Inactive [LP CYOA] Overlord

[archaen]

1.B
2.A
3.B > E > C

 

[ScubaV]

AEB

[Lambchop] I'm pretty sure Zayan is a Theseus in disguise [/Lambchop]

 

[Storyfag]

B
E
B

 

[Kipeci]

BBC

 

[Bibbimbop]

Would the mad genius know anything about bio-alchemy? Would he be able to improve our laboratory?

If so, 3D>A
else 3D>B

As much as I approve of decisive action towards nefarious deeds, I have to go with the options that get us closer to goblin biological experiments. Erdrick wouldn't know what to do in the presence of a normal female, so C is out of the picture entirely.

3D>A then

 

[treave]

Would the mad genius know anything about bio-alchemy?

You would have to ask around more first to find out what exactly Zayan is said to know.

Would he be able to improve our laboratory?

You don't actually have a laboratory at the moment, but Zayan should be able to construct a pretty good laboratory even with your finite resources.

 

[Nevill]

[Lambchop] I'm pretty sure Zayan is a Theseus in disguise [/Lambchop]

But of course he is. I bet he loves his job!

3C>A for Theseus.

I have to go with the options that get us closer to goblin biological experiments. Erdrick wouldn't know what to do in the presence of a normal female, so C is out of the picture entirely.

I see. You want to deprive him of female company so heavily he would switch to 'goblin biological experiments' instead. Cunning.

Tally

Baltika9 A A B>E
Nevill B A>B C>A
Elfberserker B A A
Azira B C C
lightbane B B D>C>A
asxetos B A C>B
Gobblecock B A A
Grimgravy B>A C>D B>A>D
Kz3r0 B C A
Smashing Axe B E>D>B>A A>D>C>B
Jester B A A
archaen B A B>E>C
ScubaV A E B
Storyfag B E B
Kipeci B B D
Greyviper A C A
Lambchop19 B D A>E>B>C

A - 3
B - 14

A - 7
B - 2
C - 4
D - 1
E - 3

A - 7 (9)
B - 5 (6)
C - 3 (1) Nevill, asxetos
D - 2 (1) lightbane

Edit: we got our own snazzy subforum? Sweet!

 

[Bibbimbop]

I see. You want to deprive him of female company so heavily

Before treave changed his post, he let out a pronoun that revealed the secret... that Zayan is a woman. A real female woman. Probably with a vagina even.

 

[Nevill]

That's why I have xir as a secondary vote. With our luck, every major character will be one, Methussian angel included.

Err, I mean, I did it strictly for science!

But that's not really about our sexual preferences and more about overall strategy considerations... with certain bonuses attached.

Frankly, procuring resourses is less of a problem than managing them effectively. That's why I concentrate on our personnel/lieutenants, want to train the kids into proper henchmen, drag Rin everywhere with us so that we could develop a certain camaraderie with our second-in-command (and to smooth some of her more annoying traits), and now try to make something out of Fortunio instead of going for personal power and doing everything by ourselves. From that standpoint, taking a mad genius under our wing is a sensible move.

If there is still a tie by the time votes will need resolving, consider me flopping to 3A.

 

[lightbane]

It seems that only a few want to go to the Adventurer's Guild in order to pick up these dungeon cleaning quests, even though before some people wanted to turn the CYOA into a text-based Diablo combat fest. Hypocrisy, schizophrenia or simply lack of consistency? No-one knows. Either way, it doesn't matter how many female companions Erd gets, because he'll never get any. That's part of an elaborate plan to increase his frustration to the point he switches to full-time villany, I'm sure.

 

[Kipeci]

Thinking about it again, I'll flop to BBD. Since we aren't so much into disguising ourselves, being in close contact with folks is maybe not the best option and we should go for more the fighting type sorts of things. Our guy is definitely a good adventurer, at any rate, and if we can pull off any monsters we find into our own private army we'd be in a good set-up.

Also, we need to level up Lucy!

 

[GreyViper]

ACA

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

BDA>BDE>BDB>BDC - it's a tough choice. Robbing the shipment would be fun, but we'd need to sell it or know what to do with it and the inventor is best way to know what to do with it. Of course, being lazy is an option. Then there is the tutoring thing - which may just be another cow...

 

[Bibbimbop]

Flopping to 2A... but meekly waiting in line is not our suscipiously... flamboyant... style.

At the customs house, use our high charisma and the Royal Signet Ring. Ask aloud in a stage whisper, "I wonder what Farland Yuiry would think of these bureacrats' job performance if he knew his close friends were made to wait like a mere peasant!" and wiggle the signet ring on our fingers at the official. Demand a discount for the inconvenience of being treated like a peasant. In China, if you know a high official, you never pay full price for anything. I'm guess any hierarchical authoritarian system is likewise.

Flopping to 3A, as well. The adventurers guild was also the place to sell our equipment, though:

The villagers and I have scrounged up whatever was not taken by the raiders, and we have managed to come up with this…” Respectfully, he hands you a bag of jangling coins. There does not seem to be much, and it is not very heavy. “Ten silver coins… it is not much, and a bit below the going rate for the Adventurer’s Guild… but it is all we can spare at the moment, sir.”

 

[Nevill]

Can we have our money displayed under the items section?

you leave the Great Fortunio and his surviving ten men with your painstakingly tallied haul of 3 gold, 42 silver and 407 copper coins

As far as I understand we now have an equivalent of 8607 Methussian coppers, 1000 of which came from Erise and the rest from the bandits. Or, if the metal is important, 3 gold, 52 silver and 407 copper coins.

I really hope the kingdoms have a common currency, though, for simplicity's sake.

 

[treave]

Rumours of Zayan

That guy with the hat. It was perhaps, in hindsight, inevitable. Though you tried to pass it off as being a stranger from a strange land, those excuses only drew compliments at just how good you are at speaking the local language. Rin’s ability to attract the eyes of every man on the street just by walking past, even with her head covered by a shawl, does not help. So, that guy with the hat, and his pretty companion. Also with twins and a goblin slave.

Slaves. There were a lot of those here. Slavery had been a rarity back in the Seven Kingdoms, an endeavor reserved mainly for punishment of law-breakers. You had not seen any slaves in Erise either, but judging from Ontoglia, and from Runde’s story, they would be fairly common in the more urban regions. The slaves are mainly human, a good mix of locals and foreigners from the looks of it, while non-human slaves are in the minority. You had spotted a few goblins running little errands around the tiered streets of Ontoglia, but they kept their cowed heads down and did not even look at Runde. There was also a strange slave working at the smithy – a well-muscled man with a feral, toothy scowl, twitching animal ears and a great big bushy tail, plus a bit more fur than is normal about his arms: Runde tells you that he is a beastman, one of the more numerous non-human races.

You note that minus the tail, and should he be a bit more brutish looking and green, he could very well be an orc. There are similarities and differences, just like the goblins of this world and those of yours.

Interestingly, although the duties of the slaves mostly involve mundane housekeeping tasks, as well as general labour, the miners were all apparently free men. It seems to be a strange quirk borne of an ancient Methussian law – carelessly decreed by some well-meaning king, you hear – that has never been rescinded: simply put, in Ontoglia, each man owns what he can mine with his own two hands. Minus the assorted taxes, tributes, and other payments of a bureaucratic nature, of course. The law’s nature prohibits slaves from mining for themselves, as they are not to own anything, and they are unable to mine for their masters, as they must be able to own what they mine. Regardless of the law’s effect on slaves, it has not stopped various groups of miners from banding together, pooling their resources, sharing the profits and laying claim to vast stretches of tunnels… but all in all, any structure that exists appears to be highly informal.

And all of this will not last.

When you asked around about Zayan, there were a lot of rumours.

Zayan has created a flying machine and flown to the moon. Zayan has unlocked the secrets of eternal life. Zayan has created a new species of cat that can eat grass and shit gold. Zayan has, apparently, done a lot of things since constructing a gadget that burnt an invading Byarlantian fleet to cinders fifty years ago, ending a particularly nasty skirmish between the Gran Byarlant Empire and Dijeh.

But a lot of the more believable rumours focused overwhelmingly on why the inventor was here. Thirty years ago, Zayan constructed the large elevator at the base of Mount Asteronto. It had served as a basis for the smaller lifts that now line the sides of the great pit, increasing productivity by quite a bit. You had also learnt that those lifts were not owned by any of the miners, but by the governor, and by extension the kingdom. Apparently though the law guaranteed that each man owned what he mined, it did not promise that each man would be given all the help needed to carry out what he mined, free of charge.

Now Zayan is back, and the word on the street is that the old inventor has returned to display another strange machine. This time it would be a magnatite-powered mining machine, a moving contraption that would bore tunnels through the earth while sifting through it to extract ores. It would pose a significant challenge to the words of the old law: can a man operating such a machine be said to mine with his own hands? To say that the miners are incredibly uneasy about this would be an understatement, but it remained firmly a rumour: such a thing would have to be physically large to carry out its work, and not a single miner has seen even a simple cog from the rumoured machine even though they go through the tunnels every day. Yet the rumour persists, for some reason.

A haze of worry and uncertainty continues to hang over the miners, and it will likely remain until the rumours are either confirmed or dispelled, and Zayan has left town.

As you wonder if it all means anything, and whether it will help you find Zayan, you turn into an alleyway and go down some stairs. At the bottom, you find yourself standing in front of a disused tunnel. The place is deserted. You are alone here, except for the hooded person that had been following you ever since you left the bar. Best to have no witnesses if you need to dispose of some spooks.

“You have been asking a lot about Zayan, haven’t you? What is your interest in that person?”

The voice’s pitch is mellow, soft. Could be a woman. Could be a young boy.

“I like smart people. Can’t blame me for being interested in the one who has been hailed as the smartest person in the world.”

“That makes me very curious indeed. You bear the smell of an inhuman monster. That rules out Barzam. You could be the alleged angel working for Methuss, but I find it hard to believe a dreaded weapon of war would be fishing for rumours in a tavern. You might be Galbaldian, but I doubt it for a very important reason.”

“Oh? Why is that?” You turn around, looking at the person that has accosted you. It is a woman – probably, it is hard to make out under the dimming light, and you had been unfortunately fooled before – with messy brown hair underneath that hood, and a pair of round quartz lenses perched on her nose. The quartz is smoked and dark, rendering you unable to see her eyes. Still, she does not seem – again, you had been unfortunately fooled before – to look older than thirty.

“When you were talking to that miner at the bar. I heard you speak in fluent Dijehnese, while he responded normally in Methussian… as if he was hearing you speaking his language. That is very curious indeed.” A cat-like grin spreads across her face. “That effect is not from any existing spell that I am aware of, and Galbaldian muscle-head agents do not have that sort of mastery over magic. Now, of the major powers, that leaves Byarlant, but I am rather certain you are not with them. Their spies would be less obvious, though of course they would not escape my eyes all the same. Does this analysis satisfy you?” She finishes with a labored sigh, as if being forced to repeat the obvious to an ignorant child.

“You left out the part of the analysis where you explained what those men want with you.” Six rough looking men are standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at you like predators eyeing their prey. They do not seem to be here for a chat.

“It is a tragically shameful miscalculation on my part, but I have been cornered,” sighs the woman. “My name, if you have not guessed already, which I surely hope you have, is Zayan Matroube Reshia XIII, Zayan the Thirteenth. Those men are working for the governor, obviously. If they take me back, I will suffer a fate worse than death. Thank you for helping me, by the way.” She appears to have jumped to an unwarranted conclusion, but you let it pass.

“Hey, the man with that strange hat over there,” calls out one of the men. “That woman is a wanted criminal and con artist. Don’t trust anything she says. The guv’s just put out a bounty on her head.”

“It looks like I can walk out of this if I just hand you over,” you say to the woman who claims to be Zayan.

“They will probably silence you just to be sure. And I don’t mean monetarily.”

You glance at them. “Come now, guys, you heard what she said. Would you really do that?”

“O-Of course not! If you return her, you will be handsomely rewarded by the guv!” They don’t seem too convincing to you, but they might just be nervous in general.

“With that most ironic of traditional rewards, your own head on a platter,” she drawls.

“Woman! Stop spouting nonsense!”

***

A. You hand the woman over to the men. A lot less trouble that way. If she is truly Zayan, you will figure out a way to meet her again afterwards. There is too little information to act on at the moment.

B. You grab the woman and run. Killing people here would just create bodies that would be a bother to clean up. A few jumps and an invisibility spell will be enough to lose them.

C. They will remember your hat. They cannot leave this alley alive. You will bury them, then interrogate the woman afterwards.

 

[lightbane]

Ah, so Methus fully condones slavery. Moreover, chances are non-human slaves are treated worse than human ones. Perhaps we assisted the wrong side during the Erise battle, or did we? Changing the topic:

[Intelligence] That woman is clearly not completely human if she was able to detect us through smell. She has to be a beast-woman, a cat-lady most likely (and probably too old for Erd's interest). That thing will need to be fixed somehow, be it with cologne or a powerful illusory spell. Either way:

B>A. Let's see how fast can Erd move and/or use his bullshitting skills at full force (although I believe a simple application of Maximized Sleep would be enough to walk away without worries).

By the way, where are the twins, Runde and Rin? I assume they're waiting for us at the tavern.

 

[Smashing Axe]

C>A

I don't want to be outlawed just yet. And with A we can gather more information, which is always good.

 

[asxetos]

C. Make it sudden, quick and silent.

 

[Nevill]

Zayan has created a new species of cat that can eat grass and shit gold.

We absolutely, absolutely must have those!

“My name, if you have not guessed already, which I surely hope you have, is Zayan Matroube Reshia XIII, Zayan the Thirteenth.

In other news, I think the position of being 'Zayan' is probably hereditary. The tales of 'his' exploits 50 years ago and possibly beyond that surely don't refer to the same person. However, there is no indication that this woman is the one we seek, safe for her greater than average intelligence, insufferable manners, and apparent Dijeh origins.

She could be a granddaughter/experiment of Zayan, here to ensure the scientist's cooperation. Either way, we will have what we wanted if we take the woman with us., which is always the right solution.

Naturally, we have no need of witnesses. C.

Now Zayan is back, and the word on the street is that the old inventor has returned to display another strange machine. This time it would be a magnatite-powered mining machine, a moving contraption that would bore tunnels through the earth while sifting through it to extract ores. It would pose a significant challenge to the words of the old law: can a man operating such a machine be said to mine with his own hands? To say that the miners are incredibly uneasy about this would be an understatement, but it remained firmly a rumour: such a thing would have to be physically large to carry out its work, and not a single miner has seen even a simple cog from the rumoured machine even though they go through the tunnels every day. Yet the rumour persists, for some reason.

The plot here is interesting, though I can't yet grasp it in full. I understand the governor's desire to lay his hands on such a machine - I imagine the place would be fairly different if not for that pesky law. I wonder if we can't profit off these tensions somewhat - by giving him that machine, eventually, or by selling him a defective variant down the road that would prompt a large-scale disaster. Regardless, his obsession with it should come in handy.

 

[Bibbimbop]

A MILF that keeps herself in shape. I wreck these like a Mayan prophecy on the reg. Let us go Casanova on her. Women never are charmed at hearing what they know confidently, but what they are unsure of. Let's pretended to inflamed at her physical assets. (Even if she is plain when revealed... this is about getting a mad genius girl addicted to our cock as a means of dominating her, not satisfying our own libido. Secretly, we still prefer boys.)

Oh, right, the dudes...

C. Just thugs, sleep spell and throat slit.

 

[treave]

By the way, where are the twins, Runde and Rin? I assume they're waiting for us at the tavern.

The twins are gathering information by themselves, Runde is chatting up the non-human slaves, and I forgot to mention this, but Rin is your shadow.

 

[a bear named spigot]

demand she solve a tricky riddle in order to obtain our assistance

 

[Azira]

Rin will probably be upset if we don't leave any for her. Too bad.

C>B

 

[Jester]

C. They will remember your hat. They cannot leave this alley alive. You will bury them, then interrogate the woman afterwards.

NO ONE MESSES WITH THE HAT!