[LP CYOA] Epic

[newcomer]

C, a portable tentacle brothel

OBVIOUSLY AC

 

[Arpad]

AD

 

[Smashing Axe]

Regarding why AC is a good choice:

Sek is a near immortal and made a poorly worded deal and she should be punished for it. I imagine that while she won't like us much (inevitable at this point) it might garner some respect from her (we keep our word, but are not naive enough to just let an opponent walk away), and even if it doesn't we can probably force more info from her later on in exchange for her freedom (and she would have no reason not to follow though with it as we would have kept our word in the previous deal, she would just be more careful about how she worded her agreement). Seeing as how knowledge is our great weakness and she claimed to be more akin to a god of science that war, keeping her around for even a slight bit of extra milking seems to me like it would be a good idea as it might give us an advantage against our rivals in the long run.

Also in regards to Shulgi and Naram. I imagine Shulgi (when/if he returns) would be much more angry and bitter towards Naram then us (we ruined a few weeks of rule, Naram a century) and we should keep that in mind, and perhaps use it to have them after each other (or even help Shulgi deal with Naram, who undoubtedly hates our guts and probably will for some time).

Edit: Also keeping her around would allow for deep (and I mean very deep) emotional engagement were captor and captive fall in love!

From a narrative perspective I think I'd prefer her as a respectful rival/nemesis as opposed to unwilling companion. Carrying her around everywhere just doesn't seem very appealing, as opposed to setting her free for honour's sake and occasionally encountering her again in future where she acts as a wildcard, either aiding or hurting our efforts. It's good to throw an opponent to Naram in the mix, he may come to regret leaving her to us.

 

[Baltika9]

Fuckin' A, the bigger picture here is much, much bigger then I expected.

A. We need to know more about this shit now, and Sekhenun did say that the other Gieloth's knowledge is incomplete(might be a lie, yes, but not assuredly), so this way we go.

Still not decided on whether to choose D or C. I kinda want her to be on our side now, if not best friends, then just allies. I don't think that putting her head in a jam jar will accom-lish that, but if we let her go, then, in all likelihood she'll A) come after us to kill us, or B) we'll never see her.

Edit: Voting AD. Keeping her/it in a jar is definitely not the road to a healthy alliance.

 

[Smashing Axe]

I think she might be impressed at our honourableness, or whatever. We've been shown to be fairly unique in that we are not beholden to this "master". The fact that we let her go when we could have killed her could come to our advantage later when we find out more about the bigger picture. She could be an ally if we find the "masters" not to our liking.

 

[Zero Credibility]

AD

We definitely need more info about what the fuck is going on and if the voices won't help then maybe she can. What to do with her after depends on what we learn from her, so it's kind of pointless to decide immediately. D is the safest choice if she really could be a potential ally. She was acting kind of reasonable for a tentacle monster before and our situation might not be as white and black as it seems.

 

[CappenVarra]

So we managed to defeat Sekhenun AND troll HHR! Naram? Excellent

Since our dear voices have been keeping us in the dark, we'll go for the info and have a very stern talk with them afterwards. And hell, be honorable about it - Sekhenun was a worthy foe, and deserves no less. Even if that's really fucking naive and we have a good chance of getting mind-backstabbed - that's beside the point, a true Bronze Age hero scorns your womanly fear of risk.

There's obviously a large scale conflict of forces we don't understand going on, and even if one of the sides gave us superpowers (in exchange for being a tool) while the other one tried to tastelessly buttsecks us at every opportunity (because we're supposed to be a tool of their enemy) - we need to be able to make an informed decision before we blindly turn into a mindless fanboy of one side. And hell, why do we have to choose sides at all? Why can't we conquer them both and rule as only a wily immortal human could? And we'll need allies or at least respect from some players on both sides for that ...

AD

 

[Urist McLurker]

AD
For reasons listed already.

 

[treave]

AB – 1
AC – 4
AD – 8
BB – 3

Interesting. Let's move on with the choices, which will be counted separately. It's an early Christmas!

***

Chapter 3.11: Learning

"If I accept your deal, and let you go, what will you do? Will you continue preying on people and recreate your own cult?"

So concerned with these mortals, aren't you? There's no need to worry.

"The reason I came here in the first place was to stop your predations, you shetentacle. Of course this is a concern."

Hah. I can subsist on lesser beings than humans. Enough small talk. Do we have a deal, dog?

You hope you won't regret this. "We have a deal, then."

Then you are no dog. I am pleased.

***

1. What You Learn

Sekhenun's knowledge is considerable. As the eldest of the noble sisters of the House of Me'kras, she has the advantage of knowing the full purpose of the Gieloth's arrival here, as well as information regarding Gieloth infiltrators all over the world. There is much you can seek, but there is little time and she can only impart to you full knowledge on one topic.

A. You seek to know about the conflict between the Gieloth and your 'masters'. You want to find out the nature of this conflict, your role in it, and all else Sekhenun knows of this war you find yourselves in. She may be no historian, but the voices have been less than forthcoming and she knows far more than you do at this point.

B. You learn of the Gieloth's purpose here, and the extent of their capabilities. Why did they come? What do they want? What is the organization of their civilization? Do they have factions? How powerful are they? How long do they live? As Sekhenun is an accomplished researcher of her people, you will come to know more about the Gieloth than even most Gieloth themselves.

C. You ask about the current status of the entire world. The Gieloth are not present in just Egypt and Sumeria, but have spread wherever humans have gathered. Their information network is extremely well built and they appear to have a method of communicating over long distances. Sekhenun will pass on both what she knows, and also an ability to tap into those communications.

***

2. What You Gain

Your first meeting with Sekhenun did not go too well, though she was intrigued by your dedication to your comrades. Helping Naram against her did not exactly endear yourself to her, but she is extremely grateful that you have accepted her deal and committed to fulfilling your end of the deal by letting her go free. In good faith - and because she thinks being on your bad side seems to be a terrible idea - she offers to teach you one Gieloth power before she crawls off.

A. Sekhenun secretes a toxin that you gather in a vial. The toxin will be able to greatly slow down, or even stop, regeneration of immortals of your kind. There is only enough for a single dose, however. She also teaches you the theory behind producing it on your own, but it is extremely complex - you realize you would need to be a master of bodily manipulation to be able to create a gland that allows you to secrete it on your own.

B. Sekhenun weaves together some fragments of Pahnrath's knowledge and explains to you how to use that knowledge - manipulation of light. You can now absorb light from a limited area, allowing you to cloak yourself in darkness or temporarily blind others. There may be future applications of light manipulation as you develop this power.

C. Sekhenun teaches you a way to forge a weapon that would act as a living extension of yourself. She starts babbling about morphic resonance and other weird terminology which you don't understand. What you do understand is that as long as this weapon is with you, all your capabilities and powers are increased. As you grow in strength, so does its effect. She dubs it the Honourblade, in honour of your honourable conduct. You are not sure if you should really rip out your own rib to make it, though.

 

[XenomorphII]

AB

 

[Baltika9]

She dubs it the Honourblade, in honour of your honourable conduct.

A: while C is extremely tempting. Then again, do we really want to stop the tentacles? Do we need to? Maybe we can make contact with them instead and make alliances. But, then again we need to know the ultimate WHY of this "war."

As for powers, I don't know yet.

Questions, treavebro: the voices say that the tentacles don't have a gander, yet you repeatedly refer to Sekhenun as a female of the species, how come?
And since Pahnrath could use necromancy, is light manipulation a prelude to it?

Edit2: flipping the flop to BA.

 

[treave]

A: while C is extremely tempting. Then again, do we really want to stop the tentacles? Do we need to? Maybe we can make contact with them instead and make alliances. But, then again we need to know the ultimate WHY of this "war."

As for powers, I don't know yet.

Questions, treavebro: the voices say that the tentacles don't have a gander, yet you repeatedly refer to Sekhenun as a female of the species, how come?
And since Pahnrath could use necromancy, is light manipulation a prelude to it?

The voices aren't all-knowing, they do have a point in that you don't distinguish between a male and female tentacle, but from a certain perspective you can describe procreators as female. See: hermaphroditic lizards. Or the Asari. >_> Also, as the LP is written from Ean's point of view, and his (very strong) first impression of Sekhenun is as a she, the terminology stuck.

The Gieloth may have more than one power, though they focus on a few, just like Ean has focused on physical skills and telepathy. You can already access necromancy from the restoration set of powers.

edit: Regarding the blade, I would just like to say in advance that the effect doesn't multiply by you taking out a hundred ribs (because you cheat by growing them back) and making multiple Honourblades to strap on to your body. <_<

 

[Smashing Axe]

C,B - I can be persuaded towards A for the first part and C for the second part however. They're all very interesting. What makes me hesitant towards C is that we can loose the blade, but not the other powers.

A of the second part just doesn't strike me as very Ean, poison is a woman's weapon, whereas light manipulation would be badass and useful in the long run (As we develop, perhaps we can shoot laser beams from our eyes, or who knows?). The sword is also very cool, but I fear loosing it. If we are Conan, then we should loose our weapon every second month.

 

[Baltika9]

C,B - I can be persuaded towards A for the first part and C for the second part however. They're all very interesting. What makes me hesitant towards C is that we can loose the blade, but not the other powers.

Well, tapping those communications is pretty damn awesome, but what's the point if we don't know who our spiritual lieges, who have so graciously made us immortal to partake in their glorious war, are(If their names feature Marneus, Calgar, Roboute or Guillman, it will be xtremely entertaining) and what this conflict is and is about. For all we know, we may not need to exterminate the Gieloth, they may be the lesser of two galactic evils. They may not, but we still need to know our origins and those of the conflict.

 

[Baltika9]

And, uh, will we get to score with the hot scientist chick?

 

[CappenVarra]

BB

Let's ask her about her kind, and we'll decide for ourselves how we like them and how to interpret the conflict - after we also learn more about the "voices" side independently. If you know the sides well, understanding the conflict is much easier - while learning about the conflict from a biased source without knowing the biases is less useful.

Light manipulation sounds nice, and might lead to invisibility down the road. And since an invisible raging barbarian is the epitome of martial prowess, I have no choice but go for it

Btw, could this regeneration-stopping venom be used to permanently kill an immortal?

 

[treave]

Btw, could this regeneration-stopping venom be used to permanently kill an immortal?

If ingested and the deed done in a clearly fatal manner, in a certain window of time in which the toxin circulates around their body - which may vary depending on how strong their regeneration is, ranging from a few seconds to an hour, yes. Permadeath.

 

[CappenVarra]

Whoa, nice. Still, we're not really taking the body alteration route or playing an assassin, so pass I guess.

Have another brofist for the Honourblade. Not choosing it since I want Ean to retain his ability to spell correctly, and having your magicked-up rib around has disturbingly object-erotic vibes when combined with certain other bronze age stories...

 

[Esquilax]

While I would love to know more about the nature of this conflict, remember that Sukhenun is a scientist of her kind and not a historian. More than that, she's also an extremely biased source too. It's quite clear that we shouldn't trust these vague "masters", but that doesn't mean that we should seek information on an eons-long conflict from their mortal enemies either. If we find a historian of her kind, then maybe that person would be better equipped to give us a broader view of the situation.

If we want information from her, we should stick to her area of expertise, and that means B. C is tempting too, but I don't think we'll have much trouble finding Gieloth using our own wits for the time being.

As for the power choice, I am torn between B and C. C is great, but it relies upon an external source to augment Ean's might, so it's the high-risk, high-reward option. B however would be absolutely nasty in Ean's hands if we play it smart: once we find out how to block out our telepathic presence (we're close to that level already, I think), Ean will be able to strike from the shadows without warning at any time. Nobody will be able to see him until it's too late.

Even in the thick of combat light manipulation is an amazing ability - blinding someone momentarily will give Ean just enough time to launch a vicious flurry against them. So yeah, the power is very versatile.

VOTING BB

VOTING BC

 

[Kipeci]

CC

First choice is an obvious C; it gives us the ability to tap into Gieloth communications and learn their positions, which is great because we mostly get powers through beating them up. If not C, then we should go with B, as it's stupid to ask for information we could get from talking to the spirits in our head as in A.

Also, there's nothing whatsoever about losing the blade
meaning it's gone forever. We could just forge another one, as she's teaching us how to do that! I could settle for the second B, though I think a weapon that enhances ALL of ou powers is better than shifting light, as we've never put much into non mind rape magic. Second A is bad though, we're not Naram and if we goof it up, it's a long, long time until we could get any of that venom back.

 

[Arpad]

CC

 

[Smashing Axe]

Also, there's nothing whatsoever about losing the blade
meaning it's gone forever. We could just forge another one, as she's teaching us how to do that! I could settle for the second B, though I think a weapon that enhances ALL of ou powers is better than shifting light, as we've never put much into non mind rape magic. Second A is bad though, we're not Naram and if we goof it up, it's a long, long time until we could get any of that venom back.

It'd be good to get some clarification treave, as if we can manufacture new blades, I'd be up for C. Do we permanently loose a rib if we choose C, btw?

 

[Zero Credibility]

BC

First choice B because that's Sekhenun's expertise. A would give us only a biased and shallow history lesson. C is tempting, but we don't really need to tap into Gieloth communications to learn where they are - they haven't exactly been subtle so far.

Second choice C because a weapon that enhances our powers is useful as hell - it can boost all of our powers, even the ones we haven't bothered to develop yet, like shapeshifting or regeneration (plus it seems fitting for a soldier background). B is also nice, but C is better. A is not really useful for us at this point.

 

[treave]

You can, but the effect does not stack. Addressed this in an edit to my post right before yours. Losing one has its drawbacks, however... Sekhenun herself doesn't know what since it's an experimental weapon. Suffice to say, you can make more, but metaknowledge tips here strongly suggest you don't make it a habit of losing a piece of yourself.

I honestly intended 1C to be more of a way for you use them as your intelligence network and find out what is going on all over the world. But you guys have a great interpretation of the choice too.

 

[Baltika9]

Flipped my flop.