[LP CYOA] 傳

[treave]

Palace circles =/= the actual, physical palace itself, but the royalty and manipulators and bureaucrats in positions of power.

It's clear they have plenty of field agents; the eunuch, the man you murdered in the ghost mansion, so you will likely work without having to set a single foot in the capital.

 

[Baltika9]

Baltika makes some good points. I'd really like Jing to remain a free agent. I'll consider flopping to A, but not B. Agian, high risk, low reward.

Heh, I see one thing that can work for us in A: we have no pressure points.
Problim, Mr. I Have High Perception?

That is, of course, if he goes for pressure points. If he goes for the kill, well, we ded.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

So you think he'll immediately try to kill us in A?

 

[Baltika9]

Possibly, yeah. It is worth noting that I really do think he is affiliated with Shun, the words he said really give that "dedicated and righteous" vibe. He just told us that we can either be a friend or an enemy. If we escape in A without telling him that we work for Shun as well, I think he will automatically assume we're an enemy and attack us. He sees us even with the smoke, Jing is sure of that, so he'll definitely get one shot at us. Whether or not he'll aim at a pressure point, I don't know, but if he doesn't then we ded. You could say that...
It's a risk.


Still better than getting roped into some Gestapo bullshit that will eat us alive.

 

[ScubaV]

C may be the optimal choice in terms of pros and cons, but I'm not too interested in getting sidetracked with some "indoctrination into the secret police" phase. We'd likely missing out on bro-time, harem time, picking up Cao'er and it might put Fire Cult investigations and Zhang Jue's quest at risk due to loss of time.

Even with B, this guy namedropped Shun first, how can he be sure we're not lying by claiming loyalty?

I'll vote B > A. Hopefully that will keep the flies off our back while we get back to the good stuff.

 

[Nevill]

I don't think the guy is working for Shun, or solely for Shun.

- The attack on Wufushan was most likely carried by the people from the Eight Sects, and guided by the secret police.
- The same division of the secret police had their hands on the BDS case and made them provide some fighters to the battle at Wufushan.
- Hei brothers are worried about your alleged report to the HQ, so they know that the thing they are doing would not be overlooked. However, they are quite confident in their impunity should Gao Ying handle the case. That means that the agents working with them do not report the situation to the Palace fully. Whom do they report to, then?

Three years ago Shun told us that he does not have a presense in the pugilistic world. To have a network of contacts so widespread that it spans several major orthodox sects as well as some big unorthodox organisations in such a short time is rather unfeasible. There is a high chance that the said network does not belong to Shun.

If the guy belonged to Shun and our prince really had a hand in dealing with BDS and allowing enslaving of free Han to happen (which I really, really doubt - or rather, not want to believe), then Hei should not have been so nervous about the content of our report. The backing of the crown prince would have been enough for them not to be afraid of anything. I believe that the powerful person they are trying to cojole and the one that Gao Ying serves is not so powerful yet as to ignore the law of the land.

If he goes for the kill, well, we ded.

There is zero chance that we are going to be killed right off the bat.
I mean, the matter of pulling magical daggers out of his ass aside, why introduce an adversary just to have him kill the protagonist the very second we defy him? That's not how it goes in the stories. If he is just going to kill us, he is not a 'terrible enemy' the update speaks of, there is literally nothing that makes him more terrible than Hei brothers, who, mind you, would also try to kill us if we try to escape.

 

[Absinthe]

B > C

I don't see a point in voting A. He knows the name "Xu Jing", knows we're involved in palace affairs, and will investigate our connection to the palace. With our history (best friend of Li Shun), he'll find out that we answer to Li Shun. If we don't tell him, he'll assume we're an enemy anyway and find out we work for Shun later. If we do tell him, there's a solid chance he won't be our enemy.

I like the opportunities C offers us, but right now going with this guy means we are ditching our buddies (who may take this as a betrayal) and wrecking the mission Li Shun gave us (infiltrate the dark side of the pugilistic world). So I will vote B and see what the future holds.

 

[Esquilax]

“Vahista insisted on stopping a while at Wufushan for you, thinking that there was a chance you might come. I have no idea why he would invite such a lout, but it turned out badly. More than a hundred orthodox swordsmen attacked us there, separating us. My handmaidens then acted as a decoy so that I could escape alone, while they led the enemy on a merry chase.”
...
“Ah.” Hei Zuolong raises his eyebrows. “Wufushan. We had little part in that… only a dozen men or so were engaged for that mission.”

Interesting. Out of the hundred or so pugilists involved in the attack on the Fire Cult, only twelve of them were BDS affiliated, while the rest were probably orthodox pugilists assembled through Mao Sanjiao's manipulations.

The question isn't what this guy will do when he gets into contact with Shun, the question is "what will he do right now?" As things stand, he is a liaison for the BDS, most likely here for Changfeng, so if their stronghold is being sabotaged/attacked, he will automatically side with them. Unless, of course, another agent of Shun is already working on it, in which case he will probably let us be. I think Tigranes' sense is right, in that we may very well catch a dagger in the back (figuratively or literally speaking) if we just bail on him and let him assume Jing is screwing up Shun's plans. He reeks of fanaticism.

I think he's much cleverer than that. I don't think he'll kill us on the spot even if he has a golden opportunity to do so - he's interested in finding our motives and where our loyalties lie. Killing us isn't ideal because then he doesn't know which faction has Zhang's apprentice on their side. I think that he wants to know who had the intelligence and forethought to place an agent in the pugilistic world several years in advance. So based on that, I don't think he'll be angling to take us out just yet if we pick A.

A: If he's lying we gain nothing and are an annoyance to him. While he may be our enemy, I really don't think he'll prioritize eliminating us.
A: If he's telling the truth, again we gain nothing. We may warrant being investigated and captured/killed, but I hardly think we'd make a priority.

Great post, but I'm sure that we're much more than a mere annoyance to him in A. Xu Jing is one of the best martial artists of his generation and he has a lot of confidential knowledge on the secret workings of the government. Considering that we're well on the way to becoming a future Great Pugilist, if our interests don't align with Gao Ying's, he'll definitely make it a priority to take us out.

I am still not sure what to pick. This is a very tough choice.

 

[Absinthe]

I think he's much cleverer than that. I don't think he'll kill us on the spot even if he has a golden opportunity to do so - he's interested in finding our motives and where our loyalties lie. Killing us isn't ideal because then he doesn't know which faction has Zhang's apprentice on their side. I think that he wants to know who had the intelligence and forethought to place an agent in the pugilistic world several years in advance. So based on that, I don't think he'll be angling to take us out just yet if we pick A.

Great post, but I'm sure that we're much more than a mere annoyance to him in A. Xu Jing is one of the best martial artists of his generation and he has a lot of confidential knowledge on the secret workings of the government. Considering that we're well on the way to becoming a future Great Pugilist, if our interests don't align with Gao Ying's, he'll definitely make it a priority to take us out.

I am still not sure what to pick. This is a very tough choice.

We established a connection to Liu Chanfeng, who might have escaped right now. Also, we've just proven ourselves to be extremely cunning on top of being a dangerous martial artist. In addition to that, we just impersonated the palace's secret police and displayed knowledge of the inner workings of the court. Extracting information (or better yet, allegiance) out of us is good, but failing that he will opt to kill us the same way we killed the palace agent in the haunted mansion - because we're too dangerous of a risk to leave alone.

If we disclose we work for Shun (which he will later discover regardless), then he will quite possibly have a good reason to not oppose us and even if he doesn't, his priority returns more to palace politics than us specifically. Besides, he was quite clear on this: Either we're his friend or his enemy. If we vote A, he will assume "enemy."

 

[treave]

Baltika9 - B
Jester - B
Kipeci - B
ERYFKRAD - B
Anabanana - B
Tigranes - B
Nevill - A
Ifeex - B
Azira - C
Stygian Lurker - B
Grimgravy - A
asxetos - A
GreyViper - A
RealDDc - C
Lambchop19 - C > A
Kipeci - B > A
ScubaV - B > A
Absinthe - B > C
TOME - A
The Brazilian Slaughter - A

***

Current tally:

A - 6
B - 11
C - 3

 

[Baltika9]

If he goes for the kill, well, we ded.

There is zero chance that we are going to be killed right off the bat.
I mean, the matter of pulling magical daggers out of his ass aside

I don't think he needs a magical throwing weapon hidden in his robes, those things are easy to conceal especially for someone of his caliber and skillset (obviously trained as a master spy and assassin). And a weapon doesn't need to be magical to kill you. With our crippled state right now we are hardly in a position to dodge a projectile of a dude trained to kill with it. Unless he's going for a pressure point, in which case " Problem?" He makes me think of a male (somewhat) Quilin, only much more brutal. This man (hurr) is a trained killer for the secret police and Jing has definitely shown himself to be a huge security risk for the Empire, in his own words, and his only two options are to either be a friend or a foe, again in his own words. I really think that dumping him in A will lead to a less-than-pleasant outcome.

 

[Kipeci]

Less than pleasant, it's a possibility, but there's no way he's going to kill us. At worst, we get imprisoned with horrible injuries. I just think treave's invested a bit much into this to just kill us off and go to character creation with a choice like this... though, I'm sure he can find a way to make us miserably pathetic in our circumstances if we act too bone-headed for too long.

 

[Baltika9]

Dude, plot armor is the last thing I'd rely on. Especially with 1 LCK. We came very close to death in Songfeng, one vote away from a DEAD END.

 

[Kipeci]

And that choice was very obviously marked as going to get us killed, given that it was in the context of a very clearly stated fight to the death and it was shown as relying on the use of a lot of skills that we just didn't have.

This is not a deathmatch, we aren't up against a foe wanting to kill us on sight at this exact moment-- and remember, sight is a rather limited commodity now anyway, even if he does have a fairly decent idea of where we are in the smoke. There's no reason to assume that this choice is going to kill us; this doesn't mean that nothing bad can happen, obviously, but you'll need to do a lot of convincing and evidence pulling to assure me that he's going to straight up kill Jing without being even slightly impeded by the circumstances and our ally or allies. The ghost is still an unknown factor.

 

[TOME]

A. Right now the guy doesn't know Jing. Jing's name may sound familiar but there are a lot of places where one could hear Jing's name. If we drop Shun's name, the guy will remember or figure it out. Great update btw! Hopefully we will add that slave girl to our harem.

 

[Absinthe]

We also had a chance to kill the pirate leader in the cave under what almost appeared to be doable circumstances for facing the ninja. Treave later informed us that choice would have gotten us killed because the ninja would snipe the lights and then we're fucked.

And right now we are facing a palace agent who is described as a dangerous killer too risky for Yunzi to confront, who is always ready to strike, and our senses tell us the smoke is doing nothing to obscure us from Gao Ying. We have 5 agility. He told us that he considers us a dangerous man and we need to prove whether we are a friend or foe, and Yunzi is already out the window. If we vote A we'll be lucky if we even get out of that window instead of dying on the spot or waking up in a prison cell, and our luck is notoriously bad.

 

[TOME]

He will likely go for pressure points. Either we reveal our immunity or our benefactor. Or we could go for C but that feels like the end of this LP.

 

[Nevill]

And those Songfengians carried poison with them.

Sorry, not buying Jing biting the dust with just a single dagger. Especially not when the ball-less didn't make a motion to grab one and Jing is about to leap out of the window in a second.

 

[Absinthe]

Assuming he does that, okay, we lolimmune his pressure point attacks. And then what? Do you think he will then just give us wide-eyed surprise and let us leave? He'd probably just follow up and subdue us some other way. We can't take this guy on in our current condition.

And those Songfengians carried poison with them.

Dude, I was just citing an off-chance that time. You were the one determined to argue this one point because it was the easy target instead of confronting the more important points (just as you are doing now, cheapskate), so I nevertheless obliged your argument and you still weren't winning that. Incidentally, this man is an actual trained killer and really could have poison on him. Hm, so do we, for that matter. I guess there's that chance.

Sorry, not buying Jing biting the dust with just a single dagger. Especially not when the ball-less didn't make a motion to grab one and Jing is about to leap out of the window in a second.

You realize that it is quite possible he hasn't made a motion because he doesn't need to yet? This guy is a trained killer and seriously considering if we are his enemy or not. With his high perception and training, it is quite possible he already determined we are in an injured condition and thus not a threat unless he lets us go.

 

[Nevill]

I'd be more inclined to consider it even half-seriously if it wasn't phrased as a typical fear-mongering 'our luck is Shulgi' argument. This line of thinking needs to die in a fire.

There is nothing that suggest he will attack us straight up. He is intrigued by us. Even if we are considered an enemy, it still would be worth it to track down our master, because he is sure we aren't working on our own. We know too much sensitive stuff.

Ignoring that fact, we are one of the most badass characters of our age around, even if crippled. To suggest that we are going down to a single motion is lolworthy.

From the narrative perspective it makes no sense for us to be offered a choice without a choice here.

However you look at it, this is nonsensical.

 

[Azira]

I voted C. If that actually wins, feel free to blame any and all blame on me.

 

[Baltika9]

I'm blaming you anyway, for not arguimg hard enough. Thank you for your service.

 

[Azira]

M'yeah, could probably argue harder.

OK. Guys? C is the right choice. For clever argumentation, see here and here.

Cheap? Well, I'm lazy and busy with a new job and the upcoming christmas, so there.

 

[TOME]

but then we have Yunzi, Yu, Changfeng, the girl from under the bed and the ghost with us if we make out of the fortress.

 

[Nevill]

I can't in good conscience consider C.

We are not going back to the intrigues of the Palace. I happened to appreciate our freedom during these three years. Two masters are more than enough, we do not need a third one, especially the one that would separate us with our friends.

No way I am exchanging the company of Cao'er for this eunuch snake.