[LP CYOA] 傳

[Tigranes]

Pretty sure our fate is in the 'die trying' category.

THe problem is that we had 2 opportunities to learn more about the secret service and its allegiances, and although we acted reasonably according to the immediate situation, we also ended up learning nothing about them.

 

[Nevill]

Well, we learned that they can be killed if you put your mind to it. So let's apply this knowledge.

 

[Jester]

About previous choice:
There was idea to copy the manual, its risky but interesting. Would advice to make our employer send copy somewhere else to prevent our companions from finding it on us (Miss Li manor is quite good choice, we would have there help from skilled artists to decipher it). What else i think that geting this tech would be less beneficial than using the manual to prepare counter style to it, if people would see us using actual sword play instead things would get very ugly very fast (probably with hit to Wudang rep, damaging Hunsh-Wudang relationships even more). We could always say that we were concentrating our efforts on learning/making sword styles, with diversity of techs and styles getting something similar to that sword play based on similiar principles is posible. Still not sure if its better, but i assume this would make it bit more safe for Jing.

Edit. I forgotten, had HOLY HELL reaction to this update, expected dealing with his ally wanting to change city political structure or mby fixing someone screw up. Touche Treave, Touche.


To this:
Yes my precious... You will rule, but we must kill all your brothers and eunuchs so they don't try to meddle... You will be remembered as greatest Son of Heaven and I as your unbreakable sword, but greatness sometimes need... sacrifices.

Hmm if i get this political system and setting is very similar to right before romance of three kingdoms situation and i recall that eunuchs usually were bend on self interest with no regard for corrupting or interest of empire. From this perspective mby little bit of chaos could force them to concentrate on this issue giving Shun time to secure some political territory, this empire need cleansing of political structure in order to survive and i expect that main opponents to that would be eunuchs.

Perhaps its true that

It is a general truism of this world that anything long divided will surely unite, and anything long united will surely divide

Wonder if its better to try prevent collapse, or try to find way for Shun to be in best shape after it.

When i think about it if Jing is fated to collapse empire, why emperor had sought him and/or let him live?

Vote B
Screw it, i like prospectives of loosing and wining. If i am lucky those secret police guys will use lethal poison on Jing unleashing his CHAOS... ehem toad Demon form.

Flop - C (variant: be honest with Du Yao about the fact that we can't take on this job in our current condition, spar if necessary, swear to secrecy)
It would be funny if guy can heal us. : D

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Didn't expect it to be a government intrest, but I knew it was likely to be a doozy of an assassination...

We don't have the talismans to stop a total todification though. You bros really want to drop our charisma score to 2?

Voting F for now.

 

[Kipeci]

B.

We're already in deep nonsense with the imperial court, hopefully Shun will have established contact with the Japanese already. A3 is also tempting to make completion easier, but it's unlikely to win.

 

[kazgar]

Problem with tagging Bai along is that he may say no, and then rat us out, he has little respect or care for us, and you don't know his sects relationship with the emperor/court, would depend on how good our deception roll is. Then again if he finds out too late he might need to help us finish the job for his own sake.

A1 would work better as Guo is a new addition to the sect and knows life outside of it, and likes us, but can understand not risking a bro getting hurt.

 

[Esquilax]

Problem with tagging Bai along is that he may say no, and then rat us out, he has little respect or care for us, and you don't know his sects relationship with the emperor/court, would depend on how good our deception roll is. Then again if he finds out too late he might need to help us finish the job for his own sake.

A1 would work better as Guo is a new addition to the sect and knows life outside of it, and likes us, but can understand not risking a bro getting hurt.

Nah, I'd say that despite his skill, Jiutian doesn't really have much real-world skill and he's relatively easy to deceive, particularly for a guy like Jing who keeps company with seasoned hustlers like Qilin. He'll have his suspicions, sure, but playing to his ego and vanity shouldn't be a problem. And there is simply no way we can involve Guo Fu in this: if they find out he was involved, the secret police won't care that we manipulated him, they'll immediately start looking to kill his pregnant wife in retribution. It's approaching Dio-level assholery.

treave, should B win, what will we do between now and tomorrow night? Will we get a chance to spar a bit with the Wu brothers or Bai Jiutian before the hit? Perhaps we can refine our Chuzhan Fist a bit in preparation for the big day.

 

[Grimgravy]

F > B
B: It's risky, but hey, that's how an unorthodox fighter grows. Anyone willing to take bets on BJ following us and getting involved in the the assassination because he hates and mistrusts us oh so very much?
I'd prefer kidnapping the daughter with F if we could get the votes, but that looks unlikely. We should consider it though. Our orthodox brothers could get behind it if they know the mission he wants us to do is high treason. Somehow use her as leverage as the six of us clean up the city from the top down. Sounds like fun, even if it would likely cause all sorts of other interesting complications.

 

[Esquilax]

Kidnapping the daughter isn't going to work - Du Yao understands our psychology pretty well, and he knew how far he'd be able to push us based on our previous actions. Are we really going to be willing to kill his daughter in order to get a hold of some material possessions? If that's the case, you can also kiss our companions goodbye. On top of that, Du Yao also seems to be quite a powerful martial artist, making the prospect of going against him even worse.

 

[treave]

treave, should B win, what will we do between now and tomorrow night? Will we get a chance to spar a bit with the Wu brothers or Bai Jiutian before the hit? Perhaps we can refine our Chuzhan Fist a bit in preparation for the big day.

The others will probably be busy searching for leads if you don't tell them anything. Asking for a sparring match right now is just weird behaviour, since you should have other priorities. Like looking for clues about the missing sword and manual.

 

[Esquilax]

The others will probably be busy searching for leads if you don't tell them anything. Asking for a sparring match right now is just weird behaviour, since you should have other priorities. Like looking for clues about the missing sword and manual.

But we are looking. They sought out a walker of the unorthodox path to help them, they ought to know that our methods aren't going to be conventional. Just as Master Zhang wandering into the mountains and pissing off ogres ensured victory for the Minamoto, so too shall sparring matches during an investigation ensure that the sword and manual are recovered. Those who wander are not always lost.

 

[Baltika9]

Are you expecting the poor souls brainwashed by into orthodoxy to understand the wisdom of Zhang Jue?

 

[kazgar]

Surely if we go with A or B we need to rest as much as possible to counteract our injured state.

F's a stupid option just there to capture peeps thinking with the wrong other brain.

 

[treave]

I don't really get it, but even if you do a little sparring right now I don't think you can think up anything useful, distracted as you are by the impending arrival of the secret police. Besides, if you want to kill, in your current state you would do well to rely on weapons instead of your bare hands. Improving the Chuzhan Fist will not help at all. So you have exactly one person you can ask for help with weapons: Bai Jiutian.

 

[Grimgravy]

Ooh. Lets ask him for help. Lets watch him squirm. It puts him in a no win situation. Help us become a better fighter, or be unwilling to help us do what is needed to acquire the sword and manual.

 

[Baltika9]

Or we could buy a dagger, since stealth kills with a tachi in the middle of a street are a dumb idea.

 

[Smashing Axe]

AIII>B

You guys voting B are being unrealistic if you think it can win. No; if we want to take this guy out swiftly, such that there are possibly no witnesses, we should trick BJ to help us out. If we face this guy alone with B, I have no doubt we will either get our asses kicked and/or get more wounded or fail utterly. With BJ as backup, we're more likely to pull off the hit cleanly such that there's no linkage back to us. And really, that's all we can hope for right now.

 

[Baltika9]

treave, is Du Yao planning the ambush in the middle of the city where we can blend in with a crowd?

 

[treave]

It's a night raid.

 

[Baltika9]

I thought the nightlife in this city is like Vegas, really seemed that way when we first came in. What area of the city will it be in, or will it be outside?

 

[treave]

Inn.

 

[ScubaV]

A3 > B

We could really use BJ's fighting skill. I think this might also be a good opportunity to corrupt him a little bit. We can test just how desperately he wants the sword and manual back and just maybe tip him over the edge into helping us.

 

[Esquilax]

We could really use BJ's fighting skill. I think this might also be a good opportunity to corrupt him a little bit. We can test just how desperately he wants the sword and manual back and just maybe tip him over the edge into helping us.

Use his vanity against him? Good idea. The guy has "SUCKER" written all over him, and I'd say that despite his skill in combat, he's pretty easy to hustle.

Anyways, let's look at the logistics of the attack:

Though you know that by reputation most of the secret police are average fighters, good killers and excellent investigators, that young eunuch you met – Gao Ying – was skilled enough that you doubt you could take him cleanly even if you had not been injured. If they had been training more like him…
...
There are still other places for you to ask around, but according to the scroll you had been given, the attack is to take place tomorrow night – that would be the only time the target would be spending in the city, where Du Yao can arrange for his diversion easily. There was a description of the chief, and a brief mention that he would be travelling with eight guards.

Okay, so this guy has eight guards (let's assume they are all average fighters and Gao Ying isn't there, would that be a skill of 4/5, @treave?), and while Du Yao can arrange for a distraction when the time comes, I don't think that he's going to be able to lure all eight of these guys past our target. It would be foolish of them to leave their chief unattended while there's a commotion outside, so we're probably going to have to kill a few guards before we take out the chief. Right now, we have STR/AGI 6 and our neigong is back and better than ever, which gives us decent physical stats, but probably isn't enough to make us into the powerhouse we were against the Minamoto.

The biggest problem with involving Bai Jiutian here is that he might seek to take credit for stopping these "criminals" publicly alongside Xu Jing, which would put us as the top priority in the secret police's shit list. Yeah, it'll also make performing this mission much easier to begin with, but I'm still kinda torn about it. I could still quite easily flop to A III.

 

[treave]

let's assume they are all average fighters and Gao Ying isn't there, would that be a skill of 4/5, @treave?

Thereabouts, yeah.

 

[Baltika9]

I just don't trust BJ to not double-cross us if the Chief of Police offers him a better deal. I mean, we're the scumbag in his scenario, assassinating a state official. We really have no bargaining power if the Chief gives BJ a reason to turn on us. And while we are in good enough condition to take on some of the middling bodyguards at once (three shouldn't be a problem now that we've recovered a bit and got our neiggong back) but if BJ turns on us then we're literally finished.