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In Progress [LP CYOA] Tower

Esquilax

Arcane
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Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
Eh, I'm of the opinion that talent is more like having a very good foundation that makes the rest easier and faster to pick up. And you can develop a good foundation. Similarly, developing a higher int seems like it would help us acquire skills more quickly. It also seems like a must-have (along with Perception) for the Traps skill I want us to try out for once. We've never done high level traps before, and I want to see sort of crazy awesome happens when we start pushing Traps into 8+.

That's a good question. treave, if it's not too intrusive a question, what would high level Traps skills entail? Are they more complex mechanisms, the ability to meld traps with Astra abilities, that sort of thing?

That's a big reason why I get a bit motivated to push for learning opportunities. If we don't seize learning opportunities when we can, we're going to get pushed more into making that kind of trade-off. But if we do seize learning opportunities, we can develop a better breadth of skills without having to make those kinds of sacrifices. It's also worth noting that last time if we had picked honing our body, we wouldn't have developed a stat boost from it. We would just have learned more about our injury and why we're not recovering as well as we want to. Something tells me that further developing medicine skill (or asking the doctor) will also help us answer those kinds of questions though.

That's not the case. We would have increased our strength, as intended, it just wouldn't have restored our DEX. The training would allow us to figure out what was wrong with us, physically though. Then again though, we wouldn't have the nice lore dump either had we gone that route, so there's always trade-offs.

I agree that we definitely shouldn't lose that, but I don't think developing int requires us to lose our survivalist edge. What do you think about developing into more of an Indiana Jones type character? Dude was an archeologist, and a smart one, but certainly had his own survivalist edge. I'm leaning towards developing in that direction.

Indiana Jones is charming, witty, and played by an actor who was one of the biggest male sex symbols ever. I guess we could have the same occupation, but the similarities end there. We're not that guy.

I like the idea of a mountain man type for sure, not necessarily archaeologist though (semantics I guess, but archaeologist to me implies dusting off old fossils, the mountain man experience implies something more rugged). Someone who can brave the far reaches of The Tower, and potentially beyond. He's already curious about the world around him, and has the requisite mental/physical toughness to live in difficult conditions, so it fits.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
I like the idea of a mountain man type for sure, not necessarily archaeologist though (semantics I guess, but archaeologist to me implies dusting off old fossils, the mountain man experience implies something more rugged). Someone who can brave the far reaches of The Tower, and potentially beyond. He's already curious about the world around him, and has the requisite mental/physical toughness to live in difficult conditions, so it fits.
So you want to be Roald Amundsen without the family ship business? I guess I'm cool with that.

What I want is to experience this era and the setting to its fullest like a man living in it would: grow up with the gang in the village, fall in love (we don't have many choices, but we all agree on Elizabeth, yeah?), get conscripted into WW1, lose our childhood friends to mustard gas, become a depressed alcoholic and seek an escape through radical politics, join up with a band of anarchists/royalists (since treave already said there wouldn't be any communist parties for us), try and fail to establish an anarchist commune/royalist party, flee to the woods to escape the authorities, find the elves, try to promote anarchism/monarchism with the elves, find out they're so monarchist/anarchist that we're not really welcome there, and so on...

I'm other words, I want to have fun. I think we're putting the cart way head of the horse with all of these life- and skill- planning walls of text. We're a scarfaced kid with a baby who escaped from an abusive guardian and got taken in by a priest. It's good to be mindful of the direction we want to develop our character in, but let's keep in mind that we know barely anything about this setting, or the opportunities available to us, and focus more on the here and now.

My reticence to join this adventure is a good example of the folly of this line of thinking: I was so wrapped up in becoming a RESPONSIBILITY FISH, that I lost sight of the fact that we're a lonely ten-year old kid who should be making friends and doing the dumb shit tean-year olds do.

Yes, Lambchop19, you're right, this was fun. Almost as fun as getting conscripted into the Knights will be.
:troll:

Absinthe, I don't get your fascination with traps. I mean, sure, SMA is pretty cool, but a 10/10? No way.
 
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Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
Eh, I'm of the opinion that talent is more like having a very good foundation that makes the rest easier and faster to pick up. And you can develop a good foundation. Similarly, developing a higher int seems like it would help us acquire skills more quickly. It also seems like a must-have (along with Perception) for the Traps skill I want us to try out for once. We've never done high level traps before, and I want to see sort of crazy awesome happens when we start pushing Traps into 8+.

That's a good question. treave, if it's not too intrusive a question, what would high level Traps skills entail? Are they more complex mechanisms, the ability to meld traps with Astra abilities, that sort of thing?
My guess it will depend a lot on how we exercise Traps skills and what kinds of skills we merge with it on the way. Alchemy, Arithmetic, and Astra skills can all be used alongside Traps. Even ranged weapon skill seems like it could be used to help us set a crossbow trap or something.

That's a big reason why I get a bit motivated to push for learning opportunities. If we don't seize learning opportunities when we can, we're going to get pushed more into making that kind of trade-off. But if we do seize learning opportunities, we can develop a better breadth of skills without having to make those kinds of sacrifices. It's also worth noting that last time if we had picked honing our body, we wouldn't have developed a stat boost from it. We would just have learned more about our injury and why we're not recovering as well as we want to. Something tells me that further developing medicine skill (or asking the doctor) will also help us answer those kinds of questions though.

That's not the case. We would have increased our strength, as intended, it just wouldn't have restored our DEX. The training would allow us to figure out what was wrong with us, physically though. Then again though, we wouldn't have the nice lore dump either had we gone that route, so there's always trade-offs.
That is decidedly not what treave said:

Oh, forgot to bump it up by a point. You still have a mild limp which won't go away.
Hm. If we had gone for the physical condition one right away rather than sort of coasting and chaining ourselves to the desk, would that have both brought up the dexterity to the “as before” condition as well as boosting our strength? Or would that have just been wishful thinking on the part of the protagonist as Wrinkly started on his regimen?

You would still be where you are at the moment stat-wise, but you would have a better idea of why you aren't fully recovering.
Now that I look at it, does that mean we would've gained 1 int regardless?

I agree that we definitely shouldn't lose that, but I don't think developing int requires us to lose our survivalist edge. What do you think about developing into more of an Indiana Jones type character? Dude was an archeologist, and a smart one, but certainly had his own survivalist edge. I'm leaning towards developing in that direction.
Indiana Jones is charming, witty, and played by an actor who was one of the biggest male sex symbols ever. I guess we could have the same occupation, but the similarities end there. We're not that guy. I like the idea of a mountain man type for sure, not necessarily archaeologist though (semantics I guess, but archaeologist to me implies dusting off old fossils, the mountain man experience implies something more rugged). Someone who can brave the far reaches of The Tower, and potentially beyond. He's already curious about the world around him, and has the requisite mental/physical toughness to live in difficult conditions, so it fits.
I don't think we're going to be full-on Indiana Jones either (and I don't want to copy Indiana Jones 100% at any rate), but he was a rugged archeologist, survivalist, and adventurer while still being a learned man.

Absinthe, I don't get your fascination with traps. I mean, sure, SMA is pretty cool, but a 10/10? No way.
Plain traps don't seem that interesting, agreed, but at a high enough rank it seems like Traps will let us pull Nikola Tesla or Zhuge Liang type ridiculously amazing stunts. I'm just expecting that at a high enough stage our Traps skill will become something impressive and entertaining alright. And we've never done a Traps-focused character before, so I want to see where that leads.

Speaking of Tesla, treave, what is he doing right now anyway? I think he's alive in our timeline.
 
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2e6UcyaZqnKsBgUs7N0h9V1WFlO.jpg
 

Kipeci

Arcane
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
3,027
Location
Vicksburg
Eh, I'm of the opinion that talent is more like having a very good foundation that makes the rest easier and faster to pick up. And you can develop a good foundation. Similarly, developing a higher int seems like it would help us acquire skills more quickly. It also seems like a must-have (along with Perception) for the Traps skill I want us to try out for once. We've never done high level traps before, and I want to see sort of crazy awesome happens when we start pushing Traps into 8+.

That's a good question. treave, if it's not too intrusive a question, what would high level Traps skills entail? Are they more complex mechanisms, the ability to meld traps with Astra abilities, that sort of thing?
My guess it will depend a lot on how we exercise Traps skills and what kinds of skills we merge with it on the way. Alchemy, Arithmetic, and Astra skills can all be used alongside Traps. Even ranged weapon skill seems like it could be used to help us set a crossbow trap or something.

That's a big reason why I get a bit motivated to push for learning opportunities. If we don't seize learning opportunities when we can, we're going to get pushed more into making that kind of trade-off. But if we do seize learning opportunities, we can develop a better breadth of skills without having to make those kinds of sacrifices. It's also worth noting that last time if we had picked honing our body, we wouldn't have developed a stat boost from it. We would just have learned more about our injury and why we're not recovering as well as we want to. Something tells me that further developing medicine skill (or asking the doctor) will also help us answer those kinds of questions though.

That's not the case. We would have increased our strength, as intended, it just wouldn't have restored our DEX. The training would allow us to figure out what was wrong with us, physically though. Then again though, we wouldn't have the nice lore dump either had we gone that route, so there's always trade-offs.
That is decidedly not what treave said:

Oh, forgot to bump it up by a point. You still have a mild limp which won't go away.
Hm. If we had gone for the physical condition one right away rather than sort of coasting and chaining ourselves to the desk, would that have both brought up the dexterity to the “as before” condition as well as boosting our strength? Or would that have just been wishful thinking on the part of the protagonist as Wrinkly started on his regimen?

You would still be where you are at the moment stat-wise, but you would have a better idea of why you aren't fully recovering.
Now that I look at it, does that mean we would've gained 1 int regardless?

I agree that we definitely shouldn't lose that, but I don't think developing int requires us to lose our survivalist edge. What do you think about developing into more of an Indiana Jones type character? Dude was an archeologist, and a smart one, but certainly had his own survivalist edge. I'm leaning towards developing in that direction.
Indiana Jones is charming, witty, and played by an actor who was one of the biggest male sex symbols ever. I guess we could have the same occupation, but the similarities end there. We're not that guy. I like the idea of a mountain man type for sure, not necessarily archaeologist though (semantics I guess, but archaeologist to me implies dusting off old fossils, the mountain man experience implies something more rugged). Someone who can brave the far reaches of The Tower, and potentially beyond. He's already curious about the world around him, and has the requisite mental/physical toughness to live in difficult conditions, so it fits.
I don't think we're going to be full-on Indiana Jones either (and I don't want to copy Indiana Jones 100% at any rate), but he was a rugged archeologist, survivalist, and adventurer while still being a learned man.

Absinthe, I don't get your fascination with traps. I mean, sure, SMA is pretty cool, but a 10/10? No way.
Plain traps don't seem that interesting, agreed, but at a high enough rank it seems like Traps will let us pull Nikola Tesla or Zhuge Liang type ridiculously amazing stunts. I'm just expecting that at a high enough stage our Traps skill will become something impressive and entertaining alright. And we've never done a Traps-focused character before, so I want to see where that leads.

Speaking of Tesla, treave, what is he doing right now anyway? I think he's alive in our timeline.
In that context I was only asking treave about the dexterity stat, so when he responded back that we would have been where we are but with more knowledge on why we’re messed up it was in respect to dexterity alone. We got a +1 int for the int option, if we’d spent our time strength training or forcing ourselves to talk to people that would presumably have been directed into strength or charisma since they’re the corresponding stats.
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
Hm, maybe I was misinterpreting what treave said. He said we'd be at the same place we are now stat-wise, so I assumed he was speaking in terms of overall stats. Treave, if you could clarify?

By the way, Kipeci, you might want to cut that quote down to only the part you are responding to. It's turned into a bit of a wall of text.
 

ItsChon

Resident Zoomer
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
treave AB indeed takes it with how the current votes are distributed.

With Kz3r0s switch and the vote from a bear named spigot, it is now

===Poll===

==1st choice==
A - 10 (11)
B - 7 (9)
C - 0
D - 3 (0)
E - 1

==2nd choice==
A - 3
B - 18

Baltika9 - A A
Absinthe - A>D>C B
Nevill - AB
Lambchop19 - AB
ItsChon - A>D B
Zerafall - AB
baud - AA
Esquilax - AB
a bear named spigot - AB
kz3r0 - AB

CappenVarra - BB
hello friend - BB
Grimgravy - BB
asxetos - BB
oscar - BB>CB
ERYFKRAD - BB>DB
Egosphere - BB

Tigranes - DB>BB>CB
Azira - DB > AB
Kipeci - D>B A

Life of the Party - EB
Just depends on when you want to lock it.
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,240
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Plain traps don't seem that interesting, agreed, but at a high enough rank it seems like Traps will let us pull Nikola Tesla or Zhuge Liang type ridiculously amazing stunts. I'm just expecting that at a high enough stage our Traps skill will become something impressive and entertaining alright. And we've never done a Traps-focused character before, so I want to see where that leads.

Speaking of Tesla, treave, what is he doing right now anyway? I think he's alive in our timeline.
That's not the trap Baltika9 was on about.
Abort
Abort
Abort
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
Hm, maybe I was misinterpreting what treave said. He said we'd be at the same place we are now stat-wise, so I assumed he was speaking in terms of overall stats. Treave, if you could clarify?

What Kipeci said. I was only referring to the dex stat there.
 

treave

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Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
Into the Ruins (III)

“Quick, hide. Someone’s coming.” You hush the girls and herd them behind the metal block, extinguishing your lantern as you do so. The room turns pitch black.

“The knights?” Sophie whispers, crouching down while still keeping a respectable distance from you.

“Most likely,” replies Elizabeth, who is instead so close that you can hear her breathing in your ear. “We’re not supposed to be here, so it’s better if they don’t find us.”

“Shh.” You remind them again to be quiet. A strange, oppressive pressure is bearing down upon you. Someone… or something… is beyond that door, and they are about to enter.

The door slides open. The dim glow from the hallway illuminates multiple figures, marching into the room in single file. The lead figure is holding a large lantern to light their way. You recognize them – the same knights in white who were in the clearing earlier on. There are four of them. Scotty’s father enters shortly after, walking besides someone who looks like he could be the leader of the knights: a young, blonde man with a more ornate uniform lined with gold trim and a short mantle swishing in his wake.

Then, the last man enters. He is tall, very tall, and very thin, dressed in a black robe that looks tattered and torn, stained with the dirt of long journeys. His cheeks are sunken and a long beard covers his chin. His black, straggly hair is parted down the centre. But despite his gaunt countenance, his eyes burn with a dark intensity.

“We’re here, monk,” says Nathaniel. “Is this the room you wanted?”

“I hope we were not dragged all the way up the Tower on a wild goose chase,” says the commander, casting a cold eye around the room. “Are you sure of this?”

The bearded man walks quietly towards the centre of the room, taking slow, measured steps. “It is as God has ordained, Alexei. This is the place.” His voice is sonorous, and you can’t help but take a deep breath at the weight of it. You do not understand why, but something feels wrong about him.

“I had thought it would look grander,” sniffs Alexei. “No matter. If you are correct, then your introduction to the Tsar is secured, strannik.”

“God is always correct, and God’s words are what I obey.” The man – apparently a monk – raises a jagged, wicked knife to his palm. The blade tears the skin with ease, drawing blood. He places the bleeding hand over the crystal orb, chanting something in a language you do not understand. The red liquid drips over the orb, and orange sparks come to life within it, dancing, joining, until they form a small flame that sparkles with all the colours of the rainbow.

There is a loud rumbling that sounds like it is coming from far, far away, and tremors shake the floor. The girls grab onto each other, stifling back a scream of surprise while you steady yourself calmly. It is as if the entire ruins is about to collapse in on itself. Thankfully, that does not happen.

“It is done,” says the monk when the rumbling subsides. “The way is open. Another of the gates will have opened. We can now come one step closer to the Throne of God… All is for the sake of our Tsar.”

“Indeed, may God bless his reign,” says Alexei solemnly. “All that is left is to witness the open gate with our own eyes. The thirtieth floor… the White Wall.”

“That is where we must go, yes.” The monk stares upwards before closing his eyes. “One step closer to God.” Suddenly, his eyes snap open, and you press yourself against the metal block, ceasing your spying. “We have visitors, it seems. There seems to be someone… hiding outside the door.”

At that exact timing, the door slides open, revealing Andrew with his sword raised, and Scotty trembling behind him.

“Scotty!” shouts Nathaniel. “What in blazes are you doing here?”

“You should have kept a tighter leash on your son, Mr. Howell,” Alexei frowns. “Bring them in.”

Two of the knights step forward to execute his orders. But then, Andrew does something panicky and probably quite foolish.

“S-Stay away!” Shouting, he raises his Astra over his head. A mild blue gleam coats the sword and he swings it at the knight approaching him. The blade flashes so fast that you can hardly see it, and then you hear a strangled scream. Blood flies through the air as the knight falls back, clutching the cut across his chest. It doesn’t seem to be deep – the knight remains on his feet, and he glares at Andrew. Angered, he whips out his revolver, pointing it at the petrified boy.

“Calm down!” shouts Nathaniel, grabbing the knight’s gun-arm. “Alexei, get your men under control! They’re just kids!”

You take another deep breath and frown. Where you are, you cannot see the monk… but you have the feeling that he is looking right at the metal block you are hiding behind.

***

A. You take out your slingshot and shoot out the lantern. Returning the darkness should distract them long enough for an escape attempt.

B. You take out your slingshot and shoot at Alexei. Being the leader here, if you distract him you should also throw the knights into disorder.

C. You shoot the monk. It is risky, but he is a mysterious factor, and you don’t know what he can – and wants to do - should you give him the chance. This should hopefully create enough of an opening for your surprise escape.

D. You reveal yourself while having the girls remain hidden. If you attract their attention on purpose and play for time, the girls might be able to find an opening to sneak out.

E. You wait and see how everything plays out – it is too risky to do anything at the moment. Besides, you don’t think they are going to kill you even if they find you… probably.​
 
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ItsChon

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I am leaning towards E at the moment. Shooting out the lantern seems like a good way for utter chaos to erupt and the boys dying, as well as there being consequences even if we do manage to escape. B and C are both rather silly. Don't get me wrong, a slingshot to the dome piece can fuck someone up depending on how powerful it is and the ammunition, but I'm not particularly confident in that being very effective. D is just undesirable period, as I'm not about to risk my skin and Rain's only guardian for these two chicks, regardless of how much we want to fuck Elizabeth.

E
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
I was right, these are Russian knights. And this monk is probably Grigori Rasputin. :lol:

Since I wanted to join the Russian knights from the beginning, I'll vote D.
failing that, whack Rasputin.
That's a terrible idea. Rasputin's legendary longevity might have arisen from a series of (un)fortunate coincidences in real life, but in a setting with actual magic, I think it's best to not fuck with the magic man.

Thanks to Andrew's rash actions, I think that the options that can lead to a favorable outcome are very limited. Here's my assessment.

A will give us a head start on running away, but the hallways of these ruins are already illuminated. I'll put money on trained adults being able to outrun a child with a bum leg. Bad choice.

B is a bad idea: one of their soldiers just got wounded by a kid with a magic sword, so everyone is already on high alert. If we sneak attack their leader for +1d6 damage, then all hell might break loose and people might die. And those people probably won't be the armed and trained soldiers. Terrible choice.

Ditto for C, plus what I said above.

D will work as written, I'm sure of it. We sacrifice ourselves for the gang, but we're very likely to get conscripted. Plus, Scotty will probably try to dump the whole thing on us in front of his dad.

E is a wild card. On the one hand, if our group keeps quiet, then we'll likely be able to stay hidden. On the other hand, I'm not sure Elizabeth and/or Sophie will be able to refrain from doing something stupid to save their friends.

Astras
An unidentified book
Ho-ho, so those items actually were Astras.

Abort
Abort
Abort
It's cool if you prefer Kaiserin, bro.
 
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Egosphere

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Jan 25, 2018
Messages
1,909
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Hibernia
E > A. I'd love for the order of the eagle to lose their shit and take Andrews head off with a shashka. Just make sure we have our hands firmly on Elizabeth and Sophie's mouths when/if they do.
 

ItsChon

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
treave What are the knights wearing? Andrews sword cut one of them and they're garbed in white, so is it just basic white robes? How tall exactly is the monk dude, by our best estimate?
Since I wanted to join the Russian knightly order from the beginning, I'll vote D>E.
What about Rain, come on now man. We can't very well leave her in the village, and I'm not letting her anywhere near this Rasputin fellow. All that guff about Rain and protecting her, and now you're ready to just abandon her?
 

Nevill

Arcane
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Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Is Rasputin a Nazgul too?

Never, ever, deal with the Mad Monk. I wonder why he makes our skin crawl. Is it just our imagination, or can we really sense him and his wrongness?

I'd be willing to shoot the lantern and run like hell, but we have a lame leg, and the girls might not see in the dark all that well. Still, it's better than stoning the commander - what does that even achieve, do we expect a rout? :lol: - and... I am not sure about hitting Rasputin. We'd have to outrun the soldiers, and everyone would see us - it won't be long before they come find us in the village. Maybe the lantern is our best bet to remain unidentified. But Nathaniel have just seen Scotty, so I doubt we'd remain anonymous for much longer.

Andrew should've stabbed him instead! :argh:

A. You take out your slingshot and shoot out the lantern. Returning the darkness should distract them long enough for an escape attempt.

Let's go.

“It is done,” says the monk when the rumbling subsides. “The way is open. Another of the gates will have opened. We can now come one step closer to the Throne of God… All is for the sake of our Tsar.”

“Indeed, may God bless his reign,” says Alexei solemnly. “All that is left is to witness the open gate with our own eyes. The thirtieth floor… the White Wall.”
"Another" of the gates, huh. I wonder what is in them and why they need to be "witnessed". I also wonder how many steps are there left to go.

Edit:
E is a wild card. On the one hand, if our group keeps quiet, then we'll likely be able to stay hidden. On the other hand, I'm not sure Elizabeth and/or Sophie will be able to refrain from doing something stupid to save their friends.
We get the feeling he is looking right at our hiding place, though.
 
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Nevill

Arcane
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Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Maybe. But the way he is looking is giving us the heebie-jeebies through the metal cover.

They are about to find out there are more kids in these ruins in the next couple minutes, and then they might start looking for real.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
What about Rain, come on now man. We can't very well leave her in the village, and I'm not letting her anywhere near this Rasputin fellow. All that guff about Rain and protecting her, and now you're ready to just abandon her?
I don't think that there's any good way out of this situation: either we take one for the team and (hopefully) get to keep Rain with us, or someone gets hurt here. E is the best choice for a peaceful resolution, because it gives Scotty's dad a chance to diffuse the situation, but it's not a sure thing. It is my backup choice for exactly this reason.

I think that D will definitely work as described. It will immediately distract Rasputin, the expedition's leader, and give him reason to let the other kids go in favor of us, the disfigured child with a book Astra. Condemn me for saying this if you want, but I'm getting strong Luoying Manor vibes right now: I think that Rasputin is to us as Lord Zhang was to Jing.

And I've also been talking a lot of guff about messing with international politics from the beginning, especially if it's on the side of the Austrians, Russians, or the Ottomans. I need to back up that talk as well.
 
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Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
It doesn't seem like the knights are stupid / chaotic evil enough to shoot all over the place if the lantern goes out. Seems likely that if we did nothing, they would take Andrew and Scotty into custody via Nathaniel's mediation.

B&C really don't sound good. What's our slingshot gonna do, knock them out? There's zero reasons for it to have any better result than hitting the lantern. It's more risky, more likely to get us spotted, more likely to escalate the violence and get a kid killed.

D might have been reasonable if douchebag kid duo hadn't turned up and the knights were searching the room, but right now it seems premature. It's 50/50 as to whether Rasputin can really detect us or not.

A > E, though I'm torn 50/50 between them. Seems to me if we want to make an intervention and escape then darkness is the only thing that gives us a chance.
 

Tigranes

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10,350
I think that D will definitely work as described. It will immediately distract Rasputin, the expedition's leader, and give him reason to let the other kids go in favor of us, the disfigured child with a book Astra.

What? This isn't a bandit lord who is kidnapping the kids. Rasputin's here to do a job, which is done. He either gives absolutely zero shit about the kids, or he needs all of them captured to maintain secrecy.

I have zero idea why you think this is how it'll play out. Imagine you're on an important secret mission to open the gates, and you've completed the job, and then turns out a couple of kids snuck in for the lulz, and now another kid comes out of the room and says LET THEM GO, TAKE ME INSTEAD. Your response is "wtf dude why do you even think I care". Astra? Andrew has an astra and he just used it. The disfigured child? OOooooh he has a scar, the dude is not gonna give a shit.

Or do you want to talk to him about how you were the first in this room and found this book Astra and how the crystal ball worked? It'll probably get our Book confiscated, at the very least.
 

ItsChon

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Maybe. But the way he is looking is giving us the heebie-jeebies through the metal cover.

They are about to find out there are more kids in these ruins in the next couple minutes, and then they might start looking for real.
How do we know the two kids will rat us out? It's a chance that Scottys father takes control of the situation and gets the boys out before they can say more incriminating shit.
It doesn't seem like the knights are stupid / chaotic evil enough to shoot all over the place if the lantern goes out. Seems likely that if we did nothing, they would take Andrew and Scotty into custody via Nathaniel's mediation.
It's not necessarily the Knights I'm only worried about. What about Andrew and Scotty, they're scared shitless and Andrew has an ultra fast sword in his hand. And it has nothing to do with being stupid / chaotic evil. It's very possible to be spooked by a sudden bang as would result from a stone hitting glass, and everything turning dark, especially if they've had bad experiences in the ruins they've visited prior. No reason not to go with E.
I don't think that there's any good way out of this situation: either we take one for the team and (hopefully) get to keep Rain with us, or someone gets hurt here. E is the best choice for a peaceful resolution, because it gives Scotty's dad a chance to diffuse the situation, but it's not a sure thing. It is my backup choice for exactly this reason.

I think that D will definitely work as described. It will immediately distract Rasputin, the expedition's leader, and give him reason to let the other kids go in favor of us, the disfigured child with a book Astra. Condemn me for saying this if you want, but I'm getting strong Luoying Manor vibes right now: I think that Rasputin is to us as Lord Zhang was to Jing.

And I've also been talking a lot of guff about messing with international politics from the beginning, especially if it's on the side of the Austrians, Russians, or the Ottomans. I need to back up that talk as well.
Tigranes already roasted your little paragraph about D. It is clear that Baltika is in it for the memes first and foremost.
 

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