[LP CYOA] Epic

[Esquilax]

I'm against the "let's tie people to stakes" idea. First, it's pretty out-of-character for Ean at this point, and I'm not convinced it'll be all that effective. Their scouts aren't going to find a damn thing near the fortress - I'd prefer for them to return to their superiors convinced that the area is safe. If our trap manages to take out a few thousand tomorrow, the rotting corpses littering the moat will be terrifying enough to any subsequent attackers.

Helly: That's paranoid, Kharun is who he says he is. ffs, Naram and Shulgi have better things to do than follow us around for years and take part in a difficult fight against the Gieloth tomorrow.

 

[Helly]

Well technically, we don't know that guy, like at all. Even if he is no shape-changed immortal, he might be some Gieloth/Babylonian spy or something. I just wanna know if we detected anything out or the ordinary while hugging the guy, nothing more. Better safe than sorry, and it doesn't cost us anything.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I just had an image of Ean the friendly, if paranoid, immortal who runs around hugging strangers at random.

If he were Gieloth we'd sense it and, no, neither Shulgi nor Naram would have any reason to want to participate in a battle where victory would gain them nothing and defeat would see them shat out the ugly end of whatever Gieloth tranny happens to be in charge of the Babylonian horde.

edit: but hey, let's hug the guy if you want. you're right we don't know anything about him.
edit2: or just shake hands w him maybe...

 

[Baltika9]

Wouldn't a handshake suffice?

 

[Esquilax]

God this is so fucking stupid.

Edit: Couldn't we offer him a handjob? He won't suspect a thing.

 

[Baltika9]

God this is so fucking stupid.

 

[Helly]

Well at least we need to brofist the guy. If that's enough to read its mind we can make that the official military salute

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Couldn't we offer him a handjob? He won't suspect a thing.

That's just crazy enough to work!

(FYI, I just agreed (edit: areed to shake his hand. not to the handjob. no, treave. no.) because I figured that if C wins and we don't get to find out much about the character, then the next best thing would be to learn about him through telepathy. Just the reader in me wanting the character fleshed out a bit is all. I really don't think he's an agent or anything.)

 

[treave]

Kharun is young and confident in himself the way many strong, young men are. A bit like a modern jock. He's not stupid, but he is a bit too rash - the sort of recklessness that will be tempered with age if he survives to see too many of his friends die on the battlefield. There's not much backstory to tell, he's just one of the better warriors from a city steeped in military tradition. Not everyone has a tragic tale, or even an interesting one.

No he's not romanceable.

B - 7
C - 9
D - 1

Solo sneaking mission coming up.

 

[newcomer]

No he's not romanceable.

He is; we only need to shapeshift into female

 

[treave]

Chapter 3.19: Solitary Scout

Though Kharun was surprised - and impressed - by your insistence on scouting by yourself, Netzi did not react in anyway. "Well, let's hope you get a good load of info back for us." he says. You nod. The man, once almost as brash as Kharun himself, had mellowed out in his years serving you. Your own seemingly reckless actions have ceased to surprise him long ago. Wrapping yourself up in a dirty, stained cloak, you set out.

***

Once you were out of sight, you closed your eyes and let your body flow. You haven't taken on your original form for a few years, but it was as easy as slipping back into an old sandal. You were Sumerian, after all, and you still remembered how to speak the language.

The camp was easy to find - you just had to follow the lights and the noise. The Babylonians had set up patrols around the perimeter, but they were easy for a lone operator to evade by sensing their presence telepathically. You skirted the camp, moving carefully in the dark and noting down what you saw.

There were definitely enough men to make up 8000 troops. Getting an exact number would be impossible, but 8000 was close enough. Their discipline was superb and morale was high. The way they carried themselves was better than most of the men you had back in Tjaru. The Babylonians continued to rely on the horse chariots you had introduced, though they appear to have made some minor improvements to the harness - but you can't be sure without taking a closer look. This was a formidable army - you wish you had men such as these.

You sense that there are two Gieloth in the camp. One of them was walking around - surprisingly, this one was not in the form of a priest, but of that of a general. The other was inside the largest, most ornate tent.

Near the back of the camp, some distance away from the other tents, was a weird looking contraption. It appeared to be a tower on wheels, with a platform at the top, and weird metal rods sticking out of it. You had never seen its like before, and it appeared to be the only one of its kind in the camp. Had they brought this thing all the way from Babylon? You ask the voices what it was, hoping that they'd know if it was related to the Gieloth.

Nope, we have no idea what it is. Never seen one of those
It's probably something they could use to bring your fortress down, though, if it's out here.

Not much help there.

There was some movement in the camp. You focus again. A small group of five men and the Gieloth general had rode off from the camp on horses. They were headed towards the fortress - probably to conduct some scouting. This was a great chance!

***

A. You go after the general and his scouts. Leaving the camp was his mistake. You will ambush him and drive your Honourblade through his black, tendriled core. This would hurt the morale of the Babylonians greatly.

B. You infiltrate the camp as one of the soldiers. Even though the general was a Gieloth, he could probably do nothing more than scout with just five men. You are more concerned with that strange tower and what it does - if it could bring down your walls, it needs to be destroyed tonight.

 

[kazgar]

Hmmm, reverse scouting could also reveal our traps...

Could a single Gieloth sneak through that breach in the north wall and cause havoc inside?

Catapults could've have aimed at the seige tower, though now they don't exist, it could be troublesome tomorrow (though fire may fix it in the daytime)

Leaning towards A.

 

[newcomer]

The general is out there! The general has tentacles! ALL TENTACLES MUST DIE! A

 

[Kipeci]

A.

While I do want to get rid of the siege tower, this is an opportunity to get rid of one of strongest of the local enemy presence without as much of the risk of those thousands of men killing us.

We'll just have to hope that the pits and things we dug along with the fires will be enough to stop the tower.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Siege tower. Catapults would have been useful there...

A. is very tempting, we could demoralise the enemy and level up at the same time. But a Gieloth Lord plus 5 troops... If we get captured or die tonight, the fort will fall for certain. On the other hand, if the general is allowed to sneak up on our fort using light manipulation and learns our numbers our element of surprise would be lost. Had we brought Kahrun this would be a more appealing choice as he and his men could take on the scouts while we battled their master...

B. would be in keepng with our current plan of defeating the babylonians. With a seige tower (assuming that's what it is) they'd be able to roll right up to the fort and all our traps would be useless. Also while we're in their camp we might be able to read someone's mind about the attack.

I say B. It's a tough choice, but that tower could lose us this battle for sure. We'll probably get another chance at the general tomorrow, should he try to come through the breach he'll no doubt discover tonight.

Flopped to A.
edit:
Hmm. I think we may have backed ourselves into a corner on this one. By opting for traps instead of a catapult we lost our defense against the tower. By leaving Kahrun behind we risk being stabbed in the back while fighting the gieloth. The main advantage to us comming alone was that we could shapeshift and infiltrate the enemy camp. The more I think about it the more it looks like B is the choice we've made and we made it along the way without realising it.

We chose this path and now we must commit to it or risk utter defeat. My 2 cents.

 

[ScubaV]

I'm leaning towards A as well. Killing a (the?) general will dampen their morale and should negatively impact their tactical decisions in the battle ahead. The psychological impact and chaos would mesh well with our trap setup. Not to mention we would then only have to worry about the trickery and powers of a single Gieloth. Between the moat, our pit-traps, and fire traps we might disable the siege tower before it gets to our walls if we're lucky.

Treave, can Ean tell what substance the tower is made of (i.e. wood)? If so we can prepare some oil or something to light it up if and when it gets to our walls since our elemental powers are quite weak.

The downside is that now we'll have two potential gaps in our defenses that might need to be plugged by Ean or elite troops.

 

[treave]

It looks like wood from here, but there's some metal too. You'll have to get closer to find out more about it.

 

[Bloodshifter]

See now we can't throw Ean into the fray or defend against the tower great whoop our traps will do *pouts*

On a side note General is a juicy target and killing him will bring chaos to the enemy army and the soldiers unless they have been modified should pose little threat when we can literally run up to their horses and bowl them over.

How strong is Ean now after the interlude?

 

[Esquilax]

Could a single Gieloth sneak through that breach in the north wall and cause havoc inside?

If he sees it and takes the opportunity, then yes. Black tendriled creatures tend to be quite the climbers. I am confident that the general will not go through the exposed northern wall tonight for the same reason we won't go DESTROY ALL TENTACLES!!! all over the camp - because he doesn't want to risk it, and with the manpower he has at his disposal, he doesn't need to risk it. Given how well the traps our dug out, I am hopeful that he won't find anything.

One thing that comes to mind looking at this Gieloth 'general': When we met Sekhenun and dispatched her relatively easily in combat, she said "I'm not a god of war, I'm a god of science!" Well, judging by the form this Gieloth has taken, I'd say we just met our equal on the battlefield, a true god of war. Having Honorblade at our side and the element of surprise tips the odds slightly in Ean's favour one-on-one, but with 5 guards along with him, things will get ugly. Really wish we brought a band of bros along for a daring assault.

At this point, at best I see Ean being seriously injured taking this guy out, particularly if he possesses the same toxins that Sekhenun had. There are two Gieloth out there and we can't leave ourselves at a severe disadvantage for the remaining one. I think that killing the general right now will result in a Pyrrhic victory - we'll win the battle, but lose the war.

I realize that this guy is a juicy target, but we can't look at the immediate benefits, we have to look at the long-term here. Going for the daring move is exciting, but we are in a siege situation, and it is the long-term that favours us. I realize it's not as exciting and dramatic as taking this guy out right now - believe me, I really wanted to vote A initially, but upon further examination, it doesn't seem to be the smart play. I think we should stay the course and focus on our original plan: use the traps to kill off a substantial amount of the enemy forces, then lie in wait for the general at the exposed northern wall. Then we'll be in position to do some serious damage with Honorblade.

Our traps are designed to kill men, not siege engines. I think that while it would present a bit of a hindrance, it wouldn't be enough to prevent it from really fucking our day up tomorrow.

Remember people, the battle isn't about tomorrow. It's about every day after it.

B

 

[Tigranes]

Surely there's a possibility that our traps could derail and bog down the siege tower, depending on the type/strength of traps and the tower? It might be set on fire, its wheels might dig into the pits, or something?

As Lambchop says, we've made a foolish decision not to bring anyone (since, short of any idiot doing something idiotic, we'd be in the same position now with more options), but it's not so bad.

Anyway, still thinking. On one hand, if the Gieloth Lord is a 'god of war' type, it might do something even on its own, maybe even infiltrate our fortress or just cause a scene, and we'd want to be there for that. I actually think we have a better chance of taking out the Gieloth completely than we do of taking out the tower completely, as well. On the other, as Esquilax says, having the tower out of the picture is a more attractive proposition for the coming days...

 

[Smashing Axe]

B, agreeing with Esquilax here. Would have voted A if we had men with us.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Surely there's a possibility that our traps could derail and bog down the siege tower, depending on the type/strength of traps and the tower? It might be set on fire, its wheels might dig into the pits, or something?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_tower
Well, according to an article I read on wikipedia, I think the moat might help against it - however it's possible the gieloth already have a plan to deal with it. I mean the moat wasn't a new addition and it seems the gieloth spent time preparing for this seige based on the tower - which took a lot of time and work to build and transport.

The pitfalls were dug out to trap humans. Given the size of a seige tower, the wheels could be large enough to span the pitfalls.

As for the fire:

There were pitfalls concealed under the ground, and carefully constructed fire traps which could be lighted by some brave scouts. You had designed their orientation so that if the Babylonians stayed still and hunkered down, you had a clear path for a chariot charge, crushing them between your wheels and the flames. If they moved backwards the fire would cut off their retreat; forward, and they walked into a funnel, ripe to be picked off by rocks and bows.

It seems the fire was designed to funnel them towards a specific point. Without the defenses of a tower they'd be ripe to be picked off by arrows, but with the tower they could march right up to the front door using the path we had intended for our chariot charge... Ouch.

 

[Esquilax]

Anyway, still thinking. On one hand, if the Gieloth Lord is a 'god of war' type, it might do something even on its own, maybe even infiltrate our fortress or just cause a scene, and we'd want to be there for that. I actually think we have a better chance of taking out the Gieloth completely than we do of taking out the tower completely, as well. On the other, as Esquilax says, having the tower out of the picture is a more attractive proposition for the coming days...

What I'm saying is, "why fight the general on his terms?" Let him get a look at the exposed northern wall, he won't go through it tonight for the reasons I've mentioned. A Gieloth posing as a general doesn't seem the sort to do things like this on a whim. After all, why bring a siege tower and 8,000 men if you're going to just mop up on your own? When we spring our traps tomorrow, he'll be all clever and think "well, the front door's not an option, the siege tower is down, so I guess we have to go through the side entrance". At that point, we fucking hammer him.

This game will be played out in the long-term, and the longer things go, the better things are for us.

We wouldn't need to destroy the tower completely. Rendering it inoperable for several weeks will more than suffice, because they can't exactly just chill over there. Ean's physical abilities are his greatest asset - remember when we assaulted Sekhenun's stronghold that we had the opportunity to ram down the gates with our fists. And now he's even stronger now because of the Honorblade. All we'd have to do is light the sword ablaze with our elemental abilities, then go to town on the motherfucker. We'd be in and out in a second given our bro's speed.

According to treave, the Gieloth have some method of short-range communications, so I'm hoping that he gets a distress signal before he gets a good look at the traps. By the time he returns, we'll be long gone.

 

[ScubaV]

Alright, you guys have made some good arguments. B.

 

[oscar]

A. The damage to their morale and leadership seems more useful.