[LP CYOA] Epic

[Baltika9]

(they're quite Lawful Evil)

Hell, I still don't consider them evil, as survival in and of itself is not evil, even if it antagonizes groups against one or the other. Most of them are raging douchebags that absolutely must be kicked in the nuts a couple of times to remind them exactly whose Terra they're fucking with(same deal with the Masters), but after that we should find a cure for them, asap.

I'd be wary of making generalisations for ALL Gieloth. Keep in mind that those found on Terra are "going native". I bett Ean could begin relating to them only due to their assimilation of human values. In our early meetings the Gieloth felt inherently alien and just plain wrong. We should remain highly suspicious of the Gieloth civilisation at large. Better err on the side of caution.

If we take what we know about them already, then, really, I see no reason for them to do this shit and stay on Earth once they are cured of their hunger. Except that maybe they've become megalomaniacs and/or view themselves as higher then humans and/or plan to use mankind as cannon fodder in their war against the Masters. In either of these cases, we'll have only one choice left: cure those who cooperate and fuck the rest. I'm flexible with the interpretation of the context.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Not so sure curing them is a good idea - unless we could somehow force their entire race to swear an oath of loyalty to us.

See, according to Sek: their hunger was created to "contain" them. Makes me think that before their curse they had - at least - the same sort of power we did except they can apparently breed like crazy, whereas we cannot. Right now they are restricted somewhat just as we are. If they could beat back the masters even with their restrictions, I shudder to think what they could do without them. Better would be to cure ourselves and somehow poison their food supply. Not sure how that'd work, but if we could they'd have no choice, but to either weaken and subsist on "lower lifeforms" as Sek has or turn on each other. Either way, they'd be far less a threat.

 

[Baltika9]

All I'm saying is that I see an opportunity for an, at least a military, alliance. But, you may be right. Curing them without learning about their society and laws would be stupid. And if they'll go "ololo, nah brah, we like it here", fuck 'em up. Hard. Edit:now that we're a couple hundred years old, we can tell them to get the fuck off our lawn.

 

[Zero Credibility]

By the way, if we get out of this alive, we really should dump this whole "honor before reason" shtick asap.

Agreed. We can no longer use "role-playing" Ean's honor as an excuse to make bad choices that require unreasonable self-sacrifice.

Ean has changed. He's no longer the naive young warrior he was when we started. He's been betrayed time after time - Sargon, Shulgi, Naram, Theseus - and this last betrayal literally turned him into a flesh-eating monster - albeit one with good intent. From now on he has to look after himself first. Maybe that will change once Marduk is dead and Ean's power returns, but until then the risks we take should be for our own gain.

I have no interest in seeing Ean dead and RPing some other immortal - until we get him killed too.

As Esquilax has already pointed out, Shulgi and Naram never betrayed us. Shulgi betrayed Sargon and we betrayed Naram. That leaves Theseus, who didn't really have a choice (although to be fair Ean doesn't know that) and Sargon, who we immediately killed for that over 300 years ago. Somehow I don't think this is enough to completely change Ean's personality. Not when you take into account that he has just spent over 60 years (about 2/3 of his entire life, not counting the time spent in a coma) playing a classic hero to commoners, all while he was still mortal and very vulnerable. A character like that can't be shaken that easily - he has chosen honorable and moral option over easy (and maybe smart) choices time and time again, even though he has often suffered for it. Now, what I feel might eventually change Ean is his hunger - but as of yet that hasn't had much of an effect that I can see.

Note also that while honorable or moral choices often carry a price, that doesn't mean that smart or pragmatic choices are necessarily a good idea. Shulgi was making a smart and pragmatic choice when he betrayed Sargon - and look how that ended for him. Some honorable bastard split him in half. We made a smart and pragmatic choice to give the love potion to daughters of Minos, and it backfired horribly. We would have probably been better off had we done the honorable thing and have given the potion to Minos, or refused it altogether (it could hardly have ended worse for us).

I also don't want to see Ean dead, so I agree that Ean shouldn't be playing a martyr without a cause. But that doesn't mean we can just forget about his personality or morals - that's precisely what separates him from Shulgi, Naram, Aphrodites or any of the other bastards we ran across so far. Pointless self-sacrifice is a bad idea - but self-sacrifice for the good of our allies, the innocent, or humanity in general should not be pointless.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

As Esquilax has already pointed out, Shulgi and Naram never betrayed us. Shulgi betrayed Sargon and we betrayed Naram. That leaves Theseus, who didn't really have a choice (although to be fair Ean doesn't know that) and Sargon, who we immediately killed for that over 300 years ago.

Didn't want to belabor the point, however... Shulgi betrayed Sargon - who's side Ean was on - and he even had someone specially prepared to fight against Ean (Sargon's son). Hence he betrayed Ean as well.

Yes, we sort of betrayed Naram. I say sort of because we didn't act against him directly. We still offered to help him and then even after his outburst we fought against Sekhenun and saved him from her tentacles. He responded by ditching us and laughing about how we'd die and be eaten. From Ean's point of view that has to be seen as betrayal because up until that point he had tried to ally with Naram.

Sargon betrayed us too. When we tried to do the right thing and tell him the truth he became jealous of our power and forced us to cut off our hand. Then later when Shulgi made us take a swing at him he wouldn't listen to reason and forced us to defend ourselves.

Ean didn't know Theseus was affected by the love potion. All he knew was that the guy just killed the only threat besides the traps and was about to stab him.

“I’m sorry. You were a brave fighter, but I love Ariadne far too much to risk my life any further.”

After Ean just saved his life that had to feel like a betrayal. Which is my point - Ean has to have felt betrayed and/or attacked by all these people he tried to help. Shulgi he escorted back to safety from the meteor site (ok, not much help, but he wasn't hostile toward him). Sargon he defended and tried to help rule. Naram he defened. Theseus he saved at the cost/risk of his own life.

All these feelings of being attacked/betrayed have to add up at some point.

Now, what I feel might eventually change Ean is his hunger - but as of yet that hasn't had much of an effect that I can see.

Really? The way he joked about eating the priest? The way he was willing to let Sekhenun eat humans - though only bad ones and not children at least - in exchange for a deal? (The offer of that deal alone proves that Ean has learned to be pragmatic when it comes to furthering humanity's objectives - in this case, defeating Marduk. Well, that and leaving all those people to become Aphrodite's slaves...)

I also don't want to see Ean dead, so I agree that Ean shouldn't be playing a martyr without a cause. But that doesn't mean we can just forget about his personality or morals - that's precisely what separates him from Shulgi, Naram, Aphrodite's or any of the other bastards we ran across so far. Pointless self-sacrifice is a bad idea - but self-sacrifice for the good of our allies, the innocent, or humanity in general should not be pointless.

I'm not arguing against morals and honor - just honor before reason. Recall that I argued to save all our men at the fort even at the cost of our powers - though I believed it a reasonable choice as well.

However, I never argued that Ean should sacrifice his life completely - or even put it at risk - for one or a small group of humans and I don't think he ever should. A normal human lives a fraction of the time that Ean does. For Ean to sacrifice his life would mean a sacrifice of dozens of lifetimes. For any other human: only one. Ean is currently the only being (or at least one of the few beings as we have met many other immortals) on the planet who not only has the power to alter the course of human history for the better, but also the willingness. For Ean to sacrifice himself for one lovestruck fool, as was the case with Theseus, is a bad move - not just for himself, but for all the humans he could save with his remaining centuries of life.

What if we had let Ean die in the labyrinth? That little girl he saved would have been kidnapped. Gudersu and his men would have died in that attack. Marduk's priest of torture would still have killed that girl and gotten away with it - she was already booked for him after all. All this for Theseus? It's irresponsible for Ean to make sacrifices that could lead to his final death - unless of course those sacrifices promise to utterly defeat humanity's enemies.

TLDR: All I'm saying is we shouldn't let Ean sacrifice his life completely. And we should be cautious about lesser sacrifices as they may lead to a pointless final death like the loss of our powers and Theseus almost did.

Spoiler

(BTW, if Theseus wasn't enough to convince you that taking the blind chivalrous path isn't always the best idea - again sometimes times it is - there's the little bit of metagaming knowledge Treave shared with us about how if we had been captured at the fort, but husbanded our strength, we'd have been able to defeat and eat Marduk by surprise - unless we chose to try to stop him from killing a friend.)

Yes,he'll wear your body, and then you can eat him, absorb him, tendrils and all. He'd have never seen it coming, unless you decided to reveal your presence to stop him from killing a friend...

edit:

Spoiler

Also, please don't think that my arguments mean I intend to larp Ean as bitter, amoral, betrayed-feeling pragmatist. I don't usually larp. My decisions in any let's play are usually focused on making the best and most interesting choices in a given situation. This post is to speak to those who do larp Ean - not that there's anything wrong with that - in the attempt to convey that Ean should be both noble in his goals and pragmatic in his methods and also that self-sacrifice isn't his defining character trait anymore - if it ever was. The character has grown a bit in the last 3 centuries.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Dammit. I tried to reply by going through your post line by line, but it was a mess. First, Shulgi betraying Sargon is not the same as betraying us. The fact that we were also working for Sargon doesn't make this a betrayal of us. He made no promises to us, no oaths of alliance or anything - we hardly even knew him. This had nothing to do with Ean - Shulgi's actions would be the same if Ean was there or not. And we betrayed Naram. What was he supposed to do? At least he didn't turn on us - he just left us.

Sargon did betray us and he payed for that the moment he attacked us - case closed. Now, I acknowledged in my post that Ean doesn't know about Theseus and the love potion. But to be completely fair, Ean never actually told Theseus WHY he needed the statue, so Theseus had no idea the statue would save Ean's life. From Theseus perspective all he was doing was a mercy kill, and Ean knows this.

So we have 2 cases of betrayal (well, kind of) for what - 90 or 100 years? That's hardly a defining characteristic of Ean's immortal career. Those 60 years spend playing a hero on the other hand... I'm not saying that the honorable option is a superior one in all cases - clearly it isn't (although hindsight is 20/20). Or that Ean can't be more pragmatic - just vote that way. I'm just saying that you are looking for justification in isolated incidents in Ean's life while at the same time ignoring that for the vast majority of time he has been pretty much a classic hero. Me, I'm voting for the hero option whenever it is remotely reasonable to do so, because I like the thought of Ean as a man who tries to do what he feels is right, even if it costs him personally.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Don't worry about not quoting me line by line. It's a lazy sunday - I get verbose.

Dammit. I tried to reply by going through your post line by line, but it was a mess. First, Shulgi betraying Sargon is not the same as betraying us. The fact that we were also working for Sargon doesn't make this a betrayal of us. He made no promises to us, no oaths of alliance or anything - we hardly even knew him. This had nothing to do with Ean - Shulgi's actions would be the same if Ean was there or not.

The problem is you are looking at it from your point of view instead of Ean's. You are judging like a 3rd party observer would. Imagine you were in your country's army and someone you knew betrayed your government and staged a coup. You'd probably be pissed and feel betrayed. Even if that weren't true, it wouldn't do much for your trust in others. Add to that Sargon - yes, we killed him and got our payback, but it still happened and Ean still had to go through it and live with the memories.

And we betrayed Naram. What was he supposed to do? At least he didn't turn on us - he just left us.

Gee, I don't know - maybe help us defeat her and not leave us for dead? Afterward he could have ditched, but to leave us while we're trying to fight at his side just because we pissed him off? Just reading it I felt betrayed.

But to be completely fair, Ean never actually told Theseus WHY he needed the statue, so Theseus had no idea the statue would save Ean's life. From Theseus perspective all he was doing was a mercy kill, and Ean knows this.

Theseus was doing a mercy kill, but out of not wanting to risk his life...for the man who just practically gave his life to save him. It's not a cut and dry betrayal, but it's another case of Ean's goodwill being repayed with negative consequences. That sort of thing tends to shape a person and make them a little wiser, a little less trusting, and a little less likely to stick their neck out.

I'm just saying that you are looking for justification in isolated incidents in Ean's life while at the same time ignoring that for the vast majority of time he has been pretty much a classic hero. Me, I'm voting for the hero option whenever it is remotely reasonable to do so, because I like the thought of Ean as a man who tries to do what he feels is right, even if it costs him personally.

If it was one isolated incident, you'd have a point, but it's the pattern that I'm pointing out here. Nothing against you for voting the hero - you'll note that's usually how I vote as well. I'm just pointing out that though you may see Ean as a self-sacrificing doer of right, there's plenty of reason/precedence for him to choose not to be should the situation warrant it. Just a way out of being pigeonholed into picking the worst option cuz "that's what he would do". Up to you to vote how you like, no matter what I say.

 

[Esquilax]

Of course you guys are right, I'm only using "Lawful Evil" as kind of a shorthand to describe their nature as we know it right now.

Right now helping Sekhenun is also giving us a decent support network to eat people and get our powers up to snuff. Quid pro quo. But I think at some point in the future we're going to need to demand answers from her before we finish the job. Remember, she never did help us get our powers back (through no fault of her own, but that's beside the point). We have no obligation to her and we don't want to be a blind weapon wielded by someone else all the time.

You think we could get some leverage on her based on this? It's obvious to me that Sek is terrified of Ean, so I think we have some bargaining power. Perhaps we can say something like "Hey Sek, it looks like Marduk is in Greece, so I don't see why I need you any more. Seeing as your motives are untrustworthy, I may as well just eat you for a power boost and take it from here by myself."

This is a bluff, of course, because we really do need Sekhenun, but since she can't read our thoughts, she might think we're crazy enough to do it and tell us what her actual motivations are.

Zero Credibility: Let's look at this whole issue from the point of view of someone who reminds me of an older, wiser, more cynical Ean:

The words you speak were mine, once, when I first rose to godhood. I granted mercy to False and Faithless alike... and men began to drift from the gods. I saw, for myself, the error of judging souls with the eyes of a mortal... and learned to judge them with the eyes of a god.

The whole betrayal issue is irrelevant if you ask me. What's important here is that we can't be given to bouts of self-sacrifice because it seems very likely that Ean is the only Immortal that has benevolent designs on humanity. The rest of them either don't give a fuck about humanity (Shulgi) or they are pawns of the Masters (Naram, probably Zeus as well). The Gieloth by their nature are antagonistic towards humanity.

Therefore, we have to look at protecting the interests of humanity as a whole above any one human. This is going to require making a lot of hard, dispassionate, and even ruthless decisions so that one day Man is a strong enough player to contend against all the forces that seek to do it harm. For the time being (i.e. until we wipe out Zeus and Marduk), I think we should play Ean as something of a Darth Revan figure. I don't think we can win this otherwise.

P.S. Shulgi definitely didn't make the pragmatic choice back in Akkad. He publicly declared himself the new god, then arrogantly thought he could handle Sargon's 5,000 strong army and its immortal general with only a bunch of cultists. It was exactly the sort of reckless decision that a guy drunk with his newfound power would make. I'm certain he's smartened up since then.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Don't worry about not quoting me line by line. It's a lazy sunday - I get verbose.

Dammit. I tried to reply by going through your post line by line, but it was a mess. First, Shulgi betraying Sargon is not the same as betraying us. The fact that we were also working for Sargon doesn't make this a betrayal of us. He made no promises to us, no oaths of alliance or anything - we hardly even knew him. This had nothing to do with Ean - Shulgi's actions would be the same if Ean was there or not.

The problem is you are looking at it from your point of view instead of Ean's. You are judging like a 3rd party observer would. Imagine you were in your country's army and someone you knew betrayed your government and staged a coup. You'd probably be pissed and feel betrayed. Even if that weren't true, it wouldn't do much for your trust in others. Add to that Sargon - yes, we killed him and got our payback, but it still happened and Ean still had to go through it and live with the memories.

Nah, it still wouldn't work even in that scenario. Yeah, you could say that a betrayal of government is a betrayal of very soldier in the army is some sense. But would that betrayal personally affect every soldier? Would some random soldier in the army become less thrusting or more jaded because of it? I doubt it. And we are not talking about modern nations here. This was Sargon's kingdom - everything and everyone in it belonged to him. He was the absolute ruler, the state himself, and he was betrayed by his son and his chief astrologer. And didn't we kill Sargon for being a complete bastard? So why would Ean care about someone else betraying the fucker at all?

And we betrayed Naram. What was he supposed to do? At least he didn't turn on us - he just left us.

Gee, I don't know - maybe help us defeat her and not leave us for dead? Afterward he could have ditched, but to leave us while we're trying to fight at his side just because we pissed him off? Just reading it I felt betrayed.

That's like saying that we betrayed Sargon even though he was the one that struck at us first. We destroyed the artifact Naram was there for in the first place. There was no goodwill on our part here at all - what was he supposed to do? Turn the other cheek? He assumed we were as mad as Shulgi was and left us. There was a betrayal there alright, but not by Naram.

But to be completely fair, Ean never actually told Theseus WHY he needed the statue, so Theseus had no idea the statue would save Ean's life. From Theseus perspective all he was doing was a mercy kill, and Ean knows this.

Theseus was doing a mercy kill, but out of not wanting to risk his life...for the man who just practically gave his life to save him. It's not a cut and dry betrayal, but it's another case of Ean's goodwill being repayed with negative consequences. That sort of thing tends to shape a person and make them a little wiser, a little less trusting, and a little less likely to stick their neck out.

Of all 4 examples (2 of which I strongly contest), I'll grant you that this is the one that I too feel could have affected Ean the most. It wasn't a real betrayal, but it did feel that way.

I'm just saying that you are looking for justification in isolated incidents in Ean's life while at the same time ignoring that for the vast majority of time he has been pretty much a classic hero. Me, I'm voting for the hero option whenever it is remotely reasonable to do so, because I like the thought of Ean as a man who tries to do what he feels is right, even if it costs him personally.

If it was one isolated incident, you'd have a point, but it's the pattern that I'm pointing out here. Nothing against you for voting the hero - you'll note that's usually how I vote as well. I'm just pointing out that though you may see Ean as a self-sacrificing doer of right, there's plenty of reason/precedence for him to choose not to be should the situation warrant it. Just a way out of being pigeonholed into picking the worst option cuz "that's what he would do". Up to you to vote how you like, no matter what I say.

Eh, if the situation was completely hopeless even I would vote against playing a hero. Pointless martyrdom is pointless.

 

[Baltika9]

General musings.
Theory: Gieloth are the Masters' first/previous attempt at creating immortals. Then they start breeding too fast, threatening the Masters' influence in the Universe, or it's stability. So they make them cannibals to put them back in their place. Naturally, they rebel. Cue genocide.
Or they were simply becoming meddling pricks, "inserting their forces and spreading their influence" over other races, because "You primitive savages must be lead by your betters."

And you know, I am most disappointed by Naram. When I first saw him, way back when, I immediately thought he would be the great tempter, the grand trickster to Ean's noble warrior and Shulgi's chess master. The Loki to Ean's Thor and Shulgi's Odin. Cegorach to Ean's Emperor and Shulgi's Tzeench. I saw so many lulz.
And I got...this...

Why, treave? WHYYYYYYY!?
All those opportunities. Never to see the light of day...
...
<sniff>

 

[Zero Credibility]

Zero Credibility: Let's look at this whole issue from the point of view of someone who reminds me of an older, wiser, more cynical Ean:

The words you speak were mine, once, when I first rose to godhood. I granted mercy to False and Faithless alike... and men began to drift from the gods. I saw, for myself, the error of judging souls with the eyes of a mortal... and learned to judge them with the eyes of a god.

Great. Now you reminded me of what a shitty good ending MotB has. You know what is the great danger of having men drift from the gods that Kelemvor speaks of here? The danger is that the gods would then throw a tantrum and destroy men for the awful crime of not worshiping them. Yeah, real mature. Take that situation and replace gods with mafia and worship with paying for "protection" to see just how fucked up this argument is. Fuck you Kelemvor, and fuck you Obsidian for not letting me at least try to pull the Lord of Light on these assholes.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Speaking as someone who knows soldiers personally, I can tell you that most of them most definately would take a betrayal of their country very personally. Maybe it's different where you live. edit: I'll admit Shulgi's betrayal of Sargon and trying to kill us isn't as big a deal as the others tho.

We weren't like Shulgi and Naram should have seen that because we fought at Naram's side afterward. There was plently of goodwill on our part. Our intent toward him wasn't negative - only toward the masters. We just didn't realize how big of a zealot he was or how much time he'd spent looking for it.

Eh, if the situation was completely hopeless even I would vote against playing a hero. Pointless martyrdom is pointless.

That we can agree on.

edit: and the MoTB ending. We can agree on that too.

 

[Storyfag]

Kelemvor

Kelemvor is pure of Death Gods when compared to Myrkul! Even though Myrkul himself was kinda when compared to Jergal at his peak.

Darth Revan

That... that pansy is even worse. Well, as of TOR and the "Revan" novel, at least.

 

[treave]

No one voted for B it seems.

***

Chapter 5.9: Nusku

Projecting a human presence, you step forward, making your way out of the silent crowd. Gudersu stares at you in disbelief as you clap him on the arm on your way to Edem and the hostages. He mutters under his breath, “Why would you…” It’s clear that he had not expected you to take any action.

“Ah, a brave volunteer!” cries Edem, who makes a show of peering at you closely. “He does not appear to be one of you fair folk. If it is acceptable –“

“Not acceptable! We Gutians do not send guests off in our behalf! The responsibility is ours!” shouted Gudersu. There was a brief silence, a few tentative cheers, and then a huge roar rose from the crowd, affirming Gudersu’s statement. Each man and woman in the crowd began volunteering themselves in your stead, with their large king the loudest volunteer of all. They are a bit more… noble, than you thought. Unfortunately, you know that the responsibility is probably yours – if Edem was telling the truth, they had come because you were here.

What now? Edem appeared to be a bit flustered at this turn of events.

Weren’t you the guy with the plan? Anyway, let the hostages go first.

What?

Is your head put on wrongly? Let them go, and then the deal is sealed. They can’t really say anything about it then.

Edem sighs, and snaps his fingers again. Instantly, Iltani drops the sword, and looks around, scared. Her eyes fix on you. You give her a smile and wave her towards her people. With a hesistant nod, she turns away and hurriedly herds the twins back towards her father.

“Okay, we have our specimen. Now let us out of here!” screams Nusku. “Now! Now!” You can feel power gathering in him, ready to be unleashed. It looks like he would try blasting his way out of the village if he had to, willing to take whatever risks that included. The crowd still circled you, unwilling to move.

I let the hostages go. Say something now, wise guy.

“You have been very hospitable these past few weeks-“

For fuck’s sake, what is this, a thank you speech?

You glare at Edem, and continue, “An agreement was made! It is a wonderful trade, a petty bandit for Gudersu’s beloved children!”

“We’re brothers-in-banditry here! Blood for blood!” You recognize one of Gudersu’s subordinates waving his axe about in the air.

“Well bandits we may be, but we have honour do we not? Gutians say what they mean and do what they say, and if you’ve agreed to a trade, you bloody well trade! Or have I heard wrong? I’m going to be shamed if you don’t let me go. What will they say, that the poor bandit lost his nerve at the last minute and begged the Gutians to save him?”

The crowd murmured and chuckled. You can’t believe that you’ve having to negotiate your own hostage-taking. Besides you, you can feel Edem being very amused.

“Please, let me do this. It’s the least I can do.” You look at Gudersu, hoping he’ll understand.

“If you do this for my children, you are one of us, Ean,” says Gudersu suddenly. His voice drops, threateningly, as he glares daggers at Edem and Nusku. “And we will get you back.”

You give him a grim smile. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Gudersu raises one massive arm and orders the crowd to part. They do so, jangling with the weapons and armour that they carried. Edem puts a knife to your throat – for courtesy’s sake, he said – and escorts you out of the village. Nusku had already run the moment the crowd parted.

***

Edem and Nusku had managed to grab a couple of horses on the way out. Nusku had tied you to the back of his horse. It was a bumpy ride, one you did not enjoy at all.
How did you find me? you think, hoping Edem will pick it up and answer.

I suppose you didn’t realize that she put something in your arm to track you? The reply came a few minutes later. You think about it. Sekhenun had stabbed you with a tendril when you met her again in Babylon… could that be it?

After what seems to be like an extremely lengthy period of time, the horses finally stop.

“Damn it all, Edem, you lost my experiments! That was nearly a tenth of what I had, do you know that? Lord Marduk took almost all the rest with him, and I really don’t expect them to make it back alive, do you know that? Do you KNOW that?” screamed Nusku.

“Well, you do have one specimen to take back.” remarks Edem.

“One! Just ONE measly specimen! What is the use of this? One scrawny human?” Nusku punches you in the chest, hard. He was strong, and you let out a groan despite your best efforts to resist the pain. “What are you playing at, Edem? You tell Lord Marduk that there is a cult in Babylon that was responsible for Mehlu and Gamilsin’s deaths, you convince him to allow you to investigate, yet you waste time coming with me for specimen collections! You TOLD me that village was EASY PICKINGS!” Nusku was practically frothing at the mouth by now.

“This is a humiliation to our great empire. Lord Marduk will hear of your mistake when he returns from Greece, I assure you. That stupid village… Once we are back in Babylon I will get a thousand guards. Dead specimens are fine too. Of course it's better if they're alive to see what I'm going to do to them.”

You stare at Nusku, who had his back to you.

“I will have so much fun with them. I’ll breed those Gutians with dogs and see how they pant at my feet!” Nusku giggles gleefully, and begins elaborating the number of inventive ways with which he will torture the Gutians. Though at first horrified, you begin to feel a dull anger instead numbing your feelings. All that is left is anger, disgust… and hunger.

Such a… thing… such an ugly thing. How could I permit it to live?

The rage you felt on a few occasions before returns slowly, simmering beneath your cold eyes. Nusku’s back was open.

Are you okay? Edem looks at you, his expression that of concern tinged with a slight bit of fear.

You do not reply.

Well… anytime you’re ready.

You feel the knots binding you loosen. You drop your façade. Nusku senses your disappearance, and turns to look at you. His eyes widen as he sees you are still there – unbound. Just what you wanted; you want him to look you in the eyes before you devour him. Nusku fumbles with his belt, trying to draw out his dagger, but you move far faster and crush his hand in your grip. He screams. You slam your fist into his body, knocking him to the ground. Straddling him, you begin to rain down blows upon his head. Blood and dark goo spatters your fists. The stunned Gieloth has no time to focus for his psychic attacks. Instead, he croaks out to Edem for help. No help comes.

Edem stands at a safe distance, watching the murder of his compatriot with no expression on his face.

You do not care. You rip into Nusku, savoring the sensation of the squirming black tendrils between your fingers, and you eat.
When you finish, you realize Edem is nowhere to be found.

***

“It looks like you’re back earlier than expected. I’m sorry for the surprise, but I did send out someone to tell you. I guess he couldn’t find the village in time.” Sekhenun walks into your room an hour after you return, a wry smile on your face. She begins explaining herself. “Marduk left ahead of schedule. He went to Egypt with a small entourage, together with Mehrune, and had Shamash prepare the army’s departure to Greece. They should be sailing in two weeks time… what’s the matter?”

She looks at you with concern. Probably fake concern, at that. She formed an alliance with another Gieloth without my knowledge… Why wouldn’t she betray me when it suits her?

That thought gets you just a bit angry.

“What did you put in me?” you whisper.

Sekhenun sighs. “Ah, that idiot told you about it. It’s nothing, just something that allows me to know where you are. I’m sorry, but when I realized I couldn’t detect you I decided to place a tracker inside. What can I say, I think fast.” She smiles at you, but it falters when you just stare at her in return.

“Look, I’m sorry. If you don’t want it, I’ll take it out. Then we’ll start discussing the next step of our plan, okay?”

***

A. You press the issue. She has lied to you enough. You have been played for a fool from the start, sent out to do her dirty work while she lounges in safety. She has to answer for her deceptions, and now is a good time to start, before time mellows the indignation.

B. You drop the issue. It has been a long day, and for now you decide to say nothing about it. She probably meant nothing ill by it anyway. She has her own motives, but you trust that she does not mean to harm you.

 

[Zero Credibility]

B

She is one of the very few allies we actually have, so let's not do anything rash that might jeopardize that. We can always discuss this matter later, when we cool down. Possibly we can then demand more information about what exactly is she up to. Doing something like that when enraged is not a good idea.

Plus we really need to learn to control these bursts of anger/hunger.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Yessssss, I love this. BARBARIAN RAGE! EAN SMASH!

A doesn't seem like it'd be a good idea, given our outburst earlier, well, we might not be able to control ourselves. Were we stronger than usual when we raged, I wonder.

Anyway, this anger isn't necessarily a disadvantage, if we start becoming a norse berserker, well, that could only be good. This is only speculation, but it could make us more resistant to mind control while under its influence.

Also, I don't think I'm wrong in saying that we've finally found a true bro in Gudersu, he isn't false like Theseus.

 

[TOME]

A

We need to do something to that rage sometime soon. But first we need to show Sekhenun her place.

 

[TOME]

She put a tracker on us. I might have understood the tracker if it were only for her to know were we are. But she told Edem about it, taking away our only advantage against him. And what did she promise to Edem for his help? I don't think we can trust her until she tells us what is going on. And backing down now is definitely wrong move.

 

[Zero Credibility]

A

We need to do something to that rage sometime soon. But first we need to show Sekhenun her place.

She is already afraid of us / our hunger, so I doubt she is going to try something like that anytime soon. Scaring her even more would just destroy any working relationship we might have with her. And she is the closest thing we have to an ally at the moment - so what's the point of intimidating her further?

Also, is it just me or is the forum really slow today? And what's with the new brofists? What is this stuff?

Edit: I'm not saying that she was not wrong in what she did, just that pressing the issue while we are pissed off is likely to end badly.

 

[Storyfag]

A. We've been played for a fool for too long. Enough of being her unwitting tool. Let's press the issue and force her to explain all her plans.

 

[Esquilax]

Marduk will be heading to Egypt in a couple of weeks anyways and now we've earned the loyalty of an entire people. So we've got a strong army that adores Ean, we've recovered most of our powers, and Sumeria is ripe for the taking. Do we really need Sekhenun at this point?

It's a cost-benefit calculation: is the value of whatever future information she provides (i.e. knowledge on the Gieloth, info on how to defeat Zeus/Marduk) worth the risk of her fucking us over? All of our targets have been provided by Sek at this point, so we'd need to find another way to gather intel. However, if the information isn't worth whatever betrayal she's probably plotting, we might as well just hulk out and eat her.

Still on the fence on this one, not quite sure.

Actually, I just saw this little tidbit from when we devoured the voices:

At worst you die. Which is what’s going to happen anyway.
You mean, at worst he becomes an undead abomination bent on devouring all in his path.
That’s a very very low probability, not even worth mentioning!
We really don’t know exactly what will happen, however. Never been tried, all theoretical!

I'm all for barbarian rage, but we have to first learn how to harness it at the right time instead of giving into anger at every opportunity. Sekhenun wronged us, but I'm worried about the long-term effects of losing our cool. We shouldn't risk it.

B

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

B - We're too angry for our own good. We don't want to loose control and end up eating her.

We can always ask her later. As for her alliance: as others have stated earlier, it's likely this alliance was formed long ago - her interests in Babylon politics have been present for some time, as our conversation with Nabu indicated - and she just didn't mention it.

edit: Exactly, Smashing Axe.
edit2: Ouch. Didn't think of the whole undead abomination thing. We definately need to reign in our anger then as it seems to go hand-in-hand with our hunger.
edit3: Yes, remove the tracker. Also, we need to learn light manipulation fast. We'd be nearly undetectable.

 

[Smashing Axe]

I don't know, I think if we press this in our current condition we'll end up feasting on her guts. I'm all for learning more of her motives and not being taken for chumps, but I don't want to kill her if we don't have to. I'm picking up a strong vibe from treave's last update that this is what it'll ultimately descend to. That or an attempt.

 

[Bloodshifter]

B

 

[Baltika9]

<Sigh> If it weren't for the risk of devouring her, I'd be all for slapping her. However, my Bros have a point.
B it is. However, we now have to be prepared, I'm 95% certain Sekhenun sold us out, not the least because she is terrified of Ean.
Smashing Axe: You're most likely right, but let's wait and see what he says when we tell him to send his people against Marduk's military.
P.S.: From our current pattern, I get the feeling we'll be the ones pulling civilizations in order to get to the core of their corruption. Like Attila the Hun, Genghis and Kublai Khan and, of course, Hitler. What are the odds Gieloth will end up as the Joos?