[LP CYOA] 傳

[Tigranes]

Nope.

“I can throw you up to the bottom of the bottomless pit. Haha. Bottom of the bottomless pit. In fact I can teach you everything, young one. Everything I know. You can be my spear, my weapon to strike at the twisted world of the jianghu. All I need is an offering.”

“Let me guess,” you say, “food?”

“Oh, how did you know?” chuckles Yang Xue.

“Just a hunch,” you sigh. “Do you need me to capture rats for you, old man?”

“Rats?” he spits. “Why would I want to eat that right now? You need to show your sincerity, youngster. An arm will do. Take it from the girl, it is not like she has any use for her limbs right now. It does… more good inside my belly. More purpose. It is only right.”

All you are saying to him is, "look, amulet, so I can be your spear without losing an arm, rite?" The amulet may help us butter him up, but I'm skeptical that it's enough for him to just cancel his demand altogether. If he was amenable to the reasoning that we would be a less effective spear without an arm he wouldn't have demanded it to begin with.

 

[Baltika9]

Nothing that simple. Don't forget that the man is mad with grief and regret. The thing I am hedging everything in that plan on is this:

He seems to have his moments of lucidity, but it is unsure whether the symbol will have any effect or work the way you expect it to. Probably I'll have to roll some dice for the results, if you want to try reminding him about the tribe. Results may range from murderous rage to increased friendliness.

All we need is to get him lucid and somewhat reasonable and open to suggestion for just a while, and then work our magic on him. You forget the part where he fell in love with an Ashina woman and fought tooth and nail for her tribe and it's greatness. And the part where Jing saved his granddaughter and is the living hero of said tribe, and holds a sacred talisman of theirs.

This is the same risk as in B1+amulet, as in we are risking him going batfuck insane on us and getting killed (I hope no one here thinks we can stand up to him when he goes all out), but we're taking a more proactive approach to the situation instead of just wandering around the caverns, waiting for a rescue team and searching for alternate exits that likely aren't there.

 

[Anabanana]

I suppose it's too much to hope that the arm thing is just a test to see whether we would give our arm to save Qilin from harm. I mean, that would make sense if he wants us to be powerful enough to strike back at jianghu for him.

That's another thing to consider - regardless of whether or not he's really going to take off Jing's arm, he thinks that what he teaches Jing will be enough for him to dominate jianghu.

 

[Baltika9]

He's also batshit insane and hungry.

 

[Esquilax]

He's also batshit insane and hungry.

That isn't helping your argument. That makes any sort of alternative deal less likely, not more.

In any case, I am down with sacrificing our arm for long-term gains. Zhang said that under his tutelage we would be more powerful than any man, even with one arm; well, under his and Yang Xue's tutelage, we will be more powerful than any man, even with one arm and one eye. The price of admission is steep, but if you wanna get to the top, you need a lot of balls and a willingness to sacrifice a lot, up to and including sacrificing aforementioned balls.

As for the other alternatives, we obviously can't just leave Qilin to die here and staying here seems to be postponing the inevitable. I don't think that we'll be able to see something that Yang Xue hasn't after so long here:

“There is no way out. No way out of this madness. I do not need to leave anyway. I will wait for Li Ming to return and to kill him. He will be here one day. He cannot forget me. He cannot have forgotten me. No.”
...
“But there is one way out,” he says, looking up. “I can throw you up to the bottom of the bottomless pit. Haha. Bottom of the bottomless pit. In fact I can teach you everything, young one. Everything I know. You can be my spear, my weapon to strike at the twisted world of the jianghu. All I need is an offering.”

treave, did Yang Xue mean to say that there was no way out of this place or no way out of his own personal madness? The part that I bolded might be mad ranting, but I suspect that there might be more to it; perhaps he means that in order to make our way to the surface, we first have to start from the bottom. And I suppose that means going with the current.

Now, yes, the current might result in us plummeting to our deaths, but it also might result in us finding our way towards an area away from the madman and with more food available. I doubt it'll put us any closer to the surface, but in light of our options, I am desperate enough to make a big gamble. I suppose that showing the Wolf's Fang Amulet presents a similar sort of risk, but I'm a little reluctant to go for an unlisted choice - I don't think I've recovered from my Youxia City trauma quite yet.

A2 > B2

 

[XenomorphII]

In before we get our arm ripped off, go into shock, and bleed out on the floor.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

In before we get our arm ripped off, go into shock, and bleed out on the floor.

He's also batshit insane and hungry.

 

[RealDDc]

We should start hoarding loot, you never know at which point you might need that half rotten bandit limb or some stale rice cracker.

What is going to ensure that he'll stay to his word after snacking an arm? And in some way he demanded Qilins arm, what would stop him from refusing Jings arm? And even if he would accept our or Qulins arm and train us, what would stop him from demanding more if he is hungry again? How many limbs can we spare for the escape or training?

I'd rather jump in the unknown or let the dice decide.

B2 -> Amulet dice roll

 

[Baltika9]

He's also batshit insane and hungry.

That isn't helping your argument. That makes any sort of alternative deal less likely, not more.

That's not quite what I meant. The man is completely insane and extremely hungry to boot, of course this offer wasn't made in the right state of mind. The whole point of using the amulet is to get him in a more lucid and open state of mind, so taht we can work our 7 CHA/5 Speech to persuade him to change his plan. Not like our bony arm (Jing was described as a very lanky fellow) will be such a rich meal to him anyway.

 

[Grimgravy]

B1 and use the amulet.

Why do we have to rush? Lets see if anyone will come help us.

 

[Baltika9]

We're 'rushing' because if we stay here too long, we are definitely missing out on the Fire Cult's challenge. Now, that wouldn't be such a bad thing if we spent all this time training intensively, but this:

B. You refuse to submit to the old man’s mad request. There has to be a way out of here, since he managed to make it to the upper tunnels previously.
1. You will just have to improve your rat-catching skills in order to survive; you will continue searching for a way out from the tunnels in the meantime.

The only exit is definitely past Yang Xue, and it seems like we'll be wasting time wandering around the caverns searching for an alternative. The man has been down here for a very, very long while and knows this place in in and out by now.

 

[Grimgravy]

Meh. We can miss the challenge. Yunzi will forgive us when we show up with grandpa or stories of him.

 

[RealDDc]

I wonder what would have happened if Jing had pumped his qi into him?

 

[Tigranes]

He would have asploded.

 

[RealDDc]

He would have asploded.

Jing?

 

[Kipeci]

I imagine we would have moderately inconvenienced the general with the sudden flow, after which he would then beat Jing and otherwise have the update go exactly the same except for that we could extend qi outside of our body to use on other people or things instead of having the power to absorb it.

 

[treave]

Also, treave will Jing be dedicating any time to unraveling the mysteries of the rest of the bloody text with any of these options, and if so do we have any choice in what he focuses on?

B1, and he'll focus on the kicks, of course. Because that was what won. I see no reason to allow study of another part, since public sentiment seems to be very much against the idea of 'spreading yourself too thin'.

treave, I just had an interesting idea.

You still have to roll the dice.

treave, did Yang Xue mean to say that there was no way out of this place or no way out of his own personal madness? The part that I bolded might be mad ranting, but I suspect that there might be more to it; perhaps he means that in order to make our way to the surface, we first have to start from the bottom. And I suppose that means going with the current.

You don't know, of course.

treave can clarify how he counts it, though.

I'll just roll it now and leave the results out in the open, or modify the choices accordingly if it's a good result.

 

[RealDDc]

Would we eat him if he would have blown up?

 

[treave]

Due to your LUC 1, the roll table will be as such:

1-3 Murderous rage

4-8 No effect

9-11 He breaks down and starts lashing out at the walls in grief

12 He becomes friendlier

 

[Baltika9]

Well. It was a good run, guys.

 

[Esquilax]

Hahahahahahah, yet another Kunnin' Kodex Plan krumbles.

 

[kazgar]

Critical Fail!

We can always rollback.

 

[treave]

Welp, critical failure, even if you had LUC 10 and had the table weighted towards the other end of the spectrum.

 

[ScubaV]

Goodbye arm without the benefit of learning uber skills

 

[Esquilax]

The funny part of the smiley is that it looks kinda like Jing now that he only has one arm. It just needs an eyepatch.