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

treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
Absinthe - B
Zero Credibility - B
Nevill - A
ERYFKRAD - B
Smashing Axe - B
The Brazilian Slaughter - B
Esquilax - C > A
Baltika9 - C > A
Elfberserker - C
Ifeex - B
Lambchop19 - A
Kipeci - C > A
asxetos - B
Stygian Lurker - A
Rex Feral - B
XenomorphII - A
Jester - A
m4davis - B
Omicron - A

***

Current tally:

A - 6
B - 9
C - 4

Post-flop:

A - 9
B - 9
C - 1
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
The lamps going out behind us tells us we are being watched right now. We don't have an element of surprise to lose by knocking on the door. Everything in that room is already as it wants us to see because it wants us to enter it now. Why would drilling a hole in the wall show anything else?
I am aware of the changes in the surroundings, yes. Something is watching us - whether this is a girl or a separate entity that leads us to her, we do not know.

I am not talking about the element of surprise here, I am talking about knowledge. The entity can influence the lighting and maybe something more than that, but can it show us something completely false? I want to see what it looks like, or how it wants to present itself. There may be a clue in its appearance that would suggest how to defeat it, or how to deal with it. Why would we choose willful ignorance over that?
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
The lamps going out behind us tells us we are being watched right now. We don't have an element of surprise to lose by knocking on the door. Everything in that room is already as it wants us to see because it wants us to enter it now. Why would drilling a hole in the wall show anything else?
We have no way of knowing if that's true or false, though. We don't know anything about this situation, or about ghosts in general. Hence why I'd rather take a chance and gain some understanding than deliberately play into the ghost's hands. Because if we do that, there's no way out. If the worst comes to pass, at least we can run (well, hobble) in A.

*sigh* All I wanted was a fox demon waifu. Why does this have to get so complicated? What would Master Zhang do?
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
You aren't that crippled, you still have 5 STR & AGI.

Master Zhang would be bathing and practicing one of his 101 vocal impersonation skills (perhaps picking that of a young girl) in this situation because he doesn't give a fuck.
 
Joined
Feb 11, 2007
Messages
2,951
Nope, still not convinced. Say we knock on the door and open it, but we don't like what we see inside - we are still not in any worse position than we would be after making a hole in the wall and seeing the same thing that way. Not one bit. What, you think this thing won't notice us drilling a hole in the the wall and peeking in? Or do you think you are going to see something through a hole that you aren't going to by opening a door? I don't think so guys. Later.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
treave, I recall that back in Songfeng you mentioned that the walls were made of paper laid over a wooden frame, something that assassins could very easily poke through and gas the room. Is this wall the same type, and does A mean we're just poking a hole in it and pee- reconnoitering?
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Zero Credibility said:
Say we knock on the door and open it, but we don't like what we see inside - we are still not in any worse position than we would be after making a hole in the wall and seeing the same thing that way. Not one bit. What, you think this thing won't notice us drilling a hole in the the wall and peeking in? Or do you think you are going to see something through a hole that you aren't going to by opening a door?
There is a girl bathing in there, supposedly. It explicitly states that we won't peek, for that would be rude. Why would we enter? That would be even more rude!

There is no option to see inside with B. We are not opening the door.

B. You do not peek. You are a gentleman. Such actions are very impolite. Of course you aren’t scared of possibly attracting the attention whatever is bathing within, it is just the rudeness of poking a hole through the paper and peering inside that you are against. Nothing to do with fear of the supernatural at all… nothing at all. In fact, to prove your gentlemanly guts, you will knock on the door and attempt to engage the bather in conversation. Politely.

Zero Credibility said:
What, you think this thing won't notice us drilling a hole in the the wall and peeking in?
There is a chance, yes.
 
Last edited:

treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
Read option B again. It specifically mentions poking a hole through paper in reference to... scouting out the situation.
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
No, I meant B does explain what you'd do in A, which is to poke and peek. As for entering, that'll depend on how the conversation goes I suppose.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
Zero Credibility's use of "drilling" had me confused, how would we be doing that in the first place? But if we're poking a hole through paper then it's pretty much soundless.
 

Anabanana

Augur
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Messages
1,061
Will be rereading, but voting C for now.

Scratch that, let's go with ghost diplomacy! B!
 
Last edited:

Anabanana

Augur
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Messages
1,061
One thing that worries me is the Taoist and the village itself. Okay, we were supposed to find a village but didn't find it, we have no recollection of how we got to the village OR the mansion, or how long it took to get there. Also, thunderstorm strikes just before the monk comes, and now, just as we wake up in the ghost house? This stinks. This stinks of shenanigans. I'm almost glad that we voted A to come here now, for all we know we already met the ghost last update and gotten trapped in its illusion - maybe we wouldn't even have made it to Xiangyang and just gone around and around in circles or something.

The one important clue we have here is the melody - it's familiar, something that we've heard since before coming to the palace. And hmm... not too long ago, treave let slip that we have siblings...

...IMOUTO-CHAN, IS THAT YOU?! :desu:

Hah. Figures that Codex would go down the incest route.

That aside, it's obvious that the girl wants us to engage in some way (blowing out the lights, making it so that the door on the left looks warm and inviting), so what's going to happen if we DON'T engage? Is she going to chase after us? Will we just be led back to this room again? Will she switch her focus to Xiahou Yu instead? IS Xiahou Yu already in there with her? I assume not, seeing that our Reikan didn't detect anything. If Esquilax's theory that the Taoist is using us as bait to be true, the Taoist would expect us to do either A (because horny young man) or B (because gentlemanly young man), so do we WANT to go along with that to help the Taoist out? Another possibility to consider is that the exorcist IS the ghost here and the girl within is a victim that the exorcist wants us to think is a ghost or maybe I'm being way too paranoid here but seriously the whole "not being able to remember how we got here" is giving me the fucking creeps.

Also, horses. HORSES. FOUR MEANS DEATH WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE. Omens aside, does that hint that this is some kind of mundane prank, because why would ghosts need horses? Is this who situation something that this Taoist has set up to perpetuate rumours of his capabilities as an exorcist? Was the so-called village leader a confederate? In which case C might lead us to uncover the mechanisms behind all this. Do the horses belong to the stagehands involved in setting this up? Then again, Yu described the bedroom as dusty, like no one's been there in a while. I assume that means he saw no footprints or such there? Which you'd expect if someone had physically carried him there.

So going under the assumption that this is a supernatural situation, what is the significance of the horses? ...they're horse demons? Wait, if Jing's imouto-chan is a horse... does that mean that he's a horse too?! Wait no, we're a Tiger that makes no sense whatsoever! *may or may not be going slightly crazy with all this speculation*
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
FOUR MEANS DEATH WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE.
Huh, good catch. The number 4 does indeed mean death in Chinese mythology and since we're dealing with the supernatural here, it's probably significant. But we did actually find the village:
After that, you had reached a village – you do not recall how long it took you to get there – where the elder had provided Zhong Hai with more details about his mission. It seems that ghosts had been kidnapping their young men, swooping down in the middle of the night and spiriting them away.
So I really do think this is a supernatural situation.
 

Anabanana

Augur
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Messages
1,061
Yeah, I was thinking that omg what if the elder was in cahoots with the exorcist?!?!

But that's probably me being too paranoid. Probably.

And yes, this is most likely a supernatural situation, because the weirdness re: not being able to remember our journeys between places, suddenly darkening lights, suspiciously convenient thunderstorms etc.

The only concrete thing we have to go on, really, is the fact that the melody reminds us of our life before the palace, but if this is a ghost, who's to say that they don't also have access to our memories? We did forget how we got here, after all... that said, we might still be able to find something out about Jing's origins through this. We WERE born under an unlucky star, after all... does that have something to do with the supernatural? So many questions...
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
Damn, I'm getting really curious now, is this the Xu family estate and we're about to witness the fall of Jing's family, reenacted by ghosts like a Shakespeare Play?
Next update can't come soon enough. :bounce:
 
Last edited:

Jester

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 24, 2013
Messages
1,493
Hah. Figures that Codex would go down the incest route.
We got several incest flavors like biological or Cao. Witch one you order kind sir?
So going under the assumption that this is a supernatural situation, what is the significance of the horses? ...they're horse demons? Wait, if Jing's imouto-chan is a horse... does that mean that he's a horse too?! Wait no, we're a Tiger that makes no sense whatsoever! *may or may not be going slightly crazy with all this speculation*
Mby Jings grandparents are wolf, tiger, pig and horse. So thing inside may be a horsewolf or tigerhorse, not as bad as spiderhorse still caution is advised.
After that, you had reached a village – you do not recall how long it took you to get there – where the elder had provided Zhong Hai with more details about his mission. It seems that ghosts had been kidnapping their young men, swooping down in the middle of the night and spiriting them away.
So I really do think this is a supernatural situation.
Knowing Jings luck if there was lovers quarrel here, he looks exactly like boy who died here. Its hard to be fabulous.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Jester said:
Which one you order?
Twincest, please. Cao'er and Yifang would do nicely, with an added bonus of a nurse/nun roleplay. If denied, I'd settle for Nie twinsome. You just can't go wrong with twins.

Jester said:
Knowing Jings luck if there was lovers quarrel here, he looks exactly like boy who died here.
That would also mean that he has a chance to put the spirit to rest if he plays his cards right.
 
Last edited:

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
If we're being manipulated to go into that room, then B sounds like a fucking disaster. We're having a conversation with some entity on the other side of the room, but we don't know what they look like or what they intend to do from our side - that's the textbook definition of playing into someone's hands. At least with A, we would know what we're up against.
I accept that we are being manipulated into that room, but I do not accept that it makes B a disaster or even a mistake. Talking to her isn't a bad idea just because she possibly wants you to talk with her. Look, for interacting with the ghost, we have two choices: A and B. We both know A and B are both going to lead to shit. My question is "How is A any better than B?" Sure we get to "see" the ghost, but we also piss off the ghost. In general, disrespecting the spirits of the dead is bad luck. Considering this ghost possibly kills people, voting A is only going to increase our chances of a bad end. If we pick B, on the other hand, we are not angering the ghost in the slightest. Given Jing's 5 speech skill, I think talking is a much safer bet for dealing with the ghost than peeping.

Besides, the whole appeal of Jing is that he isn't a gentleman. :rpgcodex:
I thought the appeal of Jing is that he can be a gentleman on his own terms.

I was persuaded.

Flipping to C. Regroup with Yu and exorcist, then we strike.
Would you be willing to turn that into a C>B vote, at least? Frankly speaking I don't think fleeing into the unknown darkness of a haunted mansion which our instincts warn us against is the way to go, but at the very least you would acknowledge that voting B is more sane than voting A, aye?
 
Last edited:

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
As Esquilax noted, we are certainly being lured to the room; and as others noted, C is very high risk, our instincts are against it, and it just plain seems dangerous.

The only question then, is this: out of A and B, which is the option the malicious ghost expects most of its prey to take? Would a peasant in this same situation poke or knock?

I think the peasant would peek. This isn't the illusion of a warm fire or a family gathering; it's a girl having a bath, which is surreal, seductive, taboo... everything that is discomforting. I think out of sheer fear most will instinctively want to take a quick peek.

B. I'm willing to flip to A, but to me that would require convincing on this level; that most peasants/prey would pick B and the ghost thus expects B.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
We have no way of knowing what this ghost wants from us/to do to us, or of it's motivations. All we have is conjecture that the thing lured us to this door and wants to speak with us; and that it's probably homicidal judging from the nooses and bloodstains. Could it be friendly? Yes it could be. It has an equal chance of being hostile, too, so A and B are both gambles, both equally risky. My preffered option is to GTFO and look for the experts. However, I'd rather gamble for information rather than Sphere Diplomacy.

Inb4 Darwin Award: get killed by the ghost boyfriend for perving on his girl.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Tigranes said:
I think the peasant would peek.
I think the peasant would neither peek nor knock. I think they would call out to the person inside, too scared to check it out with their own eyes.

Which, it the end, is not different from knocking, as they end up engaged in a conversation either way.
 

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