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

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

[LP CYOA] 傳

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
Huh, arguments. That's legit.

Alright, back to the reputation point, you're still underselling the effect of saving the emperor. As for no immediate impacts:
“It was pretty obvious to me. No matter. If we play our cards right, I can declare a general amnesty for the Fire Temple. They too can be of use. Just stay sharp for any opportunities to serve the country and I’ll have my excuse,” he grins.
This is definitely immediate impact. And before you say Jing should be enough, we aren't even publicly the fire lord, so we need an Amesha Spenta to sell this. As I see it, heroics are pretty much the best way to prove they are worthy of trust in a short amount of time (and we don't have much time to spare). Shaolin would most likely be sufficiently impressed with an Amesha Spenta rescuing the emperor to back them.

As for "conflict with mysterious third party" theory, I fail to see how Armaiti is relevant there when Yunzi, Qilin, and Murong Yandi are already such a massive collection of powerhouses that nothing short of the veiled lady or Nie Wuxing's crew is likely to pose a threat. Out of the remaining three greats, all of them are on our side (the dead ones were too), Sword Saint is too, so it's not like they'll be our mysterious interloper, and the Sword Demon is already dead. So your scenario isn't very plausible to me. I guess they would have to run into Yang Xue somehow.

Sending Armaiti for extra tricks is also vacuous when there is no reasonable expectation of these tricks being meaningful (if you were gonna stomp with 3 people, the fourth's tricks are pretty irrelevant) and when potential handicaps (hurts diplomacy, endangers Armaiti herself) are being overlooked.

What this boils down to is that honestly Armaiti's power is better spent rescuing the emperor.
 
Last edited:

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
If I may distract us from calling names, there are some interesting possibilities that were brought up:
We're running with three hypothesis:

1. Veiled Woman and Shun are in cahoots to do some house-cleaning, separate the wheat from the chaff
2. Veiled Woman is a co-conspirator of Nie Wuxing and the zhang clan
3. Veiled Woman is on her own side, and dislikes Shun, badly
Now, which one is it?

I do not believe the Lady is in cahoots with Nie faction. The reason I think so is this bit:
“W-what is the meaning of this? What is going on?” shouts Nie Wuxing. Madam Nie is frowning deeply – this is the first time that you have seen her shaken – and she turns to Bai Jiutian to whisper something. Shun’s gaze is fixed on the woman, muttering something under his breath. Gao Ying is already rising from his seat, nodding at you.

You feel as if the woman is smiling directly at you from under her veil.

A thought flashes across your mind.

Shun is in danger.
It looks like even Madam Macbeth did not anticipate such a turn of events, and I assume that if they were allied, the Lady would have mentioned the fact that the Emperor was present on the island.

Sure, it is strange that Wuxing have recovered so easily, but unless we think he is more crafty than his wife to be able to have dealings behind her back, I believe there is another explanation for it.

Similarly, I do not think Shun is allied with the Lady, since I would expect at least Gao Ying to know about it, and it does not look like he did, seeing how he warned Shun about danger time and time again and judging by his actions here.

That leaves us with the last possibility, that the Lady is working on her own. Though that raises the question of what her goals are. If you simply want to murder the Emperor, there is no need to kidnap him.

Seeing how the woman smiled at us before the hell broke loose, I have a creeping feeling that this is a show directed at us. We are the ones with connections to Lady Ji, after all, and she seems to have taken a strange interest in us and the Ashina Tribe. I wonder what is this all about.
 
Last edited:

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
I wouldn't rule out Shun himself being in cahoots with the Lady.
“When did you find out?” Shun replies without any hint of fear – in fact, he almost seems amused.
He also indicated he had special plans (trollface) for what he was going to do on Taoying Island which did not seem to involve the votes. Furthermore he was somehow unaffected by the lady's techniques, and despite her anti-emperor story, she just took him hostage instead of killing him. Liu Chanfeng was hired to kill him back in the day. Why would this woman capture him alive?

As for Gao Ying, Gao Ying is an amazing liar, so it's unreasonable to expect us to read the truth out of him. This is a man who made his way to the top by lying to all the Grand Eunuchs simultaneously while secretly being Shun's man. He was like quintuple agent or some shit mired in palace politics without betraying his true allegiance.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Liu Changfeng was the agent of the Eunuchs. They are the ones who would benefit from Shun's assassination, and so she was sent out to murder him.

The veiled lady, though... I do not believe Immortals pursue the same goals and in the same way the regular humans do.

Maybe she wants something from us. Maybe she wants the Empire to crumble, and merely killing Shun is not enough for that.

Maybe she wants us to kill Shun and fulfill the prophecy.

I have no idea.

About Gao Ying... I have my suspicions as well, but it does not feel right.
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
And why would she want us to fulfill the prophecy? The only consequence to that is the whole country getting cursed.

Frankly, it's because I think Shun set this up, that I think his hint - "If we play our cards right, I can declare a general amnesty for the Fire Temple. They too can be of use. Just stay sharp for any opportunities to serve the country and I’ll have my excuse" - was him blatantly setting us up to use Armaiti to get the Fire Cult amnesty in this game. He was already hinting we'd have a good opportunity and if he wasn't really in danger, then these heroics really would just be an excuse for Shun to declare general amnesty. ...And now we'd be letting this opportunity slip through our fingers...
 
Last edited:

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Well, it is common knowledge that the prophecies exist to be fulfilled. Otherwise people would lose the faith in the supernatural. :)

It is just another way of saying 'because'.
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
I am getting a strong feeling that this mysterious veiled woman is linked to our own fate and Jing's strange qi:

Raising her hand, she plucks at the zither. The resulting note is at once – somehow – both harmonious and discordant… and powerful enough to blast you backwards through the air before you can reach her, along with Gao Ying’s needles.

Both harmonious and discordant, huh? Sort of like Luanshi Wuchangdao. This could be a coincidence, but I find it interesting that she also seems to have an aspect of both order and chaos in this particular technique.
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
Jing was born with a qi that was both chaotic and ordered.

The third state to Luanshi Wuchangdao?
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
The Ten Swords Conference V

The shadows stir.

You shift your footing mid-run, narrowly dodging a black blade aimed for your ribs. Spinning around, you smash your left foot into the side of the figure that has just attempted to ambush you. To your surprise, it manages to stop your attack, blocking your kick with its arms. At the same time, it vanishes with a dark little puff, dissipating into the air.

“Everyone, watch out!” shouts Song Lingshu.

More and more of these strange shadowy figures appear, seemingly oozing from the floor and the walls. Are they some sort of servants bound to the veiled lady? They are certainly not human – even moreso than ghosts, they seem to consist purely of yin energy. Regardless, getting tied down here would be a huge mistake. You should not waste your time with these things. “Don’t engage them! We just need to make it through!” Directing them to run for it, you grab Xuezi and begin sprinting down the corridor. The shadows are not extremely agile – it is a simple matter to evade them. Their numbers, however, are a different problem altogether. Dodging the outstretched hands and assorted weaponry, you zig-zag your way past the gauntlet.

“Watch it, you fool!” shouts Xuezi, as a pike nearly catches her hair. “That was close!”

“No harm done! Just cling on tighter!” Darting to the side, you make a sweeping strike behind you with your palm. The power of the Divine Dragon Sweeps Its Tail blows back a good dozen of the shadows, evaporating them. It also causes the wooden beams set into the walls to creak. You hope that the cracking is just a figment of your imagination. Feeling slightly uneasy at the structural integrity of this mansion, you hurry on. As you turn another corner, a series of bright flashes cause you to squint.

Ahead of you are Liu Qi and Su Liaojing, the two orthodox pugilists standing back-to-back in a large room. A horde of shadows, almost indistinguishable from one another, has surrounded them. Su lets a bunch of empty satchels drop from his hand. “It doesn’t seem to work that well. Back to the usual methods, I suppose,” he says in resignation.

“Don’t worry, brother! I have your back!” shouts Liu Qi, raising the Tai’e Sword high into the air. For a moment the shadows appear to freeze, cowering before the magnificent blade. Without hesitation, they begin attacking, exchanging blows with the throng of dark figures. You leap into the fray, dispatching two shadows with your powerful claws. Some of them even appear to be armoured, and as for others, you have a strange sense of familiarity; as if you have fought them somewhere before. The rest of your group follows, joining the battle as soon as they can.

“Man Tiger Pig!” Liu Qi is surprised by your sudden arrival, gawking even as he disarms a shadow and rams his blade into its chest. “Why are you-“

“No time for words right now. Where’s the woman?”

“There,” says Su Liaojing, one finger pointing upwards. A wooden stairway runs along the walls, spiralling upwards. “The… noble young man was chasing after her, along with his companions.” He swats away a row of shadows with his staff. “We were about to follow, but these things cut us off.” You can see what he means: although they are not extremely skilled, the shadow fighters have the overwhelming weight of superior numbers behind them. It would be too risky to use qinggong and break past with just two people, but now that you have brought reinforcements, that is no longer impossible. Still tricky, however. The battle appears to be never-ending no matter what methods you attempt.

Looking at the architecture of the room, you decide that it is impossible to temporarily clear the room with a good roar; chances are good that you would just collapse the place on top of your head. If so…

“I will do something about this,” rumbles Guo Fu. “Please make a break for it when you have the chance.” He swings the Qixing Longyuan Sword above his head before bringing it down, drawing a circle about himself. His move seem to attract the shadows, drawing their hostile intent towards him like water circling down a hole – is it another Taiji technique? Calmly, his eyes full of purpose, Guo Fu parries the closest shadow expertly. This starts a chain reaction where they topple swiftly one by one, each shadow knocking down the one next to it. “Now!”

Hugging Xuezi close to you, you take Lingshu’s hand and leap before the shadows can recover. Even so you have to contend with thrown spears, each narrowly missing you by a hair. Bouncing off the railings of the stairs, you hop to the top. Beneath you, however, it looks like Guo Fu and the others have been surrounded by the shadows again. Liu Qi and Su Liaojing fall into step with Guo Fu immediately, guarding his back in perfect harmony. “We’ll take care of things here!” calls out Liu Qi. Nodding, you shout your thanks and head for the doorway at the top of the stairs; you are almost there.

“More ants.”

The moment you leap through the door, a strong gust of wind batters you, almost blowing you back into the building. You drop down to avoid that fate, clawing the grass in a desperate effort. Xuezi lets out muffled moans of protest as you cover her with your body. Lingshu grips your hand tightly, steadying herself while she plunges the Chixiao Sword into the ground for a better hold.

You appear to have reached the top of the cliffs; the highest point of the island. Rows of multicoloured banners flutter, tossed about by the strong gale. At the end of a brick path lies a large stone altar. A long object lies upon it, wrapped in a strip of dirty yellow cloth. There is a forest of incense in front of the altar. You can hear the light tinkling of bells, floating through the air.

This place is a shrine.

Shun stands before the altar, facing the veiled lady. He casts you a quick glance and gestures briefly with his fingers. Do not worry.

Even as his clothes are whipped about by the wind, his expression remains unchanged. Xiaofang is down on the ground, but Gao Ying is nowhere to be seen. The veiled lady giggles. “So, what will you do now, little Emperor? Did you not come here for this?” Picking up the wrapped object from the altar daintily, she allows the wrappings to blow away in the wind. The yellow cloth flies into the air, its colour striking a stark contrast against the dark, cloudy sky. In no time at all it is carried out by the air currents towards the sea. What she holds in her hands is a sword: a copper sword that is rather nondescript except for inscriptions that run all along the blade.

Intense, inexplicable feelings of hatred and sorrow swarm your mind all at the same time when you see that blade. Betrayal, whispers the deepest, darkest part of your soul. And as the feelings fade, vanishing as quickly and as mysteriously as they have appeared, you somehow know that the sword in her hand is the real Xuanyuan Sword. You open your mouth to shout, but your words are blown away by the wind. Your fingers dig in deeper into the ground. Your mind begins furiously considering the things you can do right now.

“Your predecessor was a fool but rather thorough in his defenses. I predicted you would leave the safety of the capital with such a lure, but to be honest, I did not expect you would come prepared.”

“My father left behind some interesting writings in his laboratory,” smiles Shun calmly. “I do not seem to have prepared enough, though.” Somehow, their voices carry through the air softly, even through the powerful winds.

“No, you have not,” agrees the lady. “You are but a child. Did you think you could stave off the natural cycle of the world forever? All dynasties rise, have their day under the auspices of Heaven, and eventually all must fall. Such is the way of the world... a reminder that only the rule of Heaven is eternal, not man. The Tang have long, long overstayed their allotted time to rule. The Will of Heaven must be followed.”

“At the cost of the people suffering in the time it takes for a new dynasty to arise and impose order? I am not so callous that I will stand aside and watch as that happens. You can do your best with your famines and plagues, and let us see whether the capricious whims of the gods can suppress the ingenuity of man,” laughs Shun lightly.

“Yes, that is a problem, is it not?” The lady cocks her head to one side. “You have been a particularly tenacious one. All was set up to finally fall into ruins at the moment of your father’s death, but you wrested control of the empire from the wheels of fate. Still, we would have been content to allow the Tang to die a slow, shameful death at the hands of your descendants – any respite you can earn in your short lifetime is only temporary – but you just had to blaspheme against the gods by that little act in which your servants pretended to their hallowed names, didn’t you?” She laughs mockingly. “When we saw that terrible show, we decided to speed up things just a little as a reward for your hubris. And now here you are.”

“You dragged me all the way up here just so you could explain your little plan? You immortals must be really bored.”

“You can think what you want, but in truth… Yes. We are, actually.” She raises the Xuanyuan Sword, resting its point under Shun’s throat.

The wind grows stronger – you are forced to keep your head down, unable to even raise it. There must be something you can do.

There is a light cough underneath you. Looking down, you see blood trickling from Xuezi’s mouth.

“This is bad. I exerted myself too much to fight off the zither’s melody,” she gasps. “I can’t unlock my seals by myself. I need some help… I need your chaotic qi. Quickly!”

***

A. You give her your qi. You can’t see any other way out of this predicament other than for Xuezi to unlock her seals and buy you some time to retrieve Shun.

B. You cannot give her your qi; it will be severely harmful to her body if used to forcefully unblock her power. You’ll find another way out of this. You can do this.
 
Last edited:

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
Look, A is the smart choice, but I'm not a big fan of the 'severely harmful'. But Chi You and his rage are stirring in us. I want to see where B leads.
Intense, inexplicable feelings of hatred and sorrow swarm your mind all at the same time when you see that blade. Betrayal, whispers the deepest, darkest part of your soul. And as the feelings fade, vanishing as quickly and as mysteriously as they have appeared, you somehow knowthat the sword in her hand is the real Xuanyuan Sword. You open your mouth to shout, but your words are blown away by the wind. Your fingers dig in deeper into the ground. Your mind begins furiously considering the things you can do right now.
Color me curious. We knew, instinctually, that the other Xuanyuan was a fake and now this.
B
Looking at the architecture of the room, you decide that it is impossible to temporarily clear the room with a good roar; chances are good that you would just collapse the place on top of your head. If so…
:lol:
 
Last edited:

asxetos

Augur
Joined
Feb 11, 2009
Messages
820
Location
Greece
Shun stands before the altar, facing the veiled lady. He casts you a quick glance and gestures briefly with his fingers. Do not worry.
Shun has a plan. If we go with B i think we might act rushly and interfere in a bad way.
Plus, Jing is not one to abandon a friend in need.
Tentatively voting A.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
Nah, I think it's too late for cautious action. If we unlock Xuezi, I doubt that our little sister will be in the chillest of moods. If we go in there ourselves, then we'll be fighting to our last here (ffs, she has a sword under Shun's neck, what else is Jing going to do?)
 

Kz3r0

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
27,012
To all the guys that like the Gawd of War ending, do you realize after the veiled lady speech that the meaning of that endibg is that we have effectively become Nuwa's bitch right?
This is why the veiled lady was smiling to us, she knows we are possessed, probably the Sword Demon was part of thie plot as well, and we fell for it.
 

asxetos

Augur
Joined
Feb 11, 2009
Messages
820
Location
Greece
Our GodOfWar ending may have the same concequences as the Gods intent (empires rising and falling), but the reasoning behind the two seem different to me.
Jing will crush an empire because, in its rise, it will eventually threaten his loved ones at some point.
The Gods will crush an empire because a) they dont want a single person (emperor) to reach too high and b) they are bored.

Still, i agree with you because they wont care about our reasons if we do the work.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Jing will crush an empire because, in its rise, it will eventually threaten his loved ones at some point.
Eh? How come?

I honestly don't know where this piece of reasoning comes from. I certainly didn't get that feeling from reading the text.

Demon Jing is toying with the empires because he wants to be needed, to be a hero. He does no have a goal nobler that that.
 

asxetos

Augur
Joined
Feb 11, 2009
Messages
820
Location
Greece
Jing will crush an empire because, in its rise, it will eventually threaten his loved ones at some point.
Eh? How come?

I honestly don't know where this piece of reasoning comes from. I certainly didn't get that feeling from reading the text.

Demon Jing is toying with the empires because he wants to be needed, to be a hero. He does no have a goal nobler that that.

H. For those that depend on you.
was the option that won after Jing killed the Sword Demon and got possesed.

As he crested the hill, he found his loyal followers awaiting his orders where he had left them, the banner of the burning one-eyed serpent fluttering proudly in the breeze. He looked over them. His loved ones. His family. His friends. Those that needed him the most.
This is what will drive him to tear down empires if we dont manage to get rid of it.
 

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