[LP CYOA] Epic

[Stygian Lurker]

A

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

B

 

[Tigranes]

Will we ever get to late-game power levels, I wonder

Yeah, my bet is that we are Anbar-Shi, and with the statuette, there's nothing critical awaiting us in Cyprus. I'd say A for now, since there's no guarantee we'll be able to get any command in Egypt, but leading an army is surely the best way for Ean to get some momentum going and influence.

 

[Baltika9]

On a side note, if Zeus really is a mester, I wonder if he came here because of Ean?

 

[treave]

B has the win here.

***

Chapter 4.12: Mehrune’s Whereabouts

There was nothing for you in Greece for now; your best bet was still to track down Sekhenun and complete your bargain with her. Offering to work, you manage to get onboard a cargo vessel on its way back to Egypt, one of many that now frequently ply the Mediterranean as part of Egypt’s ongoing involvement with the war in Greece. The journey itself takes only ten days, as the large ship did not need to stop by any ports to rest. Soon, you were back in Pikuat.

Egypt was as lively as you had left it. Despite the war, the populace seemed mostly unconcerned. The fighting was taking place on the other side of the sea, far enough that it did not concern most of the people. Although the Egyptians had allied with Minos, they were careful enough to commit only what they could afford to lose. You begin searching for information on Mehrune’s current location, and if her chief-handmaiden had been replaced in the past year or so; a possibility that you can’t rule out.

It is in Heliopolis that you get your answer: Mehrune is currently in Babylonia. Her strange success in opening a diplomatic channel (strange, as her attitude certainly wasn’t diplomatic as far as you were concerned) with Crete had elevated her social standing quite highly, and she had been dispatched to Sumer almost a month ago in an attempt to feel out the intentions of the God-King of Babylon, who had not directed any hostile actions towards Egypt for more than half a century. The servants at her residence confirm, somewhat surprisingly to you, that a girl named Sekhe was still the chief handmaiden when Mehrune left. Sekhenun probably had another reason for getting close to Mehrune besides helping you out, if she didn’t ditch the cold bitch the moment you vanished in the Labyrinth.

You are still able to access the Gieloth’s communications, but the only new things you learn about Babylon are that Marduk has successfully conquered the Indus Valley, extending their empire further than any Sumerian kingdom has ever had, and that this was against the wishes of the Gieloth residing in the south of the great continent to the west. They appear to have changed their plans due to this and are now attempting to reestablish their influence in the eastern most kingdoms beyond the Indus.
It looks like travelling back to Egypt only gave you more options to ponder over.

***

A. You follow Mehrune’s trail to Sumeria. Sure, you might be stepping into the domain of Marduk, but there is a high chance of Sekhenun being there. You do have a deal with her after all, and she is the only one you know who can unlock the powers of the statuette.

B. Mehrune will surely head back to Egypt after her work in Sumeria is done, and Sekhenun with her. You decide to remain in Egypt and wait.
1) You resume your previous activities of bandit-slaying and general do-gooding. You don’t plan on drawing any attention to yourself at all, and it would be good practice for getting you back into fighting shape.
2) You sign up with the Egyptians as a soldier under another assumed persona. The myth of Runi is well left alone; there might be court politics should you reveal yourself, with power-hungry advisors seeking to use your name for their own purposes. Best to serve quietly.
3) It has not been so long that your persona of Runi is a faint memory. Certainly there are living men today whose fathers have fought alongside you in battle. You declare your return publicly in service to Akil’s dynasty. This will give you more influence over how Egypt will act – you are after all worshipped as a demigod.

C. You bounce back to Greece now that you’ve discerned Mehrune’s location and the condition of Egypt. Joining the Egyptians would mean you take sides against the Greeks, and you want to find out their side of the story before committing to action. Besides, any side that has an entire pantheon on their side will probably end up the winning side... and the Egyptians have no real gods on theirs.

 

[Smashing Axe]

A - Let's be cautious, quiet and inconspicuous, we should be able to succeed.

Edit: Alternatively we could hunt bandits and feed on them, might return some of our strength.

 

[Baltika9]

A.

Besides, any side that has an entire pantheon on their side will probably end up the winning side... and the Egyptians have no real gods on theirs.

Well then, I guess that means we will...

just have to give them one.

 

[Esquilax]

Edit: Alternatively we could hunt bandits and feed on them, might return some of our strength.

I thought about this, but couldn't we just as easily feed off Babylonians? Besides, if things go awry in Babylon, we may not get another chance to meet Sekhenun again. I'd rather get her diagnosis on our condition before we start going all DEVOUR SOUL!!! on everyone. If the statuette isn't a red herring, we might be able to get some control over our condition with her help. I'm certainly glad we were able to find information on her whereabouts.

Declaring ourselves as God-Emperor of Egypt right now is a bad idea, there'd be too much political backstabbing and a lot of people won't believe us. It's important to remember that Runi arose during a time of great turmoil in Egypt, so unless Zeus starts to assault the Delta, we shouldn't reveal ourselves.

Despite the war, the populace seemed mostly unconcerned. The fighting was taking place on the other side of the sea, far enough that it did not concern most of the people. Although the Egyptians had allied with Minos, they were careful enough to commit only what they could afford to lose.

People are safe, comfortable, and happy. They don't want to rock the boat. It isn't time for a great hero to rise in Egypt again.

... Actually, fuck it, I'm lying. The real reason I want to go to Babylon is because conquering the Indus Valley and becoming God-King Andhaira is too good to pass up.

A

 

[Anabanana]

I am convinced. A.

 

[Tigranes]

Guess the Gieloth are playing EU3 with the world.

I agree there's good sense for A, but man, we've been moving and moving and only learning just enough to move some more - as I say, we really need to get a groove going and shape up our powers, etc. 2C would be pretty unwise at the moment, but A could land us in big trouble with Marduk, and possibly with the statuette turning out to be a trick from our favourite Gieloth.

Before we vote though, treave - just what exactly is the current status of Ean's powers? His hunger; his martial and physical prowess; his extrahuman powers like mind-reading; etc.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Before we vote though, treave - just what exactly is the current status of Ean's powers? His hunger; his martial and physical prowess; his extrahuman powers like mind-reading; etc.

Yeah, isn't it about time for another interlude? We didn't have one since the end of chapter two.

Also, voting A.

All B options sound like fun (and B1 could probably also give us enough downtime to rebuild the Honourblade), but we did go to Egypt to find Sekhenun, so let's do that first. But let's try to stay away from Marduk if at all possible.

 

[m4davis]

A

 

[treave]

You missed out on one in Chapter Three because there wasn't much point in making one - depowered. You'll find out more about the hunger as the story progresses. Suffice to say it's not too serious a problem yet. Also, you'll notice that you are weaker than before, and you can no longer rely on the passage of time to continue granting new powers. Without the voices, the mechanics have changed.

Ean, Reawakened Immortal
circa 1900 B.C.

Physical capabilities:

Above peak human capability. Able to wrestle bulls to the ground and run as fast as a deer.

Esoteric powers:

Telepathy – can read emotions from a distance, depending on the intensity and mental strength of the subject. Intentions can be understood in close proximity.

Telekinesis – able to rattle, knock around and levitate objects. The concentration required to use this power precludes the use of any other mental abilities at the same time.

Body manipulation – has developed the ability to control slight changes, such as little wrinkles, slightly differently shaped eyes, hair colour, and other minute modifications to the body.

Elemental manipulation – can perform minor manipulation of fire. The concentration required to use this power precludes the use of any other mental abilities at the same time.

Psionics - able to scramble a person's mind with prolonged physical contact, leaving them in a catatonic state. The concentration required to use this power precludes the use of any other mental abilities at the same time.

Regeneration ability:

Low. Small cuts can fully heal in hours, while more serious wounds may take weeks. Missing parts can take years to recover, depending on the complexity and size of the part.

 

[Baltika9]

+1 on snacking on our way to Babylon, Babylonians or bandits. As I said before, if we want results quickly, we'll have to compromise. Right now, we're heading to a rather powerful Gieloth, who, if I recall correctly, wanted to do some nasty things to our unconscious body. Going there gimped does not sound like a good idea to me.

As for tricks, this whole thing might have been a trick by Sekhenun from the beginning. Think about it: she's an exiled gieloth, Marduk is a rogue gieloth. She is focused on personal survival, and right now Ean is probably less important to her then her life. So, she plays an extremely honorable and idealistic immortal to help her get an artifact (whose purpose we still don't know, by the way, it could be literally anything, even a gieloth creation by Minos) which she will later present to the rogue Marduk, who, by the by, has an Empire where he is God. A theory, one that I hope is wrong. Just, let's be on our guard, bros. Remember, half of us thought Theseus was bro, too.

 

[Baltika9]

snip

Treavebro, that guard we ate at the Tower. Did Ean retain any of his memories. I just want to know if it works that way.

 

[treave]

Oh, about Theseus - here's some plot info that you would've gotten had you stuck around in Greece:

Ariadne fed a love potion (provided by Aphrodite, of course) to Theseus.
You (or rather, Sekhenun) fed a love potion to both Ariadne and Phaedra.
Phaedra blames Ariadne's bewitching of Theseus for your death, and attempts to avenge you by killing her sister.
Theseus kills Phaedra to save Ariadne.
Ariadne leaves with Theseus.

Of course later they stop on an island and some shit happens that breaks Theseus's spell and he is tempted to leave her but since he's already killed Phaedra, he decides abandoning another sister won't solve anything, and so, taking responsibility for Ariadne, brings her all the way to where she is now in Athens.

And then Minos gets huffy and starts a war, primarily over the death of his daughter, and since Theseus is unwilling to give up his cushy throne in Athens to submit to Minos's judgement or to return Ariadne (who doesn't want to go back, but Minos doesn't know that).

edit: No, you don't get people's memories by consuming them. It works on a more visceral level.

 

[Tigranes]

Looks like for all intents and purposes, we're back to where we were when we awakened in Egypt - seeing as our post-earthquake jaunts have resulted in no short-term gains yet.

Still think we should have gone to Athens, and that backstory proves it

 

[treave]

Well, C in this update still brings you to Greece, but the days it took to get back to Egypt, the weeks you spent searching for information, and the weeks it'd take to get back to Greece and the time you'd spend just getting to the people who know about this means that certain events have happened to a certain NPC that was supposed to deliver the plot exposition, so you wouldn't get the full tale. Which is why I just unloaded it earlier, because know that Phaedra's blood is on your hands.

 

[Baltika9]

Oh, about Theseus - here's some plot info that you would've gotten had you stuck around in Greece:

Ariadne fed a love potion (provided by Aphrodite, of course) to Theseus.
You (or rather, Sekhenun) fed a love potion to both Ariadne and Phaedra.
Phaedra blames Ariadne's bewitching of Theseus for your death, and attempts to avenge you by killing her sister.
Theseus kills Phaedra to save Ariadne.
Ariadne leaves with Theseus.

Of course later they stop on an island and some shit happens that breaks Theseus's spell and he is tempted to leave her but since he's already killed Phaedra, he decides abandoning another sister won't solve anything, and so, taking responsibility for Ariadne, brings her all the way to where she is now in Athens.

And then Minos gets huffy and starts a war, primarily over the death of his daughter, and since Theseus is unwilling to give up his cushy throne in Athens to submit to Minos's judgement or to return Ariadne (who doesn't want to go back, but Minos doesn't know that).

edit: No, you don't get people's memories by consuming them. It works on a more visceral level.

So, Theseus was a bro after all. And now some extraterrestrial fucks are mindraping him and forcing him to lead a war that will leave Greece in ruins. And if there really is a master down in Athens, I'll bet he made him immortal too.
Guess we'll just have to hijack an empire and show those soggy cunts whose Terra they're fucking with.

 

[Esquilax]

+1 on snacking on our way to Babylon, Babylonians or bandits. As I said before, if we want results quickly, we'll have to compromise. Right now, we're heading to a rather powerful Gieloth, who, if I recall correctly, wanted to do some nasty things to our unconscious body. Going there gimped does not sound like a good idea to me.

At the moment, I'm in favour of not feeding too much if we can avoid it. If Sekhenun can easily be reached without alerting Marduk, then we won't need to feed much. I want to learn more about our condition before we inadvertently cause serious problems for ourselves. The update told us that he just got finished conquering the Indus Valley, which we knew from before was full of other Immortals. I am hoping that he is still away on campaign, allowing us to reach Sekhenun without too much trouble.

We already killed his two strongest lieutenants, so I am not sure that there are any Gieloth of considerable power left over there besides him. It's been ~85 years since Tjaru, and I'm not sure that's enough time to replace people like that. We went to Egypt 290 years after we slew the two Gieloth Lords of Egypt besides Sekhenun, and even then she couldn't find someone to replace them.

As for tricks, this whole thing might have been a trick by Sekhenun from the beginning. Think about it: she's an exiled gieloth, Marduk is a rogue gieloth. She is focused on personal survival, and right now Ean is probably less important to her then her life. So, she plays an extremely honorable and idealistic immortal to help her get an artifact (whose purpose we still don't know, by the way, it could be literally anything, even a gieloth creation by Minos) which she will later present to the rogue Marduk, who, by the by, has an Empire where he is God. A theory, one that I hope is wrong. Just, let's be on our guard, bros.

I doubt it. She was setting up a ritual before we left for the Labyrinth almost two years ago to restore our powers for when we returned with the statuette. This artifact can't have been that important to Marduk if she went to Babylon without it. Besides, if Sekhenun wanted to present us to Marduk, she easily could have done so a long time ago while we were powerless. No, she definitely needed us for a goal of hers that we have yet to determine.

 

[ScubaV]

A

 

[Bloodshifter]

So, Theseus was a bro after all. And now some extraterrestrial fucks are mindraping him and forcing him to lead a war that will leave Greece in ruins. And if there really is a master down in Athens, I'll bet he made him immortal too.
Guess we'll just have to hijack an empire and show those soggy cunts whose Terra they're fucking with.

Still with the bro stuff? Remind me to bring you with me next time I get shipped out.

B1. we need to learn more about the local problems and start getting back on our feet

OR

C. If Minos's remaining daughter is still under the love potion we could pick her up AND trounce Theseus for being a nob

 

[Storyfag]

A. I want to have a nice long chat with Sekhenun. I was hoping for one during the voyage with Mehrune, but it sadly didn't happen On a related sidenote, treave, how's Ean's access to the memories of the Gieloth whose mind we shattered? It was supposed to improve with time...

 

[Baltika9]

Still with the bro stuff? Remind me to bring you with me next time I get shipped out.

Hell hath no fury like a bro scorned. Before I knew the story I was quite literally going to propose we turn the newly created Honourblade into an Honourspear, pierce him through the ass and roast him over a fire for a new meal.
Which is only marginally worse then what I want to do to him now.
Turns out he was being played by a bitch. Damn.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

B1