[LP CYOA] Pilgrimage

[Kayerts]

I will vote 1 and 6 as per the VITRIOL motto. That is the hint given by root, who obviously wants nothing bad to happen.

 

[Storyfag]

trust Root

Anyhow, I do have certain reservations about picking 6. The two trogs tailing us will tell on us. I'd be all for 6 if we had means of disposing of them, even if only for a time. For now it's best to do stuff that won't make the Lord overly suspicious of us.

 

[Storyfag]

How would we go about that? How good do we consider our odds of success?

 

[Rumsfeld]

OK, 1 - 6 for me too.

Herbalism, dueling and troglodyte studying all have some appeal, but we're in this ancient fortress with sealed-off areas and interesting clues as to its past - how can we not explore further now that we have the chance?

 

[Esquilax]

Also, may I ask what made you think the Lord is some sort of telepath?

God took pity on the aimless creatures devoured by the dark and so told his angels to sing them a song that would keep the fire ever burning, though the angels’ own lives would slowly wither away for they imbued the song with their own inner fire. Their bodies, consumed by the flame they kept alive, turned to ash and slowly drifted down to the resting place of the Fallen One. I must have wondered some of this aloud because the Lord turns to me and says that he’s seen enough of the world to know the empty pieties the Church spouts. I shrug. He does not seem distraught by my faith, and unlike his own troglodytes and even Alia, he demands no worship from me.

Looking at it again, I might have fucked up. This is just a coincidence that he happened to say something related to what we were thinking. I think that the Lord might have a little bit of actual power, but a lot of it is simple parlor tricks as well. After all, we have a potential for sorcery that he apparently doesn't possess.

Anyhow, I do have certain reservations about picking 6. The two trogs tailing us will tell on us. I'd be all for 6 if we had means of disposing of them, even if only for a time. For now it's best to do stuff that won't make the Lord overly suspicious of us.

Two of the hardier troglodytes, some of the few who can stand the sunlight, are on me at all times. I can’t slip their notice, and even if I did, they’d sniff out my trail.

Great observation, I missed that. They might be dumb, but they have a strong sense of smell and they know how to follow a trail, so we can't underestimate them either. Here is how I see the choices synergising with 6:

1: I don't see how becoming an awesome alchemist will help us successfully evade the trogs and really explore the hidden places around us and uncover clues of its history, as well as the power behind The Lord.
2: There's a lot that we can do here. The forest is full of plants, and studying more herbalism might yield a few tricks so that we can explore further (i.e. a concoction to mask our scent, or something to knock these dumbfucks out for a hours while we map out the area)
3: I don't think we'll get much out of this. Even if we know their language, the trogs are still devoted to Kurze, so making friends with them is out.
4: This needs to be subtle, I don't see how combat will help us here.
5: The trogs view Alia with barely contained lust, so if we teamed up with her, she could probably distract them long enough or us to explore.

I also have some random thoughts and musings about the knowledge of our surroundings and of the Lord:

“I had a son, once, you know. In the High Castle.”
....
“He was…unnatural. Issus would have never given him his blessing.”

The last Lord in the High Castle, however, was a pious and devout man who worked to bring the city back under the Church’s wings. He cast out the whores and vendors from the places of worship, cracked down on banditry and required all mercenary companies to enlist as militia or leave. This was before the darkness, and Issus holds the man was a prophet in his own right to have foreseen what was to come. The citadel was rechristened to Eaglerock and it thrived, after a fashion

... some sort of tapestry made on rock. The first scene depicts two towers cracking and crumbling. The second scene depicts people around what looks like a bonfire throwing something at it. The third scene shows the two towers, what I assume to be the Twin Holds, rising from the ground and made whole again. The fourth scene shows a man bearing what looks like a torch bright as the sun and people shying away from it. The fifth scene I can’t quite make out, but the people seem to have gathered around the man as he throws the torch away, perhaps? There’s a sixth panel I have no time to take in

I think that his son's birth was the catalyst for Kurze's fall from grace. The boy was probably deformed or considered to be some sort of abomination. I'm also speculating here, but I think that the tapestry shows that fall as well. Kurze used to be a pious man, and in the fourth scene of the mural, the man is holding the Flame, but the people surrounding him are the ones shying away from it - this was before the world turned to shit, which means that he was a devout man among people who were not. But in the following scene it's the exact opposite; you have the man throwing the Flame away (casting it away in anger?), but the people are gathered around him - people typically gather around their leaders. The first three scenes are history from before his time.

The other clue we have to the true power behind The Lord's facade is this:

“You brought me here. Gave me this blight. Let them take me.”

“I did?”

“The statue. It spoke with your voice.”

“A likeness of a thing is not the thing itself. That…statue, as you call it, speaks with many voices. One for every devotee. “

 

[Jaedar]

I think deciphering the meaning of the mural would be cool. Alas I cannot do it.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The bark’s a folk remedy for fever, but everyone in the Duskhold has a fever.

And the only prescription

is more cowbell

 

[Kz3r0]

The Twin Holds crumbling?

 

[Random Word]

I'm going to wildly guess he takes up something new - an idol, a torch of black flame, something else entirely? - and the people kneel before it, twisted into something that looks like the troglodytes. Then again, this frieze may predate the Lord's fall and tell an old church myth - perhaps the torch catches everything alight when discarded.

 

[Kipeci]

The man threw the torch away so that everyone could have an ice cream party without being afraid that it would melt.

 

[Esquilax]

root, does the entire mural also predate the world going to shit? I assume that some parts were made before the apocalypse, some parts after.

Before we try and guess at what the sixth scene could be, let's try and determine what the first five are and why. Here's my attempt for the first five scenes:

1: Okay, in the first scene the towers are cracked and broken. Historically, this area suffered lots of raids and attacks:

The twin towers of the Dawnhold and Duskhold were once one of the wonders of the world, the twin sentinels of the Mirthwater that fended off the raids of the Yatl in a bygone era, protected the river and the estuary from pirates and brigands, where men of all walks of life proudly came to serve as soldiers, guardians to the Great River and the Holy Mountain.

When the Lord first came to be in charge of Eaglerock, his predecessor was a libertine, not a pious man. This is a metaphor for weak faith, a warning of the dangers of LIBRULISM:

A libertine, he converted the fortified citadel into a place for rest and resupply for pilgrims, travelers, for all and sundry who had any interest to see the Mountain up close without being in any actual danger. Brothels, taverns, thieves’ den and mercenary guilds all prospered under his rule and the rule of his sons after him.

2: People surrounding a fire, throwing something at it. I don't know what exactly they're throwing, but the whole scene to me implies a group of people living in debauchery and sin. I think that this refers to the time of the Old Church that Issus alluded to before we went to the shrine and ended up in this lovely place:

‘The shrine holds power, it’s true, but not the sort I’d go after, pilgrim. It’s a relic of the old church, from the time where power mattered more than understanding. No good will come of it.”

“The old church?”

“Aye. That shrine was raised before the schism and the conclave, when the priesthood was rooted in old beliefs. That God was not a state of grace, but merely the highest in the hierarchy of spirits. It was a shamanic thing, and profoundly ignorant at that. God was seen as the power most great, you see, in the place where all gods dwelt.”

Issus touches his prayer beads and looks down, as if embarrassed. The candlelight plays shapes upon his face, his features turning into a waxen mask.

“The Dhulma.”

“Yes. We once believed the dark could give shape to things, both good and evil. Nonsense. The dark is a non-place and what emanates from it are non-things, ignorance and chaos, absolute incomprehension. God is the light and the path; the way and the life. The dark is just the cold of the void, there’s nothing within it that could be said to exist. It’s merely an expression of nihilism, of the unbeliever’s desire for death. That, and nothing more.”

“So, this shrine…”

“It’s a shrine dedicated to the fire, yes, but it’s a savage thing, a shrine dedicated to strength, not faith. Some say it asks for sacrifices from the most devout, as if God would lower himself to such a thing. Some say it asks for an eye, as a testament that mortal vision is always imperfect. They say the statue gives power, it kindles the flame of faith, and they say the sacrifices are a proof of zeal. The church knows better. God speaks to us in the natural forms of the world, in the divine geometry and harmony of all creation, in the words of the wise and truth of scripture. It needs not manifest itself in such barbaric ways.”

The people are surrounding the fire; nobody's controlling it. They throw things at it to make the fire soar ever higher, but they don't know the dangers of playing with fire, because unlike the subsequent scenes, nobody is holding a torch. They want power, they want a roaring blaze, but they don't want to understand fire. They're living in a state of ignorance. Or at least, that's what Issus would say.

3: The historical reference here is pretty clear - the text tells us that Dawnhold had been attacked, and based on our observation, it's also been rebuilt:

The structure looks like it’s been broken into pieces and then put back together using some sort of cement.

The Lord, being a pious man, set things straight, and he did it before everything collapsed. This is a metaphor for order, good times, and faith being restored.

4: Issus referred to the Lord as a "prophet" who was able to anticipate the darkness to come. Here we have a man bringing truth, but others are shying away from it. The light he bears is "bright as the sun". This is the arrival of the New Church.

5: This time it's the man holding the torch who is throwing it away. In Kurze's case, I think it was him being angry at God, perhaps with his son's deformities. It's about how even the most devout of us fall.

6: My idea here for the picture would be the silhouette of a lone man, covered in shadow. The dark has come:

As he talks his features seem to blur into the shadows, his body almost disappearing, as if the man was a voice and nothing more.
...
“You brought me here. Gave me this blight. Let them take me.”

“I did?”

“The statue. It spoke with your voice.”

“A likeness of a thing is not the thing itself. That…statue, as you call it, speaks with many voices. One for every devotee. “

The Church has been abandoned... for something else.

 

[treave]

Tentacles, aye. Thick and green and writhing with the promise of retribution for sins committed in eons past. I know what I saw, lad, deep beneath the murky waters where the light don't shine. People call these the twin towers, the Dawnhold and Duskhold, but think about it... what did they actually hold?

 

[Esquilax]

your answer is half-right: there is a lone man covered in shadow, but there's more to it.

I guess a possibility is that it's a synthesis of the previous scenes in the mural. There are two motifs: the twin towers of Duskhold and Dawnhold in 1 and 3, and the crowd surrounding the fire in 2,4,and 5.

As for what it holds... this:

The air’s damp and warm down here, and there’s a sound on the edge of hearing, a high-pitched keening of some sort. We walk in the wide open corridor, the walls carved with stylized drawings of a sequence of scenes, some sort of tapestry made on rock.
...
At the far end of the room there is another set of doors, these ones bolted and barred, and the high-pitched keening I heard before seems to be coming from there.
...
I do so, proceeding to deposit the sack on a small table near the totem pole, and I turn to him to sate my curiosity:

“The bolted door?”

“That is not yet for you. But come! Let us begin the great work.”

What this has to do with the mural, I'm not sure yet. Hopefully I or someone else can figure it out.

 

[Internet]

It almost looks like you guys are playing mastermind.

 

[Monty]

My guess is still that 1 synergises best with 6. We want to explore the fortress, including the area behind the locked door. 6 allows us to explore the other areas. We've been told 'not yet' to our request to see behind the locked door, so we probably need to either progress our studies or gain his trust. By voting 1 we spend more time with Kurze, advancing our studies and potentially gaining his trust sooner. There has to be a chance that we see behind the locked door sooner with this option than going out looking for herbs or dueling with trogs.

The only other option is probably Alia, IF we could break the spell on her (and not make an enemy of Kurze in the process) and IF she knows what's behind the door and IF she retains her memories of what she saw while under the spell. 1 seems a better gamble to me, and we gain an improved knowledge of alchemy in the process.

 

[Monty]

I should clarify: explore the fortress deeper doesn't mean getting access to the locked door. it means exploring all other nooks and crannies, secret passageways, perhaps forgotten libraries, things previous inhabitants may have left behind, etc.

Yes, that's what I meant. Option 6 to explore everywhere except the locked door, 1 to hopefully hasten the opening of the locked door.

Still, if you say it's not the option which most synergises with 6 then who am I to argue with the author?

 

[Jaedar]

The mural depicts a man who stands atop of ash mountain cradled in the dark, while the masses look on from below ?

 

[Monty]

The mural depicts a man with a sack collecting body parts for his hideous master, while the gods look down and laugh.

 

[Rex Feral]

That's because we get to fight things ? I might flip to 4, 6 if there is a possibility of greater reward than 1. Exploring, although interesting, doesn't sound to helpful for me.

And I believe other great synergies would be 1, 2 and 3,5.

1, 2 - would be about us getting good at alchemy and gaining power on our own.

3,5 - would be about gaining influence and establishing relationships with the Chaos Lord's servants

4,6 - would be about ???

 

[Rex Feral]

Since I don't plan a trogo insurrection or to escape (yet) I'm not going with 3,5.

1,2 or 4,6. I'll have to think about it. I'm leaning towards 1,2.

 

[Storyfag]

While guessing stuff about 6 was fun and all, I'm unwilling to forsake 1 and 2.

 

[ScubaV]

Flopped to 1 and 2 in original post.

I'd like to explore, but I'm not interested in building a melee bruiser type character. Max dem intellectual skillz!

 

[tuluse]

I noticed that root really emphasized best. That means there is another option that synergizes with 6. I would guess 2, we'll find some kind of plant we can put the Trogs to sleep with.

 

[Rex Feral]

If root could confirm that 1 has a best synergy with 2, then I vote 1,2.

 

[Internet]

I edited my choices to allow Troglodyte Jones to explore the temple at his best.