[LP CYOA] Epic

[Zero Credibility]

A - both choices might work to draw Ares to us, but I feel that A is better. Send them back to daddy in disgrace - that will anger him nicely and make him reconsider his assault at Memphis. Cut this two jokers up real nice and they will not be in any shape to help him against us. Their powers worry me even less - not only are we are immune to them, but they can't control who they are targeting, making them an even greater liability to their side then they are a danger to our. So show them what fear really is and send them packing (minus a limb or two). B I fear would be going too far - we want Ares embarrassed, intrigued and possibly pissed off, not berserk and out for our blood. I fear that B would eventually force us to use our single dose of toxin on him just to stop him.

Plus, A choice might leave him with an impression that we plan to fight this war honorably - we can dispel that illusion later if we we get a chance. Also, interrogation! Where is Ares? What are his forces? What are his plans? This is what really matters. If it wasn't so impractical (we would have to keep a constant watch over them to prevent them from using their powers), I would suggest taking these two as hostages instead of letting them go. See if daddy is willing to negotiate for their lives - might even pack his stuff and leave Egypt altogether. Very tempting indeed - why isn't this a choice?

2 - say no to devour soul until it is absolutely necessary. And even if it is, we definitely shouldn't experiment with immortal flesh if we have a choice.

Edit: Another important question for possible interrogation - what powers does Ares have? And with our telepathy we can be sure they are not lying or hiding something. Really, just killing these two seams like a waste.

Edit2: Also, let's ask these fuckers what they know about Zeus if we get a chance - what powers does he have? Is he drawing Marduk into a trap or is he really too weak to face him? How many immortals does he have on his side and what are their powers? How many of them are in Egypt? As sons of his most badass general, there is a great deal they can tell us.

 

[ScubaV]

You guys seem to be conflating our hunger with root's devour soul (half-jokingly I'm sure), but remember treave and root are two different LP'ers. I'm sure the hunger has its consequences, but so far that has pretty much only manifested when we let our anger take control, which is a separate issue. It's been two months since we freed Babylon and the last time we fed was on Nusku some time before that. I think we're doing okay so far. The main issue I see is if/when we enter a period of relative peace. Is feeding on criminals and bandits going to be enough then? Thankfully, (or not depending on how you see it) I don't see a shortage of adversaries any time soon.

 

[Baltika9]

treave: random question bro. Is Shulgi still in the game?
Zero Credibility: Why not just mine their brains for every possible bit of data and then kill them? Letting them live is also dangerous.
Edit: OR fry their brains and fling their motionless bodies at Ares.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

B1

 

[m4davis]

A2

 

[Smashing Axe]

Something to consider. Do the sons of immortals also have the voices, or are they separate from them, similar in nature to us?

 

[Esquilax]

treave, I think I misunderstood something. A involves remaining at Tjaru to draw out Ares, while B involves taunting him at Memphis by bringing him Deimos' and Phobos' heads personally, right? B would likely result in a duel against a god of war with only one arm, which is... not ideal. Even with a power-boost provided by two piss-weak immortals, I'd rather not take Ares head-on if I can avoid it.

I'm sure the hunger has its consequences, but so far that has pretty much only manifested when we let our anger take control, which is a separate issue. It's been two months since we freed Babylon and the last time we fed was on Nusku some time before that. I think we're doing okay so far. The main issue I see is if/when we enter a period of relative peace. Is feeding on criminals and bandits going to be enough then? Thankfully, (or not depending on how you see it) I don't see a shortage of adversaries any time soon.

Rage, by definition, is almost impossible to control, that's the problem. We dodged a few bullets with Sekhenun in Babylon - first by saving Gudersu's family, and second by still being able to control ourselves when we confronted her about lying. Remember that if we hadn't volunteered ourselves, we would have fed on Sekhenun regardless. If we make a few poor choices in the future, we may not really have a choice in how and when our anger explodes.

With A1, I suppose the rage issues would be manageable since we let the twins live, but B1 would cause a shitload of consequences.

Nusku was only a few days before we freed Babylon.

Edit: The more I think about it, the more I realize that coming into Tjaru was a bad idea. We have to babysit Iltani and make sure she doesn't get killed, and now we're going to reveal ourselves to Ares regardless of what we do. The symbolic power of Tjaru is nice and all, but if we just decided to go on our merry way towards Memphis instead of getting distracted by a trip down memory lane, we would have been able to maintain the element of surprise against Ares and get Iltani to safety.

 

[ScubaV]

They will serve as suitable warning to Ares that you are coming for[sic] him, and hopefully draw his attention away from Memphis to buy the Egyptian defenders more time.

Obviously treave can clarify, but I get the impression we are leaving Tjaru with either A or B. You do make compelling arguments Esquilax. A2 would potentially reign in both our hunger and anger. Control is almost always good. I think A sacrifices the element of surprise in favor of possibly saving more Egyptians. Is that trade worth it? Regardless, I'm going to vote to eat Ares if we get the chance. I want to know what eating immortals does and the power boost should be considerable.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Regardless, I'm going to vote to eat Ares if we get the chance. I want to know what eating immortals does and the power boost should be considerable.

I don't think eating gives us any powers. From what Sekhenun told us, the only thing eating does is prevent power degeneration - all those Gieloths we ate didn't provide us with anything concrete. It might be different if we eat an immortal, but I doubt it will be. Which is why it is important to find other ways of acquiring power - more soldiers, more knowledge, maybe more artifacts we can use - we can no longer depend on power level-ups from defeating our enemies.

treave: Choice A does mean we still get to interrogate these whelps before letting them go, right?

 

[Storyfag]

Guise, I was thinking... Phobos and Deimos are immortal, right? So cutting their heads off and keeping them in a bag doesn't really mean we kill them. We get to carry them around and ask them questions forever! Provided we leave their lungs intact too, that is. Willing to flop to B on that note.

 

[ScubaV]

She frowns. “Put that thing away, I’ll run some tests on it later. At any rate, I have never encountered a thing such as you. From what you say, I am relatively certain you have developed the cursed hunger of my species. Your former masters gave us the curse of cannibalism to try to control us. You will always desire, above all else, the flesh of your own kind. Without it, you will gradually weaken and lose your powers.”

“But if I eat more, I will grow stronger.”

“Yes. Feeding will strengthen you, but only to a certain extent. Think of it as… a container, with your strength like the water within. When you eat, you make the container larger. The water, your powers, will naturally increase fill up the container in time. If you starve yourself for a long time, the container begins to shrink, and you lose power. The water, however, remains – if you grow the container again, you will be able to access that water.” You try to understand her explanation, thinking on it. “That doesn’t really make any sense. If the container shrinks, but you can get the water again, where does the water go in between that time?”

Feeding definitely boosts our powers, how else did we go from a wimp just after resurrection to rivaling Marduk? treave, whatever happened to the statuette mentioned in the update I quoted? Did Sekhenun finish her tests?

I've decided my vote will be A2. As Zero Credibility said, the brothers shouldn't be too much trouble to us alive and the chance of saving more Egyptians is basically half our goal here anyway. It will also hopefully give us more control over our anger. And as weak as they are I don't think they'd give us much of a power boost by eating them, so building on the hunger restraint we started with Ramman and Ahati would be worthwhile. Our anger and hunger are extremely powerful tools, but only if we can decide how and when to use them.

Since treave said a straight up duel with Marduk is winnable I don't think facing Ares (even minus an arm and him having two beat-up sons and advance warning) will be that risky.

 

[Zero Credibility]

She frowns. “Put that thing away, I’ll run some tests on it later. At any rate, I have never encountered a thing such as you. From what you say, I am relatively certain you have developed the cursed hunger of my species. Your former masters gave us the curse of cannibalism to try to control us. You will always desire, above all else, the flesh of your own kind. Without it, you will gradually weaken and lose your powers.”

“But if I eat more, I will grow stronger.”

“Yes. Feeding will strengthen you, but only to a certain extent. Think of it as… a container, with your strength like the water within. When you eat, you make the container larger. The water, your powers, will naturally increase fill up the container in time. If you starve yourself for a long time, the container begins to shrink, and you lose power. The water, however, remains – if you grow the container again, you will be able to access that water.” You try to understand her explanation, thinking on it. “That doesn’t really make any sense. If the container shrinks, but you can get the water again, where does the water go in between that time?”

Feeding definitely boosts our powers, how else did we go from a wimp just after resurrection to rivaling Marduk?

We already had those powers - all feeding did was restore us to the pre-Tjaru power level (when Ean was at his peak). Even though we defeated and have eaten several Gieloths, we have acquired no new powers whatsoever. So feeding again at this point will not provide anything new (at least until the hunger begins weakening our powers again).

At least that is how I understood Sekhenun's explanation - maybe treave can clarify on that.

 

[Baltika9]

How about this: we interrogate them, fry their minds and take them "along"? And then fling their motionless bodies at Ares when we meet him? Technically, they're still alive. And that would be the best time to put on our smugface.

 

[Esquilax]

Storyfag: Sorry bro, that sounds completely ridiculous. These guys aren't the walking encyclopedia that Sekhenun is, they aren't worth shit. Besides, Ean's telepathy probably his second best skill next to ass-kicking - I am pretty sure that he can find out anything he needs to know from them about Ares that way.

I'm contemplating flopping back to B2.

Their powers worry me even less - not only are we are immune to them, but they can't control who they are targeting, making them an even greater liability to their side then they are a danger to our.

They may not be much of a threat on their own, but I think the twins' skills synergize really well with Ares'. They cause panic in human ranks, while Ares protects them from any physical harm from other Immortals/Gieloth with his skills. Even though the twins can't control who they target, they wouldn't even need their own soldiers backing them up if Ares is with them.

Here's a little bit of info on Ares from the Wiki:

although he embodied the physical valor necessary for success in war, he was a dangerous force, "overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering."[3] Fear (Phobos) and Terror (Deimos) were yoked to his battle chariot.

In a hypothetical attack, unless our soldiers were insanely brave and had superb morale, they'd break ranks and we'd have to deal with all three of them on our own. However, if we kill the twins, we can get our warriors to swarm an enraged and reckless Ares.

So show them what fear really is and send them packing (minus a limb or two). B I fear would be going too far - we want Ares embarrassed, intrigued and possibly pissed off, not berserk and out for our blood. I fear that B would eventually force us to use our single dose of toxin on him just to stop him.

Why wouldn't we want him out for our blood? Ares is already reckless, pushing him over the edge seems like a smart tactical move, The man wants us dead anyways, we may as well use our position as the defender in Memphis to provoke him into making stupid decisions (i.e. charging into the 5,000 men there with us hidden among them).

Also, interrogation! Where is Ares? What are his forces? What are his plans? This is what really matters. If it wasn't so impractical (we would have to keep a constant watch over them to prevent them from using their powers), I would suggest taking these two as hostages instead of letting them go. See if daddy is willing to negotiate for their lives - might even pack his stuff and leave Egypt altogether. Very tempting indeed - why isn't this a choice?

...

Edit2: Also, let's ask these fuckers what they know about Zeus if we get a chance - what powers does he have? Is he drawing Marduk into a trap or is he really too weak to face him? How many immortals does he have on his side and what are their powers? How many of them are in Egypt? As sons of his most badass general, there is a great deal they can tell us.

This is great stuff, but then why not just kill them anyways? We're a psychic blank with good telepathic skills, we could do it.

 

[Bloodshifter]

A1 no need to kill immortals... yet Deimos and Phobos can act as a distraction to Ares wouldn't you stop attacking if someone who can kick your kids ass is heading for your head? and decide to snack on one as a treat?

also +1 for Interrogation

 

[Zero Credibility]

Their powers worry me even less - not only are we are immune to them, but they can't control who they are targeting, making them an even greater liability to their side then they are a danger to our.

They may not be much of a threat on their own, but I think the twins' skills synergize really well with Ares'. They cause panic in human ranks, while Ares protects them from any physical harm from other Immortals/Gieloth with his skills. Even though the twins can't control who they target, they wouldn't even need their own soldiers backing them up if Ares is with them.

Here's a little bit of info on Ares from the Wiki:

although he embodied the physical valor necessary for success in war, he was a dangerous force, "overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering."[3] Fear (Phobos) and Terror (Deimos) were yoked to his battle chariot.

In a hypothetical attack, unless our soldiers were insanely brave and had superb morale, they'd break ranks and we'd have to deal with all three of them on our own. However, if we kill the twins, we can get our warriors to swarm an enraged and reckless Ares.

Even better. We can turn that situation on him - if he uses them to neutralize our soldiers, it basically becomes a duel between us - his soldiers will be useless as well, and we can cripple his sons so that they will be useless in physical combat (after all, it will take us 6 months to grow an arm). Except, now he would have two liabilities to protect in a duel with us - something we can very easily turn against him. No, he will not risk this - he will send them back to Greece on the first ship.

So show them what fear really is and send them packing (minus a limb or two). B I fear would be going too far - we want Ares embarrassed, intrigued and possibly pissed off, not berserk and out for our blood. I fear that B would eventually force us to use our single dose of toxin on him just to stop him.

Why wouldn't we want him out for our blood? Ares is already reckless, pushing him over the edge seems like a smart tactical move, The man wants us dead anyways, we may as well use our position as the defender in Memphis to provoke him into making stupid decisions (i.e. charging into the 5,000 men there with us hidden among them).

Because once we do that we are committed to killing him - there will be no turning back. If we let his sons live we can maybe just neutralize his army and force him to retreat, get him to surrender or deal with him some other way. But if we do this he is then our mortal enemy for life (along with who knows how many of his immortal friends) - and for an immortal that is a very long time (because unless we spend our single dose of toxin on him, he will come back for us eventually even if we defeat him). His sons are no real threat to us - so why antagonize him even more then necessary at this point? Our target is not Ares, it's Zeus.

Edit: One more thing - if we push him over the edge he might just decide to take out his anger on the Egyptians. I don't think it counts as a victory for us if we kill him, but the country is burned to the ground and everyone is dead.

Also, interrogation! Where is Ares? What are his forces? What are his plans? This is what really matters. If it wasn't so impractical (we would have to keep a constant watch over them to prevent them from using their powers), I would suggest taking these two as hostages instead of letting them go. See if daddy is willing to negotiate for their lives - might even pack his stuff and leave Egypt altogether. Very tempting indeed - why isn't this a choice?

...

Edit2: Also, let's ask these fuckers what they know about Zeus if we get a chance - what powers does he have? Is he drawing Marduk into a trap or is he really too weak to face him? How many immortals does he have on his side and what are their powers? How many of them are in Egypt? As sons of his most badass general, there is a great deal they can tell us.

This is great stuff, but then why not just kill them anyways? We're a psychic blank with good telepathic skills, we could do it.

We probably could, yes. But I still think a careful show of mercy once we extracted what we need to know would be a better choice. We can't permanently kill all immortals (at least not yet), so they will just keep coming after us time and time again. We really should not make more enemies then absolutely necessary among other immortals. Think about the paranoia Shulgi is creating now, and we haven't even seen him in 400 years - now imagine more immortals actually coming after us.

 

[ScubaV]

We already had those powers - all feeding did was restore us to the pre-Tjaru power level (when Ean was at his peak). Even though we defeated and have eaten several Gieloths, we have acquired no new powers whatsoever. So feeding again at this point will not provide anything new (at least until the hunger begins weakening our powers again).

At least that is how I understood Sekhenun's explanation - maybe treave can clarify on that.

Pre-Tjaru Ean was on par with or maybe just below Marduk at that time. Marduk has almost certainly gotten stronger in the 80 some odd years since and now we are near equal to him again. My interpretation is this: eating definitely increases our overall strength. Think of it as power points, like hit points or mana points. Eating increases our maximum power points, essentially a permanent value that can only go up (barring special circumstances). Our current amount of available power points at any one time is variable. It constantly replenishes up to the maximum, but can drop if we avoid eating for too long.

How we acquire brand new powers or "level up" certain powers relative to others in our revived state is probably something else, which I don't think treave has hinted at yet.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

A2
I'm still butthurt over the devour souls shenanigans in root's lp.

 

[Baltika9]

Now that I think about the interrogation, it may cause us to give into our anger and devour them completely. Within Iltani's view.

 

[Storyfag]

Also, interrogation! Where is Ares? What are his forces? What are his plans? This is what really matters. If it wasn't so impractical (we would have to keep a constant watch over them to prevent them from using their powers), I would suggest taking these two as hostages instead of letting them go. See if daddy is willing to negotiate for their lives - might even pack his stuff and leave Egypt altogether. Very tempting indeed - why isn't this a choice?

...

Edit2: Also, let's ask these fuckers what they know about Zeus if we get a chance - what powers does he have? Is he drawing Marduk into a trap or is he really too weak to face him? How many immortals does he have on his side and what are their powers? How many of them are in Egypt? As sons of his most badass general, there is a great deal they can tell us.

This is great stuff, but then why not just kill them anyways? We're a psychic blank with good telepathic skills, we could do it.

Right you are. My final flipflop (the only one, really, cause I just *considered* flopping the previous time ) is: B1, but only provided we interrogate them before killing them.

 

[Esquilax]

Zero Credibility: Great point, a careful display of mercy gives us more options in the upcoming battle other than either of us killing each other. Ares will be spending more time in the battle concerned about his sons rather than on us, well-spotted.

If we kill his sons, we turn Ares into a man with nothing to lose. But if we show mercy here, then Ares either has to worry about babysitting them (like we have to do with Iltani) or he ships them off to Greece.

Right you are. My final flipflop (the only one, really, cause I just *considered* flopping the previous time ) is: B1, but only provided we interrogate them before killing them.

Dumbest choice out of the bunch. Giving into our hunger like this will have some dire implications for our rage - don't vote for this. It sounds like an ill-advised decision Marius Hax would have made.

When we devoured that thug in the beginning of the chapter, Ean's anger became directed only toward people he perceived as evil. However, if we do what you're proposing (i.e. lie, break a promise, kill two peoplein a pretty gruesome way, then present the heads to their father) then Ean's anger is only going to worsen and be directed to a far wider group of people. It's as Chaotic Stupid as it gets.

Ean has managed to sour relations with every Immortal that he has met so far, do we really need to add another name to the list? Ares and Runi might be at war, but that doesn't mean we should do everything we can to ensure that he wants to permakill us for the next few thousand years. Besides bro, we only have one dose of toxin, let's save it for Zeus.

 

[newcomer]

My interpretation is this: eating definitely increases our overall strength. Think of it as power points, like hit points or mana points. Eating increases our maximum power points, essentially a permanent value that can only go up (barring special circumstances). Our current amount of available power points at any one time is variable. It constantly replenishes up to the maximum, but can drop if we avoid eating for too long.

How we acquire brand new powers or "level up" certain powers relative to others in our revived state is probably something else, which I don't think treave has hinted at yet.

I think there's something wrong here when you fit it into Sekhenum's explanation.
My interpretation: Our power points grow the same as when the voices are still alive, but we need "mana" to use them. When the voices are alive they provide us with virtually unlimited amount of them, but now we have to look for it ourselves. Eating increases our maximum mana, which can decrease if we don't eat.

 

[Baltika9]

I'm with the anti-interrogation and feeding bloc here. The more I think about it, the more I think that Ean, in his agitated state (Deimos' and Phobos' special abilities just made Ean's rage stronger. Sucks to be them) will flip a switch and devour their souls, hearts, brains kidneys and have Iltani play fetch with their bones.

As a note for the future, we might want to look into learning those fear powers. We can then proceed to focus them inwards on Ean and feed his rage and, by chain reaction, strength. Renegade as fuck though, but we already established that collars will be grabbed.

On devouring these two brats, bad idea, bros. One, they're not worth the honor of being absorbed by the glory that is Ean Kodex. Second, Iltani is nearby, most likely. Bad idea to do this in front of her before an explanation (which we will have to give, seriously. And then give one to Gudersu, too, before our enemies use their IGNorance to turn them against us). Third, wantonly giving into the hunger is a stupid idea, I thought we established that already, ffs (although, I grant you it kind of meshes with the whole "Son of the God of the Dead").

Also, treave stated recently that a duel with Marduk is currently winnable. Jesus help us if he possesses Zeus' body, like he wanted to possess ours. And if Zeus is an actual Master, may both God and Jesus help us.

Edit: now that I think about it, they're both probably Immortals or Masters.

I do say, treave, that was well played. Well played indeed.

 

[Omicron]

a1

 

[oscar]

Wouldn't chowing down on two guys sorta freak Iltani out?