In Progress [LP CYOA] Tower

Hm, you didn't flop. What a surprise. No, I think you're committed to E. You're just trying to turn this argument into a game where it's the other side's burden to convince you and your job to remain unconvinced. It's pretty easy to win an argument with those kinds of goalposts, after all.

And here are Treave's words on A:

So we do get a head start on the knights, yes. This is explicitly confirmed.

We already know the magic lights don't go everywhere. And there are things like doors and collapsing ceilings in these ruins that make it hard for them to chase us. You're also operating under the assumption that the knights will be really eager to drop everything and run right after us. Treave, how likely are the ruins' lights to expose us? And could we please have a bit more time before votes are locked?

 

Clearly, there are reasons that A isn't guaranteed to succeed, as many as there are reasons that E isn't guaranteed to succeed.

Which is why everyone who isn't keen on autistic repeating of the same arguments ad nauseum should vote for D that we can all agree would work exactly as advertised!

 

It takes 1 second to draw a gun, and I don't trust Nathaniel's STR to prevent anything.

A gun has been drawn and a knight has been slashed, these are the facts. Shooting out the lights will complete the clusterfuck. The lights will go out with a sharp pang, so I wouldn't put it past the knights to think they're being ambushed. Sure, we'll probably escape, but there may be plenty of blood spilled. Also, since everyone's convinced Rasputin is some sorcerer, if we do decide to hit the lamp and run, we'd better not linger in the village for too long - take Rain and go, preferably without getting into any conversations with anyone.

I have A as my 2nd choice because it will lead to a very exciting series of unfortunate events, not because its a good option

 

They're trained knights, not your local militia. These guys know trigger discipline.

That's the plan yes.

This I doubt. I mentioned this several times before: Firing blindly into the darkness has a really high chance of collateral damage and friendly fire. I don't think they'd do it.

I'm actually down for taking Rain and going. And I have an ugly and strong suspicion that E and D means we end up losing Rain.

 

Nevill, would you be so kind as to present your reasoning for why you favor A? I feel like it might be helpful if someone else contributed their 2 cents to the A side of the discuss here.

 

For the record, my heart is still with A. D is more of a show of solidarity with Comrade Bulltika.

Plus, I dislike it when the arguments for my preferred option are getting stupid. Makes me question myself.

I was willing to chance running for it. Shooting in the dark is disastrous; I doubt the soldiers with their commander present would shoot blindly; they'd risk hitting Rasputin and each other. I also believe that we can get away, though I am under no impression that everyone else can. Which would mean our identity will become known and if anyone cares to follow us to the village they will have no trouble finding us.

...which is one of the reasons I think we can lose them here and now. Why chase a kid through the labyrinthine corridors and chance getting lost or worse when you can question their not-quite-buddies, come to their house and have a talk with their parents?

That's my read on the situation, anyway, and I am prepared to accept the risks that may come with it, should it get traction.

 

==Poll===
A - 5
B - 0
C - 0
D - 5
E - 10

Votes (open) Votes (close)

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

Baltika9 - D
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
A bear named spigot - E

========

Hey, no one's trying to screw the baby, okay? Good grief.

I'm sorry, little one. It's a close call, but you know how I am with bearded mentors.


Serious answer, though. We're pretty short on knowledge of her enemies, the secrets of the Tower, and the ability to effect these things right now. Father Grigory is an avenue to both, plus there's the potential that he's linked to the people that killed her parents, and we might be able to sabotage them from within.

So, yeah, flop to D guys!

Edit:

Nevill's right, tho.

 

Nevill, that's fair. I know these arguments tend to get a bit stupid after a while too. It's why I ditched the massive list of quotations style of argument a while ago, because those got very stupid. And yeah, we'll probably need to take Rain and run.

Baltika9, seriously though, what happens to Rain? Why should we just ditch her? What happened to watching her grow up?

 

Exactly. I do think that there are options that would cause them to panic and lose discipline - for example, I think a slingshot to the commander's noggin would do the trick, but shutting the lights out would not be one of them.

These knights have a tremendous amount of resources, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that if they found the one kid here (Andrew), that whoever else is here is probably one of his friends. In that case, why give chase when tracking us down is a piece of cake? I mean, they don't know that Wrinkly is a nomad who can live on his own, but that is to our benefit.

These knights took great pains to make sure that this operation was as clandestine as possible - they wouldn't have come here if they weren't certain they were undetected. Additionally, and this is speculation, I have a feeling that Nathaniel is their inside man - he's a turncoat knight either part of or working alongside a rival order. They would have to have an incredible amount of trust in him to think that he's solid and not some double agent.

Another thing; I am confident in our PC's ability to be calm under pressure, sit still and hide. In fact, that kind of toughness is probably his best quality. Two sheltered, dainty, Victorian girls? Not so much. I'm worried they'll fuck it up.

 

First off, I am being completely genuine when I say that it's a close call for me. But I still think that the best thing we can do for her is to become the meanest fish in this ocean.

And I don't like your plan at all. Raising a child on the road is a terrible idea, and we can leave her with Sophie and McClellan in a nice backwater while we learn from one of the greatest mystics of this time. I think we should follow the man, we can trust his beard at least.

 

Now that is a great point that I should have considered more thoroughly. Let's say that A works a treat and we all manage to get away clean, but with these knights still hot on our heels - what then? Do we take Rain away from a loving home and great community just so she can be with us? That's pretty selfish. If we manage to get away, and that's a big if, the more noble thing to do is to leave her here. (if we absolutely must leave, that is)

 

I think we can become the meanest fish in the ocean either way though. Our character will learn and grow. And we have a new astra (a book even) too. For all we know Rain might be able to help us unlock secrets of Astras and ruins too, if power is your concern.

We've a learned during our stay in the village on how to raise her. And we're a pretty self-sufficient type too. We can take care of her. For all we know, as an elf she'll take to a life with lots of hunting in woods with a bow and arrow like a fish in water. With A we're not locked into decisively running off with her either. We would get to regroup at the village and then decide what we think would be best for her, based on how things have turned out.

We haven't really played as a responsible big bro before (that didn't end up getting the little sister's soul sacrificed to some cult, anyway). I think we'd be really missing out to just abandon all that, to abandon Rain, just to pursue power again.

 

Judging by our track record of decision-making, then it's definitely best to leave Rain to the kindly Father McClellan and greet our new friend, Rasputin.

 

And if Scotty gets caught and squeals on us and the weird baby, then we'll have no choice but to take her from a loving home. I see no need to make her life even worse.

By the way, unless there are any last minute flops to D or A, then E has it.

Absinthe, mentors matter. A lot. We can travel a metaphorical mile by ourselves, or ten with Rasputin's help in the same amount of time. And just because we can raise Rain on the road doesn't mean we should. Like Esquilax said, doing so to LARP a responsible big brother is, ironically, irresponsible.

Sometimes, being a responsible sibling means sacrificing for the sake of the younger. I think that this is such a time.

Edit:

Doo eet.

 

I feel like leaving her behind in the village is much more likely to leave her vulnerable than if she has us as a constant protector by her side. Her life is doomed to be eventful regardless of whether or not we're there for her. She's not an ordinary child who can just live an ordinary life, and we know it. Rain's loving home is with us, not the community, anyway. She's made that clear. She really doesn't want us to abandon her, you know:

 

Just because we can, doesn't mean we should. Oh, and I have a sinking feeling that Rasputin in this setting is horrible and terrifying on a level far beyond that of our original master. I'd rather not jump the gun on the first potential mentor decision just because he vaguely, kind-sorta might be like Zhang Jue. Zhang Jue was a merciless killer with a callous disregard for human life, but he still had rules (as far as I know, he only ever killed people in the jianghu who fucked with him). This guy gives me more of Charles Manson vibe.

Christ, she's a fucking baby, what does she know? Besides, this was probably a red herring thrown in for trolling purposes to make us second-guess the decision to go into the ruins. Obviously, I'm making a decision based on preferring to be there for her, but it's hard because choosing to come to the ruins meant that life got a whole lot more complicated for us.

 

*ahem*
I told you so. I was right, again.

The best we can do now is embrace it.

 

E.

 

Ok, you were right. We should have stayed home and done the laundry if we wanted to steer clear of trouble and be consistent with the big brother route.

BUT... that doesn't mean we gotta go full retard either.

Zerafall's vote seals it. Let's call it for E.

 

It's just three dudes circlejerking at this point. treave, E has it. No Father Rasputin for us.

Thank you. For the record, I'm not actually pleased that I was right.

 

I think even Baltika made a mention of Yang Xue.

To think we were within arm's reach of being mentored by the strongest martial artist (who was also completely insane), and passed it up to play house with ChiChi.

 

I'd like to add another vote to E, just to be sure.

 

E it is then. Let's see what Rasputin wants to do.

 

Current mood:

Cautiously