In Progress [LP CYOA] Tower

Stop playing selective memory games. I already mentioned how the priest managed to locate and out our friends hiding behind the door as one point of evidence. And how we have the feeling he is currently spotting us as another point of evidence. And I have given a run-down on how awful the odds of us not getting caught are: If one of the girls so much as breathes loudly, we will all get caught. If the priest has in fact noticed us just now, we will get caught. If any of the knights around here decide to explore this room, we will get caught. If Andrew and Scotty get questioned and mention us, the knights could look for us here, and we will still get caught.

You are praying that no one noticed us, no one gives us away, and they don't have any curiosity to look through this important room of theirs in detail. I find the odds of which you speak to be exceptionally bad. Just because we're hiding doesn't mean the knights won't explore the room.

Meanwhile, the odds that we can hit the lantern and then make a break for it while they're thrown into chaos are considerably better than that.

The whole point of A is that we get a head start by throwing the room into chaos by thrusting it into darkness. Please don't tell me you haven't even read the options we're voting on.

I already gave you a legitimate case several times over: We run into the winding side corridors of the ruins, and knights won't want to follow us for fear of provoking traps and/or getting lost inside the ruins. They have higher priorities on their plate than chasing kids down dangerous paths. Sure, if it's easy for them to nab us, they'll do it, but once it starts looking too dicey for comfort, they'll probably cut their losses. We could also just end up losing them outright once we start taking turns down the labyrinthine parts of the ruins.

And if we manage to escape with Andrew and Scotty, we will even have people with us who have basic intel on how to get out of the ruins.

 

And the fact he failed to spot us first despite our closer proximity negates that.

Think logically: If you have some sort of magic super senses, what are they based on?

If it's like a detect person spell, then he should have sensed us first because we are closer. Can he see through objects? Then why didn't he see us? And if he does, why hasn't he said anything yet? Does he even intend to?

If he can't do either, then it's based upon hearing and the stare we "feel" is in our imagination (and for narrative suspense) and simply staying still quiet should keep us hidden. You know, hiding.

It's still better odds than a small child outrunning grown men in a smooth lit hallway while he has a bum leg.

We can escape the room, sure, not the ruin. Remember the design of the hallway we are in. We are at the end of a long corridor with branching pathways. We don't even know where the exit is and lights follow us everywhere.

So grown knights won't want to chase children out of fear?

And how do you know Scotty's dad won't order them to chase us out of fear for his son's life (or in vengeance for it should our brilliant plan get him killed)?

Btw, that fear of traps you mentioned: how do you know we or someone in our party won't get themselves killed in one during our haste to escape?

What, like activating the orb? They've already done that. There's more than one of them to guard the monk as it is, so they don't need to babysit him or Scotty's dad.

Assuming they both live if we create pitch black chaos.

Given that they are both well connected, they're unlikely to be hauled off to jail regardless of how we ourselves escape. Your worry for them is unjustified beyond Andrew continuing a pointless fight and dying - which probably won't happen, since Scotty's dad is already talking them down.

These are men, not monsters here. Control your fight or flight responses and think about our situation logically. We don't all need to be as foolish as Andrew is.

 

Instead of trying to escape, ya'll should vote D and join 'Father Grisha's Fun And Wild Ride To The Top Of The Tower.' It's the in-character choice:

 

I can get behind risking everything to save a woman and her baby from a monster, but I'm not jumping on any grenades for the dickhead with the sword who calls us Wrinkly all the time.

I can't wait until we get to pick a new name btw and I hope "boy" cucks have learned their lesson.

 

flop: D>E

We are entirely outclassed here and again our stats are too middling to try to escape (dex) or overpower (str) anyone. Considering Rasputin survived being poisoned and shot three times irl I shudder to think how tough he might be in this setting.

Who knows the Mad Monk might even see some potential in us and take us in..

 

Then vote for D, bro.

Yeah, we should have picked Cloud.

 

What on earth are you bullshitting here? There's a far simpler explanation for this crud: He just didn't bother to focus on his senses until after he was done with the job that had so singularly occupied his attention. You want to dismiss a fact with one of your explanations, but you are ignoring the counter-explanation I presented. This isn't a discussion anymore, if you're just going to keep ignoring everything you don't like to hear and then want to pretend you have a winning argument because you can't remember anything that proves you wrong.

No? It's obviously much worse odds. There are so many ways that sitting still gets us caught easily. And let me tell you something: Trying to dismiss my arguments doesn't improve the actual odds of E succeeding. It's still just as bad of an option no matter how much you want to bury your head in the sand and reach for excuses to act dismissive.

With A we're not trying to outrun them either. We just lose them down the branching paths at the end of the corridor, and take a few more winding paths to fully lose them. We don't need to keep running for a hundred meters or something. We just need to very quickly take a couple of branching paths until they're like "we lost them" and we've made it.

The fact that there are branching pathways is precisely what helps us escape the knights, you know. After that we can take our time to try to find a proper way out of there. And this is going to go better if we have Scotty and Andrew with us.

I see you're not yet done playing stupid. It's not fear of the children. It's fear of whatever they might set off by rushing down random pathways in ruins. We already know it's possible to set off a falling ceiling trap. I'm sure there are worse traps too.

Because Scotty's dad is not their boss.

Well, we can't know that for certain. But what I can tell you is that we ourselves have a rank of Traps skill and 6 perception which will probably be some assistance in avoiding traps. And one of the girls just got a pair of magic glasses. It's still a gamble, sure, but it's a gamble I'll easily take over getting caught by the knights. We can't afford to lose Rain, and that means we need to escape.

True. But it wouldn't surprise me if they had follow-up plans. These guys don't strike me as the type with the sort of inclination or leisure time to go on wild goose chases, which is precisely what we intend to send them down if they want to chase us.

Aye, assuming that. Although as I noted, Nathaniel has already grabbed hold of the armed knight's gun arm. And I don't think they're the sort to start blindly firing into the darkness when so much friendly fire is possible if they're not careful and they're in an important room they probably don't want to damage.

You're still overlooking the very real possibility that Andrew had a reason to be picking that fight. A reason we do not want to be part of. He didn't strike us as the reckless and thoughtless type earlier. Sure, if we sit still they will probably live. But if we run for it, I think there are much better odds of us retaining our freedom and reuniting with Rain.

What on earth are you on about? E is the cowardly option to curl up in a corner, shut your eyes, and pray it will all pass you by because you're too afraid to do anything. A is the choice where we make a serious move to fix our situation.

 

A regular white uniform, as mentioned a couple of updates back.

Your running speed will not be significantly impaired, but the chances of a fall gradually increases the longer you run. Getting to the door shouldn't be an issue if you keep a low profile - you're not exactly dashing out immediately. You'll definitely get a headstart over the knights if they choose to pursue you.

You have no idea about conscription, as the tradition only says that if you find an Astra, you can go to the Knight Order of your choice and ask to be let in. Think of it as a way of securing an interview.

 

So something akin to this right?

 

That seems too dated. Probably more similar to something like:

 

Focus his senses? Wait, so are you no longer maintaining that this is an astra-granted magical sense? Or are you just saying that he didn't use this superpower until now?

I'm not ignoring anything. I've directly quoted you and responded.

I'm just trying to get you to talk specifics about what kind of power you think he has instead of just blathering about some mysterious power we don't even know exists based on this monk being able to tell someone was outside the door.

And yet they are here in the ruins, filled with said traps.

You want to assume that our traps skill of 1 and our perception 1 point above average will protect us and everyone with us against ancient traps like the one a member of our group just triggered in the last update, but you think experienced knights who likely have more training on such traps that we do will be too afraid of them to pursue us and you want to say that I'm the one who's playing stupid and ignoring things?

It's true we have a pair of magic glasses, like you said, but I hope they can detect traps and don't shoot laser beams or whatever people were swearing they did in the last update.

True. Which is why they won't listen to him if the lights go out and they feel the need to shoot to defend themselves despite your earlier assurances that him grabbing the soldier's gun-arm would prevent it.

But they might listen when a noble is demanding that they find his boy. Call it whatever you like, but having to explain why you left a noble child to rot in the ruins because you were afraid of traps/

Based on what? Again, you are assuming the monk has a power and can detect us right now.

We know what would happen if that's the case. Now what happens if it isn't? We escape unharmed. What happens if it is and we do nothing? We risk conscription, but it isn't certain. Risk vs reward. Certain escape is the reward if we're right. And uncertain chance of conscription is the risk.

You seem to only want to focus on the one scenario that's optimal to your plan succeeding. That is, that we'll shatter the light and everyone will escape unharmed. You dismiss the idea that soldiers trigger happy enough to draw their guns on a child might shoot regardless of what Scotty's dad is saying.

So again, risk reward: our risk is one of the boy's lives and still possibly being caught and conscripted. Our reward is an uncertain chance of escape.

No, it's the option to keep a cool head and hide rather than act unnecessarily rashly just because Andrew decided to attack a knight for whatever fool reason.

 

D > A

I don’t think we’d succeed in evading them (or rather, not with the girls succeeding along with us) and I’d rather be upfront about it.

I do want to be proactive in whatever we choose, though.

 

I would like to as well, but being proactive isn't always a solution.

Sometimes the best solution is doing nothing at all.

 

===Poll===
A - 5
B - 0
C - 0
D - 5
E - 9 (10)

Votes (open) Votes (close)

ERYFKRAD - A>C
Absinthe - A
Esquilax- A
Tigranes - A>E
hello friend- A

Baltika9 - D>E
Nahel - D
Kipeci - D>A
oscar - D>E
Nevill - D

ItsChon - E
Egosphere - E>A
Grimgravy - E>A
Azira - E
Lambchop19 - E>D
CappenVarra - E>A
Kz3r0 - E
asxetos - E
Life of the Party - E>D

========

Guys, we should really go for D and try to join the Mad Monk here. He's one of the foremost mystics of the era IRL, which means he's an actual mystic in the setting and a pretty good one from the looks of it. This means that he knows Astras, the background of the Tower he's investigating right now, and he may even have knowledge on elves. All of these things will be difficult to learn by ourselves, but having a mentor of his caliber will definitely make things easier. Father Grigory will be a very interesting, if terrifying, mentor, and his stats are probably similar to ours: high CON , WIL and (maybe) PER.

Now that treave said that conscription isn't even a thing, and Astras instead just give you a foot in the door if you want to join an order, the only thing we're risking with D is being recruited by Rasputin himself, while giving the girls a chance to get out of the fire. Which is, y'know, cool. Is it guaranteed that he may have an interest in us? Not at all, but I'm getting strong Luoying Manor vibes here, like I said previously. If you'll recall, Master Zhang was also an unjustly defamed personage, but we became a total badass under his tutelage.

And I know that we don't want to part with Rain, but it may be for the best. She will have Sophie and Father McClellan to raise her and they'll probably do a better job than us at providing a stable environment for her to grow up in. Meanwhile, we'll be out there getting skills and knowledge that will be relevant to her situation. And if Rasputin is really a part of the cabal that killed her mother, then we also may have the opportunity to gather information on them from the inside and sabotage them later on.

TL;DR: Joining Rasputin is a cool choice that, I think, would give us many benefits at the cost of abandoning any semblance of a normal life. If we manage to pique his interest. It's worth a shot.

And you can't argue with these moves:


Doo eet, Codex.

The Leibgvardiya, aka the Imperial Bodyguard? This isn't just some random Alexei, I strongly suspect that this is Grand Duke Alexei Romanov who is in this room. I'm so glad we're not trying to attack the guy.

 

OK, I will revise- I think that being overly passive can often be a bad idea as you totally cede the initiative to others out of your influence who may not have your interests in mind. For example, take Overlord at the state dinner when we chose to stuff our face with hors d’oeuvres rather than connecting with discontent generals, talking up the nobility, or even making that snake Athos uncomfortable. We let the people in the room least inclined to us the space and time to lay the groundwork for the “entertainment” that ensued that poisoned the well and caused us to write off the city to the extent that we didn’t blink an eye about scorching it into a molten crater in a mana-draining desert of lightning.

The girls were barely managing to hold back their screaming before, we have a guy who evidently has some very good senses to determine some kids were just out the hallway and now I expect that both of the girls are rather invested in what is going on with their crush. We may ourselves be as cool as a cucumber, but we’re not all of our little group and it only takes one screw-up. I think the knights would be more inclined to us if we announce our position rather than get discovered, and I have difficulty believing that we’d elude discovery as a collective.

 

Flopped to D. Announcing ourselves is more badass than cowering in a corner.

 

The good old "doing something must be better than doing nothing!!!" fallacy. That's serving our guy Andrew so well right now, isn't it?

E means assessing the risks, trying to conquer your fears and do what you think is the smart thing - just like A or D, if we believed that it was the best way to go.

What is not smart at all is to say "might as well blow our cover and say hi to Rasputin because uh I dunno moving my legs and mouth makes me feel like I'm being more proactive".

 

Actually, D is about getting the girls out of trouble by drawing attention to ourselves. The choice is fairly in-character.

You know, instead of being a such Rasputin-denier, you should join us and give this mysticism thing a try and flop to D>E, bro. When have I steered you wrong with respect to mentors? You too, Lambchop19.

We've been playing these CYOAs together for a long time now, you should trust my nose for good stories.

 

By the way, I'm at E>D, in case it wasn't clear.

 

So when you were saying that you weren't content with us turning our character into another Xu Jing, what you really meant it wouldn't be the same without him sucking people off. Noted.

Absinthe makes a good case for D. A superpowered monk with X-ray vision, who wouldn't want to be apprenticed by that and instead flee to the traps-filled dungeon where soldiers dare not follow?

Not to mention that with a senpai like him we won't have girl problems ever again! Then again, with a senpai like him, who would even look at girls?

I am sorry for doubting you, Baltika, flopping to D pronto.
UNLIMITED POWER and the secrets of immortality are within our grasp! Odds have never been better.

Edit:

Assuming backstab position!

 

It is possible that Rasputin knows we are here. He hasn't announced that to anyone else yet though.
Why?

I think that either he isn't sure, or he's testing/teasing us.

I don't think being rash and smashing the light source or attacking the knights would be the proper response. If anything, I think it'll damage us and our reputation with both the village of Scotsfield, and the Order.

The way I see it, we ought to either stay quietly hidden, or take a big chance and reveal ourselves.

I'd rather do the former. Calmly wait out the situation.

 

Is he sensing us, or the book, the boots and the eyeglass?

 

Maybe he heard the girls stifle a scream.

 

"We must be responsible and look after the baby!"

A couple weeks later

"wow screw the baby there's a bearded guy *swoon*"



Dex gonna Dex.

Votes close in about 5 hours.

 

E