[LP CYOA] 傳

[Nevill]

To the cunning plan?

Collapse the entry to the tunnels and forget about it. Who would enter them again? Why would they? There is literally nothing down there, except for caves and more caves.

Of course, anything that lets Yang Xue out is a plus in my book, so I would not want to change it.

Edit:

The chamber is now open

So what? Close it. Collapse the passage leading to the chamber as well. What is the problem?

you obviously can't let the crazy fuck wander around the tunnels

Why is that? If the entry is collapsed, no one will wander there. Nobody found him out for 30 years! He does not want to leave. Why change anything?

 

[Baltika9]

you obviously can't let the crazy fuck wander around the tunnels

Why is that? If they are collapsed, no one will wander there. Nobody found him out for 30 year! Why change anything?

Because things did change. Xu Jing and Chi Qilin nested in his cave for a month, then Shun's agents (whom YX believes to be Li Ming's) invaded his sanctum and violently stole his guests/meal. Obviously, the situation isn't the same any more: the man was found, the man was incensed, the man's sanctum was invaded. Basically, Yang Xue's slumber was disturbed and the smart thing to do is to take no chances and try to kill the monster living in your basement, not plug your ears and chant "lalalalala" and hope for the best. Collapsing the tunnels sounds nice, but Yang Xue's strength is superhuman, given enough motivation, he can break through them. Then there's the matter of YX's writings against Li Ming, basically anti-government propaganda and if discovered, will call the moral uprightness of his father into question, which may in turn cast his 'ascension' into question. So I totally understand Shun's situation here, the situation obviously changed so he had to control it.

Now, personally, I hope the old madman escapes and we get the chance to learn his legendary spear technique and more about qi vampirism somewhere down the line, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Esquilax]

Of course, anything that lets Yang Xue out is a plus in my book, so I would not want to change it.

Why? Because you think Gao Ying is a big meanie?

So what? Close it. Collapse the passage leading to the chamber as well. What is the problem?
...
Why is that? If they are collapsed, no one will wander there. Nobody found him out for 30 year! He does not want to leave. Why change anything?

The problem is that you need to send people in to either close the passage or collapse it. Which is bad, because people happen to be Yang Xue's favourite food. Flooding it is a surer bet. And yeah, nobody found him for thirty years, sure, but he sure found plenty of people travelling through the tunnels in that time. The factional politics of the court pretty much guarantees that you're going to have agents periodically going through the tunnels. He's going to run into somebody at some point.

Now, I'm not saying that this solution is ideal - it isn't - but it isn't the idiotic mess that you seem to suggest it is. Yeah, it could backfire badly, but it's probably the best option available.

 

[Nevill]

Because things did change. Xu Jing and Chi Qilin nested in his cave for a month, then Shun's agents (whom YX believes to be Li Ming's) invaded his sanctum and violently stole his guests/meal. Obviously, the situation isn't the same any more: the man was found, the man was incensed, the man's sanctum was invaded. Basically, Yang Xue's slumber was disturbed and the smart thing to do is to take no chances and try to kill the monster living in your basement, not plug your ears and chant "lalalalala" and hope for the best. Collapsing the tunnels sounds nice, but Yang Xue's strength is superhuman, given enough motivation, he can break through them.

He. Does. Not. Fucking. Want. To. Leave.

He knows Li Ming will be back one day. He will wait. He waited for 30 years.

Li Ming's men went throught the tunnels for 30 years, and nothing had changed! Yang Xue believed that he could not have been forgotten, AND THAT WAS THE REASON WHY HE STAYED. Now that he 'confirmed' that he wasn't forgotten because there was an assault on his 'sanctum' (lolwhat, he does not even use the chamber often anymore), he would suddenly leave?

what.

The problem is that you need to send people in to either close the passage or collapse it. Which is bad, because people happen to be Yang Xue's favourite food.

Wrong again. There were 3 cases of registered attacks on imperial agents in 30 years. He did not try to eat us after his rage over the Emperor had passed, either. Hardly a favorite food.

The factional politics of the court pretty much guarantees that you're going to have agents periodically going through the tunnels. He's going to run into somebody at some point.

The secret police headquarters were down there. That's why people were going back and forth. You know what happened to the secret police? Gone.

The agents were not keen on using these tunnels before anyway. And he does not bother meeting people if they are not connected to the former Emperor. We would not have met him if Li Ming wasn't with us.

He's not considered the real threat, the stuff he wrote is the threat. Once the written letters are no more all that is left are spoken words, and those are a lot more malleable. He isn't trying to kill the man, just destroying the chamber thoroughly in a way that doesn't involve sending down people. It's not like Yang Xue spent a lot of time there as of late.

Anyway, treave have said that Shun was not concerned about the madman and is not trying to kill him. It was the text on the wall that he thought threatened him. That makes all of your points about how dangerous Yang Xue is outright invalid, so why are we even arguing?

All in all, they have traded a potential and a rather faint threat to a very tangible one.

Edit:

Why? Because you think Gao Ying is a big meanie?

Because Yang Xue is a badass, and I want him to get his revenge.

 

[Rex Feral]

I wonder when treave will put the new update, so you guys can stop bickering about Yang Xue or Gao Ying. I bet we won't see either of them for a while now.

 

[Tribute]

I think B has won pretty solidly by now, yeah.

Can we at least make sure we get the Wudang qinggong while we're down there?

 

[treave]

treave, is there any way a marriage with Qilin could coexist with Jing running a khandom?

Make a girl baby as quickly as possible and pass on the mantle of leadership to her while you set up the Wudu northern branch. Tulu Huodu isn't that old, and barring any mishaps he can opt to delay his retirement and continue being in charge for a few more decades while he tutors his grand-niece.

I wonder when treave will put the new update, so you guys can stop bickering about Yang Xue or Gao Ying. I bet we won't see either of them for a while now.

I won't be able to do one till Sunday, or thereabouts.

 

[Baltika9]

With our reputation among the Ashina, and Yunzi being a race traitor (not really, but we can spin it that way), do we even need her to re-unite that clan and be named Khan?

 

[Rex Feral]

treave, is there any way a marriage with Qilin could coexist with Jing running a khandom?

Make a girl baby as quickly as possible and pass on the mantle of leadership to her while you set up the Wudu northern branch. Tulu Huodu isn't that old, and barring any mishaps he can opt to delay his retirement and continue being in charge for a few more decades while he tutors his grand-niece.

That depends entirely on you.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Completely irrelevant to the current discussion:

If we do die, will it be possible to play a new character 30 or so years after the current events?

I now really want to try out the Goat-Doctor. Or Goat-Rogue.

 

[Nevill]

I wonder when treave will put the new update, so you guys can stop bickering about Yang Xue or Gao Ying. I bet we won't see either of them for a while now.

Did not expect them to. It is more of a principle of a thing.

If we do die, will it be possible to play a new character 30 or so years after the current events?

Or we can guide Jing to a zenith of his power and then switch perspectives/go for a timeskip. The guy does not have to necessarily die, just to see the story arc to some sort of conclusion. Now that Shun is almost in control, we are pretty much waiting for the other shoe to drop. There is the Fire Cult challenge, and there is Zhang's challenge, but otherwise, there are no urgent matters that require our attention.

Would be interesting to meet him and his crew 20 years later as another character.

I'd like switching perspectives more than a timeskip. The times are promising to become interesting - as in a Chinese curse - any moment now. Skipping these events over feels like a waste of opportunity.

 

[Rex Feral]

Like we had with Ean in the second part, when we played Senya.

 

[treave]

Completely irrelevant to the current discussion:

If we do die, will it be possible to play a new character 30 or so years after the current events?

I now really want to try out the Goat-Doctor. Or Goat-Rogue.

Yes, but there would be a few different backgrounds and you'd start out with more knowledge of martial arts.

 

[Rex Feral]

Let's not be too hasty, however. I like playing with Jing and his story is far from over. Back with Ean, we had sort of a finality, before jumping to another character. I hope we get that with Jing too.

 

[Nevill]

I would never trade 'The Disappearance of the Golden Emperor' for anything, but I miss Bai-Juitian-with-a-ghost-in-her-head shenanigans.

I hope this thing is still possible somehow. Many players would have wanted to see it.

 

[Baltika9]

Let's not be too hasty, however. I like playing with Jing and his story is far from over. Back with Ean, we had sort of a finality, before jumping to another character. I hope we get that with Jing too.

I would certainly hope not, Jing's adventure didn't even reach it's 1/4 mark yet. Although, playing as one of his little brats in the future sounds good to me (bonus if we get to worship Cthulhu), but that really is far away from now.

Completely irrelevant to the current discussion:

If we do die, will it be possible to play a new character 30 or so years after the current events?

I now really want to try out the Goat-Doctor. Or Goat-Rogue.

Yes, but there would be a few different backgrounds and you'd start out with more knowledge of martial arts.

ITZ coming?

 

[Smashing Axe]

Isn't it always? I give us ten updates before we fundamentally screw something up.

YOLOTigers don't live long after all.

 

[Baltika9]

True, true. But then again, that's the whole point of being a YOLOTIGER: your life is loud, fast and dangerous and leaves a huge mark on the world. Of course, those YOLOTIGERS that stay true to their nature and live past all these challenges and gain experience become truly terrifying people. I would have it no other way.

Still, what I meant was that, if the "new" character will have much more knowledge of martial arts, that means he was likely either raised in one of the sects, or was born during a time of great turmoil. Like a civil war or something.

 

[ScubaV]

Isn't it always? I give us ten updates before we fundamentally screw something up.

YOLOTigers don't live long after all.

Good thing we've lived twice three times (if you count the bigger rollback).

 

[Rex Feral]

We survived so far with only a rollback. Now if it were anyone but treave writing this CYOA I wouldn't give us much chances, but from what I've seen he prefers to write a good story and develop characters with which we can have meaningful relationships than to punish us for every choice we make. Sure if we do stupid decisions we pay the price. What would a good story be without a little drama or tragedy?

 

[ScubaV]

I reserve this option (aka Yang Xue route) for when Gao Ying shows his true colors and turns Shun into a dictator.

What true colours? The guy is fanatically loyal to Shun and probably not out for personal power all that much. He's basically who we were before the court exiled us. I really don't get why you have such an axe to grind against BRO Ying; sure, the guy is ruthless, but he is completely trustworthy when it comes to watching Shun's back. The guy also saved our life when he easily could have let both Jing and Cao'er fall to their deaths.

My theory is that Ying's loyalty is such that he probably saved Jing's life because that's what his liege would have wanted. The guy is frightening and machine-like at times, but that sort of loyalty is also pretty incredible as well.

I'm still cautious about trusting Gao Ying too much. Remember this part of the quote:

“I would trust him with my own life on this,” says your friend. “He will make the best decisions for my path as Emperor.”

“I agree with that opinion, Your Majesty. I think Gao Ying’s loyalty to you is built upon the path of an effective and good Emperor, and so long as you embody that path his devotion is assured,” opines Yu.

I think Gao Ying isn't loyal so much to Shun as the type of Emperor he thinks Shun will be. If Shun deviates from that path for whatever reason, then Gao Ying's loyalty may fade with it.

 

[Esquilax]

Completely irrelevant to the current discussion:

If we do die, will it be possible to play a new character 30 or so years after the current events?

I now really want to try out the Goat-Doctor. Or Goat-Rogue.

I kind of was playing around with the idea of an Ox-Doctor character, so STR = 7 PER = 7 END = 8 CHA = 2 INT = 4 AGI = 5 LCK = 5. Basically, he'd be Yao's brutish and somewhat simple grandson who serves more as a creepy assistant a la Igor. However, while he's not the brightest, he is possessed of a certain low, animal cunning, housed within a huge, powerful body. These primal instincts of his seem to cross over into his habits of lusting after young women he and Yao meet in their travels, who are more often than not terrified of and disgusted by him. Not that he lets that stop him...

I think Gao Ying isn't loyal so much to Shun as the type of Emperor he thinks Shun will be. If Shun deviates from that path for whatever reason, then Gao Ying's loyalty may fade with it.

Could be. Things seem to be very murky when it comes to Gao Ying. I still think the fact that he saved Jing's life is worthy of giving him some consideration over. Yeah, his loyalty might wane if he begins to perceive Shun as an ineffective Emperor or if his reforms are too idealistic, but I don't quite see it happening overnight.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I still think the fact that he saved Jing's life is worthy of giving him some consideration over.

Of course, he already returned the favor by helping to rescue us, so he may consider that balance has been restored and he owes us nothing. :lawful neutral:

 

[Nevill]

treave, there another question I'd like to ask.

Did Jing ever become interested in the history of his master? We've trained for two years under him and we know no more about him than when we first met. Even if we were not interested, or did not dare asking, or thought that it was pointless to ask, shouldn't the meeting with the masters piqued our interest?

Or, more importantly, is Jing getting suspicious that the Yang Xue theory might be true, and if not, why?

The age fits. It is known that Xue had several children. It is known that the Frathouse have lied about his death, and may be hiding more.

They have all trained Zhang together. Given how orthodox sects are very touchy about who they teach and do not train people unless they commit to a single school, the Frathouse could not have done this in the open. If the Abbess was worried of being accused of favoritism just for having a granddaugher in the same sect, you might imagine what a shitstorm it would be if Zhang's apprenticeship came to light. So they hid their involvement with Zhang. Why they all gave him such a special treatment?

Does it not make Jing suspect that there is something fishy? Does it not make him want to ask questions?

I am asking this since we are heading there, and it would present a perfect chance for us to do so.

 

[treave]

Would it matter, though? It really wouldn't change anything about their relationship.

Oh, and check out Zhang's neigong skill.