[LP CYOA] 傳

[asxetos]

Why you guys even consider cold-blood murder is beyond me. Fuck the concequences, we are not rp-ing an evil character.

 

[Rex Feral]

Well I planned to get him out so that we could torture him a bit more for information. Then we kill him in a place that doesn't harbour ghosts.

In the remote eventuality we can't get him out alive, we kill him on the spot, so I doubt he'll have time to curse our name or die slowly.

Sounds stupid ? How about we fake friendliness and, when we get out, then we torture and kill him ? Though I wouldn't expect a Court Assassin to be trusting or naive...

 

[Baltika9]

No, we're not and Khorne's Prophet Master Zhang won't approve of the sacrifice, but letting him live and accompany us alongvwith Yu and Yunzi is just dumb, both of them are targets of Imperial plots and we made it on the (s)hit list too. Going "But we're no villain!" is just dumb, won't matter to this guy. He's a danger to us and our friends and we don't need him.

 

[Nevill]

Fuck the concequences, we are not rp-ing an evil character.

Apparently, you've missed the whole Qingcheng debate, where we almost had written our name in blood of an innocent victim.

Right before going to the tournament where people had a goal of setting Zhang Jue's disciple up. I wonder how that would've turned out.

 

[Anabanana]

Interesting tidbit about the guy Liu Chanfeng has a grudge against:

“When she was eighteen, she fell in love with one of her regular customers, an influential man’s scion by the name of Zhang Manlou. He was scum of the worst sort.” Xiahou grits his teeth angrily. “His godfather is one of the Grand Eunuchs of the Imperial Court, Grand Eunuch Wang.”

You remember Grand Eunuch Wang well; of the four old prickless bastards that stood at the top of the court, he was probably the worst nag and the pettiest fellow of the lot – not a day went by without him complaining about one thing or another.

-We know that Chanfeng was part of the prince's assassination a few years ago.
-She's been recently spotted hanging out with the Black Dragon Society mercs and assassins. It's a possibility that they were the ones hired to kill the prince. Note that this man is also clothed entirely in black - it's possible that this is their society's dress code. Then again, being clothed all in black is kind of common amongst people doing sneaky work.
-Jing believes that this man is a lackey of Grand Eunuch Li, and that he's also part of the Black Dragon Society.
-Zhang Manlou's godfather is Grand Eunuch Wang.
-The Black Dragon Society may or may not have been involved in the attack on the Fire Cult.

Is it merely coincidence that we can trace a connection between two grand eunuchs of the court via the WiB and the lover who betrayed her? What's the relationship between Li and Wang? Is Li behind the Black Dragon Society's movements, or is he planting this guy there to investigate them? Could it be possible that Li recruited Chanfeng as a Black Dragon Society spy based on a potential grudge against Wang, who no doubt enabled Manlou? And then there's the issue of the Fire Cult (with connections to the Tujue?) who showed up to challenge the Eight Sects of the central plains, which is, again, tied to the power of the court...

“If the martial arts sects are getting involved in palace politics, this bodes ill. Their strength is considerable; even if we marshalled all of our armies at the moment, we would not be able to subdue them without a bloodbath on both sides. If we are weakened, well…” He looks at the wolf’s fang hanging from your neck.

Assuming that Yunzi's not lying, why would the Black Dragon Society help the orthodox sects attack the Fire Cult? Alternatively, could it be that the Black Dragon Society was masquerading as the orthodox sects to attack the Fire Cult? It seems that stirring up trouble between them would be unnecessary though, since the Fire Cult already issued a pretty blatant challenge to them. Perhaps if both the Eight Sects and Fire Cult(Tujue?) are weakened as a result of outright warfare, as opposed to a more restrained tournament, this would solidify the court's power.

This is all, of course, speculation, and that's why I think we really should consider interrogating the man first. There are just too many questions. We might be in even greater danger if we don't get more information NOW. The situation seems way more complex than we originally thought it was, involving factions that we didn't think were involved, and if we're going to be investigating, taking this one big risk now seems worth it to avoid getting into worse situations because of our ignorance later. One of the arguments for A is that we can just learn this information anyway via infiltrating the Black Dragon Society and killing him will facillitate that - but what else would we learn from them that we can't from interrogating this man? This man will hopefully squeal, not just on the Black Dragon Society's movements, but also on his mission from the Grand Eunuch, Chanfeng, the court's and the society's goals regarding the Fire Cult, and most importantly, what the fuck is going on with the factions within the Court... I honestly don't know that infiltrating the Black Dragon Society will even be necessary after this. Of course, this will be entirely dependent on how the interrogation goes, but again, I'm willing to take that risk. I don't know if we'll ever get a better source of information than this; he's part of the secret police FFS.

Though I strongly suggest that we cook up a batch of Three Poisons Powder and Antidote (in the kitchen!) so we can poison him while he's weak and be like "nyahaha! wanna live? then I suggest you talk right now, mister~" while dangling the antidote in front of his face. Uh, not in front of his face because he might snatch it. But something along those lines, yes.

 

[Rex Feral]

Apparently, you've missed the whole Qingcheng debate, where we almost had written our name in blood of an innocent victim.

Right before going to the tournament where people had a goal of setting Zhang Jue's disciple up. I wonder how that would've turned out.

Actually I'm a lot more reasonable when it comes to innocent people. But this guy seems anything but innocent and he could be a threat to us.

Since none of you B-voters want to kill him afterwards, I'll have to think about between A or B.

 

[treave]

Uh, if you want to live out your sadistic fantasies this is the wrong zodiac sign. That'd be something like the Snake Adjutant. Then there's the issue whether torture would even be effective in getting the information that you want. If he defies you he'll suffer, and then die, and that'll be the end of it. If he betrays the palace, he's looking at the extermination of his entire extended family. Any interrogation is going to have to be clever, not merely brutal.

 

[Baltika9]

Dude, kill him afterwards? Once he recovers his energy, that's it, he can do whatever he pleases and we're in no condition to stop him. Even with Jing's invincibility complex, he's not sure he'll be able to:

You can always try to silence him later, though you are not certain you will get a better chance.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Well yeah. We are unlikely to get a better chance than having him helpless on the floor. Doesn't mean we wouldn't be able to take him on at all. He just had a ghost snack on his soul and has aged rapidly - that can't be good for you.

 

[Rex Feral]

It wouldn't be a fair fight if we were to kill him afterwards. Poison his food, push him off a ledge, kill him in his sleep and so on.

But yeah he might run away the moment we get out. He might try to kill us instead. There were four horses, so there might be some of his friends nearby.

So I conclude B is just too risky whether we want to kill him or not, because there is no guarantee we even get to interrogate him. Not mentioning he could be lying to us, throwing us on a bad trail or trying to murder us.

I'll go with A.

 

[Nevill]

Ok, guys, so why do we want to kill him?

Okay, so it's implied that the Court was responsible for the attack on the cult at Wufushan (to what end, we still don't know) but that doesn't justify allowing a man this dangerous to live given that he serves interests that go against our character.

- If we are leaving him alive, there is chance that eunoch guy learns about us and we don't have greatest relationship with the guy. At our current state all we can do is hide or run from the eunoch forces, he is too powerful for us to start fighting him. We also lose our surprise element, since they don't have any idea what we are now or where we are.

What would exactly Li learn about us? For better or worse, we've been ignoring the prince's mission so far, and haven't meddled in the Court's intrigues. He already knows that we are alive - everyone at the palace does, since the pigsty was empty on the day of our supposed execution. So why is that bad?

What forces are you talking about that we are going to fight against?

- Sir, we have found the boy who had pissed in your bowl ten years ago.
- SEND OUT THE ARMY!!

Seriously, that's the only thing you know about Li. You have no idea where his allegiances lie, or if his interests go against ours. Is he a part of the conspiracy, or is he an ally to the Empire? Maybe he had infiltrators among BDS members to stage an attack on the Fire Cult, who are a foreign threat to the Empire, and set up the orthodox pugilists to weaken their influence at the same time? You have no way to tell. The only thing you have going for him being an antagonist are the impessions of seven year old Jing.

“You… are you…” seems too awfully short a sentence to decide whether a man lives or dies. There are just too much unknowns to kill a person based on the fact that he might be someone who might do something that might inconvenience you in the future, especially if you have no clue what those 'somethings' are.

 

[Elfberserker]

What would exactly Li learn about us? For better or worse, we've been ignoring the prince's mission so far, and haven't meddled in the Court's intrigues. He already knows that we are alive - everyone at the palace does, since the pigsty was empty on the day of our supposed execution. So why is that bad?

If we keep him alive I assume we are asking questions from him. Li might want to know why Southern maniacs appearance is asking question about his operations and why is he so interested. I am pretty sure that this enouch is smart and ruthless guy and quickly connects that the crown prince prankster aide is investigating his operations and is appearance one of most ruthless and powerful martial artist in china, someone you definitely want out of your picture.

What forces are you talking about that we are going to fight against?

- Sir, we have found the boy who had pissed in your bowl ten years ago.
- SEND OUT THE ARMY!!

Operators like this guy, A group of highly trained and lethal assassins, members of black dragon society, bounty hunter and who knows what. We would have more people after us than we already have, but this bunch would be far more ruthless and open minded towards tactics than orthodox guys.

Seriously, that's the only thing you know about Li. You have no idea where his allegiances lie. Is he a part of the conspiracy, or is he an ally to the Empire? Maybe he had infiltrators among BDS members to stage an attack on the Fire Cult, who are a foreign threat to the Empire, and set up the orthodox pugilists to weaken their influence at the same time? You have no way to tell. The only thing you have going for him being an antagonist are the impessions of seven year old Jing.

I know he is ruthless and very influential. Interrogating one of his operators and off chance that said agent happens to escape is quick way to get his attention. Maybe he isn't threat to empire, but he could be threat to us, if he decides that we are too much of risk on whatever his plan is. We have pissed off imperial court since beginning and have no shortage of opposition in there.

You don't know what this guy knows or can we even make him talk. He is highly trained operator, I am sure they have give him bit of training against questioning in case he is captured. Besides what Jing can do worse than Eunoch won't?

I would like to interrogate the guy, but we are seriously in bad situation here. Agent has two friends here who can kick our asses, we are greatly weakened and are in dangerous mansion, currently we have no time to squeeze all possible information due ghosts and other operators.

“You… are you…” seems awfully short a sentence to decide whether a man lives or dies. There are just too much unknowns to kill a person based on the fact that he might be someone who might do something that might inconvenience you in the future, especially if you have no clue what those 'somethings' are.

I know that they are after Yunzi and might kill scholarbro depending on if eunoch is same person that was after him in Lyoung manor. I know he and his friends can kill us easily in our current state, if they decide that we are enemy. We also know that Jing noticed that the guy recognized him. I would like to keep our anonymity as southern maniacs appearance, who has no intrest in politics in eyes of the court.

 

[Nevill]

If we keep him alive I assume we are asking questions from him. Li might want to know why Southern maniacs appearance is asking question about his operations and why is he so interested.

There are quite a few reasons for us to be interested in the Fire Cult. They have issued a challenge to the orthodox world, and thus directly interfered with our own. They have also invited us to join, which does not look like such a good idea now that the court is targeting them. Not to mention that we travel with the Holy Maiden of theirs. It wouldn't be that strange for us to want to know what is happening.

It very much depends on what kind of questions you are going to ask him.

Maybe he isn't threat to empire, but he could be threat to us, if he decides that we are too much of risk on whatever his plan is.

See, it's 'whatever his plan is' part that irks me. How we are supposed to lay low and not to attract attention if we do not know what their interests are?

You don't know what this guy knows or can we even make him talk. He is highly trained operator, I am sure they have give him bit of training against questioning in case he is captured. Besides what Jing can do worse than Eunoch won't?

So... that brings me to my previous question. Why do we need to kill or torture him? What kind of information he has that would harm us?

Why can't we have Yunzi question him and let him go? I am not keen on having this guy travel with us, I don't even know how that would work.

I am not completely against killing him, but that is too drastic a response for something you only suppose could be a threat in the future.

 

[Baltika9]

The reasons I don't want to take the risk of this guy living are very simple:
We're at -50 rep with the Court and his boss hates us. At this point, we did more than just piss in his bowl ten years ago, we also spoiled a Court plan with the Minamoto and are persona-non-grata in their circles. I don't want the castrati keeping tabs on us.
I don't want this guy anywhere near Yunzi or Yu, because once we start asking him questions they'll figure out whose side we're on and what's our angle pretty quickly, which doesn't really help our chances with either of them. These assassins targeted both of them.
This dude is just as likely to sabotage our chances of getting into the BDS as he is to help us do it. On account of our previous history, we were known as a reckless and thoughtless person in our palace days, not the type you want around an assassin group, and if he lets slip that, it's his word versus ours.
We're severely depowered right now, so we can't do anything to him once he regains his bearings. True, he may be grateful and give us a freebie, but his mission was to get rid of Yunzi with his ambush squad and in our state, I doubt there is anything we can do to tip the odds. This is my chief concern, we'll basically be at his mercy and since he's a member of the BDS, the Imperial Assassins and was a badass enough dude to be recognized out of over one hundred swordsmen, he's a dangerous opponent.

Why can't we have Yunzi question him and let him go? I am not keen on having this guy travel with us, I don't even know how that would work.

That's a horrible idea. He was one of the men that ambushed her with the swordsmen and lead her to this situation, and then pursued her to finish the job (why the hell else would an assassin be here?). Any questions she asks him will be rather off-topic and the man short-lived due to her temper and general impulsiveness. I'd say Jing would make a better interrogator than her.

We reestablished contact with the Holy Maiden, are getting our taste of the supernatural that we wanted and didn't get any more injured yet. The going is good and I would hate, hate for it to be ruined because we got too greedy and decided to make friends with an assassin. In that world there are only winners an corpses and I don't want to be a corpse.

 

[TOME]

A - too much shit on our plate already. This is way too chaotic environment for everything to work out for us. Let's focus on surviving and keeping our friends alive. Besides, would you believe anything this guy says?

 

[Nevill]

I don't want this guy anywhere near Yunzi or Yu, because once we start asking him questions they'll figure out whose side we're on and what's our angle pretty quickly, which doesn't really help our chances with either of them. These assassins targeted both of them.

If we start interrogating these assassins, wouldn't it be evidence enough that we aren't on their side? And Yunzi pretty much knows it anyway.

This dude is just as likely to sabotage our chances of getting into the BDS as he is to help us do it. On account of our previous history, we were known as a reckless and thoughtless person in our palace days, not the type you want around an assassin group, and if he lets slip that, it's his word versus ours.

What if we mention the fact that he is an Imperial spy to them? Yu would do so gleefully, and Changfeng would believe him.

I think he would have plenty of reasons to keep his mouth shut.

That's a horrible idea. Any questions she asks him will be rather off-topic and the man short-lived due to her temper and general impulsiveness.

Better her than Jing. At least she has a legitimate reason to hate him.

I am not comfortable with the idea of killing people pre-emptively. We are terrible judges of character when we have to do so without actually talking to people - just remember all the speculations about the Masters.

Voting B for now, mostly to keep things balanced until more arguments are made in favor of either desicion.

 

[Baltika9]

If we start interrogating these assassins, wouldn't it be evidence enough that we aren't on their side? And Yunzi pretty much knows it anyway.

Only our planned cover story is that we got exiled and basically don't really give a damn about the court anymore. Why would we get a sudden interest in their intricacies. And this being Jing, I'm pretty sure the first question will be "Is Shun OK? Answer me, motherfucker!"

What if we mention the fact that he is an Imperial spy to them? Yu would do so gleefully, and Changfeng would believe him.

And they would take the word of a rookie and an applicant over the word of a proven veteran agent why exactly?

Besides, would you believe anything this guy says?

This, so very very much. What incentive would he have to be totally honest with us?

 

[Tigranes]

Yep, there are far too many problems with B. We know so little that he can bullshit us about anything. The more we ask the more info we will give HIM - at the very least thatt we must be watched / disposed of. His friends may well be around. He may well recover quickly - who knows about the duration of ghost attacks - and then we would be in trouble, even if Yunzi is probably at full strength. Lugging him around will be difficult. We won't be able to talk frankly with Yunzi while he's around. There's just too manyy problems.

If we had not given Yunzi our name I assume we'd have had an option to just let him go, but given our choices, I think it has to be A.

 

[Elfberserker]

There are quite a few reasons for us to be interested in the Fire Cult. They have issued a challenge to the orthodox world, and thus directly interfered with our own. They have also invited us to join, which does not look like such a good idea now that the court is targeting them. Not to mention that we travel with the Holy Maiden of theirs. It wouldn't be that strange for us to want to know what is happening.

The problem is that we would be wildcard for them. A wildcard that may have possible ruined their plans for Minamoto. A person who was already in bad realitionship with most of court when we left the palace. Questions may be innocent enough, but Jing himself as person raises lot of alarm bells for them.

See, it's 'whatever his plan is' part that irks me. How we are supposed to lay low and not to attract attention if we do not know what their interests are?

You are missing the point. Even if we by some chance get accurate information, there is still a chance that prisoner escapes. Knowing motivation doesn't help us when Eunoch is pissed enough to sen men hunting us in our weakening state capturing us or killing us. Sometimes you can't win them all and I feel this situation is exactly like that. Every situation is diffrent, some choices enable us get information quietly and unnoticed, others don't.

Your plan is to risk getting potential powerful enemy while we are severely injured and potential close our chance to Black dragon society, just because you believe that we can keep this guy tied up while two of his friends are in mansion and there is ghosts chasing our asses? You trust Jing having ability to stop highly trained agent from escaping from from ropes? Granted there is chance for it all to work and information may well be pretty damn awesome, but is it worth the risks? Can we even get all the information we need to guess their motives? This guy is highly ranked agent, I think he knows a thing or two about questioning game and has pretty damn good motivation to lie and tell half truths. You usually won't get accurate information from torture either, because at some point they admit everything that Jing can accuse them of.

So... that brings me to my previous question. Why do we need to kill or torture him? What kind of information he has that would harm us?

Why can't we have Yunzi question him and let him go? I am not keen on having this guy travel with us, I don't even know how that would work.

I am not completely against killing him, but that is too drastic a response for something you only suppose could be a threat in the future.

Do you think that this guy reveals his master motives just because asked questions? I doubt that Jing can misdirect this guy since this guy is high-ranking agent and I bet he has experienced plenty of bullshitting and misdirectioning in conversation. I bet bet he can lie pretty conventially too, court life and being operator kind a forces you to be.

I am not sure that Yunzi is good candidate to questioning him, she is far too emotionally and concerted about fire cult to get information about other possible interests. Not to mention we declare our side to fire cultist by doing nothing to stop her interrogation or possible torture. I feel that letting the man go after questioning is Big wild card, perhaps he is grateful enought not to mention us to eunoch or perhaps his loyalty runs deeper than gratitude and he tells eunoch about us.

Killing him brings finality. We may not get all the information, but we are pretty sure that we have one less worry to our physical self and anomonity.

 

[Baltika9]

Wait a sec. This guy may be the owner of one of the horses,which means he has/had three more guys with him.

 

[Nevill]

Even if we by some chance get accurate information, there is still a chance that prisoner escapes.

Your plan is to risk getting potential powerful enemy while we are severely injured and potential close our chance to Black dragon society, just because you believe that we can keep this guy tied up while two of his friends are in mansion and there is ghosts chasing our asses? You trust Jing having ability to stop highly trained agent from escaping from from ropes? Granted there is chance for it all to work and information may well be pretty damn awesome, but is it worth the risks?

No, I pretty much intend to let him go, unless he proves antagonistic enough. This is not me you are arguing with.

 

[Elfberserker]

No, I pretty much intend to let him go. This is not me you are arguing with.[/QUOTE

I don't think that is a option, If I read Treave's choices correctly. Would be intresting option, but alas not available.

 

[Nevill]

If our only choices are to kill him, or to interrogate him and then kill him, then I'd rather kill him now.

I assume that we would be acting based on how he reacts to our questioning. I would not rule out a relatively peaceful resolution just yet.

 

[Elfberserker]

If our only choices are to kill him, or to interrogate him and then kill him, then I'd rather kill him now.

I assume that we would be acting based on how he reacts to our questioning. I would not rule out a relatively peaceful resolution just yet.

Might go multible ways, we still don't know if Yunzi spooked by wind or something more sinistral, but I fear that arguing for that part is pure speculation. Not to mention mere presence of Yunzi push our situation farther away from peaceful solution.

 

[Baltika9]

Exactly, Yunzi is his target. If he galloped across the nation to track her down, he definitely isn't letting some delinquent exile take her. And and there absolutely nothing we can do about it when he recovers.

In the end this is just one possible thought process justifying killing him, of course.

Is "he signed his own death warrant when he fucked with Yunzi " another possible thought process?