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[LP CYOA] 傳

Joined
Feb 11, 2007
Messages
2,951
He can not say "that you stole his medication and dodged his challenge" after everything that happened, it just makes him look stupid and petty.

But alright, if you want it to be about you and BJ - it's your choice.
Yes, he can. That quote is from the choice - it's certainly what Jing thinks BJ could do if he doesn't show up tomorrow. What exactly do you think is so bad about B that you would prefer to just run right now? We are not going there to fight, just to make sure that the public and BJ know we did not sneak away in the night. If he still insists on fighting an injured man now that there are more pressing concerns for the sects he will be the one looking foolish. We talked about this since we decided not to prepare against him.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
This isn't an accurate representation of the cult. We nearly called Yunzi out by name, and considering the secrecy around her identity (and the religious significance around her as well), perhaps Vahista saw us as a threat to her. I'm not saying that the Fire Cult are not worthy of further investigation, but there's more to the situation than what you describe. If Vahista saw our victory and our attempt to engage Yunzi after the fight as mockery of a figure of worship, I can totally see why he'd have killing intent towards us.
Right. Nothing wrong with these guys, but glance at them the wrong way, or try and speak with their higher-ups, and they will murder you. Totally chill bros, we must welcome them in our lands.

Doesn't make him right, but these people aren't as bloodthirsty as you're painting them - you're using a lot of black-and-white langauge here to paint this group as evil, and they very well might be, but we can't exactly make firm conclusions just based on this.
Then what is enough to draw a conclusion? These people are our guests, but they treat us as our superiors, and choose whether we are worthy to live or not. Suffice it to say, as far as first impressions go, I've seen better.

I know we've had some fundamental disagreements about the character, but Jing is not Ean. You're making a bunch of huge leaps of logic with regards to what they will or won't make us do if we go and talk to them right now, and it feels like .
Right, again. They are trying to annex your country. They are so charming (see first impressions), and what is the worst thing they might want from a traitor to his people?

We don't really need to relay this info to Shun, either - the Fire Cult has revealed themselves publicly and issued a challenge. Their entire reason for being here is to put themselves into the public consciousness. They want to be known, and soon Shun will know about them anyways. What he needs is someone he can trust on the inside.
This info? Now, we do not need to relay it. I was talking about the inside info. Without having a way for it to reach Shun, you will only be satisfying your own curiosity.

Look, I am not going with them, not as the one who is supposed to infiltrate them. The 'Dex aversion to the cults is a healthy one.

I think that we can do more from the outside.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
The major reason I'm going for B is that we still gaven't secured our identity in the public's eyes. Yes, we had our mask shredded and showed some skin, but they don't have a name and look to put to us. As it stands, the MTP persona and our trollish fighting style is all they can take away from this and any of their agents can just put on a mask and LARP "MTP, the disciple of Zhang Jue." And since we didn't secure a PR victory or discredited the conspiracy against him, they still can tyrn around and try the same trick in a different package.
Securing ourselves from any shit-slinging on the part of whoever is running this show is imperative.

Also, much as I love to hate BJ, it's just douchey to stand a guy up like this after dtealing his expensive meds. Let's make the declaration public, if he still stomps his feet and whines for a challenge, well, he's the dumbass.

Nevill, I honestly think the "RED ALERT, RED FUCKING ALERT!" reaction is overblown.

treave, the montg is drawing to a close, are daily updatesis free time coming back to us you?
 

Nevill

Arcane
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Messages
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
He can not say "that you stole his medication and dodged his challenge" after everything that happened, it just makes him look stupid and petty.

But alright, if you want it to be about you and BJ - it's your choice.
Yes, he can. That quote is from the choice - it's certainly what Jing thinks BJ could do if he doesn't show up tomorrow. What exactly do you think is so bad about B that you would prefer to just run right now? We are not going there to fight, just to make sure that the public and BJ know we did not sneak away in the night. If he still insists on fighting an injured man now that there are more pressing concerns for the sects he will be the one looking foolish. We talked about this since we decided not to prepare against him.
Jing can justify just about his every choice. Not every time he is correct about it. For Christ's sake, he thought he could stand a chance againt the Maniac in a three way fight. I'd take his thoughts with a grain of salt.

Nevill, I honestly think the "RED ALERT, RED FUCKING ALERT!" reaction is overblown.
That's how I roll. :) Still, you can't deny the cultists are the biggest issue at hand and they are bad news. What do you think will happen if they manage to win?
 

Rex Feral

Prophet
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
1,300
I'm for doing master Zhang's challenge and then requesting help from him with the Yuhua Hall/Fire cult. So, treave, is beating Bai Jiutan part of this challenge ? Could we make our own announcement after beating him ?
 

Nevill

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Messages
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
They'll be too dead to win.
I subscribe to this line of thought, yes. But it won't happen unless we help them. They have people as strong as Zhang Jue on their side.

Honestly, I am all for making the orthodoxes lose horribly and then save the day with Zhang. It would also make the challenge with BJ redundant, as we would clearly prove our superiority.

And for the record, there is no such word as 'dickish' in my vocabulary when it comes to Bai Jiutian.
 
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Joined
Feb 11, 2007
Messages
2,951
So what exactly do you have against B? You are voting for C2 and we can do that just as well tomorrow. Maybe BJ would abandon his plans now that a new threat is on the scene, but I doubt it. He already committed himself by publicly challenging us. I really see no downside in showing up, saying no thanks see you later and leaving.
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
4,833
Yes, he can. That quote is from the choice - it's certainly what Jing thinks BJ could do if he doesn't show up tomorrow. What exactly do you think is so bad about B that you would prefer to just run right now? We are not going there to fight, just to make sure that the public and BJ know we did not sneak away in the night. If he still insists on fighting an injured man now that there are more pressing concerns for the sects he will be the one looking foolish. We talked about this since we decided not to prepare against him.

I can't speak for Nevill, but for me personally, it's not so much that B2 is bad, but rather that C1 presents an amazing opportunity that we won't see again. The lead in Yuhua Hall is three years old at this point, and based on what we've learned from the Masters, it's pretty sketchy as well. However, right now, we've been invited to talk to a group that Yunzi has somehow gotten around to leading, which is similar to the WiB in that it intends to destabilize China, and much like Zhang, wants to beat the crap out of the orthodox sects. We want to root out the conspiracy against the us, identify who tried to assassinate the Prince, and we want to defeat the orthodox sects. Everything about this group aligns with our goals.

It seems to me that the rep hit is very much worth it. What will we be getting with B2 instead? Perhaps some stronger rep with the orthodox sects, a nice conversation with Guo Fu, and maybe a chance to try and verbally humiliate BJ a bit for being a douche. But it's just so... small-fry in the grand scheme of things. We've been given a chance to meet with an organization that is exactly the sort that Prince Shun would want us investigating in the first place.

And as for the rep, this is not a big concern. Look, I'm not saying it's good to antagonize the orthodox sects, but as long as they aren't coming at us with torches and pitchforks, we are probably fine. Even if we do meet up with them, Qi Liuwu, the Grand Taoist, Abbess Miecao, and Abbot Fangzhang know that our intentions are good and where our true allegiances lie. They know that we would be involved there to aid them, not to harm them. The rest of their sects might not know, but that's why we're the hero they deserve. Tigerman.

Right. Nothing wrong with these guys, but glance at them the wrong way, or try and speak with their higher-ups, and they will murder you. Totally chill bros, we must welcome them in our lands.
...
Then what is enough to draw a conclusion? These people are our guests, but they treat us as our superiors, and choose whether we are worthy to live or not. Suffice it to say, as far as first impressions go, I've seen better.
...
Right, again. They are trying to annex your country. They are so charming (see first impressions), and what is the worst thing they might want from a traitor to his people?

The fact that they're trying to annex our country from within is all the more reason to get to the bottom of things. It seems like your stance here is "I don't like them, so I won't join them" when that's exactly why we should join them. I am not saying that they are a nice group of people, but if they were a respectable organization, then they wouldn't be a threat, now would they? If they were an organization of nice, respectable people like the the Shaolin or Wudang, for example, then they wouldn't be worth investigating. You're saying that we shouldn't get involved with them because they're shady, but that's exactly why we should get involved with them!

We are in a unique position where we can use our bad reputation to do a lot of good. The likes of Abbot Fangzhang or the Grand Taoist can't get involved in the unorthodox world the way that Zhang Jue's apprentice can - it's a world that they are outsiders to. They need us to act in their stead here, and they will understand why we're doing what we're doing.

This info? Now, we do not need to relay it. I was talking about the inside info. Without having a way for it to reach Shun, you will only be satisfying your own curiosity.

Look, I am not going with them, not as the one who is supposed to infiltrate them. The 'Dex aversion to the cults is a healthy one.

I think that we can do more from the outside.

Hmm, how will we relay info once we got inside? If only we had close ties with somebody within their organization, preferably their figure of religious reverence and possibly worship. Too bad we don't know anybody like that.
 

Nevill

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Messages
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
So what exactly do you have against B? You are voting for C2 and we can do that just as well tomorrow. Maybe BJ would abandon his plans now that a new threat is on the scene, but I doubt it. He already committed himself by publicly challenging us. I really see no downside in showing up, saying no thanks see you later and leaving.
It will shift people's focus back to us. Jiutian is an attention hog, he will try to make us look bad for ditching a challenge and accuse us of not accepting the medicine on purpose. People are upset about the event that had taken place, we do not need to attract their attention any more than we have to.

Basically, it serves no purpose and deprives us of the medicine.
 

Elfberserker

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 25, 2013
Messages
1,540
I vote for C2, because of this;

The plot thickens.

This is bad. Really bad.

The Fire Cult is a much bigger enemy than anything we have encountered before. These people are foreign agents that seek to discredit and destroy the only thing that still keeps the Empire together - the pugilistic world. They want to undermine people's trust in the sects and displace them, offering their own services as a home guard - and assert their control over the country's economics in the process. Basically, they want to annex and occupy China. They are no better than invaders, and should be treated as such.

They are not just the enemies of Shun - they are the enemies of your people as a whole. Look at how they carry themselves - they act as if they own the country already. They have no respect for the rules of the tournament they attended as guests, they have no respect for the sanctity of human life - they attacked you with a killing intent in a broad daylight. What makes you think that they will pay any more heed to the laws or desires of the people they allegedly want to protect? They can not be allowed to win the battle that will take place six months from now, even if you have to fight back-to-back with BJ to prevent it - if they do, this will signal the end of the Tang dynasty as we know it, and probably of everything that Jing holds dear.

I wonder how Yunzi got involved with them. She may have been kidnapped, or offered to them as a Holy Maiden to secure an alliance with them, or ran away with them in exchange for a favor her people desperately needed. In any case, I strongly doubt that she shares their ideals, whatever those are. There has to be something that forces her to remain with them.

You should not, however, go with them. Remember the plan to ingratiate yourself with Marduk to then stab him in the back when he least expected it? That plan required Elan slaughtering Gutians by dozens - men, women and children alike, - and assisting Nusku with his deprived experiments on living people. These Zoroastrians are up to no good, and the mere thought of what would be required to become privy to their inner secrets fills me with disgust. Besides, do not fool yourself, you are not a spy - you will have no way to relay whatever information you might get to where it is needed the most - to the Imperial Palace. Shun needs to be informed of what is happening ASAP. Moreover, you can not allow yourself to investigate a foreign threat while leaving the domestic one to fester and rot undisturbed. You need to get to the bottom of the WiB case. Perhaps they and the cult stem from the same roots, or perhaps they are using the cult as a straw to distract and weaken the land's defenders from an even bigger issue at hand. You have six months until the deciding battle - you can not afford to postpone your mission anymore, and you can not waste them trying to get in the cult's good graces.

There are things that you can only do here. You need to mobilize every resourse. Bring your master out of the hiding - Zhang might want to test his strength against theirs. Get everything you can on the cult from Qilin - especially of what kind of deals they made with her sect. Weed out the seeds of the conspiracy in the sects that are friendly to you - the Masters are wise enough to understand the danger. Send a letter to the Khan of Ashina in case he does not know where his daughter is - this might help the situation in the north. There are a lot of things to do, and not a second to waste.

These matters require you to stay. Do not worry about Yunzi for now - we will pry her from the hands of dead cultists in Heihu Valley. As their most sacred symbol and their most talented disciple, she will be present. We will not be parted for long.

That said, why would you want to have anything to do with Bai Jiutian, now that the pugilists have bigger things to worry about? Didn't you want to evade the challenge without taking a heavy reputation hit? Well, now is your chance - with everything that is going on, no one will pay much attention if you disappear quietly, especially since you just publicly received an offer from the cultists to follow them. No one will think about it twice if you consider them to be more important than settling the matter of whose ego is bigger with BJ. Screaming "hey! hey! look at me! it was all about me just a day ago!" is so petty and so Jiutian-ish that it isn't even funny. The orthodox community has a common enemy right now and, just this once, it isn't you or your master. Let things stay that way. Otherwise you risk dividing them and BJ screwing over you in yet another way. Why would you want to waste your precious time on his schemes?

C2 to leave the town and do the damned homework we set out to do three years ago.

didn't we vote for unorthodox, so we coud't be free of restraint of honor? Did we just waste about 5-6 years of our life to wandering free and learning from hard teacher called life to being good little puppy to orthodox masters? This time I say screw the honor and start our real mission, now that we have the skills and ability to accomplish them!!! To end threat to our bro prince. If we want do protect our people and our prince, we first must to stop internal danger, before we focus to outside one, before we are teared apart.

Also I would like to say hello to codex members and thank Treave for creating such wonderful Story, So wonderful it made me register to this forum after lurking for 4 months. Also Fuck you codex captcha during registering process, you actually made me think and have knowledge about the site:rpgcodex: and that actually made me love you guys more:love:.

Edit: Fuck me and my drunken state to misspell names
 
Joined
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Messages
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So what exactly do you have against B? You are voting for C2 and we can do that just as well tomorrow. Maybe BJ would abandon his plans now that a new threat is on the scene, but I doubt it. He already committed himself by publicly challenging us. I really see no downside in showing up, saying no thanks see you later and leaving.
It will shift people's focus back to us. Jiutian is an attention hog, he will try to make us look bad for ditching a challenge and accuse us of not accepting the medicine on purpose. People are upset about the event that had taken place, we do not need to attract their attention any more than we have to.

Basically, it serves no purpose and deprives us of the medicine.
To hell with the medicine. Weren't you the one insisting that it is poisoned anyway? And we have plenty of money now, so we don't care about selling it either. B does serve a purpose, to derail whatever plans BJ and his buddies have involving us and Zhang even more. Wouldn't that be worth waiting one more day here? What's the rush for C2?

Now C1 I can understand. I still would prefer that we deal with this before continuing on the next threat, but C1 at least is an opportunity where time is important. C2 - not so much.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
The lead in Yuhua Hall is three years old at this point, and based on what we've learned from the Masters, it's pretty sketchy as well.
The trail is still fresh, however, because we encountered WiB just two days ago. The lead won't get any more useful if we postpone investigating it even further.

The fact that they're trying to annex our country from within is all the more reason to get to the bottom of things. It seems like your stance here is "I don't like them, so I won't join them" when that's exactly why we should join them.
We are not becoming their friend unless we prove our use to them, and as a foreigner, a disciple of a known murderer, and a traitor to boot, we'll get the dirtiest jobs. Their plans are extremely harmful to the well-being of our people. I do not want to carry out missions that would make our people even worse off than they are now.

Look, the cunning plan with Marduk in the previous LP was a trap. We really were better off challenging him openly than working with the devil. I have a feeling that this choice is similar.

I suggest taking them head on. After dealing with the internal threat, that is.

The Brazilian Slaughter said:
@Baltaka9, Nevill, will you people get yourselves a decent avatar!
Nu-uh. Once a lurker, always a lurker. :P

Zero Credibility said:
B does serve a purpose, to derail whatever plans BJ and his buddies have involving us and Zhang even more.
Their plans were already derailed for us. No need to remind people of them and re-rail them back on track.
 
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HOW is us showing up and saying to BJ that we have better things to do going to help him with his plan? That's exactly what he doesn't want - looking ridiculus by insisting on a duel with a tired and injured champion now that the sects have much more to worry about. The public would already be reminded about us when we don't show up tomorrow and he makes a show of it. And he will be there, because he publicly challenged us - he can't back out now.
 

Nevill

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Messages
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
HOW is us showing up and saying to BJ that we have better things to do going to help him with his plan?
By reminding people that we exist.
If we are not there, they'll forget about us in a minute.

HOW is us showing up and saying to BJ that we have better things to do going to help him with his plan? That's exactly what he doesn't want - looking ridiculus by insisting on a duel with a tired and injured champion now that the sects have much more to worry about. The public would already be reminded about us when we don't show up tomorrow and he makes a show of it. And he will be there, because he publicly challenged us - he can't back out now.
Why would he make a show out of it when we have such a great explanation of our absense? Why would he want to look as if he wanted to fight a tired and wounded champion in C2, but would not want to do so in B2?

This discussion is going in circles.
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
4,833
The trail is still fresh, however, because we encountered WiB just two days ago. The lead won't get any more useful if we postpone investigating it even further.

As Zero Credibility said, if the trail is still fresh from three years ago, then it'll be just as fresh tomorrow. I hate the "let's do it later" logic, but it seems that the opportunity in C1 or B would be far more pressing than C2 would, based on your logic.

We are not becoming their friend unless we prove our use to them, and as a foreigner, a disciple of a known murderer, and a traitor to boot, we'll get the dirtiest jobs. Their plans are extremely harmful to the well-being of our people. I do not want to carry out missions that would make our people even worse off than they are now.

Look, the cunning plan with Marduk in the previous LP was a trap. We really were better off challenging him openly than working with the devil. I have a feeling that this choice is similar.

I suggest taking them head on. After dealing with the internal threat, that is.

A traitor to whom? We never had any allegiance to the orthodox sects to their knowledge, so who would we be betraying?

This group might very well be the internal threat, or related to it. The comparisons to the Ean/Marduk situations are Andhairian levels of inanity anyways - if you'd like to get pedantic about it, if we'd slaughtered our way into gaining Marduk's trust, we would have learned of his plan to devour Zeus. In case you remember, that chapter ended up with a rift in reality being opened, so it doesn't exactly sound like a ringing endorsement in favour of being ignorant. :lol:

Now I'm not saying we should be a ruthless motherfucker, but you're just grasping for straws here and assuming that we have to be really evil to get into this organization. Note that the apparent religious figure of worship here is Yunzi, who can apparently call off Vahista with a single word. Once she learns of our true identity, perhaps she'll be in a position to help us as well. In any case, you are speculating far beyond what this choice calls for. My logic here is this: this is an opportunity that we'll never see again, it allows us to find leads on the WiB while simultaneously challenging the remaining orthodox sectarians six months from now, hence, we should take it.

HOW is us showing up and saying to BJ that we have better things to do going to help him with his plan? That's exactly what he doesn't want - looking ridiculus by insisting on a duel with a tired and injured champion now that the sects have much more to worry about. The public would already be reminded about us when we don't show up tomorrow and he makes a show of it. And he will be there, because he publicly challenged us - he can't back out now.

Pretty much. B2 will work because it will make him petty for continuing to insist on a duel when we're injured and have already beaten the group that has just challenged them anyways. It's very good PR. Plus we'll get to see what the various sects think of us and even better, hang out with Bro Fu a little bit. However, I just can't neglect the opportunity that C1 presents; I am not about to wait six months to get another opportunity to talk to an organization like this that has the same clandestine nature and possibly the same goals as the WiB. Also, I just don't think we can leave without having finally gotten to get a look at Yunzi and learn about what's been going on with the Ashina over the past three years.

It just seems that there are so much more opportunities with C1.
 

Nevill

Arcane
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Messages
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
As Zero Credibility said, if the trail is still fresh from three years ago, then it'll be just as fresh tomorrow.
We have a time limit of six months now. After that, if it turns out that WiBs are just making way to the Persians, it might not matter anymore.

A traitor to whom? We never had any allegiance to the orthodox sects to their knowledge, so who would we be betraying?
Uh... our country? They do not hide their intentions much.

The comparisons to the Ean/Marduk situations are Andhairian levels of inanity anyways - i if you'd like to get pedantic about it, if we'd slaughtered our way into gaining Marduk's trust, we would have learned of his plan to devour Zeus.
Yes, that is what I was getting at - the only way it could have gone 'better' was to murder innocents in droves. Otherwise we would have ended worse off than we did with a straight confrontation. See? There is a method in my madness. :P

My logic here is this: this is an opportunity that we'll never see again, it allows us to find leads on the WiB while simultaneously challenging the remaining orthodox sectarians six months from now, hence, we should take it.
Well, A is an opportunity to end Zhang's challenge once and for all, if we take out the best pugilist of our generation single-handedly in front of everyone. And we are unlikely to see it again, too. Yet I am not voting for it.

Not saying that C1 is equally stupid, but I dislike it.
 
Joined
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2,951
If we don't show up he is going to publicly call us a coward and drag our reputation through the mud even more. After all, who would know why we left the city in such a hurry? If we show up still injured, toss him his medicine back and ask him don't you have anything better to do, then he can't do that without looking like an idiot. Don't show up and he can say whatever he wants.

No, it's B2 or C1. B2 because at this point it is the best way to deal with BJ's challenge since we can't take him on right now. And C1 because it is a time sensitive opportunity.

edit: You are also wrong about A being a one time opportunity. Voting B is precisely about making sure it is not by delaying the fight for some other time.
 

Nevill

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edit: You are also wrong about A being a one time opportunity. Voting B is precisely about making sure it is not by delaying the fight for some other time.
Not unless you cripple your arm and gather a crowd this large next time you fight.

But I was trying to make it absurd, so there is no use arguing this point.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
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Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
B2 is the smart move, but tge call of MYSTARY! and Yunzi time is strong indeed. Almost too strong.

Then again, staying here may allow us to warn Master Zhang a develop a counter-technique to their neiggong and then back-to-back fight them at their challenge.
It's awesome either way.
 

Nevill

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Fine. Let's get our hands dirty, then. I don't need no smart moves.

C1.

We need to investigate, not stroke BJ's ego. I don't care how, as long as we do this.
 
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Baltika9

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Messages
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You think so small, bros.
We will be Xu Jing, Mega Khagan of the Tujue People, Siberia, Assyro-Baybylonia and Israel and Pontifex Maximus of Rome.

Which brings me to a question, treave, if we get a corresponding ending, can we cintinue Jing's legend later as a duke/khan/shah/King of Sparta/whatever in a 4X/RPG hybrid later?
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Baltika9 said:
Mega Khagan
Sounds like someting form Transformer series.

And I distinctly remember treave saying that Japan would be the next likely target, so no Rome for you. The Roman Empire has already fallen by now, anyway.
 

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