[LP CYOA] Epic

[treave]

To address the speculations: I suppose either Adrahasis is lying, or he knows something you don't. Or perhaps even both! It all boils down to the type of risk you want to take. Risk the CF, risk yourself, or risk not knowing what he was going to say. Which could turn out to be important to him but not to you. It's all about risk assessment.

 

[Baltika9]

I don't think Adrahanis would say that he can calm the Emperor without actually being able to do it. Us being on the same ship as him should be enough incentive to actually do it, irregardless of his original intentions.
Unless they blast our shuttle out of the sky. Then we're really fucked.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

C

 

[Kayerts]

Maybe I'm overestimating Adrahasis, and maybe Bitchin' Tactic #2 is "Ask your enemies to stop fighting back! Nicely!" But I suspect that he's a good enough commander that if all he wanted was to take us out, he could probably find a way to make 55,000:1 odds work without risking a personal confrontation with The Destroyer.

As far as motive, I would guess it has something to do with why Marduk is so obsessed with Earth in the first place. Any guesses there? It seems unlikely that he wanted to get his bone on with Selkhet that badly. (Also, Selkhet doesn't even exist anymore, as such.) If the Star League realized the crusade left his empire wide open to an attack on the imperial core worlds, he probably did, too. (Or at the very least, Adrahasis did.) And he decided it was worth the risk. My guess would be that there's something on Earth, possibly something he stowed there before his sudden departure, that he requires in order to fulfill some Marduk Victory Condition.

Voting A for now.

 

[Azira]

Bah, start up another 40K LP we can royally mess up, will ya?

 

[Azira]

 

[Tigranes]

From Adrahasis' perspective, unless he has some sort of diehard loyalty to the Emperor for some philosophical-metaphysical reason, he would much prefer to play us off against one another, or even for Senya to emerge victorious. Marduk isn't an exactly likeable fellow. The question is just how much damage we've done to the Emperor, and therefore, how much we've actually shifted the balance of power to make Adrahasis rethink things...

On the whole though, I'm sticking with A: I'm convinced that what Marduk wants is his own personal victory condition that involves some metaphysical rupture in the universal state of affairs, and thus Adrahasis is probably not quite so keen. If he does fully turncoat, he might be more useful remaining as their tactician, anyway.

 

[TOME]

On the whole though, I'm sticking with A: I'm convinced that what Marduk wants is his own personal victory condition that involves some metaphysical rupture in the universal state of affairs, and thus Adrahasis is probably not quite so keen.

If it is that important to him, he will reach out to us again. C.

 

[Baltika9]

Tally so far:
A-3
B-5
C-3

If it is that important to him, he will reach out to us again. C.

Before or after he won't have enough forces to fight the Star League?

My problem with A is that we're endangering the CF: if it is destroyed, we lose; if Senya gets captured, we still have a chance and may even pull off some magnificent bastardry while on the ship.

Or eaten, but there's always a risk.

 

[Esquilax]

If it is that important to him, he will reach out to us again. C.

How? I assume that he wants to speak to us while Marduk is toast, because when the Emperor returns again, Adrahasis won't be able to plot and maneuver again.

 

[Anabanana]

On the whole though, I'm sticking with A: I'm convinced that what Marduk wants is his own personal victory condition that involves some metaphysical rupture in the universal state of affairs, and thus Adrahasis is probably not quite so keen.

If it is that important to him, he will reach out to us again. C.

He did say that this negotiation will be time-sensitive though. EDIT: Yeah what Esquilax said.

I... am still going with A over B for now just because I don't want to be stuck with no way to leave. I'm not so sure that they'll capture us alive... I have a feeling that Marduk will be so pissed he'll just kill everyone, when he revives.

 

[TOME]

Why wouldn't he be able to plot and maneuver? He is supposed to be the brains behind the Empire. I'm sure he could sent a ship to us carrying a message or something.

 

[Baltika9]

I... am still going with A over B for now just because I don't want to be stuck with no way to leave. I'm not so sure that they'll capture us alive... I have a feeling that Marduk will be so pissed he'll just kill everyone, when he revives.

There's this

Possibly you could hitch a ride back to Earth on their ship. Or commandeer a cruiser, if things go sour. I'm sure there's some naive, impressionable immortal maidens of war that you could gently persuade.

And I don't think he'll be annihilating his whole fleet. Got it, he's a megalomaniac, but doing that is just , you don't become an Emperor of whole star systems by being one.

And, yeah, if this is a trap, they'll definitely want Senya alive for intel. A man (boy?) like Adrahanis won't pass on a chance like that, IF this is a trap.

 

[Kayerts]

Cool things about Earth:

It used to be the forefront of "the war," according to Sek. This is presumably why Vajra's pieces were on it to begin with.
It was elevated to the status of a "test world" by the Masters sometime during Ean's riftwalking adventures.
It popped up in a different part of the galaxy after Ean killed Naram-Master.
The Gieloth formed a tree on it, prior to some asshole coming along and eating it.

Marduk began his metamorphosis into the Devourer when he found some artifact (probably in Mesopotamia) that allowed him to eat other beings. Maybe he knows of some other artifact he left behind? Or maybe his real goal was to consume the essence of Anbar-Shi.

 

[Esquilax]

It used to be the forefront of "the war," according to Sek. This is presumably why Vajra's pieces were on it to begin with.

Yes, until the Gieloth managed to get hold of it and disassemble it.

It was elevated to the status of a "test world" by the Masters sometime during Ean's riftwalking adventures.

Sorta. I think it became a test world the moment the rift in Olympus was created. So, Chapter 6 and the time the Shin'ari Empire was first created.

It popped up in a different part of the galaxy after Ean killed Naram-Master.
The Gieloth formed a tree on it, prior to some asshole coming along and eating it.

Vajra is tough to keep track of. When Zeus was trying to teleport back to Master HQ with only two pieces of Vajra and the barely living Marduk devoured him. Ean's piece of Vajra was taken from him by a Master during riftwalking. I'm assuming that somewhere in the intervening time, Marduk managed to steal the final piece from them.

Marduk began his metamorphosis into the Devourer when he found some artifact (probably in Mesopotamia) that allowed him to eat other beings. Maybe he knows of some other artifact he left behind? Or maybe his real goal was to consume the essence of Anbar-Shi.

He found that artifact in the Indus Valley, which is why he turned his ambitions eastward after Ean stopped his army at Tjaru. But it's very possible that he left something in Earth that he needs, which is why it's crucial we take the chance to talk to Adrahasis. What I'm really looking for though, is a permanent way to snuff Marduk - the motherfucker has more lives than Rasputin.

 

[Kayerts]

Vajra is tough to keep track of. When Zeus was trying to teleport back to Master HQ with only two pieces of Vajra and the barely living Marduk devoured him. Ean's piece of Vajra was taken from him by a Master during riftwalking. I'm assuming that somewhere in the intervening time, Marduk managed to steal the final piece from them.

Nah, Marduk only has two pieces. The League has the other piece (presumably, the one they lifted from Ean):

She sighs. “I can’t say everything, but Project V involves a weapon that the League is working on. It will end the war with our victory, and requires pieces of an artifact from our gods. We have been bestowed one piece [...]

 

[Jester]

as Kayerts said two... still what is exact location of last piece? I dont recall anyone telling us that and its keep bugging me.

as for vote i will go with A balance of risk and gain.

I assume drake need to eat smt. His self repair protocols started to lag and that is why tactician think he got time. Lucky that we throw him into Marduk equivalent of salad bar.
B would be interesting and i have feeling that it somehow become insanely awesome, but i am afraid of going full retard.

 

[Storyfag]

Voting A.

Preserving the CF is all fine and dandy, but the thing's useless without Senya to operate the weapon systems. I can see it falling into enemy hands much easily if we're not on board.

 

[TOME]

If I'm not mistaken, A and B are tied while C is 2 votes behind. So if there are no new votes for C or flops, I'm flopping to A.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Hey, bros, if eating a small black hole made out of a few hundred ships gives Marduk the ability to shoot a moon destroying energy beam, I wonder what eating one made of Ur-frick'n-anus is going to do?!

Seriously, Bel'A is delaying us in A so the CF can be destroyed by Marduk when he wakes and he's probably wanting us to meet with him in B so he'll have a prisoner to offer Marduk to calm him and keep him from devouring his own fleet. Either way, Bel'A wins.

He's desperate. Just look at the lies and threats he squeezed into the one communication.

1. He cannot calm Marduk with anything other than our corpse. How's he gonna do it? Is he magic now? If he had mind control powers strong enough to do that, he'd have used them on us by now.
2. Deployed 10,000 ships all around the solar system? In the 10 minutes we we fought Marduk? Get real. Why send a whole 1/5 of his remaining fleet away while they are clearly losing? And why should that scare us? We just destroyed 50000 easily and for all he knows WE were lying about only having one of these CFs.

I propose we ditch the fucker and let Marduk tear his head off, along with the heads of half the fleet before lumbering his fat dragon ass toward earth. Then Ean can devour the devourer - or we can consult with Sek on a way to kill Marduk ourselves.

Flopping back to C.

He found that artifact in the Indus Valley, which is why he turned his ambitions eastward after Ean stopped his army at Tjaru. But it's very possible that he left something in Earth that he needs, which is why it's crucial we take the chance to talk to Adrahasis. What I'm really looking for though, is a permanent way to snuff Marduk - the motherfucker has more lives than Rasputin.

Ean could do it. He has both the hunger and the power of the tree. treave practically revealed it was possible by giving us a sneak peak of what would have happened had we kept the quantum computer and assassinated Marduk. We just have to delay Marduk a little longer.

 

[Anabanana]

Did we get an estimate of how long it'll take for us to get Ean back?

 

[treave]

A - 6
B - 4
C - 4

A wins.

Remember way back when we talked about immortals being able to manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum? And it could possibly have been used for invisibility? I wonder if there are any immortals that mastered the art of cloaking.

Also, remember how Adrahasis told you he only had two cruisers when in reality he had more than twenty?

 

[Baltika9]

So, what happens in B? We die?

 

[ScubaV]

Ruh roh, this doesn't sound good. A voters dun goofed?

 

[treave]

With B, you just get more of an infodump than in A (fleshing out the Empire more fully), at the cost of being held hostage. It stands to reason that if you spend time with them you learn more about them. Well, not to worry, A isn't a dead end. There are ways out of the pickle jar.