[LP CYOA] Epic

[Azira]

Or! He's actually Sekhenun, shapeshifted to a male body to supervise the "shards", see which one is most suited for "ascension" as the true Ean.

 

[Baltika9]

Or! He's actually Sekhenun, shapeshifted to a male body to supervise the "shards", see which one is most suited for "ascension" as the true Ean.

That would guarantee Sek is alive. Goddammit treave, is Sek alive? I must know.

OR! He's a pair of Giant Balls.

 

[treave]

Wasn't she talking about opening a portal off-world a few thousand years ago?

 

[Azira]

Seriously though, the concept of slicing the regenerating but stuporous Ean up and stitching his tissue inside young children to "rebirth" Ean sounds like something a Gieloth would think of. Edem and Sekhenun are most likely around, somewhere, in some form. And we know from earlier that Sekhenun and Edem are both proficient in shielding/screening their presence. Runi could very well be one of them...

 

[Baltika9]

Seriously though, the concept of slicing the regenerating but stuporous Ean up and stitching his tissue inside young children to "rebirth" Ean sounds like something a Gieloth would think of. Edem and Sekhenun are most likely around, somewhere, in some form. And we know from earlier that Sekhenun and Edem are both proficient in shielding/screening their presence. Runi could very well be one of them...

Most likely not, i'd hope Sek isn't that retarded. Our scholars probably found the paperwork for the Astartes prototypes and decided they were smart. The rest is history.

Wasn't she talking about opening a portal off-world a few thousand years ago?

And that would mean that she either got those damned dirty freeloaders off our planet or went out in a brave search for Ean(I'm not holding my breath, though). I sincerely hope it's the former. I just can't wait to find our old bros and the looks on their faces: "You're not supposed to be alive!"
"

I'm Ean!"

 

[TOME]

At least we got rid of Garsu for now. There is now way he is coming back when he finds out what is happening.

A3. But split the infantry in two if possible. Some with Dio while the rest defends the fort.

 

[Storyfag]

Told you fuckers to stay at the fort, didn't I? Told you there would be troubles between the fresh officers and the original ones. But nobody listened. Again.

A3.

 

[Tigranes]

Sigh. It should have been elementary that if we were picking 1A we needed ourselves or Garsu in charge, but after so many permutations it slipped my mind entirely. At least we haven't encountered any major disasters, yet.

But with all the A3 votes - are we meaning that we will split up into 3? Dio back to the fort, Infantry in Tigrien, chariots / cavalry chasing? Just seems like too much to me.

 

[Esquilax]

Storyfag, you called it man. Didn't make sense to leave the fort. Completely slipped my mind with all the DISCUSS!!!

Anyways, I'm very concerned about this:

Some second-guessed you, any fear of a difference in rank subdued by your habit of fraternizing with the grunts, but you managed to convince them to wait for another hour or two.

This has the potential to become very bad. We can't be complete assholes to our guys, but they have to know who's in charge. Napoleon was well-loved by his men, but they also knew not to fuck with him either. The next time someone shows insubordination, they should be made an example of.

Regarding the choice, I am with Tigranes on this one. I believe that A3 will spread us way too thin: there's Dio back at Euphraxes, infantrymen at the Tigrien, and cavalry catching up with the remnants of Ban's forces. This splits up leadership and leaves them all ripe for getting picked off. In the end, we'll find out nothing this way. However, we're at a bit of an impasse: going after Ban's tracks won't work and will probably leave our forces wiped out, but returning to Euphraxes with all of our forces makes us look weak and indecisive, further diminishing the grunt's respect for us. Here's a hint:

You tell the men to set up camp first and instruct the scouts to check out the fort first. Grumbling, the soldiers did so, not too pleased that you had stopped them from making for the safety and warmth of the fort. As the scouts rode away, you explained to them your reasoning.

The Rus tribes are busy besieging our remaining fort in the region, and the men would much rather seek warmth in the Fort. While this risks leaving them as sitting ducks (or perhaps it leaves them exposed to some sort of danger within the Fort that we aren't aware of) I don't really see any viable alternative. 1) Makes Dio look like a bitch and is a stupid flip-flop move that defeats the purpose of coming here, 3) Won't work, and probably will fail and lead to the death of all these men. At the very least, having a force there allows them to keep an eye on the surrounding area. We only have 1,000 men, so we need to make sure that they're well-fortified.

My take on the situation is this: we go back to Fort Euphraxes immediately and put the fear of God in these squabbling officers. Have the main instigators of the tensions within the Fort executed immediately, both the ones who are senior officers of the old guard, and the ones we recently promoted. This will let everyone know we're in charge, but at the same time, it won't stir up resentment or accusations of favouritism. As for B or C, I am not willing to consider them. The madman is a good strategist and he'll tear apart the divided garrison at Euphraxes if we don't intervene. Just as bad is the possibility of Garsu returning and taking all the glory for beating back the madman. We don't have time to wait.

A2

C3

Flopped again to B2

 

[Baltika9]

To be fair, though, I'm pretty sure Ban is chasing the Madman(really, why would he head north, further into enemy territory, if he wanted to escape?), so following him with chariots most likely means we will catch up to him and he could be a very valuable asset, a man of his skills and reputation: which adds another facet to 2-3, as it will bolster his returning troops of one thousand to two thousand, giving us a much bigger strike force in the rear of the tribes, while at the same time not slowing the charioteers down so they can catch up to him.

However, leadership is a concern, what says these new rooks won't run off into the woods as soon as we leave them/won't get killed and not having a CO back at base will be catastrophic.

As for the floggings and executions, let's wait until we get back to the fort, we might not know the full story yet.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

A2

 

[Kipeci]

A3.

We definitely should have chosen the madman.

 

[Baltika9]

treave, I'm curious as to the officer's rank structure:is it the same as the NATO standart of ten officer and nine enlisted ranks.
Also, the training of new recruits and the presence of drill and concept of discipline.

 

[treave]

Nothing so complicated yet. You have the grunts, you have the squad officers each leading 10 grunts, then you have the regiment officers each commanding a hundred squads. Pretty rudimentary. Maybe in the future a better system can be developed. Expect drill and discipline to be more similar to Roman levels rather than medieval.

 

[Esquilax]

Guys, A3 is definitely a bad idea. I don't think that our cavalry are going to catch up to Ban's people in the fog and bad weather, and I believe that there is something from within the Fort that is worth investigating. It seems very strange to me that Ban and the remaining 1,000 or so men would just up and leave the Fort at a time that it wasn't being attacked and wasn't in much danger from the outside. I would bring them with us back to Fort Euphraxes, but I am not sure how the men would receive it, especially if they think we're weak for reacting to events on a dime like that. But still, it seems like Tigrien might be a death trap while going on the trail for Ban seems like a fruitless endeavour unless Dio is around to follow the trail and use his telepathy as radar.

On the other hand, treave, how easy will it be to get back into the Fort now that there's a siege going on? Will it not be a problem?

 

[TOME]

A2 is definitely a bad idea. Ban decided to abandon the fort for some reason. If you want to know why, why not go after him and ask? And of course our cavalry will catch up with them, the weather is most likely bad for them too. And our guys have the advantages of following their trail and they can travel longer per day since they are all on horses. It is not a matter of if, but when.

The whole point of coming here was to find Ban. Let's do that.

 

[treave]

I can't guarantee you'll get back into Fort Euphraxes successfully. Why did you have to ask this question?

 

[TOME]

How do the nomads siege forts? I'm under the assumption that they have a camp close to the fort and they just patrol around the fort so that no bigger group gets in or out. One man or a small group should be able to get in.

 

[Baltika9]

I can't guarantee you'll get back into Fort Euphraxes successfully. Why did you have to ask this question?

It was more about "How long will it take Dio to get back to the Fort alone?" I'm curious.

 

[treave]

Pick A to find out what happens.

 

[Esquilax]

I can't guarantee you'll get back into Fort Euphraxes successfully. Why did you have to ask this question?

Because going it alone and trying to sneak behind enemy lines through 70,000 barbarians doesn't seem likely. And this whole situation is just a ticking time bomb: inexperienced guy becomes general, a shitload of conflict between various officers... it's all one big powder keg. Is there a secret entrance or area that would allow us easy access back into the Fort? Anything like that?

Okay, I don't trust going back to the Fort alone. We might lose some face with the men, but when you get down to it, Dio is a fucking blind politician playing at war: we need backup and we need to return to the Fort safely. Then again, I am not sure how we'd manage to get ourselves and 1,000 men past enemy lines and into the Fort. This is just a very shitty situation. If we went with 25,000, we might be able to flank the barbarians or take them on, but with 1,000 dudes our options are extremely limited.

 

[Baltika9]

Yeah, something tells me A isn't the best option, it just screams"kneejerk."
I've the feeling we'll find important sruff in the fort. And Ban could take convincing to return, and it would double our men.

 

[Baltika9]

Also, these men second-guessing us is also a bad sign:if they feel like best buds with Dio, their pals at the fort do too, which means enforcing discipline may only increase the chance of mutiny.
Edit: flopping to B3

 

[Arpad]

C3

 

[Esquilax]

Tigranes Storyfag TOME Azira Kipeci

It's occurred to me that going back to Euphraxes might not be a great idea. Once we get there, we'd somehow have to sneak back into our own Fort thanks to the siege. Sounds like a decent idea in theory, but I am not confident in Dio's ability to do so considering that it's almost impossible to remain inconspicuous as a dude with a missing eye.

As far as I see it, I think we're getting way too invested in our role as general right now. Our initial goal here was to find Ban, but now we're getting bogged down. My take on the situation is that they ought to fend for themselves. There is no central command structure, and yes, this is very bad: but I don't see how we'd be able to go past enemy lines and into our own Fort. Then once we do get to our Fort, well, what do we do then? Maintaining order won't be easy even then. I believe that our best option would be to stay the course and either find Ban or to try and uncover the real truth of what's going on within the Fort. Remember that all was not as it seemed back in Skane, and I doubt that all is as it seems here either.

As far as the investigation option (B) I think that Ban either faced some sort of danger from within Fort Tigrien (perhaps something Gieloth-related? I have no fucking idea) or he learned something in there that compelled him to make the move further into Rus territory. Maybe investigating the Fort will give us clues as to where he went without having to track him into Rus territory, maybe someone wrote something down, left some sort of information. It seems to be a more attractive option than is presented. I would flop to B2 so that we can investigate the Fort as quickly as possible, I believe that there is some great danger and power there:

There was something wrong with the picture, and as you stared into the gloom, you realized that there were no lights on the walls. Despite the persistent fog, there were no torches or braziers lit. You tell the men to set up camp first and instruct the scouts to check out the fort first. Grumbling, the soldiers did so, not too pleased that you had stopped them from making for the safety and warmth of the fort. As the scouts rode away, you explained to them your reasoning.

After his encounter with Fenrir, Dio realizes that there is a lot more to the world than petty conspiracies of power. I believe that there is also more to Tigrien than just an empty Fort. Ban made way towards Rus territory for a reason, and I am certain that the place is also completely unlit for a reason as well. Strangely enough, in this place Dio's handicap wouldn't really hamper him that much - on the other hand, his telepathy would be very useful in getting his bearings.

That being said, I could see the benefits of C3 (Dio's telepathic abilities would be a big help in evading Rus ambushes), I just think that there is a lot more to this Fort and that we might be able to determine Ban's location by investigating it.