Choose your path to greatness, obscurity or death. A multiple choice LP

[Baltika9]

B) We're risking lives otherwise.
1) Necromancy! Occultism! DEVOUR SOUL!!!

C) "She" said nothing about looking around.

 

[Curufinwe]

D4d

To elaborate the 4: keep the artifact for now. Next chance we get, go in the forest outside the keep, find a place Kyoss can remember and bury the damn thing. Deep. Then forget it's there (figuratively speaking) and go back talking to the 'child'.
Evil artifact ahoy.

 

[Bloodshifter]

D I wish to try to come back here alone to talk to the voice and maybe get inside

5 After Irene leaves *hopefully* put the artifact on the ground and speak in a loud voice that we did not know it was evil and are willing to dispose of it / hand it over to her.
5-1 if Irene doesn't leave us alone then keep a hold of the shard it was the thing that cancelled the befuddling magick in the area when we can sneak away from Irene and attempt 4

c Learn the symbols and carefully check the "warded" area look to see which symbols are active
also check the door and windows see if any runes are carved in or present all the while attempting to inform the "presence" of what is occurring in our world a very concise version *Ex. Pale men from the northern mountains attacking the kingdom with centipedes and shadows* no need to give details to someone who has been sealed for years on end.
also attempt to see where this "her" is *the one who wanted to protect this girly* ask about "her" *we may be able to get through to "her" more then this "voice"*

 

[TOME]

B4d

Later come back and try to talk to the child again.

 

[ScubaV]

C - I think we should 'fess up. We're very quickly reaching a point of no return regarding hiding this shard from our superiors. Up til now I think we can reasonably say we didn't want to bother anyone with it until we knew more and at most they would be mad, but no serious consequences. If we continue to hide the shard now that its magical nature and relationship to Avarlos has become obvious and we are found out, then say goodbye to Lord Medah and Irene if we aren't killed for treason.

If we come clean now, and only tell a select few people (Irene, the general, Lord Medah/Jacob but only in person) then we will probably be allowed to take the lead on researching it. We will also have much more resources and knowledge at our disposal than we would alone. I know a lot of you are gung-ho about learning magic, but keep in mind that Vernydar said this is quite a slim possibility and I'm not sure that blindly using an evil artifact that old spirits of Avarlos? seem to hate is the best way to go about it.

1 - We've had this thing for months, hanging on to it until we finish our survey should be fine and may tell us a bit more. But, if Irene wants it, hand it over. Demonstrate our loyalty.

c - Let's check out the exterior of the keep and then the halo to finish our survey. If there's still daylight we can check out the low buildings in more detail.

Extra note: If Irene or Kyoss has some paper, we should copy any glowing symbols we see. If not try to memorize them for now.

 

[Clotstein]

C2d

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

C) Women love honesty. Besides, I am afraid that us keeping the object a secret forever will either kill us, or void any good it would do us because we don't know anything about it.
2) We did find it at our house, so it is ours, and we should keep it until something comes of it.
d)

 

[Monty]

C - I think we should 'fess up. We're very quickly reaching a point of no return regarding hiding this shard from our superiors. Up til now I think we can reasonably say we didn't want to bother anyone with it until we knew more and at most they would be mad, but no serious consequences. If we continue to hide the shard now that its magical nature and relationship to Avarlos has become obvious and we are found out, then say goodbye to Lord Medah and Irene if we aren't killed for treason.

If we come clean now, and only tell a select few people (Irene, the general, Lord Medah/Jacob but only in person) then we will probably be allowed to take the lead on researching it. We will also have much more resources and knowledge at our disposal than we would alone. I know a lot of you are gung-ho about learning magic, but keep in mind that Vernydar said this is quite a slim possibility and I'm not sure that blindly using an evil artifact that old spirits of Avarlos? seem to hate is the best way to go about it.

1 - We've had this thing for months, hanging on to it until we finish our survey should be fine and may tell us a bit more. But, if Irene wants it, hand it over. Demonstrate our loyalty.

c - Let's check out the exterior of the keep and then the halo to finish our survey. If there's still daylight we can check out the low buildings in more detail.

Extra note: If Irene or Kyoss has some paper, we should copy any glowing symbols we see. If not try to memorize them for now.

Agree with this. But we should keep in mind that the voice was surprised we even found the house, it could be that the shard negated the magical confusion/protection it was guarded with. So although it may be 'evil' it has its uses and we should carefully weigh up the pros and cons when using it or before giving it away. So I would prefer to hang onto it even if we don't keep it on our person (and we have lived in the same house with it our entire lives, after all). And not all voices that appear to be innocent children are necessarily trustworthy, perhaps the voice would prefer it if we weren't protected by the shard?

 

[newcomer]

C2C (But give the metal to Irene if they want some proof of loyalty or know someone who are expert in this)

For last choice, A is also fine. But I suspect that we won't be able to go any further with the shard because we're seen as hostile, so better put it away first and then inspect again.
I doubt we will be able to come back to this place without the artifact, so we shouldn't throw it away just like that. There's too many things to be found out, for example the flame, the beast, and the halo.

Also, I suspect that the "She" is the woman who performed some ritual in the tomb

 

[GameOver]

Lets whip out the shard and throw it at the house, preferably towards a window. That would be a fun experiment! Or lets seek out the third house and desecrate it! In all seriousness, here are my choices:

I am switching my votes to GreyVipers suggestions, again. I don't want to tell her about the shard still but I am willing to compromise on that little tidbit.

Should you tell her something Kyoss?
A) Tell her about the voice

I believe we already told her about the not feeling alone feeling. I do not think we should inform her of the shard nor anyone else. The most likely result of that is her taking the stone and having it fall in the possession of someone higher up. If this thing is as bad as the kid is making it seem, we don't need anyone higher up screwing around with this thing.

Should you do something about the metal artifact?
4) Other, make a proposal

I think we need to hide this thing in a forest as mentioned previously. I am willing to trust this kid since he literally just stopped time and is not hurting us. I don't think there is anything to gain with holding on to this thing much longer.

And where should you go for now?
d) You should go back to camp for today, it is only early afternoon but you all deserve some rest (and some time to think)

This would give us ample time to get rid of the metal artifact somewhere it will not be found. I also think we do not need so many soldiers to tag along with us. I would like to reduce our parties numbers to Kyoss, Irene, Kalz, and two of his soldiers for the next go around. I don't think attempts at communicating with the child will yield any further results but I am not opposed to trying to communicate with him/her again. I wouldn't mind trying to find out more about this lady that is basically setting the rules for the child. Oh yeah, the scholar needs to be left at camp. He has not provided any useful information yet and I doubt he will provide anything insightful in our next search.

 

[Absinthe]

Votes: C3C

At this point it's hindering us to keep the shard hidden, and we should give the shard to Irene so she knows we're trusting her completely. And because we don't need it on us now that we know it's probably going to hurt us - or at least cost us the goodwill of these magic users we really want to befriend. Keeping the shard is going to do more harm than good right now.

Additional actions:
I also recommend we...

• Ask the scholar about the Third House of Avarlos.
• Try to learn the writing system of Avarlos from him when we have the chance. Since we can understand the language, all we need to learn is how to read, which should be very doable with our high literacy and int.
• Invite Irene to learn Avarlos writing with us.
• Ask about our mother's school.
• Use our interest in lore to get the scholar the fuck away from anyone he might blab to.
• Ask Irene if she's been briefed on the classified information about magic and try to petition Lord Medah for it.

Additionally - with Irene - we should have a conversation with the scholar where we kindly, directly, and thoroughly explain to him where he is, who he answers to, what his responsibilities are, and what his priorities are. We should also explain to him that while we need someone to assist us in matters of lore, we need some trustworthy and responsible because we can't afford liabilities. He'll get plenty more chances, if he keeps his shit in order.

The scholar may be a tool when it comes to protocol and shit, but if we explain it directly, he should get the picture. If this fails, we defer to Irene for other solutions.

 

[Anabanana]

First option: C

I agree with ScubaV, Absinthe, and Kashmir on this. Glad to see people are coming around to my PoV.

Second option: 2

Let's not give Irene something that might potentially eat her. But if she wants to take it away for safekeeping for now, let her (as people have mentioned, there doesn't seem to be any benefit in keeping it on our person). As Monty said, the shard is the only reason why we even found this mansion in the first place - we should keep it around in case we want to access the mansion and talk to the child again. It might make "She" angry though...

But She did not think you would find this place, so maybe She will be angry and do something.

I don't like the look of that "something"...

You know what? I'm going to propose an additional action. Before we leave, can we go around copying down all the tombstone carvings? If we don't want to risk pissing off whoever it is, we should probably not come back to this mansion again. So let's lift the writings off the tombs and bring them back outside where the scholar and study them at his leisure. If we bring the scholar back in to make copies, the whole venture should go faster. Vernydar, how many tombs are there in total, and how much writing is on there? How long would it take for one person to copy down all of them?

Musings: From this most recent turn of events, it seems like "She" is the wielder of the white/yellow/red flames, and "They" are the wielder of the blue/purple flames. "She" and "They" are enemies, hence why Kyoss is regarded as a bad man and why the blue/purple flame animated skeletons are being imprisoned by "She". This might have something to do with the two units killing each other. Perhaps the unit using blue/purple flames ambushed and killed the unit using white/yellow/red flames in their sleep, and only their magic user survived?

Third option: c

If we just look around, we should be fine.

At this point it's hindering us to keep the shard hidden, and we should give the shard to Irene so she knows we're trusting her completely. And because we don't need it on us now that we know it's probably going to hurt us - or at least cost us the goodwill of these magic users we really want to befriend. Keeping the shard is going to do more harm than good right now.

Additional actions:
I also recommend we...

• Ask the scholar about the Third House of Avarlos.
• Try to learn the writing system of Avarlos from him when we have the chance. Since we can understand the language, all we need to learn is how to read, which should be very doable with our high literacy and int.
• Invite Irene to learn Avarlos writing with us.
• Ask about our mother's school.
• Use our interest in lore to get the scholar the fuck away from anyone he might blab to.
• Ask Irene if she's been briefed on the classified information about magic and try to petition Lord Medah for it.

Additionally - with Irene - we should have a conversation with the scholar where we kindly, directly, and thoroughly explain to him where he is, who he answers to, what his responsibilities are, and what his priorities are. We should also explain to him that while we need someone with us to assist us in matters of lore, we need some trustworthy and responsiblebecause we can't afford liabilities. He'll get plenty more chances, if he keeps his shit in order.


The scholar may be a tool when it comes to protocol and shit, but if we explain it directly, he should get the picture. If this fails, we defer to Irene for other solutions.

+1 to all these.

I think that we still need to keep the scholar around in order to translate stuff - unless Kyoss and Irene can learn the language in a reasonable timeframe, I think it'll be easier if we just copy down all the writings and have him work on translation. It seems that we've discovered a graveyard dedicated to magic-users... perhaps we might be able to learn more about our ancestry and clues about why the hell our parents have a metal shard imbued with Avarlosian magic. Do we have a family name? How about our mother's name? Maybe we can find our ancestors' names and exploits on these tombstones...

 

[GreyViper]

"Also, She is not here. She had things to do elsewhere, and She told me not to open the door to anyone. But She also said that nobody would find this place. Maybe it is because you are carrying that THING. I do not trust you."

"She said that people were coming and that they would come into the central courtyard as well. She said She would tolerate that, and let you people look around. If you behaved. But She did not think you would find this place, so maybe She will be angry and do something."

Who is this "She" that the voice is talking about? But the voice is still speaking.

"She said She would tolerate you, but if you desecrate the Third House, She will make you stop. And you will not like that."

"I think you are a bad man, but I wanted to tell you not to desecrate the Third House. And to go away, I'm not opening the door. But if you are not a bad man, I will tell you another thing. That THING you are carrying around will Eat you inside. If you are not a bad man and just found it, stop carrying it around."

Well that was not quite what I expected, but still good stuff. Few things did catch my eye.
First we were expected, second the shard is useful with its ability to negate some wards and resist magic.

About the owner being angry, well if we don't go tomb raiding or don't dispel the house wards with our shard I dont think she will be to angry. But time will tell.

She said she would tolerate us, now is she talking about army or about US. I'm inclined to think its the army. the talk about desecrate the Third House is a bit confusing, because it could also include the keep, but most likely its the graves.


And now the most important part.

That THING you are carrying around will Eat you inside. If you are not a bad man and just found it, stop carrying it around.

I think he/she is telling the truth, maybe not all of it. BUT here is the thing its most likely a key to solve a few things. First so far it has had positive effects on us outweighing all the negatives. Second why didn't the child talk to Iriene she without a shard should be a good person then. And wouldn't it make sense for the voice to convince Irine that we with the shard are a danger. Or the shard has made Kyoss more aware of unnatural things while people without it are oblivious.
And here is the crux of the matter, so far its usefulness has outweighed its inherited danger. We cant get rid of it until we have acquired some alternative means. Yet if we keep it it will doom us slowly.



Should you tell her something Kyoss?

B) Tell her about the voice and the not-feeling alone Would be best choice in my opinion, but...
C) Tell her about everything, including the metal artifact. She is smart and its only matter of time until we have to reveal the metal artifact and what it can do to others. And there were some valid points a about scoring or loosing points with Irene. Yet she cant have the metal artifact.

E) Other, make a proposal

Tell her about everything, including the metal artifact and what the child told you. Then explain that you were not aware of the nature of the artifact, seeing it as a old family heirloom. But in light of recent revelation, you'd rather not doom anybody else because your already carrying that thing for some time now. Ask her to trust your judgment and tell her you will not hide anything you now learn from the shard and maybe it will be the key to getting past the magical traps. Explain to her that Kyoss has a theory that the shard can detect maybe disable wards.
Then recount the whole conversation with the voice and ask her to go meet with the general and revise the plan.

Should you do something about the metal artifact?
1) Do nothing for now Would be kind of foolish to ignore the danger.
2) Bring it back to the camp, put it amongst your things Also not a good choice, because it will probably help with the wards and other, magical dangers.
3) Give it to Irene or to the general (if you tell Irene everything) Problem it will doom the person carrying it, so kind of counter productive.
4) Other, make a proposal

The best option I could come up was to find a container for it, maybe a bottle and carry it with us later put it amongst your things.

And where should you go for now?

d) You should go back to camp for today, it is only early afternoon but you all deserve some rest (and some time to think)


E 4 D

Edit: I cant help but also want to try out GameOver suggestion of lets whip out the shard and throw it at the house.

 

[Hoodoo]

F) Tell Irene that you were just contacted by something in the house... very weird.. not sure what happened. Tell her that a kid like voice told you about a "She" and that you would find answers and help in the "Third House of Avarlos" and that you must go there with all speed.

1) It will be key in what we will do at the "Third House of Avarlos"

e) Ask the scholar what he knows of this third house, and then if nothing is conclusive, advance on the keep and the halo with the stone in your pocket.


Inbetween this, if you find anything holy/sacred looking, try to interact with it using the stone.
Is the Halo behind the keep in throwing distance?

 

[Vernydar]

You know what? I'm going to propose an additional action. Before we leave, can we go around copying down all the tombstone carvings? If we don't want to risk pissing off whoever it is, we should probably not come back to this mansion again. So let's lift the writings off the tombs and bring them back outside where the scholar and study them at his leisure. If we bring the scholar back in to make copies, the whole venture should go faster. Vernydar, how many tombs are there in total, and how much writing is on there? How long would it take for one person to copy down all of them?

Maybe half an hour, it's not that much.

Musings: From this most recent turn of events, it seems like "She" is the wielder of the white/yellow/red flames, and "They" are the wielder of the blue/purple flames. "She" and "They" are enemies, hence why Kyoss is regarded as a bad man and why the blue/purple flame animated skeletons are being imprisoned by "She". This might have something to do with the two units killing each other. Perhaps the unit using blue/purple flames ambushed and killed the unit using white/yellow/red flames in their sleep, and only their magic user survived?

Just as a side note, Wielder of Fire is a trademark owned by curufinwe

As for learning how to read Avarlos' language, it is possible but quite a pain. Consider it a rather hard skill.

 

[Vernydar]

Just a point, both GreyViper and hoodoo made a new proposal for the first option and named it E. If one of you could kindly change letter. And for root, who voted, please say which one of the two. Sorry for this, just necessary to keep track

 

[Baltika9]

Anabanana, then if we free the skeletons, they should be on our side? If what you say is true, then one side was a necromancer and the other a pyromancer. Or a priest.

Edit: +1 to hoodoo.

 

[Baltika9]

Maybe we should hold the shard in our hand, unwrapped and ask it what is it and what does it want? If it worked for the door...

 

[Hoodoo]

Sorry about that, its been changed.

Is the Halo within throwing distance Vernydar?

Maybe we should hold the shard in our hand, unwrapped and ask it what is it and what does it want? If it worked for the door...

TELL ME YOUR SECRETS


also I wonder if this stone eated our parents, and what would would happen if we eated the stone..

 

[Vernydar]

Sorry about that, its been changed.

Is the Halo within throwing distance Vernydar?

As in you want to throw the metal artifact XD. Well, the halo comes from behind the keep. You'd have to turn around the corner to see exactly what is going on there.

 

[Anabanana]

Anabanana, then if we free the skeletons, they should be on our side?

You're right. Let's throw the metal shard at the skeletons and see what happens.

You know what? I'm going to propose an additional action. Before we leave, can we go around copying down all the tombstone carvings? If we don't want to risk pissing off whoever it is, we should probably not come back to this mansion again. So let's lift the writings off the tombs and bring them back outside where the scholar and study them at his leisure. If we bring the scholar back in to make copies, the whole venture should go faster. Vernydar, how many tombs are there in total, and how much writing is on there? How long would it take for one person to copy down all of them?

Maybe half an hour, it's not that much.

Since it only takes half an hour, let's get the scholar back in to transcribe before we leave this mansion behind us for now.

Musings: From this most recent turn of events, it seems like "She" is the wielder of the white/yellow/red flames, and "They" are the wielder of the blue/purple flames. "She" and "They" are enemies, hence why Kyoss is regarded as a bad man and why the blue/purple flame animated skeletons are being imprisoned by "She". This might have something to do with the two units killing each other. Perhaps the unit using blue/purple flames ambushed and killed the unit using white/yellow/red flames in their sleep, and only their magic user survived?

Just as a side note, Wielder of Fire is a trademark owned by curufinwe [/quote]

*gasp* Obsidian Embers = Avarlos! It's all clear to me now!

As for learning how to read Avarlos' language, it is possible but quite a pain. Consider it a rather hard skill.

Yup. Let's get the writings transcribed, and let's set the scholar to translating while we work on the central courtyard. We don't need to waste time learning the language ourselves when we have other people doing it for us. Of course it should be an option, but right now for this mission, we should just rely on the experts for now.

 

[Baltika9]

Anabanana, then if we free the skeletons, they should be on our side?

You're right. Let's throw the metal shard at the skeletons and see what happens.

Seriously, though, I'm in favor of throwing a rock at them. If this is a necromantic amulet, we might just start a sequence of events that bring us closer to black magic.

 

[Anabanana]

Anabanana, then if we free the skeletons, they should be on our side?

You're right. Let's throw the metal shard at the skeletons and see what happens.

Seriously, though, I'm in favor of throwing a rock at them. If this is a necromantic amulet, we might just start a sequence of events that bring us closer to black magic.

I was in favor of throwing a chicken through the wards at them, but now I'm afraid of pissing "She" off. Consider my votes for animal experimentation cancelled... for now.

Also, it seems that the "feeling of not being alone" that we've had a few times before now might just be "She".

 

[TOME]

Let's not tell Irene about the shard yet. At least not because we want her to trust us completely. What will Irene think when she realize that we didn't trust her two hours ago with this information when we found similar objects projecting weird colored flames? That we only decided to tell her about it and give it to her when we found out that it is dangerous to the who possesses it? Yeah I don't think her reply will be "I knew you were trustworthy person, want to come to my tent later?". And it will probably be taken from us. In that case I can think of 3 persons who are likely to get it. Irene, the general or Medah. What happens when the shard decides to eat it's owner?

Lots of guesses but I think it's best if we hang on the shard for now.

 

[Anabanana]

Which is why I wanted to tell her before, but nobody would listen! Better we do it now and deal with the consequences, than wait till later when the damage will be even greater. If we come clean with everything now, I doubt we'll look too bad in her eyes. What do you think will happen if you don't tell her now, and then wait until even LATER to tell her? She's going to magically trust us or something? This is the point where we have to tell her, or risk ruining the trust we have with her and Lord Medah, perhaps forever.

If we tell them that the voice told us that the shard will "eat" its owner, I don't think anybody will keep it on their person.