Inactive [LP CYOA] Overlord

[Jester]

CAB

 

[Nevill]

Character interaction. Good. Maybe there is hope for us yet.

Oh, look, it's another kid for our collection. Maybe the angels were chronic kidnappers, after all.

Ellen lost her memory. I suppose it's good that we don't need to design a special spell for that. Though a bit of a pity, too.

Spoiler

For a moment there I wondered if her eyes would have some special properties that would allow her to see through our disguise. But she doesn't appear to be able to. Looks like the template has been modified to make her perfectly normal.

Props to Arlin. Good thinking on his part. I will leave him to conduct the interrogation, and give him some advice. Huh, a relationship advice from Erdrick. Sometimes I wonder if it doesn't make things worse for the one following it.

I would think the governor's mood to be more like 'take the magnatite and PLEASE go somewhere else, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE', and hardly fitting for a double-cross. He knows we can get to him easily. However, I think we should expect an ambush, if only because any magnatite movements should be monitored closely by a variety of parties, and Ellen's disappearancve might not have gone unnoticed. We can expect anyone, from royal agents to Byarlant spies to Athos agents to Dark Lord minions.

As for Rin... no. Not now.

I half-expect to see another shard of Athos when we arrive, though. Let's take whatever precautions we can, never approach anyone in a stabbing range, get a few protections up, and put Barbatos on full alert. Maybe his history with Athos could protect us from a direct contact now that we wield him.

A B1 B

Edit: This is one occasion where we can take her. Just... try to make sure she doesn't kill the Governor or his daughter. We might need those later. Anyone else is fair play.

I'll flop.

 

[Azira]

C
A
B

 

[ScubaV]

Ah yes, template modification. A good skill for an overlord to have:

I'll go CAB

 

[Nevill]

Regardless, that template is the origin of the body. And so it stood to reason that the aberrations spotted by Zayan were inherent to the template for Ellen’s eyes.

The answer was then simple – you needed to modify the template. But how? That was the hard part. It took the combined genius of both you and Zayan to figure out a way to manipulate the regeneration magic in the pod towards that objective. Indeed, you had not racked your brain so hard in many, many years, not since your groundbreaking magical thesis back in the Academy of Towers. Having your entire self caught up in the pursuit of a new magic that no one had ever attempted… that was quite nostalgic. You had almost forgotten how it felt to chase the unknown, to push the limits of your understanding.

Does that mean that we have unlocked fleshcrafting bodily augmentations? So we can enhance one's template if we want to, or reprogram the machine to do it for us?

How viable it is to use this new magic to surpass the limits of our troops/characters?

I suppose it would be an affront to Gods, though, which might or might not make it a dangerous prospect to pursue.

 

[treave]

You've basically unlocked (magical) genetic engineering. It'll take some time before Zayan can begin to explore the viable benefits. Making things 'normal' is the limit of your magitech at the moment.

 

[lightbane]

Well, things went way, way better than expected.

You wake up and yawn, stretching your wings. Then, as usual, you kick Lucy out of your room. For some reason, the cow had started to sneak into your bed at night over the past week

Aaw, she's like a giant dog.

Indeed, you had not racked your brain so hard in many, many years, not since your groundbreaking magical thesis back in the Academy of Towers.

I suppose that's when he developed Gygadine. Still, didn't he start his "Hero training" when he was about 14? Sounds like back at this world magical academies are serious stuff, perhaps excessively even, considering they're asking children to write thesis. Not even Koreans are that hardcore, I believe. In any case, I'm sure the academy's student council was absurdly powerful too.

Apparently, your physiology is resistant to change not only via toxins and compounds, but also on the template-level.

Sounds like he's resistant to many kinds of "status effects", barrying those based on divine magic.

In fact, he's the most twisted and dishonest of them all. If he randomly walked into someone else's house and saw a treasure chest lying in the open, he would try to loot it.

Does he have an irrational urge to break any kind of vase and/or urn he spots as well?


In any case, Arlin is truly resourceful. Too bad he was accompanied by someone who has little patience. Still, 2B2 is too cruel.

Anyway, my votes are:

1. C>B. Runde may be our best option here because she doesn't know him at all. Aria might be a good alternative but she may be easy to trick due her impatience.
2. B1. Let Erd give him some advice to both improve his disposition towards us and also to unlock a funny scene later on.
3. B. Now that her goal of turning people into demons is closer than ever, it is within our interests to gain as many affection points with Rin as possible, for not to mention there will be trouble: not from the governor, but from those shadowy guys. On the plus side, chances are Erd is immune to mind-controlling shards thanks to his stubborn behaviour, his angelic condition and Barbatos.

Also, treave, was Fortunio himself seen near the bandit camp? IIRC his position was taken over by the Byarlant newcomer.

 

[ScubaV]

Actually, I wonder if Lucy is just a super smart cow or a woman who's been polymorphed. That would certainly be consistent with the few jRPG's I've played. treave is there a way for Erdrick to tell?

 

[Nevill]

I'm not sure what kind of advice will Erd give, considering his advances with women are... Baby steps. Chances are Arlin knows more about women than Mercant himself.

It was argued - in Wisteria's chapter, I think - that Erd is one who understands the relationships and can give good advice, but who is bad at following them himself.

Rin is not in the best of her moods right now. Can't we go with someone else instead of going alone?

As long as she doesn't touch the governor or Ellen - and she isn't prone to mindless berserking despite claims to the contrary - it should end up within acceptable parameters. They are the only ones who are supposed to escape alive if anything goes down.

There is no one else to take with us into an ambush unless we want them turned into mincemeat. An ambush means they know who they are dealing with... and that means they will bring more than enough firepower (they know of our estimated capabilities after Elmont&Wist duel). Or just one little, but very nasty trick.

I might be convinced to give her a chance, given that I do not think it would be the Governor's forces, and we might want them dead if we want the Governor to remain in charge of the city.

 

[treave]

I suppose that's when he developed Gygadine. Still, didn't he start his "Hero training" when he was about 14? Sounds like back at this world magical academies are serious stuff, perhaps excessively even, considering they're asking a thesis from children.

You became the youngest graduate of the capital’s most prestigious academy, and a skilled magical researcher in your own right.

That part of the background still holds true. Erdrick was a child prodigy. He was already a graduate by the time the recruiters came knocking.

Does he have an irrational urge to break any kind of vase and/or urn he spots as well?

He does so by lifting urns over his head and tossing them.

A>B. Rin is not in the best of her moods right now. Can't we go with someone else instead of going alone? Or at least talk with her before leaving? Either case, it sounds like a trap.

Anyone else would just get in your way. There's two ways it can go down. Transaction completes without a fuss and you leave, in which case you don't need anyone else. Or violence happens in the area for some reason, in which case you can either handle it alone, or you can't and would need Rin's firepower. The deadline is coming up soon and if you don't set out from Grahferde you won't make it in time even with teleportation. Unless there is some pressing reason to talk to her that you are willing to sacrifice precious sleeping time for?

Actually, I wonder if Lucy is just a super smart cow or a woman who's been polymorphed. That would certainly be consistent with the few jRPG's I've played. treave is there a way for Erdrick to tell?

He doesn't sense the presence of any magic that could be a polymorph spell. It might be something he doesn't know about, or Lucy is just all-natural.

Also, treave, was Fortunio himself seen near the bandit camp? IIRC his position was taken over by the Byarlant newcomer.

He still had his bandits. The Bandit Queen was competing with him over control of the unaligned bandits in the area. Now he can begin to expand again.

As for his presence, after meeting up with him Rin reportedly decided to keep Fortunio and his bandits uninvolved in the direct confrontation in order to help conceal any links between them and Grahferde. But Erdrick knows it was actually because it meant more targets for her to destroy.

 

[Nevill]

Aaw, she's like a giant dog.

A dog, huh?

waking up to the sight of the cow’s big brown eyes staring lovingly at your face had given you quite a shock. It still does, though you are beginning to get used to it.

Maybe he is just misunderstanding the situation, as usual.

Spoiler

 

[Elfberserker]

B B1 B

Lets see what Aria can do.
I strongly doubt that Arlin can get anything out due bandit girl feeling pretty angry towards him.

I am interested about those cloaked people that Rin seems encounter regulary, so chatting her during the trip would be perfect opportunity to get the little amount of information we can get.

 

[Azira]

Dog? Cat? A bit of both?

I want to do this, just swap the cat with Lucy;

 

[Kipeci]

C>B B1 B - If you're voting A for the last option, I hope you'd read my reasoning for it at the bottom.

I love this update, glad that we went with my preference and got some delightful bonding time with Zayan. The Regeneration spell is nice, too, yet another justification to endlessly pump level increases into Mana and I imagine that it unlocks more interesting magical pursuits. If we can do genetic engineering of a sort, that opens the door for cloning and other good ideas. Imagine if we were to clone Zayan and find some manner to instruct classes full of supergeniuses...

Also, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to that the orange slime is already at level 15 despite just being born and it not appearing to do much of anything other than burble. That's got to be attributed to Erd's Aura of the Monster Chief, right? I guess it works really fast on the lower-class sorts of critters, and if proximity is a factor then the orange slime's hanging closer to Erd than anyone else thus far has probably helped it out a bunch. Maybe that's a part of why Lucy is hanging out in our room as much as she can... Anyway, treave, do we know how the rest of the slimes are faring? The orange slime didn't really have much opportunity to eat things of particular interest to it, but the other slimes probably had that opportunity so I'd like to know how they compare to the orange one that was just exposed to our concentrated aura.

For the actual vote:

1C > 1B : I don't think it's a great idea to have Arlin do the interrogation. While he does have a connection with her, we must remember that that's true the other way around and depending on what sort of person she is she may very well be able to use his sense of guilt about this to manipulate him. He's naive enough already, if he's uneager to press her due to his guilt we're not going to get that much. At the worst, this plants some seeds of dissent in him, and leaving him alone with her also runs the risk of riling up Petze and causing some friction there. I don't particularly care whether Aria or Runde does the interrogation, so long as it's not Arlin, but my personal preference is towards Runde as he has absolutely nothing to do with the attack on the bandits and so there's probably a fraction less resistance and hatred towards him than what will be going Aria's way. It'd be good to have Aria and Runde communicating beforehand about stuff so that Runde is informed for the interrogation, though.

2B1 : It's rare that we have an opportunity to support Arlin's position in a way that won't compromise something else we're doing, no need to be spiteful about him being attractive to the ladies. Especially since his primary romantic interest is an overgrown cat, I don't think there's any competition there. Encouraging his existing attachments also serves to build up a barrier to him ranging more freely later.

3B : I think it's best to take Rin along. I know we've been caught up in a big thing about how Rin recently, but leaving aside what treave has said about her behaving in a relatively reasonable fashion since the admitted mistake in kidnapping, she just behaved with flying colors. She kept patience with Arlin's idealistic strategy for a week, and when that provided zero results by all non-Arlin accounts she decided to act to prevent Arlin from falling in with them (a concern most people have voiced in this forum, though not directly from Erd) and to deliver the results that Erd desired. She was well on her way to doing this, killing the men and sparing the women just as she knew we preferred, when by no fault of her own one of those hacking cloak guys showed up and whisked everyone away.

She behaved pretty competently, there's no need to keep her in a punishing exile for forever just because she's messed up in the past, especially when she did well this time. I would still be reluctant to take her to extremely sensitive negotiations, particularly ones where we view any violence as utterly intolerable, but I don't view this meeting for ransom as one of those. If there's no ambush? She provides an intimidating presence, nothing wrong with that. If there is an ambush? The option does say that that makes running away without murdering someone harder, but why do we care about that if we're being attacked? Really, screw anyone who attacks us, if they get cleaved in half with a massive ax then they deserved it. Any lenience given to an attacker on the basis of their cup size or whatever is a precious mercy from Erd totally undeserved on the part of the attacker. If we are ambushed, they aren't unaware of Erd's prowess in fighting and so they're going to bring as much hostility to bear as possible; if that's the case, I know that I'd like Rin at Erd's back.

All that aside, we need to discuss the wraith-like guys that have thrown wrenches into our plan, and Rin is the one that's gotten closest to them and best knows their traits. We need to be prepared for whenever they show up again, and leaving Rin to stew at home doesn't do anything to help us prepare. If another one is present at the site of the ambush, she's also most likely to recognize them and tell us so that Erd may be ready.

 

[treave]

Also, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to that the orange slime is already at level 15 despite just being born and it not appearing to do much of anything other than burble. That's got to be attributed to Erd's Aura of the Monster Chief, right?

Oh, no, they're relatively high level slimes born with great potential. Started off near the normal slime level cap. The aura hasn't done much for them yet. You'll be able to class them up soon if you play your cards right during the upcoming adventurer event.

 

[Kipeci]

Also, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to that the orange slime is already at level 15 despite just being born and it not appearing to do much of anything other than burble. That's got to be attributed to Erd's Aura of the Monster Chief, right?

Oh, no, they're relatively high level slimes born with great potential. Started off near the normal slime level cap. The aura hasn't done much for them yet. You'll be able to class them up soon if you play your cards right during the upcoming adventurer event.

That's really good to know, I guess that means that they ought to be relatively durable compared to the slimes that were harassing the little squires? I'm not quite sure what you mean by classing them up, though. I don't think there's any chance that they're about to become slimelords already since it was said that that would take a while, so perhaps there's some sort of intermediate step where they're smarter, bigger and stronger and classified differently than a regular slime yet still a ways off from slimelord status?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

BAB

Couldn't care less about Arlin. Typical Theseus putz who thinks he can save everyone with his little betrayals but ends up making things worse in the end.

treave, why no option to let Rin handle the girl's interrogation?

 

[Nevill]

She behaved pretty competently, there's no need to keep her in a punishing exile for forever just because she's messed up in the past, especially when she did well this time. I would still be reluctant to take her to extremely sensitive negotiations, particularly ones where we view any violence as utterly intolerable, but I don't view this meeting for ransom as one of those. If there's no ambush? She provides an intimidating presence, nothing wrong with that. If there is an ambush? The option does say that that makes running away without murdering someone harder, but why do we care about that if we're being attacked? Really, screw anyone who attacks us, if they get cleaved in half with a massive ax then they deserved it. Any lenience given to an attacker on the basis of their cup size or whatever is a precious mercy from Erd totally undeserved on the part of the attacker. If we are ambushed, they aren't unaware of Erd's prowess in fighting and so they're going to bring as much hostility to bear as possible; if that's the case, I know that I'd like Rin at Erd's back.

I do agree with you on that, especially on the part that classifies this mission as a kill-em-all in case of an ambush, because I do not think the Governor is the one setting it up. He wouldn't risk it. That means the threat will come from another angle, and as far as I know the people who are out to get us, I definitely wouldn't want leaving any of their assassins alive.

There are a few other things to consider. After her mission with Fortunio, Rin might be recognizeable to the ambushing party who may yet be unaware of our connection to her and to the bandits. This could provide them extra clues to connect the dots about what is happening in the region.

However, that possibility pales in comparison to the risk of being enthralled or worse, and having no one to bail you out.

There is also a possibility that we might want to extract the Governor, now that we have an undestanding with him, and leave no witnesses as to his involvement with us. An extra person could help with that.

Tally

TOME C B1 A
Baltika9 A B1 A
Jester C A B
Nevill A B1 B
Azira C A B
ScubaV C A B
lightbane C>B B1 B
Elfberserker B B1 B
Kipeci C>B B1 B
Lambchop19 B A B
Kz3r0 A B1 B
archaen C B1 B
Grimgravy C A B

A - 3
B - 1
C - 9

B1 - 8
A - 5

A - 2
B - 11

 

[treave]

treave, why no option to let Rin handle the girl's interrogation?

Erdrick might be dense, but he's not that dense.

She's off terrorizing the landscape anyway.

 

[Kz3r0]

A B1 B

 

[TOME]

It could be that the threat is against our village.

Yes, I'm paranoid.

 

[lightbane]

For a moment there I wondered if her eyes would have some special properties that would allow her to see through our disguise. But she doesn't appear to be able to. Looks like the template has been modified to make her perfectly normal.

Unless Erd likes to wear more casual clothes when he's at Grahferde (which is quite certain, although I assume he went for his trusty cloak before doing this deed), I don't believe Ellie saw through his disguise here. Perhaps she noticed something was "off" because what her senses told her. Usually, blind people develop way more their other senses to compensate for their lack of sight, especially their sense of smell (that might change now that her sight is back though). Maybe that is what made her suspicious of Erdrick. However, even then she didn't seem to fear him much in spite of Angels' infamous reputation.

Could it be that their tales about "destroying whole cities" was an exaggeration? So far, everything seems to point out they're closer to the clasical angels, that is, all-purpose soldiers that obey their masters without hesitation nor doubt. Perhaps these Angels realized the power they had and rebelled against the Gods, bringing their own downfall. Whatever the case, it won't matter much as long as we don't encounter other Angels, Archangels or even someone who calls himself "the Light Bringer".

That reminds me: treave, since Barbatos has meet a few of these creatures during his travels, does he remember what kind of offensive techniques/magic they prefer to employ? Elemental magic (especially lightning bolts)? Swords made of holy fire? Or something more exotic such as summoning hyper-aggressive locusts or turning people into salt?

You've basically unlocked (magical) genetic engineering. It'll take some time before Zayan can begin to explore the viable benefits. Making things 'normal' is the limit of your magitech at the moment.

Now we have an excuse to finally start messing with the people of Erise Village. Healing their crippled and their wounded ones will ensure our reputation with them skyrockets, so they're more eager to perform small favours in exchange of our services. For example: their blacksmith could work together with Zayan to create a magnetite-powered chainmal shirt modified for Mercant's use, which upon shouting certain spoken command, it transforms into a full-plate armor (based on what Rin does with her shadow wings) that not only covers all of his body, but also provides him with enhanced senses and some protection against enviromental hazards.

He does so by lifting urns over his head and tossing them.

That explains why Erd is so fond of headwear: at some point the High Priest forced him to wear strange, greenish clothes that supposedly belonged to a long-dead Hero. He didn't like the attire, but he got an appreciation of hats and other accessories.

Anyone else would just get in your way. There's two ways it can go down...

I see. I thought Lucy was a given because chances are he would go to the meeting place in a cart, to spare himself from having to walk all the way here.

A dog, huh?

Maybe he is just misunderstanding the situation, as usual.

Well, you yourself said that Lucy was secretely the sister of the now-gone Minotaur Firelord.

Oh, no, they're relatively high level slimes born with great potential. Started off near the normal slime level cap. The aura hasn't done much for them yet. You'll be able to class them up soon if you play your cards right during the upcoming adventurer event.

Classing up? YAY! Metal slimes for the win!

It could be that the threat is against our village.

Yes, I'm paranoid.

That's perhaps the reason why Rin can accompany us or not: maybe the adventurer's expedition arrives way earlier than expected and we return to find the village under attack. However, if that was the case, I'm sure Zayan would be able to take down multiple enemies with her SCIENCE! gadgets and her sharp needles, so there is not a real risk yet.

In any case, I have changed my votes after reconsidering the situation (1: C>B; 2:B1; 3: B).

 

[archaen]

C B1 B

 

[treave]

Perhaps she noticed something was "off" because what her senses told her.

She's just not used to seeing.

treave, since Barbatos has meet a few of these creatures during his travels, does he remember what kind of offensive techniques/magic they prefer to employ? Elemental magic (especially lightning bolts)? Swords made of holy fire? Or something more exotic such as summoning hyper-aggressive locusts or turning people into salt?

Giant lasers, magic of all elements, morphing their feathers into countless blades and the like.

 

[Grimgravy]

CAB