Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

[LP CYOA] Pilgrimage

Grimgravy

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
3,469
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
1 rest is what the pilgrim needs.
 

Rex Feral

Prophet
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
1,300
2 for me.

This place feels creepy. Like a false sense of safety. Shit is gonna go down if we stay any longer.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
1 - I wonder if the pilgrim will finish his prayer. Besides, this is a place our friend visits often. Maybe they might know him better than he thinks.
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
Vyck's character fascinates me:

It takes a few moments for me to notice the scars: Old and faded, large ugly gouges of pale flesh running down the length of his back and across his chest and belly, a myriad of them, some jagged and short, some round and smooth. Raw and red there’s a Y-shaped scar that extends from the nape of his neck to his sternum, as if he’d been opened by a careless chirurgeon and closed back up. I am immediately reminded of practices of the mortification of flesh, though these scars seem too haphazard to be a result of that.

I don't quite know what to make of all this yet, but it's obvious that this guy is hell of a lot more dangerous than Kurze ever was. I wonder if others of this order have had a similar procedure done to them as well.

Vyck's face is that of a chameleon at the best of times. As he stares at the remains of his prized goblet, I get the impression that, this time, it is not because of his carefully-practiced switching of roles, his ability to be anything to any man; he has simply been taken by surprise and is trying to judge what to do, and perhaps what impression he wants to leave me with. The girl's hand is at her mouth, undoubtedly realizing that her life is in his hands. Fire dances on the walls, reflecting brilliantly off every shard on the floor.
...
“What will happen to her?”

Vyck shrugs lazily and sprawls backwards, beckoning for another cup. “I don't know. I don't really care, pilgrim. It was a pretty trinket, but hardly dear to me. I'm a practical man.”

I raise an eyebrow at this declaration, remembering the ornate and heavy robes he was wearing before he we came here, but decide it wisest to say nothing.

The impression that he seemed to wish to convey was that he was more of a carefree, laid-back party guy. Thankfully, everyone here seems to notice that there's a lot of menace underneath Fedor's jovial demeanor.

root, if I may, a few questions:

I notice little more than bottles of water and packages of dried food in them, normal supplies, though here and there are strange devices packed with care inside soft paper, like those I had seen the Legate holding the last night when he confronted the Second Sister
...
All communication stopped five years back, I think, and despite the blackout from the Mirthwater Optikos, it would have been hubris to suspect anything.

What sort of strange devices did Pilgrim see? (Sorry, I don't know how to roll die) Also, was Kurze part of the Optikos as well? Is that why their operation blacked out five years ago? Also:

“You can stay if you like. He usually prefers not to have people around after he’s had one of his rows with the bosses, and in the unlikely case he asks for you I’ll tell him you had a bad case of food poisoning” He snorts “I’ll have a message delivered here when everything’s sorted out so you can come.”

What do we know of the hierarchy among the Optikos? Vyck is the Quaestor's underling, but do we know who is above the Quastor in the chain of command? It's interesting that Vyck mentions bosses, as in plural, which implies that these two don't occupy a very senior position in the organization. They're clearly important in some way, and they are probably not expendable like Pilgrim is, but there seem to be quite a few people here that outrank them.

I am going with 2 based on the bad vibe I'm getting, but if I wasn't so paranoid, I'd vote to stick around and give our character's mind some rest. We certainly could use it after the sanity-straining trials that we've faced.
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
Kurze: Whatever gave you that impression? If he was, you certainly know nothing about it, nor have vyck/severian alluded to that.

Well, it was just my brain going all conspiracy-mode for a second:

Kurze hired the two of them to keep him safe as he tried to convert the local population to the Faith, many years ago, but grew both frustrated with the troglodytes’ idiocy and pleased with their adulation of him. Guardedly at first, he started to accept the troglodytes’ worship of him, viewing it as a way of bringing them in closer contact with the Flame.

Kurze disappeared into the Duskhold initially to convert the locals, and I figured if he disappeared at the same time the Mirthwater Optikos went dark five years ago, that there might be a connection between the two events. Just some paranoid Codexian speculation, basically, though as this passage shows, the timelines obviously don't add up.

[Intelligence] Severian is a lying bastard and Issus just a harmless old man wracked by grief, and the Quaestor is insinuating this stuff to poison you against Issus from the start so you won't hesitate when the time comes to hunt down that heretical scumsuckers and put him dead to rights by putting him dead in the ground.

MYSTARY - but then if Severian is a lying bastard, how would Issus have gotten sensitive knowledge like the location of the Godsblood? Assuming Issus isn't part of their order, he would have to have gotten such a crucial piece of information from a high-ranking insider.

You know nothing about this shady organization you're in apart that it exists, and that it has something called a Quaestor, which in your mind roughly translates as a '[he] who inquires'. Severian did refer to Issus as a Lord (as noted above), and Issus undisputably had knowledge of the Godsblood Pit, while Severian doesn't (or claims he doesn't), so we can conclude there is an upper hierarchy that is in overall charge of each Optikos, and they're (supposedly) the only ones to have this knowledge, which Severian implied not even the Ashguard's Grandmaster (the Khedive) or the Church's upper echelons (The Hierarchs) possess.

Well, and you. And Elim. Again, presumably. If anything, Severian strikes you as far, far more deliberately untrustworthy than Vyck could ever hope to be (who seems shifty more by nature than by design, and apparently revels in it somewhat). Such are the burdens of command. Of course, that's you using [intellection], since unlike colorful vyck, the Quaestor's range so far has only consisted of dumb peasant and deadpan scary scarred man.

The paranoia I'm experiencing already is glorious. This is going to be a lot of fun.
 
Unwanted

Bricks

Unwanted
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
36
"these are not incantations crafted to keep something out, but in"
WHAT A TWIST! You should put a "Itz not my style brah!" in there somewhere for more greatness. r0ffles!
Why was a guy who makes idiotic comics in halflife invited here anyway...?
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
root, what would have happened if we decided to stay at the brothel and fuck whores instead? I had the nagging sense of paranoia that something bad would happen and we would get offed by our "friends" because IT IS TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO COMPLETE A CYOA WITHOUT PARANOIA. Of course, if there are spoilers or you'd rather keep us in the dark for whatever reason, I understand.

Will provide my thoughts on this vote shortly.
 

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,519
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
What could go wrong with a lie? :troll:

Let's try and use this to our own gains. That's what all this is about, no? But first, a sliver of truth.

1A
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom