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Inactive [LP CYOA] Overlord

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
because I didn't expect you guys to be so Boy Scout about the whole thing
Really, now.
The Codex is filled with honest white knights gentlemen who will never lie to a lady. :martini:
You should have seen it coming from a mile away. :M
 
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Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
Hah, I was going with it because I got paranoid and figured that she was asking because she already had some strong suspicion of what happened. Her old man was the Demon Lord, so I assume that this is how succession worked. "IT IS TRADITION!" after all. I got a jolt of Shulgi paranoia and figured that she was testing to see if we were bullshitting or not.

Unless... holy shit... Tsun-Demon Princess is Shulgi! We've finally found that scheming, stargazing cunt!
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
What I will say is that the argument most in favour of it was "she probably had a good idea of what happened anyways, so maybe lying might make things worse".
I'd say that my argument was 'why not?'

It might not be the most pleasant thing to hear - and it certainly is not the most pleasant of our memories, given how we threw up right upon arrival - but it was his decision and his choice all along. It's not like we killed him - he was already dying. It's not like we tore his heart out to survive - he made the offer himself.

He wanted us to live, even at a price like that. She can like it or not (even though we didn't do it voluntarily, we are still responsible for her father's death in some way just by virtue of showing up at their castle), but she will have to accept that this was his wish and his will.

The sooner we establish that we are carrying out his legacy, the sooner she can come to terms with it.

Her old man was the Demon Lord, so I assume that this is how succession worked.
Doubt it.
 
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a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
It's possible, but not likely, true. Still, I'm with Esquillax in thinking that she probably already suspects it. I mean, I have to figure that there are a limited number of ways that we could have gotten her father's power - and that she might know at least one of them. Better to simply tell her rather than have her suspecting we are hiding it, finding out later that we hid it, and then attributing ill motives to the fact that we hid it.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Boy scout? Who's boy scout? I thought A1 was us utterly unrepentant about it.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Better to simply tell her rather than have her suspecting we are hiding it, finding out later that we hid it, and then attributing ill motives to the fact that we hid it.
This is too funny. I remember our argument in Spiral going exactly the same way, only that, y'know, you were the one arguing against it. :lol:

I don't know whether to attribute this change of heart to honest rehabilitation, or to 10/10 tits.
 

m4davis

Scholar
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
557
The thing is that our character is lazy and ultimately is it going to take more effort to tell the truth this time and deal with the likely more then manageable consequences or is it going to take more effort to lie about this shit and always remember to keep up this lie without letting anything out and then if you do slip up/she finds out without you having a way to stop her deal with the even worse consequences.
 
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treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
Oath of Partnership

The goblin village lies a short distance from the destroyed ruins. It is a higgledy-piggledy collection of huts and burrows: the goblins appear to have made themselves at home wherever they could find space. There are homes carved into the massive tree trunks which even five men would not be able to encircle. There are homes dug into the ground, their only entrance a trapdoor set into a mound. As you would find it hard to fit into one of their houses, the goblins lead you to their great hall, a well-preserved stone building that is similar in design to the ruins. Along the way, every goblin villager that you pass falls to their knees immediately, touching their foreheads to the ground in awe.

Inside the hall, there is a large statue of a horned demon with three eyes. In its right hand is a staff and in its left a coiled serpent.

“That must be their god,” says the demon princess. She begins to explain what she had found out from the goblins during the journey here. According to the goblins, they worshipped a Demon God named Vaalgrahf, who once walked amongst them ten thousand years ago, and united all of the races under his harmonious rule. He was vanquished by five heroes chosen by the Five Gods of Light, and banished along with his castle to a land of eternal darkness.

“As it so happens… that is the name of my ancestor. Vaalgrahf. Unfortunately, my family history was wiped clean. There are no records from the time before Vaalgrahf, who claimed to have single-handedly created our entire line.”

“So, the ruins that we appeared at…”

“Left behind by Vaalgrahf, I would assume,” she nods. “The goblins in this village say that out of all the races, they are the only ones to have kept the faith, believing that one day Vaalgrahf would return and deliver their salvation.”

Vaalgrahf… is that who the goblins think you are? You wonder if that land of eternal darkness refers to the Netherworld.

“Well, now that you are more rested… and clothed… it is time to tell me everything,” the princess demands as she changes the subject.

You do, leaving nothing out; including the part where you devoured her father’s heart. It is better that she finds out now rather than later: you have found that the amount of effort going into the construction and maintenance of a lie often outstrips the benefits of the lie in the first place.

"So, you were betrayed," she says, her voice filled with satisfaction. "I guess you got what you deserved, for trusting humans. Was that anger in your voice that I heard? Is the Hero upset that his friends turned on him?"

You are angry, and it is an anger that is still fresh. But are you really just upset over being betrayed by those who you thought your allies?

***
(The choice with the highest votes will be the primary trigger of your anger, with up to two secondary reasons, except for H, which will override all other choices if it wins.)

A.The Goddesses. As the beings with ultimate power over all, they also have the ultimate responsibility. From your perspective, they betrayed that responsibility.

B. Mankind as a whole. Fools enslaved by destiny, unable to break free of their own volition.

C. The Seven Kingdoms. They called you hero and made you a scapegoat against your wishes. You never asked for this.

D. Kyle, Althus and Lobelia. They betrayed you: that is the only thing you are certain of right now.

E. Mieren's death. She did not deserve it.

F. The Demon Lord, for without him this would never have happened.

G. Yourself, for not seeing it coming.

H. All of the above, equally.

***

“As for what happened to you... Father never shared the full details of his work with me, but I can hazard a guess at what did happen. He was looking for a way to turn humans back into their original form.” She does not seem overly surprised, but a troubled expression creases her elegant brow.

“By original form, you mean…”

“Demons, of course. The superior life form. You humans are just degraded devolutions of our stock,” she says arrogantly.

Right, insults. You don’t feel up to arguing with her at the moment, and you let it pass. “I don’t feel human.” You flap your lone wing to emphasize the point. “But I am not a demon either, am I?”

“That is… strange,” she admits. “Perhaps there was something else to his research that I did not know, or did not understand. Or more likely, the essence of your lower-class filth was too strong for my father’s experiment to overcome.” The demon princess looks up at the arched ceiling of the hall. “Regardless, you took my father’s heart. It was the culmination of his work. It is his legacy, and as his daughter, it belongs to me.”

“Am I supposed to just dig my own heart out and give it to you?”

“Would you?”

“No. There is no chance of that ever happening,” you reply truthfully.

“Well… even if you did, I have no use for a filthy human heart anyway. All I am interested in is my father’s legacy, and it is no guarantee that your heart will contain it.” She spins around, her black gown billowing around her, and performs a perfect curtsey. “Let us start again.”

You eye her suspiciously, though you still find time to appreciate the enticing view of her cleavage.

“I am Crown Princess Rinnefiela, the only daughter of Demon King Kimaris and sole successor to the Kingdom of Vaal. What is your name, Hero?”

You glance around restlessly. “You want my name? Did you cast a geas or something? An oath to bind me to absolute loyalty?” You cannot sense any magic at the moment, but perhaps to be on the safe side…

“Would I do something as dishonourable as that?”

She seems truly offended. You decide to believe her for now: if it is a geas that you cannot detect, then you would be helpless against her whether you gave your name or not.

“Fine. It’s Erdrick. Erdrick Mercant.”

“Erdrick… as in Erdrick, the first so-called hero that defeated Dark Lord Vaal the First? That Erdrick?”

“My parents were going through a phase.” You shrug. Why bother changing it? Sure, you had been bullied in childhood over your name, but once you had made it quite clear that you were no hero, in no uncertain terms, the bullying stopped, and they closed down the school.

Stifling her laughter, Rinnefiela composes herself and says, “Very well… Erdrick Mercant. My eyes shall be on you until the day I may regain the legacy of Demon King Kimaris, my departed father. I shall guard you from harm until that day comes to pass, as the Demon King Agares guarded his enemy’s children until he could harvest the precious gems that were their eyes. I shall not betray your trust unless it is broken first through your own actions. Will you reciprocate?” She offers her hand to you earnestly. Rinnefiela blushes, seeming to understand the awkwardness of the situation. “It is tradition,” she mutters. "An oath of partnership." You could be mistaken, but it almost sounds like a proposal of some sort. Or at least a business deal. And she does not even have the foresight to plant magical compulsion into the terms of the deal. This should be easy to ditch if you change your mind later.

Scratching the back of your head, you say, “Alright, alright. I, Erdrick Mercant, former Hero of the Seven Kingdoms and third son of the Mercant family, hereby swear that my eyes shall be on you, Rinnefiela Kimaris, until the day you regain the legacy of your father, Demon King Kimaris. I shall guard you from harm until that day comes to pass, and keep your trust for as long as you keep mine.” You take her fingers gently, lower your head, and kiss the back of her hand.

Rinnefiela stiffens. Her fingers scoot away and clench into a fist, seemingly ready to crash into your face.

“W-w-what are you doing?”

“You wanted to seal the deal, didn’t you?”

“By shaking hands!”

“You should have specified that earlier. This is how my people do it. In fact, it is the minimum level at which two people express their trust for one another, Rin.”

“Please have some more respect when addressing me, you lazy piece of slime. Do not shorten my name without my permission. It’s Rin-ne-fi-e-la,” she says slowly, as if talking to a small child, an expression of pure disdain on her face. She turns on her heel and stomps off, her large, black wings flapping unhappily as she does so.

***

That’s right. Your wings. Or rather, wing, with Rin having chopped off one of them and all. You wonder what you should do with it.

A. Take it off. The lopsided weight distribution is affecting your balance and making it hard for you to move around. Besides, you would be able to hide your strangeness more easily without those wings.

B. You keep it. It did grow from your own body after all, and it’s a rather pretty looking wing…

***

While residing in the goblin village, you are unable to communicate directly with any of them. Furthermore, it appears as if they share this language with a few other races. Relying on Rin as a translator might not be ideal in the long run…

A. You put the effort into learning the local language from scratch, getting Rin to help you. This way, your mastery will be genuine, and there will be little room for misinterpretation. You can rely on being able to speak this language whenever you want.

B. You invent an auto-translation spell that should work with any language, putting in as much effort as you would to learn a single language. It would allow you to communicate in multiple languages with ease. On the downside, you have not truly learnt anything, and if the spell fizzles, so does your comprehension of foreign languages.

C. There is no need to learn any other language when the language of electrical violence works so well. You are confident in the ability of other people to truly understand you when you are shocking them with countless volts of electricity.

D. In the penultimate expression of hardworking laziness, you decide to create as your next original magic a spell that will allow anyone to learn anything at a higher pace. You are not entirely sure where to start, as there is no prior work that you know of that hints at such a thing being possible, but you are not giving up until it is completed.
 
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a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
I
IV

V - not fair to make us pick this as we are choosing things to be angry at. otherwise I'd pick the seven kingdoms too.

H>D -
Screw those guys. The whole party was Theseus.
B- one eye, one arm, one wing - it's a motif. :M
A>C - well, I could totally see our army being unable to understand our orders because the spell fizzeled and Rin not being there because we pissed her off, so we need to learn it.
 
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asxetos

Augur
Joined
Feb 11, 2009
Messages
820
Location
Greece
G. For the lost waifu only. The rest are small fish. For ourselves
B. Keep ofc
B>D.
 
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m4davis

Scholar
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
557
E B A E just because it feels right B because we don't know this new form we don't know how these wings function and if they serve any purpose besides just being wings the gigadyne stump interaction suggest to me that they do choosing A for similar reasons as Lambchop19.
 
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Smashing Axe

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
2,835
Divinity: Original Sin
I, III, V ... Or, if available ALL OF THE ABOVE

H :x

The Goddesses used us as pawns, The Seven Kingdoms made us a scapegoat and forced us to become their patsy, those bastards killed Mieren

B

D>B - A is for suckers. Also B has more utility, we're doubtless going to encounter different languages as we go. Keep in mind that our best spells have been made from laziness. Don't put in the effort.
 
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treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
Inot fair to make us pick this as we are choosing things to be angry at. otherwise I'd pick the seven kingdoms too.

You're right, it's not fair. I'm reworking the options to make it fairer. :M

Sorry for changing this on you guys after votes have come in, but it is now:

(Pick only one choice. The choice with the highest votes will be the primary trigger of your anger, and the rest will be ranked in decreasing priority in the character's head, except for H, which will override all other choices if it wins, i.e every trigger has equal priority.)

A. The Goddesses. As the beings with ultimate power over all, they also have the ultimate responsibility. From your perspective, they betrayed that responsibility.

B. Mankind as a whole. Fools enslaved by destiny, unable to break free of their own volition.

C. The Seven Kingdoms. They called you hero and made you a scapegoat against your wishes. You never asked for this.

D. Kyle, Althus and Lobelia. They betrayed you: that is the only thing you are certain of right now.

E. Mieren's death. She did not deserve it.

F. The Demon Lord, for without him this would never have happened.

G. Yourself, for not seeing it coming.

H. All of the above, equally.

Please take note and make the necessary corrections to your vote.
 
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Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
But are you really just upset over being betrayed by those who you thought your allies?
And here is the part where the earlier choice bites Esquilax in the arse. All is as it should be. :salute:

A. The Goddesses. As the beings with ultimate power over all, they also have the ultimate responsibility. From your perspective, they betrayed that responsibility.
B. Mankind as a whole. Fools enslaved by destiny, unable to break free of their own volition.
E. Mieren's death. She did not deserve it.
She offers her hand to you earnestly. Rinnefiela blushes, seeming to understand the awkwardness of the situation. “It is tradition,” she mutters. "An oath of partnership."
Oh. Oh my. :oops:

No way we will let this lie. :M

It’s Rin-ne-fi-e-la,” she says slowly, as if talking to a small child, an expression of pure disdain on her face.
Rin it is, then. Saying five syllables when you can do with just one is too much of a bother.

That’s right. Your wings. Or rather, wing, with Rin having chopped off one of them and all. You wonder what you should do with it.
No way we are chopping off a limb to balance out the loss of another limb. What if we lose an arm next?

Nah, we should keep and restore the wing with the help of a busty priestess who would be happy to help such a cute angel. Also, restoring a traitor to the Goddesses with their power is too perfect of a troll to pass up.

B. You keep it. It did grow from your own body after all, and it’s a rather pretty looking wing…

As for the language... I guess we picked up magic as a shortcut because doing things yourself is not woth the effort. So auto-translating spell it is. Do it once, and you won't have to do it ever again. And if you magic starts fizzling out, you've got much bigger problems than mere language comprehension to worry about.

B. You invent an auto-translation spell that should work with any language, putting in as much effort as you would to learn a single language. It would allow you to communicate in multiple languages with ease. On the downside, you have not truly learnt anything, and if the spell fizzles, so does your comprehension of foreign languages.
 
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treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
If there is a mana reserve mechanism to keep spells always active i can flop to 3B.

At the moment there is none, but you could try to find if there are any such spells/abilities in existence, or attempt to invent them later on when you have the time.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
You're right, it's not fair. I'm reworking the options to make it fairer. :M
What is this sorcery?

:decline::decline::decline:

I can't be angry at a single thing!

If I had to choose, though, it would be Mieren's death since anger at that will inevitably lead to the anger against her killers and their patrons, in whose name the villains have murdered an innocent. :M
 
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Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
If we can freeform, I motion 3D - Develop a spell to increase your rate of language acquisition. That seems truest to our DDC ways. We put in the effort now so that learning shit becomes way the fuck easier later. Ideally we should be able to level this spell into something that gives us instant mastery of any language without needing to keep it active like a translator.
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
If we can freeform, I motion 3D - Develop a spell to increase your rate of language acquisition. That seems truest to our DDC ways. We put in the effort now so that learning shit becomes way the fuck easier later. Ideally we should be able to level this spell into something that gives us instant mastery of any language without needing to keep it active like a translator.

Unfortunately, I planned for that, and related abilities/spells to do with gaining knowledge quickly, to be more the domain of the Overbaby. As a mature adult, it would take you too long to develop a spell of this nature that is powerful enough to accelerate your learning capability, and as an angel, you would not even know where to start. Access to the auto-translation spell is related to the race that you chose, i.e. potential gift of tongues, and so on.

But I'll make a counter-suggestion: a spell that makes you learn everything faster, which is more fitting for a lazy person than a spell that only allows you to learn language faster. The principles behind the magic would be the same, so it would require the same effort anyway. The drawback to it is that once you begin the research, you cannot develop any new spells until it is done as it will take up all your allotted 'spell development' time.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
But I'll make a counter-suggestion: a spell that makes you learn everything faster, which is more fitting for a lazy person than a spell that only allows you to learn language faster. The principles behind the magic would be the same, so it would require the same effort anyway. The drawback to it is that once you begin the research, you cannot develop any new spells until it is done as it will take up all your allotted 'spell development' time.
As long as it allows us learn everything instantly at lvl 5. :salute:
 

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