[LP CYOA] Epic

[TOME]

Mienni - "Oh, you want me to go? I suppose I should ask the mistress about it. Do you think she'll agree? I think she wouldn't, but if you really wanted to she can't say no. I want to."

Terror Twins - "Why should we listen to you... hey, hey keep your hands off that thing, I'm still tender, hey! Fine, we'll go! Ah shit."'

Ussur - "Oooh, Dread Master, Dread Master! Of course I shall follow along behind your sacred footsteps!"

Iltani - "You want me with you? Ha, and you couldn't wait to get rid of me on that last one. Well... I don't see why not. I'll show you how much I've improved since then!"

Sekhenun - "You want me to go? Oh, I'm so flattered, but I would much rather you bring someone else. Athena or Artemis would be a better complement to you, right?"

Edem or Artemis - "Me? Again? But I just got back! You know, you never do send her to do the foreign jobs... what do you mean, I'm thinking too much?"

Athena - "The Xia are important, but Greece needs my care now, more so than ever. I strongly suggest you find another to aid you. I will hope for your success."

Valli - "You goddamned bastard, why would you, ah, pardon, you imperial bastard, you goddamned Babylonian... why would you drag me away from my service to my city, you goddamned foreigners are all the same! I don't mince words even if you are my Emperor, you imperial cunt. Take my head, see if I give a shit."

Just guessing...

 

[newcomer]

Edem or Artemis - "Me? Again? But I just got back! You know, you never do send her to do the foreign jobs... what do you mean, I'm thinking too much?"

This one is definitely Edem...

Gurdesu - "Ach, I'm enjoying life, but really, I don't see why not! Always wanted to see the end of the world, buddy!"

Gursu (?) - "You desire my skills on this endeavour, Your Imperial Majesty? Certainly! I won't let you down."

Akilhotep - "Oh, a journey to the east... that is very interesting indeed, Master Ean, but I'm not sure whether my particular talent would be of help to you. Perhaps I could help you organize the trip instead?"

Artemis - "Sure. I'll go, I guess."

 

[Esquilax]

I have been swayed towards 1C.

Smashing Axe, Storyfag, I disagree with bringing Edem to China. We have Athena in charge of defending Greece, but we also need someone defending the Anatolian border, and Edem is our best bet. Remember that before you take superpowers into account, the Hittite army is equal or better than ours. I'd feel much more comfortable if we had someone who could incinerate their entire army looking after things.

While the Hittites pale in comparison to the threat that the Terasphagos and the Chinese invasion pose, they are still a problem and could destabilize our Empire.

Besides, we know someone very skilled and capable of infiltrating the Gieloth and taking them out from the inside: Ean. He's a psychic blank who can project a human presence, so since we're only bringing in a small group, infiltration will be the way to go. He can pose as a talented young warrior eager to serve the new kingdom against the hated Xia.

While we're working from the inside, we could have Artemis providing backup for the rest of the Chinese immortals.

Edit: However, if we do take Edem with us, CBB seems to be a much better idea than CAA. I don't see the roads as a military advantage for our side at all; they could just as easily be used by the Hittites as they are by our men. Having skilled Praetorians and signal towers to provide warning of impending attack is better, in that case.

At this point, the war is not a question of if, it's a question of when. As a result, I think that increasing our hard power by having a class of super-soldiers that can act in our stead would be ideal. treave, would we have enough time to properly train them before we leave?

 

[Smashing Axe]

Esquilax, I think it'd be a very bad idea to travel without a gieloth to consult with. At the very least we need Edem as an adviser on the personalities of the Gieloth there, on their capabilities, on their weaknesses, on the most valuable target to destroy. Going without him is going blind into the enemy's ranks. Yes his abilities are extremely useful and may be used against the Hittites if things should degrade to war, but again, I think you're loosing sight of the main threat here. Given the very little we're taking out of it, our Empire should be able to survive without Edem and us. We don't have incompetents in the upper echelons of our society and we're leaving it with our full military might.

I like both AA and BB, although I prefer BB for some of the reasons you mentioned. My concern is the vote will be too divided between AA and BB so either AB or BA will win, which I think would be very bad ultimately for us against the Hittites.

I've reconsidered taking Valli, as much as I'd like to. I think we'd be able to get him to agree, but even though he's a possible agitator against our rule, he's also the Assyrian guy's right hand man, which he will need when/if the Hittites invade.

 

[treave]

treave, would we have enough time to properly train them before we leave?

Question is, when would you like to leave? If you're not bringing an army, there's little preparation you need to make. To select and train the men would take at least two years to bring them up to better than usual standards.

 

[Arpad]

CBB

 

[Bloodshifter]

DAB

 

[Azira]

I'm worried that while we're off gallivanting in the chinese heartland, the Terasphagos will go nuts and ruin all our effort in our own part of the world. Or even more delicious, Zeus/Marduk will return.
At least the chinese immortals know that the Gieloth are there, and they have previously been quite succesful at holding off Gieloth interlopers. There are many there now, yes, but there's also more immortals over there than we have ever encountered before.
I say let the chinese deal with their own matters for now. We've not been invited, and we have shit to deal with in our part of the world as well.

TL;DR
We don't have our cape yet, so no reason trying to fly all around the world fixing all boo-boos. Let's stick to the area we know.

 

[newcomer]

After I think about it, I guess we should bring Edem along. The reason is simple: Gieloth long-range communication.

With that we can:
- Indirectly make decisions on the Hittite invasion defense (through Sek & Nabuchasar)
- Contact Sek for information / if she need experimental materials

To compensate for the supernatural beings going to China, we'll keep all human generals to guard the empire. And if the Terasphagos run wild, Athena can be put in charge temporarily

 

[Kipeci]

DAB, though I'm up for persuasion on A and B.

DAA

The Hittites are openly preparing for military conquest, our attentions must be at home so that we can frustrate them. This is a critical stage in the development of our empire; if we hold it together now, we can reap huge dividends on knowledge and increase of manpower so that we can have a technologically advanced large army to face the Gieloth if that's what must be done.

We cannot let the Hittites screw us by ditching our empire in fledgeling state to go on Chinese adventures. The Chinese immortals are plenty competent; remember, they could have defeated a Marduk who'd absorbed Ean, so they're not pushovers. If we train up an elite the right way, that's also good for if we do decide to go off later.

 

[treave]

No long range communication between Edem and Sekhenun. They can only use the same network you can tap into, and neither of them will be willing to expose their location to the other Gieloth like that, particularly since they're both seen as traitors.

 

[Azira]

No long range communication between Edem and Sekhenun. They can only use the same network you can tap into, and neither of them will be willing to expose their location to the other Gieloth like that, particularly since they're both seen as traitors.

Yeah, sorry newcomer, but even I saw this one coming from far away. They're willingly working with a "Dog of the Masters", even if we did throw off our leash. No Gieloth would be willing to trust us if they knew us, unless they were traitors as well. And Edem and Sekh are only working with us because it seems advantageous to them to do so.

I still say we should stick to our own part of the world and turn that into something stable and strong. The Gieloth are an impressive lot, but even Gieloth can be brought low by humans, if they're properly trained and drilled. If we're going up against hundreds in the near future, I'd rather have a loyal and well-drilled army at our backs.

 

[Esquilax]

Azira, unfortunately, that was the same logic that told us to go to Egypt instead of Greece when Marduk was devouring his way through Olympus. "We need an army!" Even the greatest of armies won't fare well against a force of hundreds of Gieloth.

An army is nice to have, but we need to go where we're needed, first and foremost. And right now, so long as we make the right decisions here, our Empire will be safe from Hittite invasion. The mirror warning system combined with a competent royal guard to serve in our stead will be able to repel the invaders with little trouble. Staying in Shin'ar just seems so incredibly short-sighted.

You guys are seriously underestimating the Gieloth. The immortals in China are the strongest in the world, but ffs, they're outnumbered five to one! Ean is probably the strongest immortal in the world right now, and even he would have trouble facing more than two Gieloth at once.

The Gieloth are attempting to infiltrate the immortals, so we should attempt to infiltrate the Gieloth with 1C. Artemis and the terror twins will rendezvous with the immortals in Xia, while Edem and Ean work their way into the inside. Ean can pose as Edem's human servant and we can work together that way.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

DAA
D - The gieloth will eventually gain control of most of China. When that happens we need to have an empire built up that can attack and/or resist them while we go after the gieloth themselves. We've already got a good start and we have our own contingent of immortals and gieloth to aid us. We've chosen to play the role of god/emperor - our empire relies on us now, so going on an expedition would only weaken us.
A - Roads can move our armies faster, may supplies easier to transport, and increase trade. We can become the Rome of our alternate timeline.
A - A personal guard could defend us from attack, but a superior intelligence network could warn us of an attack before it happens - not to mention help us deal with our opponents through assassinations rather than mere trickery or direct warfare (which seem to be the extent of our capabilities right now).

 

[Smashing Axe]

Heh, Artemis/Ean. Both eternal virgins. A perfect match.

And yeah, echoing everything Esquilax just said.

 

[Azira]

Azira, unfortunately, that was the same logic that told us to go to Egypt instead of Greece when Marduk was devouring his way through Olympus. "We need an army!" Even the greatest of armies won't fare well against a force of hundreds of Gieloth.

An army is nice to have, but we need to go where we're needed, first and foremost. And right now, so long as we make the right decisions here, our Empire will be safe from Hittite invasion. The mirror warning system combined with a competent royal guard to serve in our stead will be able to repel the invaders with little trouble. Staying in Shin'ar just seems so incredibly short-sighted.

You guys are seriously underestimating the Gieloth. The immortals in China are the strongest in the world, but ffs, they're outnumbered five to one! Ean is probably the strongest immortal in the world right now, and even he would have trouble facing more than two Gieloth at once.

The Gieloth are attempting to infiltrate the immortals, so we should attempt to infiltrate the Gieloth with 1C. Artemis and the terror twins will rendezvous with the immortals in Xia, while Edem and Ean work their way into the inside. Ean can pose as Edem's human servant and we can work together that way.

You're saying that staying is shortsighted, I do not agree. I do not propose that we stay purely to guard our borders from Hittitte incursion, but also to step up our efforts of researching and ultimately sealing the rift in reality. Whether the Gieloth take over china or not doesn't matter if the rift turns out to spawn the ultimate Zeus/Marduk amalgamation with their combined power, or somehow expands to cover the entire globe.

Gieloth are a known threat, in scope and abilities, thanks in part to Sekh and Edem helping us. The rift is an unknown. Abandoning that to try and salvage a china that might be lost before we even get there is short-sighted in my opinion.

Also, Edem might not be willing to actively infiltrate the Gieloth there unless we come up with a Cunning Plan. treave just mentioned that both Sekhenun and Edem are considered Race Traitors, so he needs to shield his own presence into that of an unknown/another Gieloth, a feat we do not even know if is possible.

I just don't see the risk of abandoning our guardianship over the rift to help the chinese as one we should take. I feel we're chickening out here, turning to face a known enemy instead of braving the unknown that we unwittingly called into existance. Really, the fault is partly Ean's. Had we not meddled, Zeus would not have caused that rift, he'd have been absorbed by Marduk, yes, but the rift? That's partly our doing. And we need to Fix That.

No to china, yes to help saving Earth.

 

[Smashing Axe]

The rift has remained fairly consistent over the past years, we don't know what it will do in the future, true and we do not know if it's an existential threat to our world. I don't like it, and we're right not to, it's too unpredictable. The thing about probability though is that I'll take an unknown chance of world devastation over a 100% chance of one, and there's no other way to construe the Gieloth reaching critical mass from invading China as anything but. The rift is a threat, but it's a speculative one beyond the occasional mindless monster invasion.

If you want to do this because of a sense of responsibility then I remind you the Gieloth invasion of China is also partly our fault, they wouldn't have accelerated their strip mining plans if the rift hadn't occurred bringing on the world the threat of master exterminatus earlier than planned. So I don't see how you can argue in favour of D from that position, at least.

 

[Omicron]

dab

 

[Esquilax]

Lambchop19, considering most of the votes are opting to stay at home, I think that the personal guard would be a better bet than the information network. If we're going to make the ill-advised decision of delaying our departure to China, we better have a shitload of super-soldiers.

I don't get this "we need an army" bullshit. Even if we had an army, how the hell are we going to get to China? The march alone is going to take years. We must go now. Otherwise, this is going to be another case of burying our heads in the sand.

You're saying that staying is shortsighted, I do not agree. I do not propose that we stay purely to guard our borders from Hittitte incursion, but also to step up our efforts of researching and ultimately sealing the rift in reality. Whether the Gieloth take over china or not doesn't matter if the rift turns out to spawn the ultimate Zeus/Marduk amalgamation with their combined power, or somehow expands to cover the entire globe.

Gieloth are a known threat, in scope and abilities, thanks in part to Sekh and Edem helping us. The rift is an unknown. Abandoning that to try and salvage a china that might be lost before we even get there is short-sighted in my opinion.

Not quite. If we go with 1C, Sekhenun will remain to continue research on the rift while we head out with Edem, Artemis and the terror twins. So long as Athena manages to hold things down, and I am confident she will, Sekhenun will be able to study the rift in further detail. She doesn't need any of our help in that endeavor and Ean can't really do anything to help her here either.

Also, Edem might not be willing to actively infiltrate the Gieloth there unless we come up with a Cunning Plan. treave just mentioned that both Sekhenun and Edem are considered Race Traitors, so he needs to shield his own presence into that of an unknown/another Gieloth, a feat we do not even know if is possible.

I just don't see the risk of abandoning our guardianship over the rift to help the chinese as one we should take. I feel we're chickening out here, turning to face a known enemy instead of braving the unknown that we unwittingly called into existance. Really, the fault is partly Ean's. Had we not meddled, Zeus would not have caused that rift, he'd have been absorbed by Marduk, yes, but the rift? That's partly our doing. And we need to Fix That.

No to china, yes to help saving Earth.

The problem is that we have two Earth-destroying threats to deal with; the rift here and the Gieloth invasion of China, which we have done very little about aside from Artemis' warning. We can't focus on just one, we have to deal with both. There's no way around it.

I don't understand what you're getting at with your thoughts on "chickening out". We might know more about the Gieloth than we do about the rift, but the important part here is that the threat it represents is on-par with the rift, and it must be dealt with. In the grand scheme of things, both threats are equally dangerous. Therefore, we should deal with the threat that we haven't spent any time on.

I don't know if Edem can mimic another Gieloth's signature (with his great psionic abilities, it's certainly possible) but he does know how to make himself inconspicuous:

As a diplomatic courtesy, you sent Mehrune together with the emissary on his return journey to the north, bearing your own gifts. Edem went - not altogether willing - with her, as you needed someone who was not mortal to keep an eye out, and he was good at being inconspicuous if he wanted to.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Lambchop19, considering most of the votes are opting to stay at home, I think that the personal guard would be a better bet than the information network. If we're going to make the ill-advised decision of delaying our departure to China, we better have a shitload of super-soldiers to take care of things.

If we were going to make super-soliders I might vote for that, but the choice doesn't say that and as it stands we don't have the tech - maybe after Sek does the nec. research on humans...

The reasoning in the description for 3a is sound. We got infiltrated and caught off guard by an empire of humans - how humiliating. Do we really want to be caught with our pants down like this agian? If they can do that, what happens when Shulgi decides to play his hand or if the terror twins or some other immortal decides to go traitor? Our strength has always been direct combat, but we need to be better at espionage or we'll get creamed by the simple trickery of lesser nations.

 

[Azira]

The Gieloth invading china now are doing so because of the rift yes, but if the rift had not been there, they would not have stepped up their plans, ie they would have stayed in the americas preparing.
Now they've launched their assault early and are thus not as prepared as they would have liked. They might even be at a position where they can be defeated, yes.
I just get the feeling that treave is dangling this in front of us like a big red cloth, daring us to charge the obvious threat, and then Suddenly a Grue appears and we are eaten. Remember, we're choosing from between 4 options here, and while the chinese threat seems the most obvious, it's also the one where the most immortals are based (as far as we can tell).
Remember, the Masters have not doomed this world yet. They were willing to watch and act through Zeus right up until he was swallowed in that rift, and now they've sent an agent through means so far obfuscated to us. The Gieloth don't know this, and frankly, neither does Ean. But the fact remains that the Earth isn't doomed to Purging yet.
How long do you guesstimate it will take the Gieloth to win in china? How long will it take them to stripmine eastern Asia? How long until they have the materials they need?
About this, we could probably ask Sekhenun and Edem what the traditional Gieloth plan comprises. treave, can our esteemed Gieloth co-conspirers provide us with informed guesses as to how long their brethren from the mexicos will need to finalize their plans, and what those plans comprise? And would the completion of said plans traditionally doom the world at the Masters hands? This will have bearing on our decision, I have no doubt, should Sekh and Edem be willing to share.

I'm just still not convinced that rushing off to china now is our best course of action.

 

[treave]

You don't know how long it would take for them to defeat the immortals, or indeed if they can in the first place, but there will be a massive spawning event should they succeed. The Gieloth will huddle into a cocoon for a variable amount of time, then grow into a tree like form that stretches massive roots throughout the planet and begins sucking away whatever they need, growing bigger all the while. This may take anywhere from five years to a hundred, depending on the planet and amount of Gieloth. Sek estimates that if the tree is formed here and now, it would require a few decades to mature. They have some defenses in tree form but it is not prudent to destroy all or most of your threats before you enter a vegetative mode.

 

[Azira]

Interesting. Do they subsume their personalities as well, to enter into this literary vegetative state? That might also account for Sekh's motivation to find an alternative mode of transport.
Anyhoo, I agree that it would be bad form to allow them to make their planet-sucking tree thing, and we're better off preventing that. Even so, as treave alludes to here, them going tree-shaped might not be the end of this COYA, we'll just need to defeat the huge tree boss instead of the individual multitude of Gieloth.

Considering we have a Gieloth scientist on our team, one who hasn't been adverse to using poison on her own kind before, we might be able to poison the tree should one form.

With this information on hand, I'm still not convinced we need to make for china at this point. More Cunning Arguments might sway me, but for now I'm sticking to my vote.

 

[TOME]

Someone pointed out that those roads with 2A can also be used to move enemy armies, so I flopped to BB.

Remember that our military might is equal with the hitties, and that it takes more might to invade than to defend. And depending on party composition on 1C, we have supernatural defenses back home. If we leave Edem defending our kingdom, what chance would the hittie army have when he can control their whole army? But taking Edem would mean that we take Sekhenun or embark to china without gieloths. Or we could leave terror twins back home and make sure that they will act in our best interests. Hittie armies would be running back home terrified if they decide to invade us.

And the mexican gieloths have just landed. They haven't established good defenses yet. They are vulnerable right now. How are you going to defeat them if they are given enough time to fortificate? The longer they are left alone, the better they are holed up and the harder we'll have to root them out when the time comes.

tl;dr Others can manage home front, Ean and his merry little band are needed in China.

 

[Tigranes]

CAA, and we need to be careful about who goes with us. Two key points to distinguish my vote from other CBBs:

(1) xBB is also acceptable, but I just don't see how a signal system beats an empire-wide network of roads which will precede the Romans by centuries. We will have decent communication as well as so many other benefits, it just makes far too much sense. And then, of course, xxA dovetails - and actually, helps us by providing our own network of information for when Edem and/or Sekhenun are no longer around to help us. It wouldn't do to be too reliant on those who have no real obligation to stick by us for centuries to come.

(2) Similarly, we need to be worried about going to China, of all places, and leaving the Empire in other hands. E.g. Athena as the only immortal or gieloth in the entire place is just not a very good recipe to maintain peace; leaving Sekhenun by herself to handle the core operations is better, but still risky. We need, say, Sekhenun to keep things going in Babylon; Athena to handle things only in Greece; Akilhotep in Egypt; then at least two loyal generals, one for the Hittite border and another to handle any rebellions or disruptions that arise in the empire.

In other words we should only take those we really need. Unfortunately for Edem, this probably means he is indispensable as a Gieloth presence.