Inactive [LP CYOA] Overlord

[Baltika9]

Yeah, you're right. The Guvna won't like it, but, who are we kidding, that's how this relationship will work. Flopping to BA1, gives us time to fix our Muh Dik, too.

 

[TOME]

The Golden Snake will (again, assuming our risk-taking here works) feed him some choice bits of false information to buy us time.

I envisioned that the band of adventurers would feed him false information after the governor has turned them. It's not as believable as the Golden Snake giving the info but it should buy some time nevertheless.

 

[lightbane]

The woman can persuade any man that the sky is green with but a few chemical ingredients. If she wanted to, she could swindle a merchant of his stock and he would only smile sheepishly as his sweetheart leaves the shop with jewelry sticking out of her pockets.

I believe you're underestimating the absolute power merchants wield in jrpgs. Some are known for being able to insta-kill with deathrays green-clothed adventurers who tried to steal them. Others are capable of transmuting whatever you sell them into gold. Then there are those who casually sell masks possessed by evil spirits, but are also able to spontaneously summon instruments from thin air. And then there was one who even in death still continued to sell you shit while chilling out in the other world. For these reasons I would say not even Golden Snake could piss off a merchant and live to tell the tale. But I may be exaggerating a little bit. Either way, sadly none of these superhuman abilities apply for Erdrick... Yet.

 

[Nevill]

Anyways, I find the thought of attempting to torture info out of her kind of pointless. She's not the one we're worried about, the person we're concerned most with is the Duke:

It is generally assumed that his right hand would know quite a bit about his dealings (which we might want to know of if we plan to overthrow or blackmail him), and that if she does not report, the Duke would have no information to act upon. So both plans have merit.

I am fine with this outcome, though, and I will flop to BA1 to clinch it. I will be blaming Esquilax for any complications that might arise. And if all goes well, I will be attributing the success to Baltika9.

It's not as believable as the Golden Snake giving the info

Especially if she goes missing for inexplicable reasons. But she seems like the type who does whatever she wants, so with a lot on his plate the Duke might simply ignore it.

By the way, what do you guys intend her to say to the Duke? We don't even know what their job was, and we don't really have the knowledge of any groups we can blame (except Nine Fingers, I guess, which would be unwise). And what exactly would we blame them for? Is the magnatite loss supposed to become Duke's knowledge? Golden Snake mentioned that she will tell enough to make the Duke happy, but for what purpose did he send a team of 17 agents here to spy on the Governor and what did he want to hear in the first place?

Perhaps it would be better to run our possible disinformation through the Governor before pulling something out of our ass, if only not to sink him by accident.

Tally

Storyfag A B1
Azira A B1
Nevill B A1
Baltika9 B A1
Lambchop19 A Bx
lightbane B A1
ScubaV B B1
TOME A A1
Kz3r0 A A1
Grimgravy A A1
Kipeci B Ax
Esquilax B A2
archaen B A1
Elfberserker B A2
Jester B A2

A - 6
B - 9

A1 - 7
A2 - 3
Ax - 1
B1 - 3
Bx - 1

 

[Baltika9]

Actually, if we want Snake to weave a good yarn to the Duke, shouldn't we let her team go, too?

 

[Nevill]

Actually, if we want Snake to weave a good yarn to the Duke, shouldn't we let her team go, too?

That's what not killing them does, I assume.

The Governor will get an understanding with those he can, and will kill off those he can't persuade (though I assume none of them have personal loyalty to the Duke, and most of them are near death and require medical care to survive - care that no one but the Governor can provide). Those who do not achieve an understanding are the party poopers who might contradict their leader's story. The rest are the ones that can be trusted to go along with whatever story is convenient for us.

This way the team doesn't vanish in thin air (which is what Esquilax seems to regard as suspect - isn't the whole point of your plan to play-pretend that nothing went wrong?), and the Duke still has the impression that he has reliable agents stationed in the city.

 

[Baltika9]

I figure that letting both them and the Snake go means they will stick together. That's her unit, after all, right?

 

[Nevill]

I figure that letting both them and the Snake go means they will stick together

You count on the Snake being intrigued by us to make her give Hargreave a false report.

How certain are you that other members of her unit are similarly intrigued?

We might have 'convinced'/'influenced' her, but the rest of them require a bit more polish before they can be trusted not to rat us out.

 

[Baltika9]

Fair point, but I think that a stone cold psycho like her didn't stay in the business long enough to become a duke's right hand by being soft.
If this is truly 'her' team, as this quote seems to imply:

“That gives me tingles, handsome. You certainly have a way with words,” she giggles. “Say, I am being serious here. Won’t you let me go? You’ve certainly proved your power. I would not dare cross anyone who can defeat my Snakes with a single spell, not for all the riches in the world.”

Then I think they're smart enough to let the boss lady do the talking.
And whatever she tells the Duke, it will be much more believable if she has a whole group nodding their heads while she's talking.
I dunno, not having her team present makes me think she'll be limited on how much bullshit she can believably dump on Hargreave.

 

[Nevill]

If this is truly 'her' team, as this quote seems to imply:

You seem to be under impression that she cares for them - or for you - enough to bother with convincing them to play along as double agents - an act that could potentially damn them. The Duke does not look like a magnanimous man.

As unlikely as it may be, they might also give you leverage against the Golden Snake.

Your quote indicates her love for her own skin, and little else. In the end, they are secret agents and assassins. I don't expect them to be very caring towards each other. I don't think she would even raise an eyebrow if we killed them on the spot.

And whatever she tells the Duke, it will be much more believable if she has a whole group nodding their heads while she's talking.

As if the Duke is interested in talking with field agents. That's what commanders are for.

The whole group will be nodding their heads once the Governor is through with them, in the event anyone wants to cross-reference her words for whatever reason.

I dunno, not having her team present makes me think she'll be limited on how much bullshit she can believably dump on Hargreave.

Isn't it the other way around? When there is no one to conradict her, and she is in a position of trust as a right-hand woman, there is no limit to the bullshit she can spin?

Look, here's an example for you. If you threw away your hat and talked to the Guvnor, he'd shrug it off. He is already resigned to doing whatever would keep his daughter safe. Selling his soul? Sure. Working with an angel? Why not? If anything, there are more chances of success if your partner is powerful in his own right. He would keep it a secret and would not report it to anyone that needs not know.

But would you do that on the Ontoglia streets because it's 'his city' and because he is supposed to be the one in control? (No, Kipeci, I am not asking you, sorry.) Would you expect him to contain the rumors and keep everything under wraps if you blatantly disregard basic common sense? It would be easier for him not to hide the fact and act like one would expect him to act when faced with an angel in the city.

Why do you expect it to be different with the Snake and 'her team'?

 

[Baltika9]

Yeah, you're right. I figured she'd be making a report to the Duke and he'd ask her something like, 'and what of your team?' But she's a smart girl and I wanted to throw my doubt out there just in case, rather than regret not bringing it up, later.

 

[treave]

*discards draft of A winning and begins to work on B* It'll be up within the hour.

 

[Nevill]

We missed on our Naga Queen companion, did we?

The Guvna won't like it, but, who are we kidding, that's how this relationship will work. Flopping to BA1, gives us time to fix our Muh Dik, too.

Missed that one. Your relationship only works because your dick doesn't. At least, that's how it is now.

 

[Azira]

Tsk. Flip-floppers postponing updates again. I blame you, Nevill

 

[Nevill]

You only have yourself to blame. I couldn't possibly let the Kodexian Kannibal Klub slice limbs off cute girls, now could I?

 

[Baltika9]

No, it's Esquilax's fault. His honeyed words made me miss my second chance at a hawt snake woman.
Is there no end to that equine rabbit's depravity?

 

[treave]

Last Weeks

“Your professed love aside, I would like to believe that you are someone I can work with, Golden Snake. Should I call you that, or do you have a real name?”

“You may call me Shara,” she says pleasantly. “Do not worry, the very idea of disappointing you pains me to the bone. I shudder at the thought, handsome, truly.”

“We will see about that. What are you going to tell the Duke when you return?”

“Let’s see… perhaps a powerful magical beast attacked and killed everyone but me?”

“A… beast? He would buy that?”

“He would not, but he would have little choice. And he is busy at the moment. Besides, that is close to the truth, is it not, you beast?” You cannot see it from behind her mask, but you are sure that she must be winking lasciviously.

***

You have her tell the Duke that:

A. The Byarlantians were involved, and she encountered Archmage Julius Gallardo in this place, trying to wheedle his way deeper into Methussian politics by holding Ellen hostage.

B. The Barzamites were the ones present here, attempting to control the Governor by pretending to be able to heal Ellen’s eyes with their faith.

C. The Galbaldians were trying to blackmail the Governor by kidnapping his daughter. Shara and her men fought the greedy mercenaries off valiantly.

D. Amesdan the Bold, one of the more notable adventurers in the kingdom, was responsible for this fiasco. As with a lot of other things.

E. You were here, planning to blackmail the Governor or to make him submit to you by force, whichever worked best, and that Shara managed to save him from your clutches.

F. Her story works best for you: a magical beast will be a sufficient tale. In fact, you can blame that magical beast on the Dark Lord that the weird black slime was working for, whoever that idiot is.

***

Upon settling your business with the Governor and bidding a fond farewell to Ellen, who had remained blissfully naïve thanks to more applications of the Sleep spell at the Governor’s request, you return to Grahferde with your magnatite in tow. There is more than enough for Zayan’s needs, but as she cannot be everywhere at once, you ask her to focus on:

A. An early-warning network of magical wards and runes that will blanket Grahferde and the surrounding forest, with built-in defenses that can injure or kill trespassers.

B. Production of several portable summoning circles, allowing easier and more convenient mass teleportation.

C. Building a second regeneration pod, which amplifies healing magic and allows for mass regeneration of living tissue. It seems that it can also be used to grow food in a pinch.

D. A magical shield generator that creates a protective force field around the village when activated.

E. An improved spellarm – the weapon you saw the Barzamite commander use to block your Lightning Spear back in Erise. It allows you to store spells and cast them later without use of mana.

***

On your part, you decide to:

A. Take some time to train Aria and Arlin personally. You are slightly intrigued in what they may achieve.

B. Practice more with Barbatos and the Way of the Fist.

C. Head out to the capital to investigate the temple and the Adventurer’s Guild. There isn’t much time left before the window of opportunity closes.

D. Delve deeper into spell research.
I. Focus on the spells of this world: the healing, illusion, and enchantment spells.
II. Focus on your offensive elemental spells, attempting to develop other elemental equivalents to Gigadyne.
III. Focus on your defensive spells, attempting to improve upon what you have based on the enemies that you have encountered so far.
IV. Focus on improving your teleportation spell by asking Rin about her particular variant.

E. Oversee one of the magnatite projects, allowing a second project to be conducted with minimal help required from Zayan.
I. An early-warning network of magical wards and runes that will blanket Grahferde and the surrounding forest, with built-in defenses that can injure or kill trespassers.
II. Production of several portable summoning circles, allowing easier and more convenient mass teleportation.
III. Building another regeneration pod, which amplifies healing magic and allows for mass regeneration of living tissue. It seems that it can also be used to grow food in a pinch.
IV. A magical shield generator that creates a protective force field around the village when activated.
V. An improved spellarm – the weapon you saw the Barzamite commander use to block your Lightning Spear back in Erise. It allows you to store spells and cast them later without use of mana.

 

[Nevill]

A. The Byarlantians were involved, and she encountered Archmage Julius Gallardo in this place, trying to wheedle his way deeper into Methussian politics by holding Ellen hostage.

B. The Barzamites were the ones present here, attempting to control the Governor by pretending to be able to heal Ellen’s eyes with their faith.

Haha, no. I suspect the Byarlant and/or Barzam working with the Prince or the Duke. Byarlant is more likely.

Galbaldians could work, but that leaves a question of how Ellen restored her sight. Amesdan would prompt the Adventurer's Guild to investigate the accusations if they ever went public. Our own involvement would work, too - but isn't it what we are trying to hide?

Looks like Bullshit Beast is the best we can come up with.

But there is always Esquilax to ask for ideas.

B. Production of several portable summoning circles, allowing easier and more convenient mass teleportation.
Now that we have several locations, including Ontoglia and the secret forest, we would benefit from a system that would allow us to move our forces between them. Mobility is key.

It would also help if people 'from the other side' could send us a warning of some sort to notify us whenever our intervention is needed. That use alone should be one of our priorities. After all, if something isn't right in Ontoglia, we can't expect the Governor to send us a message now. He doesn't know where or how to find us.

And it would be nice to receive an alarm if anything goes down in Grahferde in our absense.

I wonder if it can't be used to produce a communication device down the line, too, but that's a thing for the future.

C>DIV>A. Head out to the capital to investigate the temple and the Adventurer’s Guild. There isn’t much time left before the window of opportunity closes.
While I don't hold much hope for something to come out of it now that so much time has been spent elsewhere, I still regard it as an important mission.

If not, then furthering our teleportation capabilities should suffice. The spell is broken.

If that fails, too, then I can settle on improving our officer corps.

 

[treave]

Haha, no. I suspect the Byarlant and/or Barzam working with the Prince or the Duke. Byarlant is more likely.

It makes it so that the Duke has to either question his right-hand woman's loyalty and trustworthiness, or throw a potential spanner in the works for his involvement with other nations. Either would suit Erdrick just fine. The other choices also have similar, potential long-term ramifications.

Our own involvement would work, too - but isn't it what we are trying to hide?

For example, you take the blame and the Governor gets less of it because you can easily shoulder more of the blame - who can make you answer for what you do? While they are distracted with Trider being an asshole and blackmailing people, Ontoglia gets breathing time to prepare.

 

[ScubaV]

Wow, I forsee a lot of DISCUSS, but probably not as bad as Legend's training with Zhang Jue interlude. +1 swords guize!!!

 

[Nevill]

For example, you take the blame and the Governor gets less of it because you can easily shoulder more of the blame

And then Ontoglia goes out of the Duke's sphere of influence while remaining in the Methussian one (I don't suppose the Governor wants to make it a city-state separate from Methuss, or does he?), and our connection with him is plain for everyone to see (through Zayan and Ellen).

The Governor may be able to defy a Duke, but can he defy a Crown Prince? What about the rest of the royalty who are displeased with us?

I just don't see it ending well for Ontoglia. Granted, ever after our involvement I can see very few outcomes that would.

Edit: 'dose 5 seconds posts... I should get in a habit of quoting them.

 

[Kz3r0]

B.A.D.II

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

C>D>F
D>B
C

We don't have much time left. Let's use this opportunity to investigate these adventurers and the temple while we can.

 

[Azira]

1E>A Ellen's eyes have healed. Call me petty, but I'd rather that Erd takes the credit than the archmage, but hey. It's not paramount for me.
2A>D
3DIII>DII>DI>B>A Screw investigation. The time has come for bettering ourself.

 

[lightbane]

Well, that went better than expected. I foresee this Shara woman will visit us again at some point to give us a friendly backstab hug. And perhaps a little more (that reminds me: isn't Erd 19? Wouldn't he be considered a bit too young for some women?). Also, perhaps I missed the memo, but why would someone try to blind Eileen again if her recovery is discovered?

Anyway, time to vote (and wait a week or two until the DISCUSS! dies down):

The Duke:
The magical beast thing is not bad, but I believe that could be improved. treave, would these two options be kosher?

G. A strange black slime humanoid calling himself Kek proclaims that his master, the Dark Lord, did it. And that his attempt at kidnapping Eileen is his declaration of war against the human kingdoms.
H. A foxmorph beastman from Luna called Shulgi says they did it because humanity are a bunch of hairless monkeys that deserve to die. Also, the representative added that the Crown Prince cannot lift even if his life depended on it.

Blaming the Dark Lord could be a potentially good idea, there is evidence about the black slimes which could be used as proof for our reasoning, plus we would be weakening one of our future overlord rivals.

If that's not an option, then I vote for 1.B>D>F.

Magnetite troubles:
Odd, I thought it was mentioned somewhere Zayan would be able to complete all of these projects after some time after whe went to Ontoglia for the first time. In any case, here I vote for:

2. D.

Erdrick decides to spend his time to do something useful for once:

Tough choices, most of them are good. However, there's something I wish to ask: treave, should we return to the temple, would we go alone or accompanied this time?

Hmm, I'm sure there's something missing. Ah yes, I found it. I wouldn't be surprised if Erd considered doing one of these.

F: You spend some time getting to know Zayan. She's the closest thing to an "intimate relationship" you ever had. Besides, what can go wrong with wooing a mad scientist?
G: You spend some time getting to know Rin. She'll probably appreciate it if you show concern for her. Besides, you wonder if she can teach you to fly with your new wings.
H: You spend some time getting to know Aria. IF she's old enough to marry, then... Hey, who are you guys? And what's that about a "party van"?
I: You spend these weeks attempting to learn everything you can about angels and/or reading erotic books from Methuss. Surely if you try hard enough you can find something that even Angels will react to.
J: You ask Zayan to tell you everything she knows about this world in order to make a map and categorize each race. Should she ask about your origins, you'll tell her you're about a far away place, but that you accidentally hit your head while you were visiting Grahferde, which caused temporal amnesia that made you forget where do you come from.
K: You do nothing. Hard work is hard. It's been too long since you practiced your devotion to the God of Sloth and lazyness.

There. I doubt any of these will be considered seriously though, so for this choice I vote for:

3. A>DI>DIII>DIV (only if 2B doesn't win, otherwise ignore it)>EI.

I wonder what kind of training will Erdrick do that takes so much time and/or if said training will be humiliating/dangerous for the twins. Besides, Rin may get interested and join in after a while.

Vote summary:
1.B>D>F.
2. D.
3. A>DI>DIII>DIV (only if 2B doesn't win, otherwise ignore it)>EI.