Myth: A New Age CYOA

[Kz3r0]

Fangshi At this point I would like to ask to Bracelet Man if there is a way to dispose of Cotpsr Man with his help..

 

[Nevill]

Fangshi At this point I would like to ask to Bracelet Man if there is a way to dispose of Corpse Man with his help.

Oh, yes, very much so. I'd like to find ways to get out of here in one piece without altering the balance of cosmic powers, thank you very much.

Though if we dispose of him, then The Watcher will be unopposed, safe for Albrecht and whatever help he can get.

We are fucked no matter what we choose, aren't we?

2-D)Casting the spell will leave us defenseless, do we trust the corpse man so much?

It will not leave us defenceless if it is going to be the blood of the Arrows, though. It is true that they were useless so far - and if a fight breaks out, at most we can count on them dying while we escape, anyway. They can't possibly overcome an archmage.

 

[Zero Credibility]

A long update. Voting:

1) D > A

Simply put, I don't trust him at all. But if we have to take something, let it be something that will give our mage some staying power when we next get stuck in physical combat.

2) C > D

And I don't fucking trust this guy either. He is what, the forth or fifth immortal we've run across trying to claw his way back into the world. Two of them we are stuck with for now, but hell if I'd like to see more of them around. This guy may be more subtle than the Watcher, but he's bad news just the same. His treatment of his follower tells that just nicely - everyone else is a tool for him and will be discarded or destroyed the moment it becomes convenient. And it looks like the whole cycle business is just these assholes dicking each other over and over. Fuck em, let them rot and be forgotten. I'm really tempted to nuke this entire site from orbit when we get back home, but even that would not be a way to be sure with immortals.

I'd prefer C because without her he is not very powerful. Why else would his entire force consist of a single half-crazed witch? He doesn't appear to be able to leave this place and if we bury it it will take a long time for him to find a new servant. Maybe we can consult Alric or the dwarf king and they would have the resources to deal with or contain him for the time being.

3) D

If it does come to the ritual anyway, convince the Arrows to donate some blood. There's a lot of them and the spell only needs the amount of blood in one human body. So there should be no risk for them here. But I'm very much against doing this is the first place.

 

[Nevill]

Well, to quote the GM:

If you want to try and seduce/recruit the apprentice of the most powerful mage to walk the world you certainly can try.

He might not take it very well though. From his perspective you would be undermining him and that might have consequences.

But it would be a very mage-like thing to do so I salute you for that if nothing else.

Double-crossing this guy after we have accepted a favor from him is not exactly wise. Of course, it comes down to a personal belief if helping him would be any wiser.

Personally, I would not want to break any agreements with immortals. If you disagree with them, say it to their face. Do not accept the deal in the first place if you are not going through with it.

There is a reason these guys outlive everyone else.

His treatment of his follower tells that just nicely - everyone else is a tool for him and will be discarded or destroyed the moment it becomes convenient.

And yet his follower knows that and does not try to run away. Maybe she considers such a treatment fair, and so does the wizard? A witch that was in The Soulblighter's service (if she was) can't really expect a warmer welcome anywhere else.

I'd prefer C because without her he is not very powerful. Why else would his entire force consist of a single half-crazed witch? He doesn't appear to be able to leave this place and if we bury it it will take a long time for him to find a new servant.

He still commands the eagles, and I am sure some of them are still out there. It would take him some time to bring a curious adventurer to the site to dig him out, but I would not think it will be all that long.


Finally, about the Faceless Man and his gift. We weren't trusting Nine back when we found her, we aren't exactly trusting her now, what's with her being two Fallen Lords at once in her previous life, and yet we have accepted her training all the same. Did it ever hurt us? I don't think so. If there were any backdoors in her teachings, they were closed when we cross-referenced the spells with the corpse man.

No pain, no gain. Accepting a gift is not going to spell our immediate doom - it is how and what you use it for that will count in the end.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Did he command the eagles or did the witch do that?

Even if he did that, it would take him a long time to get someone to dig him out, and even then he's back to square one without the spell we now have. So he has to use that person to hire more mercs to find us and bring us to him. All we have to do is report what we found to the king and / or the Emperor and this place would be placed in a permanent and enforced quarantine if they can't deal with him outright. Alric would be a fool not to be ready for some of them trying to come back. Personally I like those odds much, much more that giving him the means to resurrect himself or helping him do it and then hoping he is not going to say "you have outlived you usefulness" to us. Or just destroy us to get to Nine or the Faceless guy (that we can't even get rid of).

Let him rot I say. If it ever becomes necessary to bring him back to fight someone worse (I hope not), let the people in charge of this place make that call, not a random adventurer. They have more power to deal with this kind of situation and it is kind of their job.

 

[Nevill]

All we have to do is report what we found to the king and / or the Emperor and this place would be placed in a permanent and enforced quarantine if they can't deal with him outright. Alric would be a fool not to be ready for some of them trying to come back.

Which would subsequently expose our dealings with Nine, who is Shiver as far as the rest of the world is concerned - though at least we can make a case for her not being the same character, - and the Faceless Man, who is an outright Fallen Lord. Wonder where we will end up after that.

But yes, making a decision of that magnitude makes me uneasy as well. Ugh.

 

[Smashing Axe]

I don't know if taking the girl with us is so good an idea. I'd need to know why she hasn't just left him yet, and why she's so self-sacrificing to this guy who is essentially torturing her. If I were him I'd have installed a Delayed Reaction spell in her head for the moment she ever decides to betray her master.

You may be right about accepting the Faceless Man's gift, Nevill, but to me it sounds like we'd be giving ground to him, and I think we want to keep as much distance between him and us whilst we have this connection. He claims to be a benevolent teacher willing to make new arch-mages out of boredom, but I can't help thinking there's something much more sinister behind it than that. I am still willing to flop.

Also if we do the ritual successfully, and this guy does turn out to be the Deceiver or something, the Faceless Man will probably intervene to save us, if only to use us as willing pawns in his war against the guy.

Also most of the world remembers Shiver as Ravanna's face.

 

[Nevill]

I don't know if taking the girl with us is so good an idea. I'd need to know why she hasn't just left him yet, and why she's so self-sacrificing to this guy who is essentially torturing her. If I were him I'd have installed a Delayed Reaction spell in her head for the moment she ever decides to betray her master.

Which is exactly why I want to clarify it with her first.

Taking her with us may bite us in the ass, but so can leaving her here, unless we give them the information they ask for and GTFO.

By the way, you are voting for it even if you aren't sure?

Also most of the world remembers Shiver as Ravanna's face.

She had a different face in the second war, because she was greatly disfigured. Besides, what does an appearance mean for an archmage?

It's not like there are many people around who would remember Shiver from the first war, seeing how it was 60 years ago, and most of the men are mortal. Though the other races probably would.

You may be right about accepting the Faceless Man's gift, Nevill, but to me it sounds like we'd be giving ground to him, and I think we want to keep as much distance between him and us whilst we have this connection.

I see no point in maintaining the distance. We still owe him a favor, and it is unlikely that he will let us go until we grant it. We are stuck with him for a while. I am not sure what our reluctance will achieve. We are not letting him in our mind any more than we already did. It is not, by any means, a matter of trust, but one of convenience.

Refusing his offer might be worth something as a gesture of defying him for the sake of a gesture, if you want to screw him over and not pay your debt to him, but we will be raking up enemies far more powerful than ourselves at an alarming rate if we go this route. Best to take care of them one at a time.

I would visit the Academy immediately and start researching the bracelets all the same, though.

Also if we do the ritual successfully, and this guy does turn out to be the Deceiver or something, the Faceless Man will probably intervene to save us, if only to use us as willing pawns in his war against the guy.

True as well, and this is why I am still withholding my vote.

 

[Zero Credibility]

All we have to do is report what we found to the king and / or the Emperor and this place would be placed in a permanent and enforced quarantine if they can't deal with him outright. Alric would be a fool not to be ready for some of them trying to come back.

Which would subsequently expose our dealings with Nine, who is Shiver as far as the rest of the world is concerned - though at least we can make a case for her not being the same character, - and the Faceless Man, who is an outright Fallen Lord. Wonder where we will end up after that.

But yes, making a decision of that magnitude makes me uneasy as well. Ugh.

It doesn't necessarily have to expose our dealing with them. We can just warn the king about another immortal trying to resurrect himself here, he knows the Watcher already is so he would take that seriously. The least he can do is send men to bury the place thoroughly and keep an eye on it. And he would probably inform Alric as well who may have a more permanent solution ready if it becomes necessary. But even if it does expose us, well as you say Nine isn't really Shiver (though that doesn't mean we can really trust her even if she isn’t an imminent threat) and it's not like we are willingly dealing with the Faceless. We're just kind of stuck with him - and I hope that's a lesson we all learned, never put on unidentified magic items. If they can remove him from us, all the better. I want to make removing the damn things a priority as well. Seriously, compared to the mess we can make if we fuck this one up, we are practically blameless right now. Sure, we are guilty of illegal ruins raiding and could end up in jail for that. But if we knowingly resurrect a fallen lord we are so fucked.

And yes, it's the magnitude of this decision that bothers me. Adventurers should never be entrusted with these kind of decisions in any sensible setting. They don't know enough about what they are doing and don't have the power to contain the situation if when something goes wrong. If there are better people in charge that can deal with this (and there are here), let them.

 

[Nevill]

It doesn't necessarily have to expose our dealing with them. We can just warn the king about another immortal trying to resurrect himself here, he knows the Watcher already is so he would take that seriously. The least he can do is send men to bury the place thoroughly and keep an eye on it.

First thing they would do is to try and communicate with the immortal to verify our side of the story and determine who is he and just how dangerous he is. Since the corpse man knows Nine's identity, I don't see why he would withhold that knowledge if it was a way to get back at us.

well as you say Nine isn't really Shiver (though that doesn't mean we can really trust her even if she isn’t an imminent threat) and it's not like we are willingly dealing with the Faceless.

The question then becomes, would anyone care enough? The world have been through 2 wars that killed 2/3 of its population. Would they risk anything?

Necromancers are killed on sight for a good reason. I don't know where making our association with the Fallen, whether we are willing or not, public will land us.

At least Albrecht seems friendly enough.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Honestly, I'd still take that chance and hope that they see the difference between stupidly putting on a magical item and knowingly trying to bring back what we suspect actually is a fallen lord. I think (or hope) the king would at least see that difference since he kind of likes us and we did already help with the Watcher business.

 

[Jester]

BAC

 

[Azira]

Edited my votes.

 

[Nevill]

And he would probably inform Alric as well who may have a more permanent solution ready if it becomes necessary.

As for Alric having a permanent solution to the Fallen, I very much doubt it. The guy wouldn't toss in his sleep eaten from the inside by nightmares of their return if he knew how to put an end to them once and for all.


And that's from a dude who put most of them into the ground.

But if we knowingly resurrect a fallen lord we are so fucked.

What if we do so unknowingly? We don't know the guy is The Deceiver, right?

Oh, wait, we already did that with Nine. In fact, it was worse with her. We knew she was one of the Fallen (we didn't know she was two of them), and we restored her powers and lifted the magic seal because she was our friend.

We are fucked no matter how we go about this.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Perhaps, but I'd rather be fucked in the "illegal ruins raiding and unknowingly picking up not one, but two immortals and then tried to prevent even more coming back" way than "did all that, then willingly helped a suspected fallen lord resurrect". It may be a small difference, but it's a difference. And as I said, my main reason for wanting to bring in cavalry is that I really believe that our character should have no fucking business even thinking whether they should help this guy or not.

 

[Nevill]

Also, Fangshi,

6) After we are done asking TFM the previous questions, ask him what is the favor he requires from us. I would not like to postpone it much further until he deems necessary to enlighten us.

Still, we owe our life to the guy, so if it isn't something outrageous, I'd like to settle it.

And yes, it's the magnitude of this decision that bothers me. Adventurers should never be entrusted with these kind of decisions in any sensible setting. They don't know enough about what they are doing and don't have the power to contain the situation if when something goes wrong.

Also if we do the ritual successfully, and this guy does turn out to be the Deceiver or something, the Faceless Man will probably intervene to save us, if only to use us as willing pawns in his war against the guy.

The reality of our situation is quite ironic. We are debating whether we really want to resurrect a guy to fight one of the ancient evils if this guy might be a similar evil himself, and whether having two-and-a-half ancient evils on, shall we say, 'relatively our' side would be enough for damage control if something goes wrong. Oh, man.

 

[Jester]

Balls to the walls?

 

[Nevill]

Balls to the walls?

Doesn't that mean that you are cornered, though?

 

[Jester]

Doesn't that mean that you are cornered, though?

We pissed of nasty archmage through stone, got one on our wrist we are indebted to, have one in backpack possibly madder than before... would say that we got that cornered part covered. At this point i think that dark ones will attack each other when there is no centre figure like Balor.
On bright side no one know what we did.

 

[Azira]

We just gotta keep Derryth useful to Nine, Faceless and Mazzarin/Deceiver long enough, that Derryth could conceivably surpass/defeat them.

 

[Nevill]

We just gotta keep Derryth useful to Nine, Faceless and Mazzarin/Deceiver long enough, that Derryth could conceivably surpass/defeat them.

For a couple hundreds of years? I'm game!

 

[Smashing Axe]

If this LP has taught me anything, it's that we need to horde artifacts like our life depends on it, then just unleash the magical dakka on anyone who gets in our way. Artifacts will be our key to success in the short-medium term.

 

[Grimgravy]

Waiting on answers.
Preliminary
BDD

 

[Fangshi]

1) I'd like to ask The Faceless Man what he thinks about the possibility that the corpse man is really The Deceiver. I assume he would be interested in paying his debts and would provide his support, should the man turn against us?

If you ask him that, Derryth is worried he will try and force you to attack Mazzarin. Just to be sure. Are you sure that you can resist that?

The Faceless Man seems to see and hear all that goes on around either of you but he does not have access to your thoughts, as far as you can tell, he does not know that you are starting to think that Mazzarin may be Myrdred.

If you want to ask that question then put it to a vote and if you get more than five votes I will let it play out.

The fact that he has not made a move yet may suggest that he does not think Mazzarin is the Deceiver or it may suggest that he is waiting for something before he does.

2) I'd like to ask Lyssa about the reasons she serves the corpse man, even as it threatens to kill her. Is it loyalty? For what? Is it the desire for power? What does it matter when you are dead?

She has no one to rely on except Mazzarin and no where to go so she stays, you suspect that she thinks she deserves this fate. He promises her power but she is not optimistic... she hopes... but she does not believe she will make it long.

She refuses to speak about her past. She will only say that this is 'penance'. She seems to serve out of guilt or duty, you can not be sure which.

If you want more than that you will have to force her to speak, or make an offer that provokes her to continue.

3) I'd like to ask The Faceless man what became of the Whisper Dream he took from Shiver. It is potentially bad news if he can alter our thoughts through the dreams.

Sadly it was lost in my creation's shattered mind. The Whisper Dream disappeared with the death of my creature... well unless Nine still knows it... you should be very careful around her ladies... very careful.

You don't really believe him...

4) We have checked our minds for archmage residue and found nothing, however, there is still a question of how exactly we were affected by what happened. Are there any changes in our mind landscapes? Can we still discern clearly which memories are ours and which are not? Did it make it easier to understand each other and guess what the other is thinking about? Did we become more reasonable when dealing with people, perhaps sensing - through Thais' impessions - that certain topics may cause them discomfort? Or maybe Thais have become prone to fits of stubborn anger for no apparent reason?

The impressions exist as a great heap of unsorted information. Every now and then you express the desire for something you know you have never tried or to do something you know you have never done. From there it is quite easy to deduce that the impetus is coming from one of your friend's impressions, not your own memories. At the moment these impressions influence you sporadically, but you have only been back in the physical world for an hour or so, so you do not know what long term influence they will have. You suspect that you could fence them off within your mind and prevent them from influencing you should you desire. Most of them are not very powerful. Alternatively you could embrace them and work to organize and integrate them within your mind which probably would change you a little.

The impressions won't cause dramatic shifts in your personalities though. Derryth will not become a master diplomat primarily because she has shown no interest in becoming one. She might realize that a topic would cause discomfort but that does not mean she would avoid it, much of the time she simply does not care. Similarly Thaïs is not going to become some sort of genius problem solver and tomb raider, she might 'remember' the answer to a particular riddle from one of your impressions but she has not put in the work to get her mind to consistently think in that way.

The impressions if properly integrated would give both women further insight into each other. They would probably work together even better than they do now (unless one of those impressions contained something really disturbing that would undermine their trust in each other) so that may be a positive to be taken from this. It may also make them more reliant on each other since they will be even more inclined to seek one another for help. Whether that is an advantage or not who knows?

5) What was it exactly that we promised to the corpse man? We told him we will help him retrieve the information he seeks, but we did not promise to restore him. Is that about correct?

That you would help him recover. Now that could mean 'resurrecting' him yourself or simply giving him the information. Obviously he would prefer you help him but you would be fulfilling the letter (if not the spirit) of your arrangement in D as well. Lyssa would also probably prefer your help as it would probably increase her chance of living.

Obviously if you go with D then Mazzarin will be less friendly to you in the future than if you go with A but he will not be hostile like he probably will be in B and C.

6) After we are done asking TFM the previous questions, ask him what is the favor he requires from us. I would not like to postpone it much further until he deems necessary to enlighten us.

He says that some day, and that day may never come, he will call upon you to do a service for him. But until that day... consider it a gift...

At this point I would like to ask to Bracelet Man if there is a way to dispose of Corpse Man with his help..

He says yes. If the two of you will stop fighting him and let him into your minds he will be able to guide you through the spells to destroy this Mazzarin.

You will be able to do everything you have ever dreamed of.

You will be his new pupils. His greatest pupils.

Just let him in...

Derryth does not want to.

Did he command the eagles or did the witch do that?

Lyssa manages the eagles from what you can tell.

Current Tally:

Baltika9 AAC
Smashing Axe A A>B B>C>D
Kz3R0 DDB
Azira A>B D>A D>B
Zero Credibility D>A C>D D
Jester BAC
Grimgravy BDD
Nevill BAD
GreyViper BAF

1.
A) 3 votes
B) 4 votes
C)
D) 2 votes

2.
A) 5 votes
B)
C) 1 vote
D) 3 votes

3.
A)
B) 2 votes
C) 2 votes
D) 4 votes
E)
F) 1 vote

 

[Nevill]

If you ask him that, Derryth is worried he will try and force you to attack Mazzarin. Just to be sure. Are you sure that you can resist that?

Whoa. He can actually command us, even in this state? It was one thing to do so in the Dreamland, but I thought he holds no such power in reality.

I am getting rid of those bracers ASAP.

The Faceless Man seems to see and hear all that goes on around either of you but he does not have access to your thoughts, as far as you can tell, he does not know that you are starting to think that Mazzarin may be Myrdred.

He must have heard Thais, though.

If you want more than that you will have to force her to speak, or make an offer that provokes her to continue.

What is it that she expects of her life? What is it that she wants to do with it? What does Derryth think can move her enough to speak?

You don't really believe him...

Do we know how Dreams operate? Are they like normal spells? Can one Dream be known to several people?

Because from what we have observed, they never are. Presumably, it is because the one who wields the Dream does not want anybody else to know it. But maybe there is some mechanics in place that prevents it?

Alternatively you could embrace them and work to organize and integrate them within your mind which probably would change you a little.
[...]
The impressions if properly integrated would give both women further insight into each other.

Actually, this is exactly what I hoped for. I suppose one of these times we'll have to put to a vote what to do with this mess... if we stay alive.

Preliminary vote goes to BAD. Hmm... maybe the choices are trying to tell me something.