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Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Just to muddy the waters a bit: it is actually possible that you don't need to be a ghost to lie, so I wouldn't use an attempt to pick apart her story as the sole determiner of whether she is a ghost. Not that the story is necessarily false, of course. As usual, you can make of that what you will.
We didn't know Yunzi for more than 3 days or so, but she made an impression of a very straight-faced person, the type who would rather shut up or lash out at you than lie.

That combined with the flickering bright/creepy rooms confirms that something supernatural is going on here.
Oh, absolutely. Which brings me to my previous question, how do you know that the talismans work?

The way I see it, the following scenario may have happened:

"Hey, human, check out this door. No, don't go exploring the rest of the mansion, check the bathroom first. See? A friend! What do you mean, she is totally human, check it out with that useless trinket of yours! See? Human! Oh, you doubt they work? Let me play with lanterns a bit while you shake the baubles around. You wouldn't know how to use them even if they were real. See? The darkness receded, the amulets work, and thus your friend is not a spirit. Now take her with you and go check out the mansion. And tell her your name, too."

I am in no way arguing that this is what happened, I am just saying that the possibility shoudn't be discarded.

Rex Feral said:
Although second choice B is recommended if this is an apparition, I find it hard to believe that the ghost knows our arena nickname, several personality traits we displayed during the tournament, our past relationship with Yunzi and still doesn't know our name. Except for the tournament, we never made it a secret. And how would knowing our name help it ? Is it the trust we are offering that would let it posses us ?
Knowing one's true names usually means that you have power over that person. What sort of power they give may vary from setting to setting.
Though I agree on the part that if it is the ghost's doing, it already knows plenty about us to not need it.
 
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Nevill

Arcane
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Messages
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
But they would to push out "foreign devils," as we saw with the Minamoto, Chinese citizens have very little love of foreigners so the sects would get no "face" penalty for doing this.

Minamoto robbed people, fire cult did not
Fire cult people beat them fairly thoroughly in tournament, Minamoto didn't fight any orthodox schools
Fire cult issued very public challenge toward major sect, Minamoto did not.
Exactly. Also, fire cult promised protection to people that the sects allegedly could not grant. Attacking them out of the blue is a very strange move... if that part happened at all.
 

Esquilax

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4,833
What exactly is it that we would intend to find in the library, anyways? There's some sort of tenuous connection here that books somehow equal information, but I don't think that this is true in this case. What the fuck are we supposed to do, sit around and read while ghosts lurk around? I just don't see how going to the library is at all relevant to our circumstances or at all beneficial for us. I suppose we might find Yu there, but we ought to consider things a bit more carefully and not assume that going to a library means that every piece of information about this place is suddenly at our convenience.

So I think that our options here should be either heading for the kitchen or the main hall. What we pick now is pretty crucial for us later on:

The candle has melted down to about half of its original length – it probably will not last another hour, but at least the corridors are lit dimly by the lanterns. Suddenly, the girl behind you speaks up.

What little light we have isn't going to last us forever, so we should either make plans to regroup with Yu or Zhong Hai (preferably the latter), or try and piece together our memories by heading to the main entrance, which would allow us to recall a good portion of the events between the time we entered this place and when we woke up here. The kitchen seems like a wild card, but I'm suspecting that it has to do with why this place is so haunted in the first place.
 

Nevill

Arcane
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Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
So I think that our options here should be either heading for the kitchen or the main hall.
I'd probably have considered the main hall if the choice was phrased a bit better. 'Too bad about your companions - maybe you will come for them later" isn't something I'd like to pick.

Esquilax said:
What little light we have isn't going to last us forever
Can't we use one of the lanterns on the walls?
 
Joined
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Messages
2,951
Voting AB.

1A because a library is a rather obvious choice compared to kitchen or just running away. Maybe even a little too obvious. And 2B not because I think that the girl is a ghost (she knows enough about us) but because I just can't bring myself to completely trust her. She is one of the very, very few people that knows who Jing truly is and if we confirm her suspicion she will know that the Maniac's apprentice is a close friend and probably an agent of the Prince. Given that her primary allegiance is at this time to the fire cult (and whatever else they are also a problem not just for for the sects but probably also for the palace) I hesitate to reveal our name to one of them. Maybe she would not betray our trust to the fire cult, maybe she would - but I don't wish to put her to this test at this moment if we don't have to.

This whole thing could have been much easier if only Jing has chosen a different fucking name when leaving the palace. Ugh. What kind of a spy goes around giving his real name? Who does he think he is, James Bond?
 

treave

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Codex 2012
Or the further investigation of any anti-Tang organizations reveals someone who has been betrayed and tortured and cast away by the palace he once loyally served and is a prime target for recruitment.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
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Messages
9,611
Exactly. We saved her life and got punished for it, she'll either try to recruit us (again) or at least clam up. Besides, I'd rather she find out from us than from Yu, and accidentaly break the secret to him too early.
 

treave

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Codex 2012
Exile, sent out to die like a dog. It's not like they can retrace your exact steps. You didn't exactly escape anyway, you were clearly exiled under orders of the prince and emperor.
 
Joined
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Or the further investigation of any anti-Tang organizations reveals someone who has been betrayed and tortured and cast away by the palace he once loyally served and is a prime target for recruitment.
Could be, but those that truly know Jing and the Prince are not going to be fooled my that. And she is one of them. She has seen the Prince risk his life to save us, she knows what our true loyalties are. Seriously, between being known as a former confidant of the Prince and not being known at all, the latter would be much more preferable to me. Less questions that way, less opportunities for someone to guess at out real game.
 

treave

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Codex 2012
Perhaps. People do change... or can pretend to. I was more addressing the idea that his background was merely a liability and not a possible advantage. It has its disadvantages, yes, but it's not entirely negative.

Besides, the 'real game' here is taking a backseat to pirates and ghosts. :lol:
 

Baltika9

Arcane
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Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
What, nobody wants to tell Yunzi to get back in the kitchen and make us a sammich?
:troll:
 

Tigranes

Arcane
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Jan 8, 2009
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10,350
Sure, Esquilax, but I don't see how going to the kitchen is any better? I'd rather have possessed books around me than possessed knives. In fact, if we aren't going straight for the exit, the library is most likely to hold clues - in the form of some kind of letter, diary, periodical, a book the ghost wants you to read to tell their story, whatever. The choice is surely between 1C and 1A.

AB for now, I'm sure we can gently delay naming ourselves - i.e. princess we can do introductions when we're out of here - though that too could backfire (i.e. in that we might need her to really help us out if we're going to make it out). I do believe that the girl has no relation to the ghosts or is part of any malicious plot to lure us in, but still..
 

Elfberserker

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 25, 2013
Messages
1,540
BA.>AA
Library and kitchen seems best place to find either member of our group. Whoever knocked us out had sense of humour to put our perverted man-tiger-pig next to bathing Yunzi, perhaps they thought that putting nerd near library would be fitting. Of course scholarbro and priest might be on their way to the kitchen if they are hungry and want to be at laest haunted place to be in.

I am in gambling mood and If my guess is correct, we might end up meeting scholarbro and pries in the kitchen. Of course this and going to library could horrible backfire at us, once we notice in our daring escape that main doors are locked.
 

Kipeci

Arcane
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May 22, 2012
Messages
3,027
Location
Vicksburg
BA

Hunger will be the death of us, let's make a sandwich. Scholarbro is probably drinking there, anyway.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
I think Elfberserker may be right, Yu himself might not have been just sitting in the library, looking over half-read books. He came here to see a goddamn ghost, and so help him he will. I know B sounds counter intuitive with the "kitchen is the least haunted part of the house" and all, but Jing is hardly an expert on the occult, so I don't know if we should put a lot of trust in that. Ergo, flopping to BA.
Scholarbro is probably drinking there, anyway.
If that's the case, then the Mansion is going down in flames any minute now. :lol:
 

Esquilax

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Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
Sure, Esquilax, but I don't see how going to the kitchen is any better? I'd rather have possessed books around me than possessed knives. In fact, if we aren't going straight for the exit, the library is most likely to hold clues - in the form of some kind of letter, diary, periodical, a book the ghost wants you to read to tell their story, whatever. The choice is surely between 1C and 1A.

AB for now, I'm sure we can gently delay naming ourselves - i.e. princess we can do introductions when we're out of here - though that too could backfire (i.e. in that we might need her to really help us out if we're going to make it out). I do believe that the girl has no relation to the ghosts or is part of any malicious plot to lure us in, but still..

We have a working theory that there was a murder in this place:

Here and there long strips of tattered cloth sway gently, hanging down from the ceiling to about the top of your head. They must have been decorations once, but they are too moth-eaten now for you to be sure. Some of the cloth strips are stained with rusty brown spatters, others tied into loops that you could probably fit a head through. A dyeing process gone wrong? The artistic tastes of the mansion’s inhabitants? You will never know, you suppose.

A kitchen is the most likely place where a person would keep things like knives and linens. Based on the clues that we've seen thus far, I think that the kitchen will provide us with the most clues should we venture there. While the library could have a few things of interest, I think that we are better off following the lead that we have here.

As for Yunzi, the only thing that makes me suspicious is the fact that she was humming a tune from our lives before the palace. While my paranoid instincts are telling me that giving our name away will lead to a horrible death, it seems questionable that this ghost would know the most intimate details of Jing's life, yet not know his name. I think we're better off if we start working together.

BA
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
As for Yunzi, the only thing that makes me suspicious is the fact that she was humming a tune from our lives before the palace.
Actually, it said "the tune is strangely familiar to you; though you do not remember where you have heard it before, it must have been before you left the palace." Before we left the palace could mean before we were exiled, and since we visited the Asahina and there were celebrations of the duel before we left, it wouldn't be surprising if Asahina songs felt strangely familiar.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
But... we are the wolves.
 

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