[LP CYOA] Epic

[Baltika9]

Why's it so crucial for us to kill, or persuade, Minos anyway? What is there for us in Cyprus, now that Sekhenun is probably long gone and we have the statuette?

We need to know where she went.
The world is a big place, and Sekhenun is very, very good at laying low. He may have even killed her, and the whole "decadent and powerless" may just be a ruse.

 

[TOME]

Minos didn't even know about her. And Sekhenun was hiding from gieloths so I doubt Minos knows anything.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

A

 

[Tigranes]

Yeah, it's wayyyyy big a stretch to even consider Minos knowing about Sekhenun enough to help us. I just don't see clear, tangible benefits, especially since Minos is unlikely to endanger the rest of the region like other Gieloth (Egypt, etc) did/might do. We've been out for decades, then in for a few weeks, then out for a year - let's get things running again. It feels like since that brief stint in Sumeria we've never had a power base, and since Egypt, insufficient knowledge to really make big decisions.

 

[Baltika9]

Well, where do we start searching for Sekhenun, or at least Mehrune, then? I'm quite sure the good diplomat would drop her next destination to Minos over a conversation.

That whole Minos faking it thing was a bit much, I'll admit.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

C

 

[ScubaV]

We should still have access to the Gieloth telepathy network. And if we've become more Gieloth-like then we may be able to understand it better. It might point us to Sekhenun, or at least the Gieloth leader she was concerned about.

 

[Baltika9]

From what I understand, she's off the grid, being a traitor and all. The point I'm trying to get across is that Minos has the info we need. Might as well negotiate. Or make up a kunnin' plan a-la Esquilax. But I spammed this vote enough. Gotta let the other bros get a word in.

 

[Esquilax]

You know, there is one person who might know where Mehrune and Sekhenun went after their visit to Crete: Theseus. I am fairly certain that Ariadne, who is now with Theseus, must have conversed with her at some point and might know their whereabouts.

A

There's no way we'll be able to take Minos out with B, not without getting even more injured in some way. C just might work, but probably is complicated by the loss of the statuette; if we want to keep that, we better hightail it out. Not sure if A or D is better for that, though.

Yeah, B is just plain dumb. However, A isn't an instant escape option, we could still get fucked up quite badly: it's only the option to run away for the moment in hopes of finding another route out of the palace. We're not out of the woods if we pick A. If we wanted to escape right away, we should have taken Daedalus' wings.

We came in here with two goals: find the statuette and hopefully our sword as well. Our mid-term goal is to find out more about Sekhenun's whereabouts and our condition.

Oh yeah, and I am strongly against any empire building until we've gotten an idea of what we can do about our condition. If we can harness our hunger into some kind of an Eternal Rest ability, we might be able to work with this thing.

 

[Baltika9]

I'm with Esquilax here. Find Sekhenun, find out what's what, Emprah stage comes later.

 

[Esquilax]

When we woke up in Daedalus' tower, we learned this:

Daedalus made occasional jaunts into the maze to collect materials for his works. He was a prolific inventor, and took pleasure in showing you the many marvellous constructs he had made over the years. Minos had shared with him quite a bit of the knowledge that the Gieloth possessed, and with that knowledge he had designed the Labyrinth, as well as several other constructs and buildings for the King of Crete.

Okay, so the guy makes trips into the maze to scavenge things. When we died, there was a sword sticking out of our neck. An unusual sword of dark steel that slew a minotaur, clearly of Gieloth make. Daedalus is not a warrior, but I am sure an object like this would be of interest to him.

treave, would Ean have noticed the presence of Anbar-Shi in the room after he ate the guard? Or is it definitely not there? How long would it take for the drawbridge to come down, and could we double back toward Daedalus' tower before the Gieloth presence reaches us? We can head toward the courtyard, use telekinesis to pull down the lever for the drawbridge, then head back toward Daedalus with Minos hot on our heels.

Then there was this conversation:

There are muffled words exchanged. You can make out “…deadline…patience…deliver…”, and as the exchange grows more heated, you hear a guard yell “The king will have you before his throne, dead or alive!” Then there are sounds of a scuffle.

Deliver what? Deliver the barely living body or the sword? In any case, Minos wanted something from Daedalus, and he was very pissed when Daedalus refused him. What a bro that guy is.

I am on the verge of flopping to D. If Daedalus has our sword, then I am confident about taking Minos on.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

A

 

[oscar]

D, help out Daedalus and reclaim our sword.

 

[ScubaV]

stuff

Good points. I might flip to D depending on what treave says.

 

[treave]

Sword isn't with Daedalus, nope. You know, I don't particularly mind Ean going on a WHERE'S MY SWORD, WHERE IS IT! vengeful investigation.

 

[Kattze]

C(DISREGARD PLEASE), Let us prove our self to Minos and serve as his retainer (like what we did Sargon). I think it is the only sensible choice given that we haven't had our powers and Minos is a lone-wolf who wouldn't give a fuck about how we fucked over the Gieloths' plans so many times.

treave, would we get a new name as well, if we get to stay around Aegean for a long time? (Ean - Runi - ?)

EDIT: If Minos was really becoming erratic as described earlier, we could even leverage Ariadne's love (If the potion was still working) to become the 'real power behind the throne'. As for Theseus, fuck that loser, we should burn Athens to the ground.

 

[treave]

You would if you had to look Greek.

 

[Kipeci]

I'm pretty sure that Ariadne is long gone, considering the reason why we were ditched by our supposed 'bro' in the first place.

 

[Baltika9]

Bros, if we do manage to become Minos' retainer, which is a good idea if we can pull it off, we'll also have to do something that'll send a message to Sekhenun that let's her know it's Ean who's on Crete.

That being said, I'm for sailing to Cyprus and snacking on Aphrodite. If we can sell a bogus story that convinces Minos to employ us, we can sell a bogus story that Cyprus is a worthy target and/or in Athen's pocket and thus worthy of domination.

 

[Tigranes]

Wait, why is everyone assuming the sword is somewhere anyway? Might it not have been destroyed / absorbed during our super-devouring thing?

Given that we got no such option in the previous update, I'm not sure there's anything hugely important to come from Daedalus, either.

And as Kipeci says, Ariadne being around and willing to talk to us and knowing something specific enough about Sekhenun and us getting to talk to her is a long, long, long shot.

Finally, a retainer to Minos could work, except the previous updates have told us one thing about the dude, he's erratic and prone to killing people close to him.

Seriously guys, I'm willing to flop to any choice if I see some good arguments, but we've been the most harebrained (heh, consequences of what's happened to Ean?) and nonsensical. We're not really coming up with anything that makes much sense in terms of an action plan, which is why I'm hoping we can get out of here for now, precisely to take stock, learn more, take some time, find Sekhenun.

 

[newcomer]

Most likely Ariadne is now stranded on an island between Crete & Aegan.

I guess I'll go with C for now, but can certainly flop to A

 

[Esquilax]

Bros, if we do manage to become Minos' retainer, which is a good idea if we can pull it off, we'll also have to do something that'll send a message to Sekhenun that let's her know it's Ean who's on Crete.

That being said, I'm for sailing to Cyprus and snacking on Aphrodite. If we can sell a bogus story that convinces Minos to employ us, we can sell a bogus story that Cyprus is a worthy target and/or in Athen's pocket and thus worthy of domination.

Okay, I'm having difficulty understanding you. Just a second ago you were on board with the plan of "find Sekhenun and don't tamper with this hunger we've got until we learn more about it", now you're saying "work with Minos and eat Aphrodite!!!" You are not making much sense here.

Tigranes, this leads me to believe that the sword is intact:

At best it will use our energy to spark your little Gieloth-made toy to full life, which in turn brings you back to life due to the conduit between you and the sword.

Ariadne is definitely with Theseus now, they're both in Athens. If we can't find any clues as we're running through the palace, our next stop should be there. No, not to burn it to the fucking ground, but to find out where Sekhenun went.

 

[Baltika9]

snip

I am on board with the whole thing. However, we must consider that we're entering in negotiations with Minos, being an intruder in his castle, stealing a statuette from his treasury and having killed one of his guards(which he may or may not find out about). We might not have a choice later on. He may just say: "You work for me or you're dead." And an opportunity to escape might not present itself quickly. In that case, we must plan for the future. Better to have all the bases covered and best to plan for every outcome. Just saying, it's not optimal, we could do much worse. The guy is psycho.

And about Aphrodite, I want to give her what's coming to her. You're damn right I want her dead.

 

[Esquilax]

I am on board with the whole thing. However, we must consider that we're entering in negotiations with Minos, being an intruder in his castle, stealing a statuette from his treasury and having killed one of his guards(which he may or may not find out about). We might not have a choice later on. He may just say: "You work for me or you're dead." And an opportunity to escape might not present itself quickly. In that case, we must plan for the future. Better to have all the bases covered and best to plan for every outcome. Just saying, it's not optimal, we could do much worse. The guy is psycho.

Are you arguing for C or for A? Because none of what you said makes negotiating with Minos sound appealing. I've flopped to A because of it. We're an intruder in the maze that Minos loves and he is crazy as fuck. I'd rather take my chances escaping than take my chances trying to reason with someone who is clearly batshit insane.

Once we fully recover, we can return here at another time and take him on. Hopefully we'll be able to catch the presence of Anbar-Shi in the palace somewhere.

And about Aphrodite, I want to give her what's coming to her. You're damn right I want her dead.

For what? She has nothing to do with our current dilemma. In fact, we were the ones that came to her in the first place, she wouldn't even know we existed if we hadn't come to her. Ean is justifiably angry and bitter at this point, but he needs to try and stay calm.

The voices gave us this opportunity because they thought Ean was the only immortal with the strength of character to be able to withstand the burden of such a terrible hunger. Let's not succumb to vengeance.

 

[Baltika9]

snip

I flop to C because of your arguments, you flop to because of mine. Funny.

Don't get me wrong, this is a difficult situation. We risk our life by staying here and negotiating with Minos, yes. But we can be at least somewhat confident that we'll get some info out of the guy, no matter how batfuck insane he is.

Our alternative is to head to Athens. And what do we do once we get there, where do we start looking? And if we do find Theseus there, what the hell are we going to do to him? He's either living in the lap of luxury with his tentacle waifu (in which case he doesn't want to see us for obvious reasons, and all he'll have to do is call for the city guard to bear down on our ass, and we're either dead or we lose his track for a long time), keeping it on the low-down (in which case he doesn't want to see us for obvious reasons, and all he has to do is scream "THIEF!" at the top of his lungs to get the city guard on our ass, in which case we're either dead or we lose his track for a long time), or not there altogether (in which case... "Now what?"). We're not even sure the love potion still works.

And I'm under no illusion that Minos can have a field day with us, and that we have to tell him a very, very clever story and predict his moods. Worst case scenario, we're dead. Moderate success: a) he tells us to take a hike, might even coax some intel out of him, or b) we end up in his employ, and we could do much worse now, at least no one will look for us on this backwater. Success: we get our info and hightail it. Risky, yes, but worth pulling it off.

But this is a fucked-up situation to begin with, and there are no easy choices. The only safe choice here is to run to the hills and hide for a long time until we figure out what's what and hope that Sekhenun finds us. Which isn't bloody likely considering she probably thinks us dead.

Can I go back to making shitty one-liners now?

Edit: I liked the "I hate Athens part."