[LP CYOA] Epic

[treave]

Only communications you picked up were shortly before Nabu contacted you. Pretty much what you know. Marduk wants your body.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

But also I feel that we have some advantages in going back to Sumeria. The Sons of Marduk are still around - after all, it's been only 5 years since we woke from our slumber - if we can rouse them to action and claim our legacy, it will give us something to work with. We won't be able to reclaim our heritage as Marduk if we come to Sumeria as Runi, but we can if we return as a Sumerian. We have things to work with here.

Dude, the Sons of Marduk have most likely already been roused to action - under the Gieloth posing as Marduk.

1. We'll be going there and killing someone they think is the reincarnation of their god - who just lead them to a mighty victory over their enemies in Assyria. How popular will that make us?
2. Even if we can kill Marduk without serious injury to our person, we'll still have Nabu to deal with. Somehow I doubt he'll be keen on letting us live - to say nothing of starting a rebelion.

We have more to work with in Egypt at present, imho.

 

[newcomer]

Only communications you picked up were shortly before Nabu contacted you. Pretty much what you know. Marduk wants your body.

Then let's bite in into tentacle politics

And for Marduk, Nabu can always say something like Marduk has returned to heaven & he takes charge instead or some shit like that, or the easiest way is to shapeshift into Marduk (either Nabu himself or us being forced to shapeshift)

 

[TOME]

Now that I think of it, it was not Baran who decided to scout. This proves that Nabu "might" be telling the truth, since he must be the one wanting to remove Baran from the equation. And Baran seemed to be quite loyal to Marduk from his speech, so if Nabu wanted to remove him Nabu must have hated Marduk.

I don't think that Nabu wanted Baran out of game. Remember

Channeling your powers through the Honourblade, you unleash a psychic assault upon the arrogant Gieloth. He screams as his mind unravels. Pressing your advantage, you attempt to scramble and shatter his brain… and your assault rebounds on you. You reel from the full force of your own attack, but luckily you had your own defences up – you avoid scrambling your mind this way. You step back, temporarily disoriented.

Baran gasps for breath as he drops to his knees. He clutches his head and chuckles. “Nabu, you bastard. I didn’t even know you put a shield on my mind. I guess I owe you one, brother.”

 

[newcomer]

TOME

Maybe he's just "testing" our other powers?
Or maybe Sekhenum said too much and so he knows about our small phallic object?

 

[Kipeci]

A is probably still a trap, but let's jump straight into it! YEAH!

 

[Azira]

If we go for option C, I think that will, regardless of whether it works, count towards strengthening our defense against mental attacks. With the blade in hand, we might even succeed. Who knows, the "knowledge" that he can surely crush our mind if he wants to, might be nothing more than a suggestion he himself planted. We'd do the same, suggest to our opponent that he might as well give up already, as we're clearly superior.

My vote is for
C

 

[Smashing Axe]

If we go for option C, I think that will, regardless of whether it works, count towards strengthening our defense against mental attacks. With the blade in hand, we might even succeed. Who knows, the "knowledge" that he can surely crush our mind if he wants to, might be nothing more than a suggestion he himself planted. We'd do the same, suggest to our opponent that he might as well give up already, as we're clearly superior.

My vote is for
C

Totally agree with you, unfortunately I think it's either going to be crippling weakness for years with option D, or playing into Nabu's game with A. No one with any backbone to resist, or call Nabu's bluff.

Seriously, if we're going to concede to the enemy every-time they say they're superior to us, then we're going to be the biggest doormat of an immortal in the whole universe.

 

[Esquilax]

After having considered things some more, it seems that D is the only option that isn't a gamble, but it comes at a high price that I'm not sure I'm willing to pay. With C, I see two possible outcomes:

Good - we survive the psychic onslaught, and the civilians patch up a few of our wounded bros to fight tomorrow. We'll have to rely on our (much crappier) militia forces to take on a much diminished Babylonian force, without the traps to aid us. On the plus said, we will be mostly recovered, so we can take more risks. He can't shatter our minds and keep his men from shitting themselves at the same time, so we'll have an opening.

Bad - a psychic coma puts us out for a while, let's say 300 years like last time. Our bros will take this as a sign to retreat, bringing the body of their beloved general back to Egypt for burial. We wake up in a pyramid some time in the future. Not bad, considering a possible alternative is Lord Marduk burning our body and putting us out of commission for probably a millennium. Then we're really fucked.

There are ~4,000 Babylonians under the psychic control of a single Gieloth who is not a combat specialist. Their chances on foreign soil against Astarth's 10,000 men are bad. No matter what happens, it is going to be impossible for the Gieloth to hold Egypt. Even if Lord Marduk decides to crush Astarth afterwards, it's not like he can hold Sumeria, Assyria and Egypt at the same time. There is simply too much land to hold, and at that point, he wouldn't have enough men to hold it.

I hope that any damage to us with D is not permanent. We'd have to escape given our weakened state during the aftermath to avoid Marduk's wrath. Where would we go to? Somewhere isolated, far away, and without much Gieloth activity would be my choice. Europe is looking mighty fine this time of year.

I agree with Smashing Axe, then. There is definitely some bullshit with Nabu's deal, some kind of trickery. I am flopping to C. We chose to stand firm on the wall, and we ought to be consistent with that decision.

Edit: Personally, I'm somewhat certain that the more likely possibility is the bad outcome. Why? Well, we were nearly killed in our duel with the Gieloth General Baran, and it's quite clear that we won't have any more horseshoes to pull out of our ass at this time. I'm not sure, I'd rather face a dirtnap of a century or two over a millennium of crippling weakness and being hiding.

 

[Urist McLurker]

Flipping to C, have edited earlier post.

About being a champion of humanity..since the good shepherd seems to be fully in the hands of our master, and if we try and be the champion of humanity, would it be jumping the gun to suggest that Shulgi could end up a puppet of the tentacles?

 

[Esquilax]

About being a champion of humanity..since the good shepherd seems to be fully in the hands of our master, and if we try and be the champion of humanity, would it be jumping the gun to suggest that Shulgi could end up a puppet of the tentacles?

Hard to say what Shulgi wants. I think Shulgi is out for himself - acquire as much power as possible, he doesn't give a fuck about anybody else. It's strange but I think he could make a potential ally down the road. We know he's turned away from the masters, but I believe he's done so out of self-interest: he enjoys immortality and he doesn't want anybody coming down to Earth ordering him around and spoiling his fun. So he hunts tentacles because it increases his powers, while at the same time he defies the masters because they would pose a threat to his goals. I'm not saying we can trust the guy, but we might be able to work together for a common goal if the masters come back (which is no doubt what Naram intends to achieve).

Tigranes: No, I think D will definitely work. Nabu is right on the faultline, if we activate the doomsday machine, he's screwed. The question is would you take maybe a thousand years of weakness over a few hundred years of being out of commission (at worst)? Personally, I'd rather take a short-term hit over a long, drawn-out hit that could result in us being fucked over by powerful enemies in the meantime. Or worse, having the Honorblade destroyed/something more permanent.

Point is, I'd rather deal with the devil we know (psychic comas) than the devil we don't know.

 

[Tigranes]

Well we know why Marduk wants us, there can only be one reason - to possess our immortal body, or otherwise use our special characteristics in some way. Given that we don't know which of C or D will be more successful, we could worry about which one is the riskier on that front.

I don't see much difference, though. We could see a Dragon Ball style power up moment when we make the earthquake happen / ward off the enemy, or we could succumb to it and end up pretty much catatonic. I suppose one thing is that if we try D and it doesn't work, we'll be very vulnerable to Nabu's follow-up and we will definitely end up the worst. So D is definitely a do or die, C is 'survive to continue the siege' or 'possibly be fucked'.

 

[Smashing Axe]

We'll be more recovered the next day and can take more daring action than we could today.

What other daring action could we take to win against 6500 babylonians - and the super-phallic gieloth - with our army of around 500-800?

Again, if you want daring action, pick d.

Well they outnumber us three to one if I remember right, so we obviously have more, or they have less than the numbers you're purporting. As for actions we can take, the chariot charge to take out the tower tomorrow seems viable, depending on how much we've recovered. Without that focus the babylonians won't have their super morale and may turn tail and flee. Even if they do not, Nabu looses much of his influence and we may stand a chance against him in melee.

I don't like D, being depowered or loosing the Honourblade seems worse than a coma

 

[Zero Credibility]

After having considered things some more, it seems that D is the only option that isn't a gamble, but it comes at a high price that I'm not sure I'm willing to pay. With C, I see two possible outcomes:

Good - we survive the psychic onslaught, and the civilians patch up a few of our wounded bros to fight tomorrow. We'll have to rely on our (much crappier) militia forces to take on a much diminished Babylonian force, without the traps to aid us. On the plus said, we will be mostly recovered, so we can take more risks. He can't shatter our minds and keep his men from shitting themselves at the same time, so we'll have an opening.

Bad - a psychic coma puts us out for a while, let's say 300 years like last time. Our bros will take this as a sign to retreat, bringing the body of their beloved general back to Egypt for burial. We wake up in a pyramid some time in the future. Not bad, considering a possible alternative is Lord Marduk burning our body and putting us out of commission for probably a millennium. Then we're really fucked.

I think the C situation is worse then you picture it.

If we win the contest of wills, all we have to look for tomorrow is another round at the walls. The question then is will we recover enough by tomorrow to take out his tower somehow, because our men can't take much more beating.

But if we fail, Nabu was clear he would storm the fortress and take our body to Marduk. After all, Marduk doesn't need us alive and well - our body in a coma would probably suit him just fine. So we get put in a coma, everybody in the fortress is killed and our body gets used as a tentacle plaything. To me, that's pretty bad.

It's A or D people - C is bad because at most we can get a draw and at worst we get fucked hard. B is bad because Nabu isn't an idiot and will know we are lying to him, leading to the same bad outcome as in C.

 

[CappenVarra]

D because we'll hopefully lose the gay Volournian spawn

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Ok. Let's do a real headcount.

You had 1000 professional soldiers from the Nile Delta. Of these, 200 were from Heliopolis, and had served as your personal retinue for the past three years. They were led by Netzi, the former militia leader and now captain of your personal guard. He has impressed you with his quick thinking in the past three years. They were highly disciplined, trained by you personally, and equipped with the best weapons and armor Egypt had to offer. Another 300 were from Avaris, Bubastis and Pelusium. These consisted of the bravest and strongest warriors in the Delta, and answered to a Kharun of Avaris, a young, untested but valiant fighter. Though they lacked the sheer discipline of the Heliopolitans, their skill in battle more than made up for it. The remaining 500 soldiers came from all over the Delta, with varying amounts of battle skill and experience, and then there were the 100 soldiers stationed in Tjaru, led by a crochety, experienced old soldier called Menos. The soldiers of Tjaru seem earnest and well-motivated, but have not been blooded in any combat.

Together with the soldiers you brought, you had gathered a thousand more volunteers. When the call went out, many militia-men and civilians took up arms and joined your ranks. There were 300 militia in this lot, lightly equipped and armed, and 700 Egyptians from all walks of life. There were beggars, farmers, craftsmen, traders, and even a few fallen nobles in the lot. Unfortunately, you did not have the armory to outfit them all, and neither did Tjaru. Most were armed with nothing more than sickles, shovels and axes.

The fortress of Tjaru itself provided more men. Though your arrival signalled the fleeing of most of the population, roughly 500 men stayed behind, forming an impromptu militia. The man speaking for the militia was Thero, a local guild leader. They were all as untrained as the civilians that had followed you all the way out here, but at least they brought their own equipment.

1000+300+700(though these aren't soldiers so not sure how they factor)+500=2500
Or if we don't factor the civies 1800 fighting men.

Your own men did not fare much better, however – even with the advantage of fighting on their own walls, more than five hundred were wounded, with at least three hundred more dead. Of these, many of them were professional soldiers, who had been in the bulk of the fighting.

So that leaves us with 1000 fighting men - many of whom are militia - and 700 civies.
The babylonians had 8000, but when they reached the moat:

The Babylonians reached the moat, with less men than they had started out with, but still enough to outnumber your soldiers three to one.

So the number is probably 5400, minus the 500 we killed at the walls is 4900 professional soldiers. Not to mention the mind-shattering Gieloth with the phallic tower of power.

edit: I'll also add that it was mostly the traps which thinned the Babylonians to this point. In the actual assualt on our walls, they lost 500 and we lost 800 - granted 500 of those are wounded not dead, but I'm guessing "wounded" doesn't mean "nicked a bit with a sword". And that was against our best soldiers - not the second string miltia that's up next. Clearly they can kick our asses.

Well they outnumber us three to one if I remember right, so we obviously have more, or they have less than the numbers you're purporting. As for actions we can take, the chariot charge to take out the tower tomorrow seems viable, depending on how much we've recovered. Without that focus the babylonians won't have their super morale and may turn tail and flee. Even if they do not, Nabu looses much of his influence and we may stand a chance against him in melee.

1. You are adding things to the choice that aren't there. It says we'd repel the babylonians from the walls, not that we'd ride out (which probably isn't an option now that the army is closer anyway).
2. This entire choice is depends on Nabu lying to us about his mind shattering ability - which given the barrier in the general's mind that reflected our attack back on us, his ability to read our thoughts, and his ability to mind control his troops doesn't seem likely. What happens when he mindzaps us? All our men die in his attempt to nab our body, that's what.

I don't like D, being depowered or loosing the Honourblade seems worse than a coma

We don't know how long the weakness will last and treave never said anything about losing the honourblade - that was Esquilax.

millennium of crippling weakness and being hiding.

Where are you getting that it'd be a millennium? If it's not bad enough to put us in a coma then surely it's not bad enough to keep us out of the game for more than 1 or 2 hundred years max. Even then it's better than a comma. We could learn from the voices about the Masters in that time. Or we could use our knowledge to advance human civilizations.

C is for coma, guys. Nabu will just shatter our mind, kill all our men, and drag our comatose body to Marduk. At the very least we should get him to disassemble the tower first as in b. Then we'd have at least a shot of escape when shit inevitably blows up in our face.

D is the only path to true victory here.

edit: Also D might let us improve our elemental powers - once we're recovered enough to use them.

 

[Storyfag]

Ill go with A. Why? For SCIENCE! On our way to Babylonia we'll have the chance to chat with Nabu all about Gieloth politics, factions and whatnot. We may even learn something about their conflict with the Masters. AND we can cross-reference it with any surfacing bits and pieces of Pharntah's memory.

 

[Zero Credibility]

I don't think coma is what awaits us in D. Treave probably has something different (and devious) in mind for us this time. If I had to guess, I'd say we would be severely depowered for a long time and lose the honourblade. Which sucks badly, but it's that or trying to outsmart (at least) two very capable Gieloths in the middle of their stronghold. I say fuck that, the only way we should be going to see Marduk is with an army. Our army.

 

[Esquilax]

Lambchop19: Don't be so melodramatic, you're ignoring the costs associated with D to make your point. You're saying "nuh-uh, we won't lose the sword!", now of course I don't know if we'll lose the weapon for sure, but the fact of the matter is that if we want a certain victory here, the cost is going to be very high. Losing the sword is certainly a distinct possibility. That being said, I think I'm letting the fact that we didn't attack the tower when we had the chance to before cloud my judgment. I am still pissed off that we went for the general and ended up screwing ourselves into a corner. What a stupid, short-sighted decision that was. Pretty much the textbook definition of a Pyrrhic victory there.

With A, it's a difficult call. If he wanted to shatter our mind, he may have decided to do so already. But then again, he might need us to come closer to really work his powers against us. We're also all out of deus ex machina interventions to save us from a gruesome death, so if he breaks us (which seems very likely) we're toast.

Fuck it, it's either A or D, and I don't like either. Flopping back to D again. Goddamnit, if we dealt with the tower first and the general as he crept through our north wall, this would have been so much simpler.

VOTING D

Zero Credibility: A doesn't seem like a particularly appetizing prospect either. I guess we should just suck it up and just deal with whatever is to come. We beat Sekhenun on her home turf, but she was alone and never saw us coming. We'll have neither of those advantages with these guys. Ean doesn't strike me as a skilled enough manipulator to be able to use both of these guys against each other. And that's if Nabu is being honest in the first place.

 

[m4davis]

floping to D

 

[Azira]

I'm still not convinced C automatically leads to a coma. It could very well just be a suggestion. We know he's sending thoughts directly into Eans mind. Should be simple to send feelings as well. Bluffs and feints are all part of warfare, both martial and psychological. What does interest me is that in no part of the dialogue does he acknowledge that Ean has the blade that enhances his abilities. He might not know about it, and Ean's not grasping it currently. Should he do so, he might very well be strong enough to resist the assault. In fact, Ean is only hearing the voice now. If the Gieloth was so strong, why not send the thoughts during the battle? Maybe the fact that Ean was holding on to the blade was just the reason this was not possible.. Maybe the Gieloth has been trying to contact Ean for a while now, but only just succeeded and is now bluffing to cover this fact up?

We know for a fact though, that choosing option D comes with a hefty pricetag, as treave has let us know just this.

As Esquilax has pointed out, distance might very well be a factor, even when the Gieloth is perched atop his tower. Might be he does not have the power currently to do what he claims. If so, options A and B would both just serve to get Ean closer to the danger and make an easier target.

As far as I see it, the choice stands between Ean steeling his mind and trying to stay alive, or saying "fuck it" and sacrificing himself. I'd rather he attempt the former, and stand by my choice for option C.

 

[Arpad]

C flop to D if not enough votes for C.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I am still pissed off that we went for the general and ended up screwing ourselves into a corner. What a stupid, short-sighted decision that was. Pretty much the textbook definition of a Pyrrhic victory there.

Agreed. My fault in part there.

The count:
Bloodshifter A
newcomer A
Baltika9 A
Kipeci A
Storyfag A
Computer Gamer Refugee A
Esquilax A
ScubaV A
Omicron A
oscar A

A - 10

B - 0


Smashing Axe C
Urist McLurker C
Azira C
Arpad C

C - 4

m4davis D
Lambchop19 D
Tigranes D
Zero Credibility D
CappenVarra D
kazgar D

D - 7

 

[Esquilax]

Azira: You're saying that f he could break our mind right now, why even offer us a deal to begin with? The two possibilities are that he's aware we've worked with Gieloth before and he needs a strong warrior to usurp Lord Marduk or that he needs to draw us closer to unleash his powers. Why he only now chose to talk to us is simple, however: the traps during the battle startled him (he didn't know they were there) and broke morale among his men, so he needed something to keep everyone together. That's why his attention was focused on making his men obedient rather than psychically attacking us. He can't exactly control an army, set off a rainstorm and shatter our minds at the same time, y'know.

Don't worry though, now we definitely have his undivided attention.

I feel really reluctant about D and slightly dirty about picking it because this would actually be the first time we've ever chosen the "fuck it" option. At the very least, if our Honorblade shatters, we know how to make another one. When we return to Egypt, I would suggest killing Astarth so he doesn't charge into Babylon and get slaughtered by Lord Marduk, then head off to some obscure part of Northern Europe where we can recover, hide from Marduk and become the future Thor.

treave: When we decided to improve our telekinetic abilities, did our psionic abilities improve slightly/at all as a side effect? I remember that when we chose to improve our psionic abilities and went into a coma, our telepathy improved as well.

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

Wow, 3 pages of discussion for this decision. Clearly many people have many thoughts. Here are my ideas

A. You accept his offer, and prepare to head to Sumeria with this weird Gieloth. Having felt his power, you have no doubt that he could crush your mind should he choose to, and with you gone, the leaderless fortress would fall with the next assault. His words may not be entirely truthful, but you don't think you have any other choice. You can decide what to do next after you arrive in Sumeria.

I call this one the win-win choice. It is a win in the short term because it saves our men (both Egyptian AND Babylonian) and also saves our mind and body. In the medium term it is win because we get the entire trip back to Babylon to talk to a Gieloth and learn its politics. If we ever want to get past the ALL TENTACLES MUST DIE stage we have to learn more about them. So far all the ones we have met have exhibited a strong lawful evil bent. We can work with that. It is a win in the medium-long term because it gives us either the opportunity to a) say fuck it and fade back into our old homeland, but after a few weeks of recovery, or b) Actually get a strike at the fucker who is besmirching OUR GOOD NAME. Sure, there will be backstabbing and such, but we can deal with that at the time. Lastly it is good in the long term. What do we have left in Egypt? Unless we want to try our hand at ruling (fun at first but gets boring fast) we have already finished curb-stomping all of the local Gieloth, so we probably would need to move on sooner or later. This way we get a nice inroad into sanitizing our old homeland.



B. You pretend to accept his offer. Tomorrow, once he dismantles the tower, you will use his own foolishness against him and destroy his army. He is no threat without that sorcerous building of his, and in close combat, you are confident you can strike him down before he can concentrate his psychic abilities on you.


I call this the risky-risky choice. We don't know that we can successfully lie to him, and if we can't we just go straight into choice C. Also, given our state, it is risky that would could successfully pull it off. If we were at 100% I'd say go for it, but right now, I think that this would dump us into either a corpse ride back (most likely) or into choice A with a much worse bargaining position and physical condition (most likely to happen given dramatic licence).



C. You grasp the Honourblade tightly and steel yourself against the impending assault – you will reject his offer and call his bluff. You do not trust a single word he says, and if he could have crushed your mind that easily you are sure he would have done it a long time ago. You beat his forces back today, you will continue to do so tomorrow, and the day after that, until every last one of his men is dead.


This is the Pyrrhic-lose option. Best case we manage to force a tie. Most likely we take serious damage. Then the next day our army gets hacked to pieces and us with it. Cue the results of choice B.



D. Rather than having him crush your mind, you'd rather sacrifice yourself to destroy him! YOU UNLEASH THE EARTHQUAKE! If the tower was still parked where it was, he'd plummet, along with it, into the abyss.

ALL TENTACLES MUST DIE. This is the win-lose choice. We win in that we take out the Gieloth, but we lose in that we suffer real harm (development/time/etc.). Our masters would be happy that we made such a sacrafice, but I doubt that it works out well for us. Since we are not a dog, I reject this choice.


In summary:

I chose A. It saves our (and our men's) ass in the short term. It gives us an opportunity to learn from the enemy while we recover in the medium term. In the long term it will be head start back at the fucker using OUR name, and it also offers a familiar land to disappear into if we need it. Furthermore all the other options will cost us in the short term, long term, or both.