[LP CYOA] 傳

[ERYFKRAD]

Hey maybe we'd get lucky this once and they'll ask us to fight horses.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

What's the point of being a physician's apprentice if you don't know how to brew some strong laxatives?

C it is then. :D

 

[treave]

What's the point of being a physician's apprentice if you don't know how to brew some strong laxatives?

C it is then. :D

What's stopping you from feeding laxatives to poets?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Oh, laxatives now. The first step on the dark road of poisonmancy.

 

[Storyfag]

Treave, will we be able to participate in C or B if we fail D? Or does the Prefect's competition take place after the melee and poetry ones?

 

[treave]

You should still be able to try A or D should you fail in B or C, and vice versa. The scenario may change depending on which choice you take first though. The prefect will run his test until he gets a candidate that suits his needs. That might not be you.

 

[Storyfag]

In that case D first, then C

 

[Baltika9]

There will be judges. There will be no such thing as co-authorship. You don't submit your poetry, you recite it. The topic will be given on the day of the competition and you are supposed to compose one impromptu.

That rules out B then. With an artistic skill of 1, I doubt our chances are that great, especially in an impromptu contest.

A is viable, since we don't actually have to threaten him at all, we have sufficient stealth and quinggong to remove the invitation his inventories, something Jing has done plenty of times in his travels with Yao.

C is iffy, Jing is pretty skilled, beating a man five years your senior and much more trained than you is a pretty big achievement, but now we'll be facing much more of them. This will be interesting.

I don't like D. Whatever this mission the prefect needs done is definitely isn't anything clean which means it will most likely make us an enemy of the Manor if (once) they find out. I'd rather we not make an enemy of those guys.

C>A.

 

[Nevill]

That rules out B then. With an artistic skill of 1, I doubt our chances are that great, especially in an impromptu contest.

Any less great than duking it out with 30 dudes?

I think you'll need to get creative with either choice. And B offers more in this department.

Why don't we at least try it out? We've got a backup plan if it fails.

 

[Esquilax]

An interesting series of choices here. Even though we haven't read poetry since our days back in the palace, they would at least take the top three, giving us a bit of wiggle room if we aren't judged the best. Jing is also pretty charismatic and a quick thinker, so I think it's doable. That being said, we are an outsider and I could totally see how the judges might be bribed or influenced. In this sort of thing, there's probably a lot of politics; you could have Rumi himself competing and he still might be fourth in the competition if he doesn't know the judges. So we could get in despite the fact that Jing is a shitty poet.

I doubt there is much you can do in a combat competition, though.

A few ways of tilting the odds have been mentioned, since this is a 30-man battle royale. I suppose the key here would be to ensure that most of the crowd is kept busy fighting amongst themselves if we get tired, so that we can recover. Also, once we do get tired to a point where we can't utilize our strength and speed as well as we otherwise would, we have a backup plan:

Jinshetuipi. (金蛇蛻皮, Golden Snake Shedding Skin).
Level 1: You are able to slip out of most grabs by unskilled amateurs.

There are 30 people in this bout, so I figure that a good chunk of them are unskilled. If they grab onto us, this technique should allow us to conserve energy so that we're not drawn into wrestling a bunch of people before the battle is down to its last few competitors. And of course, arranging alliances beforehand is another possibility.

As for D, I'm not quite sure about it:

Finally, in thanks to the prefect of Xuzhou for continuing to protect the city and the lands around it, the Manor will always grant an invitation to the prefect which he can do as he sees fit.
...
You approach the prefect of Xuzhou, Zhu Yutong, in order to lay your hands on that particular invitation. It seems that he has been looking for someone to undertake a mission to Luoying Manor itself, and is offering the invitation to those who will. You might have competition for the task, however – there will be a test, and the details of the job are unknown until you pass it.

Seems like some sort of infiltration mission.

Haven't yet decided what I'll vote for, though I don't like A too much because the man we'll be taking the invitation from is an influential scholar. A guy like that could cause trouble for us if we fuck with him, and I'd rather make friends with a scholar like this - what if he's a scholar on the Ten Great Swords?

 

[Baltika9]

On a side note, I'm glad Jing ended up with Yao: besides us being able to travel with the greatest physician in the empire, we're also learning how to take care of our self on the road (to include cooking, speechcraft, thievery, streetwise, herbalism, medicine and anti-venoms). All we need to throw in is a little bit of wilderness survival and we can safely strike out on our own as soon as the old codger (who isn't as bad as I thought he was) gives us the antidote.

Although I'm a little curious, what kind of things would a monastic upbringing teach us, treave? I'm assuming less of the "self-sufficiency and survival" and more of the "martial arts and discipline." Also, you said that choosing between these two

A. Both Yao and Cao’er are really quite bad at talking to people. Horrendous, actually. You find yourself often being the face of your little physician troupe in socializing, negotiating and haggling for payment with stingy peasants and rich merchants alike. You begin to talk more smoothly and think more quickly, being forced to mentally calculate the proper compensation for the value of the herbs used and services rendered... and in some sadly frequent cases, especially when it comes to the merchants, acquire the unpaid monies subtly. (CHA +1, INT+1, Speech +2, Sleight-of-Hand +1, Sneak +1)

B. You often take the job of travelling deep into the wilds in order to gather rare herbs and animals. The isolation of the mountains sharpen your senses. You become more perceptive of colours and sounds and movement, as you set traps for snakes and other animals - but more commonly snakes. You become able to identify your target herbs and animals from a distance. The long treks in the wild also improves your endurance, as you frequently find yourself returning under a heavy load of materials collected for Master Yao. (PER +1, END +1, Herbalism +1, Sneak +1, Traps +2)

will result in a different personality for Jing. What would a year spent stalking forest made him like?

 

[Esquilax]

Your abilities are proving sufficient to handle most of the minor ailments you encountered en route to the city. This gave Master Yao more time to spend tutoring Cao’er – he seemed to be preparing her for some sort of test, though he refused to tell and you refused to press the matter.
...
“I can’t go killing my precious heir and inheritor of my knowledge, boy. So, I will make a once-in-a-lifetime exception and have you work it off in other ways. You came at a right time - I will need an extra hand for some dangerous work in the future.
...
Yao and Cao’er have a remarkable memory. The both of them are able to memorize pages and pages with just a single glance. Every year, they would spend a considerable amount of money to purchase all of the updated manuals, and memorize them. Then, they would burn the books. When you asked why, Yao just said that it was an offering, and nothing more.
...
“Should anything happen, do not allow Cao’er to kill. She can never kill. If you have to, kill in her stead.” You understand what he means. Cao’er turns… different, when she hurts a living thing, accidentally or otherwise.

We're getting some subtle hints of Master Yao's motivations here, and I don't know what to make of it. I find it extremely suspicious that the only time he decided to break his "life for a life" rule was when we happened to pop up - even when one of the Beggars was being wrongfully accused, he kept quiet because he'd have to take a life if he saved the man from execution. I think he may be preparing her to kill, but other than that, I have no idea what Yao's goal for Cao'er could be.

treave, how did Cao'er react to our actions in the Songfeng academy? Did she think we were in the right for doing what we did? I'm not so certain because she kept the details of the poison to herself before we revealed them.

 

[treave]

Although I'm a little curious, what kind of things would a monastic upbringing teach us, treave? I'm assuming less of the "self-sufficiency and survival" and more of the "martial arts and discipline." What would a year spent stalking forest made him like?

You'll still have to do menial chores as a new disciple, though probably not to the extent that you're doing now. In between the regular excursions on missions you'll have a lot more martial training though. Going into the forest would have made him more quiet, stoic and calm.

treave, how did Cao'er react to our actions in the Songfeng academy? Did she think we were in the right for doing what we did? I'm not so certain because she kept the details of the poison to herself before we revealed them.

The update got too long so I cut that part out, and I forget to put it in the last one.

Basically, she doesn't like that you had to kill and get yourself hurt, but she appreciates that you did it because you didn't want Master and possibly Madam Rong to get killed in the future. By herself she probably wouldn't have the courage to speak out about the poison, so she was just following your lead.

In an attempt to calm her anxiety while she was patching you up (so that she didn't make a mistake with the patching) your reckless, glib tongue may have said something along the lines of her only needing to worry about saving lives, you'll take responsibility for any killing necessary as long as you're around.

 

[Baltika9]

In an attempt to calm her anxiety while she was patching you up (so that she didn't make a mistake with the patching) your reckless, glib tongue may have said something along the lines of her only needing to worry about saving lives, you'll take responsibility for any killing necessary as long as you're around.

Goddammit, Jing. We're never getting rid of her now, are we?

Your abilities are proving sufficient to handle most of the minor ailments you encountered en route to the city. This gave Master Yao more time to spend tutoring Cao’er – he seemed to be preparing her for some sort of test, though he refused to tell and you refused to press the matter.
...
“I can’t go killing my precious heir and inheritor of my knowledge, boy. So, I will make a once-in-a-lifetime exception and have you work it off in other ways. You came at a right time - I will need an extra hand for some dangerous work in the future.
...
Yao and Cao’er have a remarkable memory. The both of them are able to memorize pages and pages with just a single glance. Every year, they would spend a considerable amount of money to purchase all of the updated manuals, and memorize them. Then, they would burn the books. When you asked why, Yao just said that it was an offering, and nothing more.
...
“Should anything happen, do not allow Cao’er to kill. She can never kill. If you have to, kill in her stead.” You understand what he means. Cao’er turns… different, when she hurts a living thing, accidentally or otherwise.

We're getting some subtle hints of Master Yao's motivations here, and I don't know what to make of it. I find it extremely suspicious that the only time he decided to break his "life for a life" rule was when we happened to pop up - even when one of the Beggars was being wrongfully accused, he kept quiet because he'd have to take a life if he saved the man from execution. I think he may be preparing her to kill, but other than that, I have no idea what Yao's goal for Cao'er could be.

treave, how did Cao'er react to our actions in the Songfeng academy? Did she think we were in the right for doing what we did? I'm not so certain because she kept the details of the poison to herself before we revealed them.

Why would he be preparing her to kill, but explicitly tell us to keep her from killing? Maybe he wants her to do it in a controlled environment?
And why would he need Xu Jing for those tasks? He saved us without recompense just because it was Cao'er that requested it, so he waived it once in exchange for indentured servitude for an indefinite amount of time ("I saved your life, it belongs to me now.") and that sounds like a decent compromise. Who would he kill for Jing? His own apprentice?

I dunno, maybe her final test is killing us or something?

 

[LWC1996]

Gonna go with D.

 

[Esquilax]

I gotta admit, out of all the choices, D intrigues me the most. Bros, keep in mind that if we fuck up with B/C, the circumstances surrounding A/D will change. Perhaps we won't be able to get the scholar's invitation or the prefect will have found a suitable candidate, so consider that these things are subject to change. I'm not saying that A/D will disappear as options should we not end up succeeding in our attempt at getting an invitation, but rather that the circumstances surrounding those options are definitely going to change and things will probably be trickier.

However, there are a few things that I like about D: gaining a respected man like the prefect of a city means that we have someone reputable to vouch for us. We would gain the invitation in exchange for passing a test - which, given our character's talent and smarts, I think we will - but we don't know the details of the mission that he's giving us.

“Some very strange people are rumoured to be amongst the bookworms that gather at Luoying, and it would not be out of the question that some of them may have an idea of what to do with you.”
...
... the Manor will always grant an invitation to the prefect with which he can do as he sees fit.

My suspicion here is that the prefect wants us to act as an undercover agent for him. He obviously can't do it himself, so he probably wants an outsider to do it for him. Considering the wide range of martial artists that go through this place, he might be interested in finding someone - perhaps a known criminal? - who might be a member of the Manor. I dunno what it is, but I think that it probably involves undercover work.

 

[Baltika9]

There's something bugging me about going D:

D. You approach the prefect of Xuzhou, Zhu Yutong, in order to lay your hands on that particular invitation. It seems that he has been looking for someone to undertake a mission to Luoying Manor itself, and is offering the invitation to those who will. You might have competition for the task, however – there will be a test, and the details of the job are unknown until you pass it.

Sounds like this job is really shady and whatever it's goals are, they won't sit well with the Manor. I won't speculate on what this is all about, but why would they maintain such strict secrecy otherwise?
In the end, I think we'll probably have to choose between following through with the plan and getting a massive rep penalty with the Manor and somewhat of a boost with the Prefect and by extent the Imperial Court, or abandoning the plan in favor of the Manor and getting an even worse rep with the Court and our name slandered in the world in general (don't underestimate a scorned politician). Why would we want to sell those guys out in the first place, though? They're the types that collect the rarest knowledge in the world and bring it back to their haven for DISCUSS! and a wanderer like Jing will find them very useful in the absence of a traditional Master and dogma. Not to mention that a lot of these guys may be very well connected in Orthodox circles.
As opposed to what rewards from the Prefect? I doubt he has qi specialists just chilling around the house.

 

[treave]

Current tally:

Nevill - B
ERYFKRAD - D
Azira - D > C
TOME - D
Jester - B > A
Smashing Axe - C
Kipeci - B
Grimgravy - C
Ifeex - C > B > D
XenomorphII - C
ScubaV - B > D > C
Lambchop19 - C
Storyfag - D > C
Baltika9 - C > A
The Brazilian Slaughter - B
LWC1996 - D
Esquilax - B

A - 0
B - 6
C - 6
D - 5

With the D > C flops, it would become

A - 0
B - 6
C - 8
D - 3

 

[Baltika9]

I wonder, will it be possible to placate the Castration Nuns with our awesome poetry skills when (and it's a matter of when) they come? And by placate I mean seduce.
"Roses are red
Violets are blue
I want nuns in my bed
I want those nuns to be you."

 

[treave]

With our character's luck, the band that finds you will be 60 years old on average.

 

[Baltika9]

So what? Doesn't the Harem King's love encompass the universe? Beauty is a light switch closed curtain away.

 

[treave]

Oh, nothing wrong with that. Just that tough old biddies are less likely to be charmed by you so easily. You'll need to bring out the big guns.

 

[Baltika9]

Haiku, then? Ladies of their experience should be able to appreciate that.
"Age is not a barrier to love,
Even the wizened heart can be warmed by youth.
S&M at my place later?"

 

[Nevill]

Nevill - B > D

treave, my vote is straight B (it is what was bolded). Sorry if it wasn't clear - D is only an option should the first attempt fail.

 

[treave]

A'ight. Fixed it.