[LP CYOA] Epic

I'm already writing the update for C3. >_>'

edit: By the way, Imperial boots can be worn by non-Imperials.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

Chapter 7.19: Ambush, Campfire and the Young Soldier

The trap was sprung the moment your men made contact. You had stayed a safe distance away and watched while the first of your cavalry was felled by a surprise spear. The tribesmen had probably looted Fort Tigrien for the armor and boots. Before you could think of running away, however, war cries resounded from the foggy plains around you. A rain of arrows fell all around you, striking men and horse alike. Before you knew it, you were surrounded. Despite your aspirations for command, nothing could have prepared you for the messy reality of an actual melee. In the midst of shouts and cries and dying men, the intense emotions of fear and panic emanating from your men overwhelmed your mind, leaving you gaping with your sword hanging loosely from your hand. In the next instant, you are pulled off your horse, and a burst of darkness engulfs your sight.

***

The first thing you see when you wake is the last thing you expected to see. Ban is huddled in front of a fire, staring into its flickering red glow.

“I've been looking for you, Ban.” you groan, trying to get up.

“You shouldn't have.”

His voice was different. It was colder... older. You are not sure if it was the harsh light of the fire, but his features were gaunt and his eyes haunted.

“What happened? I was in a midst of a battle and...”

“I managed to get there in time to save you. The rest... well, it was too late.”

“You have my thanks, then. What are you doing out here? Where is the rest of the army?”

“Dead.”

You frown. Ban had been with some of the best fighting men the Imperial Army had to offer.

“Were you attacked by the tribes?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“What else is there out on these steppes that could defeat 30,000 men of the Imperial Army?” Your voice was full of disbelief, though inwardly you wonder if it wasn't something of a less mundane nature. Still, a force that could utterly destroy 30 regiments was not to be dismissed. Ban reached by his side and brought out a long, thin object wrapped in cloth. A weird sensation filled your body. It was part dread, part anticipation. As Ban unwrapped the object, you saw that it was a sheathed sword, slightly curved in the current Assyro-Babylonian fashion. Though it looked like a normal sword, there was just something a bit off about it that you could not put your finger on.

“This.”

“I don't get you, Ban.”

“I was given this to use.”

As he drew the sword from its scabbard, the night seemed to grow even more hushed. Even the crackling sound of the flames died down; the ring of the blade as it was drawn from its scabbard somehow drew in all the sound in the world, swallowing all into silence. The metal of the blade was dark, glinting subtly in the fire's light. Though it appeared to blaze as fiercely as ever, you realize that you could not feel its warmth. As Ban stared at it, his eyes mirrored the gleam of the sword. You had a sudden urge to grab it from him, but something told you that it would not be the wisest of ideas.

“I was given this to awaken it.” whispered Ban.

You laugh nervously. “What's the story behind that sword?”

He shrugged, his eyes still on the sword. “Orders from above.” He tittered, slightly. It was a sound you had never heard him make before, and you fear that he might have gone off the rails just like the man he pursued. “They did not tell me how to do it, but that accursed madman showed me how. He laughed and he disappeared.” His voice dropped low, growling in anger. With a grunt, he sheathed the sword. Colour seemed to come back into the world, the warmth of the fire soothing your skin again.

Ban ran his fingers through his tangled, dirty hair. Now he just looked tired, but he seemed to have brightened up compared to before he drew the sword. You raise your hand outwards, curious about the sword. "It's an interesting blade. Do you think you could let me have a look at it?" He did not reply, but the dark scowl - almost murderous, if you felt it correctly - that you got in return told you the answer.

“At any rate, I carried out my orders. Now I'm to return this to the capital,” Ban sighed, shaking the sword in the air. “I don't want to think of anything else. Get some rest, Dio. Tomorrow we will stop by Tigrien, then we will head for Euphraxes.”

“Ah, there is a slight problem there,” you groan. “About seventy thousand tribesmen are besieging Fort Euphraxes.”

Ban sighs, “If that's the case, we will head directly for the Hittite border.”

“Wait, you aren't going to aid the fort?”

He shook his head. “I'm done. The fort's done. We won't get there in time to do anything, and even if we did, there's not enough of us to make a difference. Well...” It seemed as if he was going to say something, but he stopped there and shook his head again, deciding not to say what he thought. “No, it won't make a difference.” You could feel that there was something he could do to make a difference, which he is not telling you.

You wonder what Ban had been through, to change him so much. Certainly this wasn't the same youth you knew just a scant few months ago.

***

A. You insist on persuading Ban to try and rescue Fort Euphraxes, reminding him of the favours he owes you. The ramifications of a fort with the remnants of the expedition falling would be quite severe, not to mention your reputation is on the line here. You had just led your men into an ambush, and before that you had left Fort Euphraxes in somewhat of a messy predicament. This would not help your name when you return to the capital, not to mention that Garsu might still be alive and beginning to spin a tale of your incompetence.

B. You head towards Imperial lands with Ban, who seeks to return the sword. Something about the sword intrigues you greatly, however, and you sense that you could probably gain a great deal of power if you make it yours. It is clear he won't give it to you, so you must wait till his guard is down before you take it. Your experiences have taught you that political power is transient and the only power you can count on is your own. If you manage to do it quickly, you could even have time to return to Fort Euphraxes yourself to save the day.

C. With or without Ban, you are going back to Fort Euphraxes. You do not know how you are going to pull it off, but you are sure you will find a way to triumph once you reach there. You allow Ban to go on his way while you travel back to fix your mistakes.

D. The sword sounds like a bad idea to you, but it could be another way for you to gain glory. Ban being the way he is, you are sure you can manage to claim partial credit for 'escorting' him back to Ankida. At the very least this is the easiest way to salvage something from this disastrous Rus adventure.

 

The ringsword of power, huh?

I don't think giving the sword to an unknown figure is a good idea, but then it could be one of our old bros.

 

well if this was a fully awakened amber-shi then he shouldn't have been able to sheath it until it tasted blood so its either a different sword or its not fully awakened A

 

A. If the fort falls and the rest die, it would be devastating to the Empire's morale, cult of Jannik and the undead are problems enough. And if Ban should meet an "accident" and Dii acquire the sword, well, that would be a pleasant surprise.Open to flop.

 

No, I think that it's Anbar-Shi. How do you explain the sword fucking with Ban's head like that? It definitely seems to have a One Ring/Frostmourne effect on Ban, which would make sense because Ean used that sword to feed in his stead. Anbar-Shi accumulated a lot of corruption in that time, and it isn't unreasonable at all to assume that the sword became sentient in the 3,000 years since Ean's absence. I think that the sword's will and its corruption are what's affecting Ban. I don't think that the madman was affected by it because I believe he knew exactly what it was and he never used the blade personally.

We definitely should have investigated the Fort, but I'll try to reconstruct events based on my own speculation:

Ban is traumatized. This is both because of the Sword's influence on him, and because of what he did with it.

Ban started off at Fort Nileia, which was taken by the madman. Somewhere on his journey from Nileaia to Tigrien, he had an encounter with the madman, who gave him Anbar-Shi. Ban ended up inadvertently unleashing some of its power a la Tjaru and this resulted in him killing all of his fellow soldiers.

treave, what sort of emotions can Dio detect from Ban? Any feelings of guilt? The madman is misdirecting both us and Ban, but I'm not sure how and in what way he intends to use the sword against us. One thing's for sure: We cannot let the sword fall into the hands of the Imperial family. They are deeply involved in the Ean affair, and we can't let them have it. Ean lies sleeping in New Athens, and I believe that Anbar-Shi is the key to awakening him. Remember that the madman does not know that Dio is aware of Ean's resting place, so I believe we should use that to our advantage.

I want to convince Ban to save the garrison because I believe that using the sword ourselves is a bad idea - Dio's mind must be his own. However, recounting all the favours he owes us isn't really a great way of going about it considering he just saved our lives. The other problem here is that the madman will have likely prepared for this possibility as well, and I have no idea what his game is here.

A

 

A

We need to warn Runikylos of the effects of this sword.

 

Ban is a bit of a mess right now. You can sense that he is emotionally unstable, but you can't pick out any one specific emotion.

Option A is the way it is because that's the only way to successfully convince Ban to go to Euphraxes; any other way and he'll be returning to Ankida. Also I understand some of you might not want the sword, so in light of that I'm offering new C and D choices.

 

Esquilax, I'm on mobile, so no long quotes, but your interpretation is incorrect: Ban was given the sword by the Brass and was ordered to awaken it. The madman showed him how to.As for his instability:remember when the sword r00fle'd at Ean?Poor bastard.

 

It is the One Ri- oh, fine, Baltika9.

There's a ton of stuff here that's fishy - 'orders from above', we might presume that it was the Prince or thereabouts that gave him the sword, but if the sword was so important, why was the Prince not particularly keen to rescue Ban? I don't think we can make any assumptions about who actually gave the sword to Ban, who he's taking it back to, etc.

Our trips abroad have so far been pretty disastrous with little gain; I suppose we're to decide whether to stick to the political game and salvage what we can, or abandon it altogether and go for broke. The new options are odd, though - I just don't see how we'd get anywhere with C, since we've just proven that we freeze up in a real melee, the troops inside are disorganized and we don't exactly have great respect or reputation. So I guess it's political (A), go for broke (B) or Run Away! (D)

 

I think A is more than political:we're up north with Ban and the Madman. If we play this right and get to work Dio's magic on them, we may be able to persuade them to go straight to Iceland via Baltic.

Since Ban has Anbar'Shi an' shit, we may suceed too.

 

No, this has a price too. I don't think that things will be as simple as Ban just using a superweapon to take out the Rus army and saving the day - things are never that clean. Ean using Anbar-Shi to cause an earthquake at Tjaru carried a hefty price, so will this. treave, is Ban the heroic type, like Ean? I know that he's naive, but I don't know much about him beyond that. I'm just trying to gauge whether using Anbar-Shi is going to cost him his life - I'm curious if he knows that using the sword will result in a heroic sacrifice. Perhaps that's why he seems reluctant to go with any alternatives.

I actually think that the madman has rigged the odds in his favour. He told Ban how to awaken the blade, but I believe that the madman only told him only one way of reawakening it. I think that this is a trick: why would he tell Ban anything that wouldn't benefit himself?

I believe there is another alternative option here as well:

Go with Ban towards the Hittite border. At first opportunity, take the blade from him. Once it's ours, abandon Euphraxes and make way to New Athens toward the vault where Ean resides. Let's take a look at what the Madman believes:

The madman's goal is to make physical contact with the Emperor. I am speculating heavily here, but here goes: I believe that the madman's "technique" that he taught Ban is simply a ruse that will allow him to occupy Ean's body. Maybe it will allow him to put some of his own essence into the blade so that when the blade touches the Emperor, it is he who ends up getting all of Ean's powers.

 

Heroic type? Yeah, probably, if the situation calls for it.

 

I think it is safest if Ban holds the sword for now. Madman could have taken it and he didn't, someone high in the chain of command had it but they gave it away, even Ban wants to return it.

A.

Baseless speculations: Ean's body returned some hundred years ago and was found by Sek. She came up with a plan to use Anbar-Shi to restore Ean to full health, problem was that the sword corrupts it's user and it would have to be fed by a tremendous amount of life forces. So she used Ean's flesh to create mini-immortals. Anyone of them could use Anbar-Shi and the rest of them would act life force batteries that are being recharged all the time through hardship and battle. Oh wait, that was Baldur's Gate and they didn't have tentacles.

 

This! Very much.

But if that's not an option, I'll stick with A.

 

Vote for B if you want to steal the sword.

 

To be fair,I think TOME is right and B will give us a fair shot at bringing back Ean.

However,the Rus tribes are what's holding me back.We haven't resolved any major issue,only delayed them at best.If we ignore this, it will just become a problem later.

 

You know, with madness so prevalent among Ean's "children," I wonder if somewhere out there in Wallachia lives a batshit insane adoptee to the royal line, believing he needs blood to survive?

 

Chapter 7.20: Massacre at Fort Euphraxes

"The Empire needs your help at Euphraxes. Ban, you're the only one who can save them."

"I have orders to return the sword once it awakens."

"Ban, listen to me. You have your orders, yes, but you must do the right thing here." Of course, the right thing was to salvage your reputation somehow, and Ban was the only way you could do that now. "The lives of 30,000 men depend on you."

"The lives of 30,000 men depended on me." he said, blankly.

"Ban, for the Emperor's sake, just listen to me. Have I guided you wrong so far? Have I lied to you about anything? I am right on this one, and you know it." You have no choice but to pressure him, pushing him into deciding your way. "Are you going back to Mirsani and tell her that you let a full quarter of the Imperial Army die to some violent barbarians because one of your superiors wanted you to return his silly sword? It's just a useless blade -"

"It's not, Dio."

"Well, in the greater scheme of things, it isn't!" You weren't too sure about that yourself - the one thing you were certain about was that you could probably put it to better use than Ban... in the greater scheme of things.

"Dio, I... I don't know..."

He looked confused now, like the young man he really is. You press your advantage.

"You are the best soldier in the army. I know that... everyone knows that. I can't be like you, or else I'd already be at Euphraxes myself. This is something only you can do. Ban, orders are orders, yes, but what do you really serve? The oath of the Imperial army is to the precepts of the Empire and to the Imperial family, who are the living embodiment of those principles."

"My mission with the sword was an Imperial decree. I serve the Imperial family" Ban whispers. It came only as a slight surprise, but you do not falter.

"So what? Does it matter if the Emperor himself wants the sword back immediately? Think, Ban. You are only delaying its return to save the lives of tens of thousands of his loyal men. Any good ruler would do just about anything to ensure the safety of his loyal subjects, and all the Emperors who have ruled by the Empire's precepts are good rulers. Are you implying that our Imperial family are not good or just?" Ban kept silent, looking away.

"I have done so much for you so far-"

"I know that!" he growls, but you do not miss a beat. "So if I can ask for a favour in return, I ask only this. Save the men in Fort Euphraxes. They are your brothers in arms." You get on your knees, preparing to prostrate yourself before him. "I have never asked you for anything before this. My friendship was always given freely, without asking for recompense. But if there's one thing that I want you to do, as a friend of mine..."

"Dio, that's enough. I'll do it." Ban spoke in resignation. "I'll help you, so that's enough."

As you smile at him, you see that his face remains solemn. "You are my friend, right?" he asks. You nod firmly. "Till the end of time, Ban."

"This sword... I can't lose it. But if I go into battle with it, I might lose myself. If that happens... can you take care of it?"

You nod again. "Leave it to me." He heaves a sigh of relief. "I knew I could trust you, Dio." You give him a grin. "So, what next, Ban? We need to go back to Tigrien to gather the men still there..."

"There will be no need," Ban says with a slight smile on his lips. "Another thousand men would do nothing. You said it yourself; this is something only I can do. I alone am enough. Put your trust in me to the end."

***

The nomadic tribesmen had set up encampments scattered around the fort with no real organization. The fog had cleared, allowing you sufficient vision of the entire area. You had only ever seen so many men and horses gathered in one place during festivals in Ankida. You and Ban were perched on a nearby hill, having disposed of several sentries on your way. "There, you see?" Ban pointed to a large black banner fluttering above one of the largest camps.

"The Madman of Anatolia is here. That is his standard - the tribesmen use none." His teeth gleamed in a feral grin as he unsheathed the sword he had been tasked with awakening. As before, when he drew it the world seemed to go still and silent, the ring of metal on sheath absorbing all noise. "Wait, you're going into that alone? Ban-"

Your words go unheard, as he leaps into action.

You had never seen anyone move that fast. Within minutes alarms had been raised, but fire had somehow exploded over the first camp Ban had hit. Invisible waves seemed to surge forth from his wake, tossing aside man and horse alike. As time ticked away, more and more of the tribal encampments became nothing more than smouldering wreckages. It was not long before you saw men trickling away from the camps, attempting to flee Ban's whirlwind of destruction. Horns were blown as the tribal leaders tried to rally their troops, but the continued screams of dying men told you that it was of no use.

"How am I supposed to stop that?" you murmur to yourself.

As the battle against one men reaches the camp where the Madman was purported to be, a dark shadow, jet black even in the sunlight, enveloped the area. At the same time, the gates of the fort opened up. It seems as if the defenders had decided to sally forth, encouraged by the havoc wreaked upon their besiegers. They charged into the fray, attempting to meet up with Ban - and began to scream in the same way their tribal enemies had. Imperial soldiers were hurled into the air as if they were ragdolls.

Had Ban lost control?

At the same time, the shadow faded, and you spotted a lone man riding away from the carnage. It could be the Madman, but you were not entirely certain.

***

A. Your promise to Ban notwithstanding, you cannot let him cut down his own allies. You rush to stop him before the damage becomes too deep to repair, though you are not sure if you are actually capable of stopping him in his tracks.

B. Capturing the madman now and allowing Ban to slaughter Imperial men would both increase your stature and decrease his at the same time. You could not wish for a better scenario - you intercept the fleeing man.

 

Try A.

As much as it might be great for us to increase our stature with B, I can't help but feel that this scene is giving us ample reasons for why we should try to avoid pissing off Ban. Additionally, I'm not even sure if we could manage to capture the Madman by ourselves.

 

A- with the caveat that if Dio dies, his last act will be to tell Ban about Ean being in Iceland, how to awaken him, guilt trip him into going to awaken Ean immediately, the Imperial family's involvement, Fenrir the orphanage and Aodh. In that order.
P.S.: the whole exchange was masterful, but this:

treave, you are magnificent. Thank you for this LP. It is a real pity we can't afford to indulge in Dio bastardry, because we simply have more important shit to do. Hell, if he survives this, I'd even be tempted LP him myself were it possible. Not Doomrider/Mega Space Cthulhu , and certainly not Ean, but I'll be damned if this isn't entertaining.

 

A because I really can't see B ending up well. If Ban truly loses control then there will be greater catastrophes here, if Ban gets his mind back then he will be out for our blood. We have to try our best, insofar as it doesn't (hopefully) get us sliced up.

 

A.

 

Jesus Christ, Dio is a master of taking victory from the jaws of defeat (though it remains to be seen whether or not this will be a victory). First he manages to cover up his own greedy powerplay by killing his own Watchers, then he manages to parley with Fenrir after a ballsy gamble against Dagrun's cultists, now he just might come out on top after a series of fuck-ups at playing at general. It's hard not to admire Dio's ability to improvise and his sheer ballsiness under pressure.

Anyways, I feel like you guys might be rationalizing in favour of A too much because B is the asshole choice. Are you voting for A because it's the best option or because it's the option that Ean would be more likely to take? Be honest here.

Not sure if he can be reasoned with in his state, and with his current power, he'll chop Dio's head off before he gets a single word in edgewise.

The updates have hinted that he's already flipped out before, and I'm not sure how Dio's intervention would make Ban snap out of his battle frenzy. Short of taking the blade from him (good fucking luck) how do we intend to talk him down? But on the other hand, do we really need the madman at this point? After all, we already know where Ean resides, and we came here to recruit Ban for a trip to New Athens anyways. Perhaps the knowledge of how to awaken the sword himself would be another asset.

Going toe to toe with the madman is a far better prospect than trying to take on a man who single-handedly killed off 70,000 barbarians.

Anyways, this is a very tough choice. I can't help but wonder if this isn't an outcome that the madman anticipated and is prepared for.

Maybe once he comes back to reality, he'll be vulnerable.