where the Theseus reveals himself. Part of the idea of this adventure is that he wants to look cool, which is an inherent part of the Theseus' vainglorious nature.

"Hey guys, let me tell you about how you doing this favour for me is actually me doing a favour for you! See what a great guy I am?" But I don't think that there's some hidden agenda beyond that. He wants to look cool, strong and generous by offering an Astra, most likely to his buddy Scotty. Gotta offer some crumbs to your sycophant friends that belong to powerful families, they'll be sure to return the favour later.

Actually, yeah, I think he would. Father McClellan is 100% solid if it comes down to it. Man took two stray kids into his home and has said nothing but kind words about our PC.

 

This is all I can really ask for if you're not voting for 2B: that we go into this understanding the risks.

Man, this whole thing really takes me back to the days when I was all-in on those 'high risk, high reward' options. Except here, I don't really see any solid rewards, save for skill points. Will it make our character more adventurous? Yeah, but also more impulsive and, well, dumb. Because this is what this choice is.

We'll be walking into a ruin that we know nothing about, in a tower that we know nothing about, with people whom we don't trust, two of whom definitely do not like us. You don't want a boring character, fair, but this is a Bad Idea. We're not the likable, dashing Xu Jing and I think that we need to be a bit more careful around people. In other words, you want the YOLOTIGER back. I want the RESPONSIBILITY FISH.

Really, I have spoken nothing but the truth since this LP started.

And we don't really fit in this equation. For the huge risks that we're taking, what's in it for us?

 

I do think that it’s quite likely that something will go wrong on this expedition and that (as the only one who knows about it outside of this circle) we will feel quite compelled to do something about it later even should we not go for now. If it is alone, however, I do think we’d have worse chances with just a knife than we do in a group along with someone with a magic sword. We could bring the adults in on it, but that’d be tattling.

 

Not if they're down in a pit or a cave in and we come in with a rope and a shovel. Honestly, it would be nice to play as the real Shulgi for a change: the dude that bails everyone out in the end, flips them off and goes off to do his thing.