In Progress [LP CYOA] Tower

[Baltika9]

Zerafall, Nevill helpfully linked all of the Easter Egg posts in one post. Here you, bro:

It is a pretty good read and I have recommended it to a few people. Naturally, I also recommended them to skip all the associated DISCUSS, because it got ridiculous at times.

Unfortunately, people going through the links in the first post would miss a few interesting excerpts that aren't linked to anywhere.

Zhang Jue interludes:
Zhang Jue Gaiden - appears after The Imperial Agent
Zhang Jue Gaiden II - appears after Fall Into the Darkness

Other interludes:
The Sword Saint, Bai Juitan and Vahista hanging out - appears after Stand and Retreat
The tale of Chi You and Nuva - appears after Xsaora Vairya

Various endings we've got on the way to finish:
It is a shame that the whole alternative timeline where we went Full Wudang got cut out (there were some genuinely good pieces there), but some scraps still remain.
Tiger's End - Don't Be a Menace to Youxia City
Xu Jing in Bai Juitan's pretty head, part 1
Xu Jing in Bai Juitan's pretty head, part 2
Black End - Zhang manxing and his magic powder, appears after Black and White II
Zhang Jue End - Women are evil, appears after The Shaolin Gauntlet IV
The War God’s Tale - a.k.a. The DEMONZ End, appears after The Morning After

Other LPs' advertisement:
The Founder’s Decision, Cthulhu LP Prologue
Hoborider Timeline
Hobo Rider Rides Forth, part 1
Hobo Rider Rides Forth, part 2
Hobo Rider Rides Forth, part 3 and Zhang Jue Gaiden III

Random things, drafts, etc:
The Chief Metalworker of Shaolin - appears after The Shaolin Gauntlet II
Girl's Talk - appears after White End
Shun's Last Words - appears after 地
DENSETSU THE ANIME - not chronologically related
Cao'er growing Jing's clones - not chronologically related, though still might be canon

P.S.: pls flop to 1A so we're not an emotionally constipated, distant older brother. Thx.

Some people (True Believers of the Zhang Jue Appreciation Society) consider it the canon ending to the quest.

But it is, everything else is fanfiction.

 

[Zerafall]

Zerafall, Nevill helpfully linked all of the Easter Egg posts in one post. Here you, bro:

Uh, sorry for necroing the thread, but...

It is a pretty good read and I have recommended it to a few people. Naturally, I also recommended them to skip all the associated DISCUSS, because it got ridiculous at times.

Unfortunately, people going through the links in the first post would miss a few interesting excerpts that aren't linked to anywhere.

Zhang Jue interludes:
Zhang Jue Gaiden - appears after The Imperial Agent
Zhang Jue Gaiden II - appears after Fall Into the Darkness

Other interludes:
The Sword Saint, Bai Juitan and Vahista hanging out - appears after Stand and Retreat
The tale of Chi You and Nuva - appears after Xsaora Vairya

Various endings we've got on the way to finish:
It is a shame that the whole alternative timeline where we went Full Wudang got cut out (there were some genuinely good pieces there), but some scraps still remain.
Tiger's End - Don't Be a Menace to Youxia City
Xu Jing in Bai Juitan's pretty head, part 1
Xu Jing in Bai Juitan's pretty head, part 2
Black End - Zhang manxing and his magic powder, appears after Black and White II
Zhang Jue End - Women are evil, appears after The Shaolin Gauntlet IV
The War God’s Tale - a.k.a. The DEMONZ End, appears after The Morning After

Other LPs' advertisement:
The Founder’s Decision, Cthulhu LP Prologue
Hoborider Timeline
Hobo Rider Rides Forth, part 1
Hobo Rider Rides Forth, part 2
Hobo Rider Rides Forth, part 3 and Zhang Jue Gaiden III

Random things, drafts, etc:
The Chief Metalworker of Shaolin - appears after The Shaolin Gauntlet II
Girl's Talk - appears after White End
Shun's Last Words - appears after 地
DENSETSU THE ANIME - not chronologically related
Cao'er growing Jing's clones - not chronologically related, though still might be canon

Paging treave to maybe add some or all of them as Interludes/Extras?

P.S.: pls flop to 1A so we're not an emotionally constipated, distant older brother. Thx.

Some people (True Believers of the Zhang Jue Appreciation Society) consider it the canon ending to the quest.

But it is, everything else is fanfiction.

Shit, sweet. Thanks for this. And fine, I guess I'll flop. B-but don't think I'm doing it for you or anything, baka.

Switching to AB.

 

[Tigranes]

Mark my words, our Naruto tendencies will make us lose something important later on down the line.

For now, we're only temporarily crippled and we saved the baby, so huzzah!

B for first choice - let's stay a bit stoic at least, instead of becoming a fricking Anomen.

The second choice - I think A is obviously not going to work. Dude is not gonna listen. This is some abused wife fantasy shit, "he never listens and treats me like shit all the time but hey if I looked him in the eyes and really asked nicely he'll listen!" Yeah that is the fast route to the sewers. We either take action to save the baby, or we defer to the master.

I'm guessing B for second choice is inevitable - everyone's seen far too many Hollywood movies to let the baby go. My only worry is that with our crippled leg it'll be tougher to pull it off.

 

[Baltika9]

I think it's fair to call this one for BB, even though I'm holding out hope for 1A. 1B does set up a pretty cool character arc for us, though: like Esquilax said, we have went through five years of daily abuse and emotional isolation, and that's after we have seen our parents and little sister die. It is quite common for people in such circumstances to develop an intense sense of self-loathing; our character may be denying himself this emotion because he feels himself unworthy of experiencing happiness. It will now fall to us, with the assistance of whatever friends we make along the way, to realize that the experience we went through does not devalue us as a human being, and that we're still entitled to love and dignity. Yeah, I can dig it.

But still, why are we not smiling at the adorable baby? He obviously likes us, didn't even care about how we're covered in blood.

The baby waves its stubby little hands in the air. You extend a hand, and reflexively, it grabs onto your blood-stained little finger. And even though you must look like a ghastly mess right now, it smiles at you.

===Poll===

==1st choice==
A - 10
B - 10

==2nd choice==
A - 2
B - 15
C - 1
D - 2

Votes

Baltika9 - AB>AA
Kz3r0 - AB
CappenVarra - AD
Life of the Party - AB
Grimgravy - AB
baud - AB>BB>CC
Zerafall - AB
Kipeci - AB
Nevill - AB
MoistCloister - AB

oscar - BC>AC
Absinthe - BB
Esquilax - BB
ERYFKRAD - BB
Azira - BB>BA
ItsChon - BA
asxetos - BB
Tigranes - BB
hello friend - BD
Egosphere - BB

 

[treave]

I'm guessing that this injury isn't permanent and that our DEX will be back once we recover (also, the stat hit doesn't take into account that we can't really use that leg).

Partially because DEX is also required for bow usage and having a bum leg doesn't affect that in any way. I'm regretting using D&D-style stats at the moment instead of sticking with SPECIAL, the latter's actually more fun to work with.

treave, how did our master find us and take us in? How did we end up with this guy?

Your family died in a fire and he picked you up from the ruins of the hut. You don't remember much more beyond that except screams and flames.

I don't think it's a stretch to say that witnessing someone's dying words (especially after trying to save them) would leave a much stronger impression on your memory than normal. We might not be particularly smart but we're not a dumbass either and I think this is well within a normal person's capabilities. I know normally speaking we'll forget the finer details in a day or so, but we can keep going over it in our head while the experience is still fresh, until the details stick. Remembering her last words when we're going to care for her child seems important.

If you are fine with fragments of unintelligible noises (to you) and the small probability of kickstarting the Great Elven-Human War of 1914 thanks to mistaken enunciation while repeating the lady's last words, then that is fine with me too.

that the woman was emphasizing her child's name

You don't know if she was. She could have been saying "bring it to hell's gate and sacrifice it on the altar to the dark lord" for all you know.

 

[Kipeci]

Eh. AB if we’re going to run off and have a bindle

 

[Baltika9]

Just one more flop from 1A to 1B and we're set. I know that someone else here has the courage to smile at the baby.

and the small probability of kickstarting the Great Elven-Human War of 1914 thanks to mistaken enunciation while repeating the lady's last words, then that is fine with me too.

...does that mean kickstarting the Great Revolution of 1917 is also an option?

 

[Esquilax]

Partially because DEX is also required for bow usage and having a bum leg doesn't affect that in any way. I'm regretting using D&D-style stats at the moment instead of sticking with SPECIAL, the latter's actually more fun to work with.

You know, if you had it in mind to transpose our character's stats to SPECIAL if you prefer working with that, I'd be game for it. What would our characters SPECIAL stats be? I'm guessing that Perception would (partially) act as a stand-in for Wisdom, although those two attributes don't quite compare so well.

Edit: Actually, it's best to just stick with one character sytstem for the long-haul.

 

[hello friend]

D poison old fuckwit's drink

That was my first thought as well.

That face makes me want to punch it, a transparent and cheap disney attempt to drum up emotional investment and a tired trope.

BD

 

[Nevill]

a transparent and cheap disney attempt to drum up emotional investment and a tired trope.

Also a good representation of IRL elves. Just add the ears to the picture below!

Spoiler

 

[ERYFKRAD]

the small probability of kickstarting the Great Elven-Human War of 1914 thanks to mistaken enunciation while repeating the lady's last words,

I'm all for beating the shit out of elves.

 

[Nevill]

I know that someone else here has the courage to smile at the baby.

Fine. Just for you, bro.

AB.

I want to be a part of the anti-Grimdark coalition. Let the next vote decide.

I do expect you to shill extra-hard against any choice that would endanger our adopted kid though.

 

[Baltika9]

I think my track record so far speaks for itself.
Thanks.

 

[Absinthe]

Partially because DEX is also required for bow usage and having a bum leg doesn't affect that in any way. I'm regretting using D&D-style stats at the moment instead of sticking with SPECIAL, the latter's actually more fun to work with.

Yeah I was a bit surprised you went with D&D-style stats myself. It's one of the clunkier stat systems imo. If we were looking for something a bit different, we could also have gone with Arcanum style stats.

If you are fine with fragments of unintelligible noises (to you) and the small probability of kickstarting the Great Elven-Human War of 1914 thanks to mistaken enunciation while repeating the lady's last words, then that is fine with me too.

May as well. If we're going to raise the child, we should take the effort to commit the woman's last words to memory. Maybe some day we'll figure out what she was saying, maybe not, but it's important enough that we try to remember it anyway, now that we're caring for the child. Also, shouldn't we have a keen ear for sounds we don't understand as a hunter? Perception falls under wisdom, yes?

 

[treave]

You know, if you had it in mind to transpose our character's stats to SPECIAL if you prefer working with that, I'd be game for it. What would our characters SPECIAL stats be? I'm guessing that Perception would (partially) act as a stand-in for Wisdom, although those two attributes don't quite compare so well.

Edit: Actually, it's best to just stick with one character sytstem for the long-haul.

Yeah I was a bit surprised you went with D&D-style stats myself. It's one of the clunkier stat systems imo. If we were looking for something a bit different, we could also have gone with Arcanum style stats.

I'll give a bit of thought to whether or not we can shift over to SPECIAL or Arcanum's stats while still keeping what the Hunter's currently like. Constitution is easy to transfer, wisdom not so much. The prologue is ending with the next update so better to make that shift now if we can.

May as well. If we're going to raise the child, we should take the effort to commit the woman's last words to memory. Maybe some day we'll figure out what she was saying, maybe not, but it's important enough that we try to remember it anyway, now that we're caring for the child. Also, shouldn't we have a keen ear for sounds we don't understand as a hunter? Perception falls under wisdom, yes?

Keen ear, sure. But not so guaranteed for memory. You can pick up different sounds and know that they're different. But it might be a bit too far of a stretch to also suggest that you can distinguish and remember the calls of different species of birds after only one encounter, just because you've been hunting for a few years. Experience and repetition is important if you're not some linguistic prodigy. Even if you focus everything onto remembering something at a certain time, it's not guaranteed that it will stick in your mind forever after either.

And setting all of that aside, remembering what something sounds like doesn't automatically mean you can reproduce the sound authentically with your own throat. For example, you can replay the entire Downfall Hitler speech that's been memed to hell and back in your mind. Doesn't mean you can recite it properly.

So here, you can try to remember what she said and what it sounded like, that's fine, but it will definitely not be a 100% authentic and accurate recording. Should've picked another background if you wanted linguistic skills.

 

[Absinthe]

That's fine. Let's just try to remember it then. Even if we don't end up making sense of it, I reckon as a matter of principle we should try to remember her last words anyway since we're going to look after the kid she gave us. We should probably also try to remember where we buried the woman.

 

[Kipeci]

I’d rather we not

 

[Absinthe]

I’d rather we not

I'm not sure how the idea that we would memorize the last words of the woman who gave us the child when we're going to raise that child became such an unreasonable and unpalatable notion to you, and I don't rightly care either. You've clearly dug into this stance of yours, so I doubt the reason truly matters.

 

[Kipeci]

I’d rather we not

I'm not sure how the idea that we would memorize the last words of the woman who gave us the child when we're going to raise that child became such an unreasonable and unpalatable notion to you, and I don't rightly care either. You've clearly dug into this stance of yours, so I doubt the reason truly matters.

There’s no reason for our character to do so (he hasn’t even been to the village, don’t think he’s heard of Elvish translators or even elves at all before given his reaction) as he has no reason to expect he can find someone who knows what it means and the circumstances are extremely difficult for accurately recalling anything other than the part she kept repeating. Which was confirmed by treave, repeatedly. We have much more pressing tangible matters for our character to focus on, such as making sure that her child doesn’t sold into slavery- I don’t think it would be a beneficial character trait to focus in on something that can’t possibly help him when he needs to be firing on all cylinders to evade his master.

 

[Absinthe]

There’s no reason for our character to do so (he hasn’t even been to the village, don’t think he’s heard of Elvish translators or even elves at all before given his reaction)

There very obviously is a reason. That reason being, we're raising a kid so the last words of the person who gave the kid to us are important regardless of whether or not we understand them. That's already been pointed out to you (repeatedly), so I'm pretty sure you're just engaging in selective perception when you say there is no reason. Maybe you disagree with the reason, but then you'd do better to explain your disagreement instead of claiming there is no reason.

as he has no reason to expect he can find someone who knows what it means and the circumstances are extremely difficult for accurately recalling anything other than the part she kept repeating. Which was confirmed by treave, repeatedly.

That's got nothing to do with anything. I fully expect we're not going to learn the appropriate language any time soon, but we're gonna raise that kid and that kid is going to want to know how we ended up responsible for him/her some day so it'll be worth remembering these words purely for that. I don't expect us to unlock the elvish language or whatnot just for memorizing some words we don't understand. Only that this is going to be important to the kid, just like knowing where the woman was buried is going to end up being important some day.

We have much more pressing tangible matters for our character to focus on, such as making sure that her child doesn’t sold into slavery- I don’t think it would be a beneficial character trait to focus in on something that can’t possibly help him when he needs to be firing on all cylinders to evade his master.

That's a misrepresentation of the situation at the very least. Memorizing her last words and escaping with the kid are in no way mutually exclusive endeavors. Obviously we're going to do both. You know this.

So what I got out of your post was two willful lies (that there is no reason why we would want to remember the woman's last words, and that this would somehow prevent us from being able to help the kid escape) and one vague counter-reason (we won't be able to understand the words anyway), which does not answer the reason we do have for memorizing it (that we're raising the kid she gave us as she uttered those words). Which brings me back to my point: You're not arguing in good faith. You already picked a stance and are mostly just spinning excuses to justify it. The only point you made that appears to be a sincere reason (that we are very unlikely to be able to learn the elvish language, which, incidentally, is completely a metagaming reason on your part - our MC knows nothing about how likely or unlikely it will be to learn the language in question, only that the people nearby don't speak it) is a counter-reason that honestly doesn't matter as much as you think it does to the reason we do have for remembering her words. And I'm going to guess that regardless of how well we end up explaining our motivations and reasons for this to you, you still wouldn't change your position because reasons ultimately don't matter to you. You already picked a stance and are going to stick with it.

 

[Kz3r0]

I guess in your book witnessing the last words of the person you tried to save after a life-and-death experience wouldn't be very memorable, but I'll have to differ. And we're not trying to engage in language lessons or anything of the sort. We're trying to memorize sounds.

Stop it please, memorizing the sound of an alien language is an exercise in futility, only trained people can do that.

 

[Absinthe]

Stop it please, memorizing the sound of an alien language is an exercise in futility, only trained people can do that.

I'm not trained and I can do that, but I am multilingual. I've done it loads.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Look man, her last words were "Bear in forest had the advantage of terrain", okay? Okay.

 

[Absinthe]

Kid's gonna want to know how we ended up in raising him/her. It's perfectly reasonable to want to remember the last words of the person who gave us the kid, even if they do end up being something silly as you said. Even if we never end up figuring out what she said at all. It's an important moment in our lives, both ours and the kid's.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

It's perfectly reasonable to want to remember the last words of the person who gave us the kid, even if they do end up being something silly as you said. Even if we never end up figuring out what she said at all. It's an important moment in our lives, both ours and the kid's.

Let it go man, if it's not happening, it's not happening.