[LP CYOA] Epic

[treave]

If it were made of organic material it'd be easy for you, but eating weird sky-metal alloys is still a no-go for now, sorry. You can only conduct its powers with Anbar-Shi because the sword is you.

 

[newcomer]

If it were made of organic material it'd be easy for you, but eating weird sky-metal alloys is still a no-go for now, sorry. You can only conduct its powers with Anbar-Shi because the sword is you.

How about melting it / crushing it? The point is to render it useless. It is possible?

Or maybe, do it just like what we did to the Sceptre; pretend to take it out, then break it, stomp on it, etc. But it will be difficult coz it's metal

 

[treave]

The Sceptre was designed merely to be a conduit and got picked up and worshipped by the primitive Egyptians way back when, while Vajra was designed as a weapon. Their durability is... different. As of right now there's no force on Earth that can destroy Vajra sufficiently enough to overcome its innate regenerative powers, but you could probably put it out of enemy hands by dropping it into a volcano.

Remember, your Honourblade is patterned after it:

Spoiler

Basically it is linked to the Masters, and at full strength will possess minor aspects of all their powers/increase that of any immortal/Master that wields is, just like how Anbar-Shi is linked to you, except the link of Vajra is tenuous nowadays that the Gieloth have separated the connection, making it much weaker than it could be.

It took a few centuries for the Gieloth to succeed in splitting up the thing after they captured it, and even then they lost track of two of the pieces due to immortal intervention.

 

[newcomer]

It took a few centuries for the Gieloth to succeed in splitting up the thing after they captured it, and even then they lost track of two of the pieces.

They managed to get their hands on a complete version yet unable to use it? This proves that we can use it just fine...
Then it will be either B or C, A will only result in Zeus summoning the other loyal immortals to rescue him if negotiation breaks down, and what good will it bring if we can't keep our piece of Vajra? Personally leaning towards C

 

[treave]

They managed to get their hands on a complete version yet unable to use it? This proves that we can use it just fine...

Interfacing issues.

edit: You could shape your sword into a javelin and hurl it away together with the Vajra piece really really hard in the general direction of the sea with your super strength. Since Anbar-Shi is you, you can probably find it again without too much trouble.

 

[newcomer]

edit: You could shape your sword into a javelin and hurl it away together with the Vajra piece really really hard in the general direction of the sea with your super strength. Since Anbar-Shi is you, you can probably find it again without too much trouble.

I wonder whether we'll win the duel in that case...

Maybe a better suggestion would be

D. Throw Anbar-Shi to Zeus. By doing that you attempt to hijack Zeus's Vajra pieces and scramble Zeus's mind at the same time; the attraction force of the Vajra pieces combined with your superhuman strength would be enough to justify the speed and trajectory of Anbar-Shi. You are your sword after all... placing your sword at his body is all it takes to launch a psychic attack. However, what kind of future awaits you if you fails to disable him?

How about that treave ?

"You are... hm, this is interesting. We had thought number 1337 Gil to be lost to us, but here stands the host before me, and with a piece of Vajra in hand. This is very interesting."

1337[GIL] ? Gilgamesh?

EDIT: Attraction force MIGHT NOT play a major role in determining the speed & trajectory of Anbar-Shi

 

[Baltika9]

First things first

Chapter 5.19: Thunderstruck

treave: Are we getting anything from Edem? Distress, confidence, panic, hatred, trepidation, anything at all? Any messages, does he know what our chances are? Also, does he look anything like Naram, Sumeria or Egypt?
I'm thinking if Zeus could beat Zeus and Ean could beat Marduk, we're good against him. We have Ares coming up in our rear(thankfully we have someone on lookout, hopefully he doesn't decide he wants some tail before the fight) and Hera sitting somewhere in Olympus. This guy can also friggin' teleport.

What I am sure of is this: if we choose to negotiate, we will be eventually forced into giving up all our Gieloth contacts, so forget about Edem and Sekhenun(who, despite being all secretive is actually the only consistent bro/bro-ette we ever had, and I don't roll that way) and rebelling against the masters. If we negotiate, he doesn't have to beat us, he just has to wait until Ares comes up the mountain and Hera comes down. Then we're screwed, Edem or no.

Edit:

"You are... hm, this is interesting. We had thought number 1337 Gil to be lost to us, but here stands the host before me, and with a piece of Vajra in hand. This is very interesting."

1337[GIL] ? Gilgamesh?

Oh, treave, you really shouldn't have.

Edit2: Bros, we have an extremely small window of opportunity here, so let's make it count.
It also seems to me that running is futile, because, you know, friggin' teleportation and all.
I'm liking newcomer's idea so far, however risky it is. And if we miss, or he just teleports out of the way...hoo boy, let's hope Ean can grab it fast enough with his telekinesis before Zeus does. Then we're screwed.

 

[treave]

Edem is a blank slate to you, you can't read him unless he allows you to. He's a powerful psychic, much more so than you. He would probably help out against Zeus though, seeing as he is still a Gieloth and they do fucking hate them uppity masters. Throwing Anbar-Shi at Zeus... could work. If the first strike doesn't kill him you just gave him all the pieces though.

 

[Baltika9]

Edem is a blank slate to you, you can't read him unless he allows you to. He's a powerful psychic, much more so than you. He would probably help out against Zeus though, seeing as he is still a Gieloth and they do fucking hate them uppity masters. Throwing Anbar-Shi at Zeus... could work. If the first strike doesn't kill him you just gave him all the pieces though.

So if that fails, could we say something like "I, uh, meant to give them all to you... so, we're...we cool, right? Right?" and have it actually work?
Seriously though, bros, if we enter negotiations, it ends one of two ways: we become the Masters' bottom bitch again or we die. Zeus doesn't seem the kind of guy who fucks around and leaves the job half done.

 

[newcomer]

Then maybe it's too risky after all... Just put my vote as C first unless other people are confident enough with my plan... Or any other suggestions out there? Esquilax CappenVarra ?

So if that fails, could we say something like "I, uh, meant to give them all to you... so, we're...we cool, right? Right?" and have it actually work?

Seriously though, bros, if we enter negotiations, it ends one of two ways: we become the Masters' bottom bitch again or we die. Zeus doesn't seem the kind of guy who fucks around and leaves the job half done.

Cannot agree better than this. Choice A basically seals our fate... and choice B as well thx to all the teleporting (and maybe secret ability of tracking down Vajra pieces?)...

 

[Baltika9]

treave: say we go along with newcomer's plan. How many seconds will it take Ean to actually shapeshift his weapon, take aim and hurl it. How close is our target, how long will the spear travel given Ean's strength and the magnetic attraction between the pieces? And if we decide to send a telepathic message to Edem will Zeus hear it as well?
And is Ares near us?
Edit: Also, are we still faking our presence? Human or Immortal?

 

[treave]

Don't count on the attraction to do too much. You can probably hit him if Edem is able to bind him with TK and Zeus doesn't do anything out of the ordinary (you don't have enough power to do that to Zeus yourself and attack at the same time).

Presence is human. But Zeus being Zeus, can tell. Your disguise is not perfect.

edit: You could reach him with a strong lunge.

 

[Baltika9]

How far away from us is he standing? Is he withing striking distance?

Modified newcomer's D: We shoot Edem a message saying something like "Trust me and be ready." We kneel in place and wait for him to acknowledge it and relax Then we signal Edem and pierce the fucker.

Like this, and we pray that we end up better.

 

[Esquilax]

What about the toxin that Sekhenun gave us? treave, would it take too long for us to dip our sword in it? At the moment, he thinks that we are your typical Master-loving immortal. I think this presents a few interesting opportunities.

 

[CappenVarra]

Uh oh. Well, one down - farewell sweet Marduk, you were an ass of an imposter and a horrible ruler, hopefully the afterlife will give you the opportunity to meditate on your failures.

We don't want Zeus to reassemble the Ultimate Weapon of Masterdom. Hell, we don't want to assemble it ourselves until we have an idea what will happen - we want to tap its power, but without giving the Masters an open channel to Earth. Repeat - Vajra should not be reassembled today. We should grab the pieces, go back to Babylon, consult with Sehk, facilitate communications with Itani, keep Summeria and Egypt in good shape, vaporize Shulgi and Naram and piss on their combined ashes, etc.

But first, we must EAT ZEUS. So, C, but without pressing the "speed dial the nearest Master and activate a homing beacon on our ass" button of awesome. Hera doesn't concern us, Ares should be trolled again and left in Greece looking for us while we're chilling in Babylon, etc. If that's possible at all

Also, if Ean is Gilgamesh... Who is the Neanderthal Enkindu we stole all our achievements from? /Cleve

Awesomeness

 

[Baltika9]

What about the toxin that Sekhenun gave us? treave, would it take too long for us to dip our sword in it? At the moment, he thinks that we are your typical Master-loving immortal. I think this presents a few interesting opportunities.

I'm sure Naram whined to them all about our betrayal. I mean, come on. He's their cocksleeve, and I'm very sure that he didn't just break free.

 

[treave]

You can have the toxin on your sword instantly. And who says Marduk is dead? Zeus didn't destroy the core, just took back the piece

 

[Baltika9]

You can have the toxin on your sword instantly. And who says Marduk is dead? Zeus didn't destroy the core, just took back the piece

So, we can count on him to fuck over either us or Zeus. Probably us. Wait a second...
Oh...oh shit. The moment we kill Zeus Marduk will devour him. Oh fuck.
Treave, you magnificent sunuvabitch.
Goddammit, why don't Gieloth die like they used to?

Edit: Anyways, I'm voting for my mod to newcomer's plan:
E. Feign submission and smite that soggy, interstellar cunt down. Don't forget to add the poison as per Esquilax. Of course, if he moves in to get it, we cut him down. If not, we throw it.

It's risky, but the payoff is magnificent. Then we can strike Marduk down as he devours Zeus. This is just one boss fight we're not thinking our way out of, huh? The easy/smart way is not for Ean, never was.
Feel free to tear my plan a new one, or a couple new ones, as yous see fit. Paging Esquilax.
Edit2: And if we later decide to stay in Greece to help rebuild, well, we already have a name, don't we?

 

[Smashing Axe]

Let's eat everyone. I won't accept running away when the battle hasn't even begun.

C

In retrospect I think B would have been the best choice, although if Marduk is still in the game we might come out of this ahead. Grr, why can't everything be easy?

 

[Esquilax]

Actually, now that Marduk is alive and still hasn't unleashed his trump card, I'm thinking it's time to stall Zeus with some patented rat diplomacy (tm) until Marduk is able to devour him. Once he does so, he'll be weakened from the lightning bolt and still vulnerable post-devouring, so killing him with Edem will be easy. I'd rather not waste our strength on all of those fights, especially with Ares on his way.

Voting A for now.

C

 

[ScubaV]

I agree with the discussion so far. A does not favor us with Ares arriving at any moment and Hera's whereabouts unknown. And Zeus, as strong as he is, has exhausted his primary skill so I'm not about to vote running away. So that leaves a vanilla attack or something creative.

Poisoning is good as is fake-submitting to Zeus and then stabbing him when he comes to take Vajra. What about Marduk's artifact, the thing that was supposed to let him devour people? I was never too clear on what exactly that was. Was is just his Vajra fragment? Is it still on his remains? Perhaps we can utilize that.

 

[Baltika9]

There is also the issue of whether or not to communicate with Edem, whatever we do. For all we know, Zeus can read Ean's signals. Any confirm on that one, treave (don't blame me for trying)?

 

[Esquilax]

I don't think we should take the chance of communicating with Edem. I'm hoping that because of our alliance with Sekhenun, Edem is going to trust us enough to let us do our thing.

I agree with the discussion so far. A does not favor us with Ares arriving at any moment and Hera's whereabouts unknown. And Zeus, as strong as he is, has exhausted his primary skill so I'm not about to vote running away. So that leaves a vanilla attack or something creative.

Poisoning is good as is fake-submitting to Zeus and then stabbing him when he comes to take Vajra. What about Marduk's artifact, the thing that was supposed to let him devour people? I was never too clear on what exactly that was. Was is just his Vajra fragment? Is it still on his remains? Perhaps we can utilize that.

Running away is bad, no question. Ares is going to block our path, then Zeus will catch up to us.

However, I'm not sure that a straight-up fight is really that much better. The problem here is that Zeus has two pieces of Vajra compared to our one. Fighting him straight-up like this is a bad idea. Even with Edem helping us, it'll be very hard.

I'd advise everyone to reconsider A. Marduk is down, but he's not out. Even in his state, I think that the fragment will work perfectly. Marduk is so weak at this point that even when he does use his trump card, he's going to be way too weak after the lightning strike to pose a challenge to Ean and Edem.

However, if you guys want to fight Zeus with brutal cunning, I think I have a plan:

D) "Zeus, destroy the core! Get it now or Marduk will devour you!" If he can read our thoughts, it's not lying, because it's technically the truth. Then, once he's turned around and distracted, close the distance and strike him down with a poisoned Anbar-Shi. All we need is a moment.

Edit: Pretty cool that Ean's designation is [GIL]. Naram's must be [ENK], but I wonder what Shulgi's would be.

 

[Baltika9]

D) "Zeus, destroy the core! Get it now or Marduk will devour you!" If he can read our thoughts, it's not lying, because it's technically the truth. Then, once he's turned around and distracted, close the distance and strike him down with a poisoned Anbar-Shi. All we need is a moment.

What if he says "No", though? Ean doesn't know about the Devourer, only we do. It's worth a try, but only as an addition to another plan.
And, having thought about, yeah, keep quiet and hope Edem really is like me, i.e a smartass smart ass both.

 

[ScubaV]

Treave, quick question: will the toxin will actually work on something with the job description "Avatar of the Masters"?

It'll work on the host.

Just requoting this. I'm guessing in practical terms it means that if we destroy the host, the entity known as Zeus will lose its connection to our world unless it has all 3 pieces of Vajra. I think at no time should we give up physical possession of Anbar-Shi or the Vajra fragment it contains, meaning no throwing.

treave, does Ean know about Marduk's devouring artifact? If so, does he think he can pull it from his charred body with telekinesis and use it?