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[LP CYOA] 傳
- Thread starter treave
- Start date
Elfberserker
Liturgist
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2013
- Messages
- 1,540
I wonder if we would start over as another character, but I don't think that adjutant would be a choice then. At least we don't have same choices as we do now. If Treave decided to do that when we die, he would obviously have to change some major events. We still haven't been introduced roguebro and doctorbro could be retconned.
Zero Credibility
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2007
- Messages
- 2,951
Voting B.
Not really.
We don't have to get the head of the pirate leader as long as the Songfeng disciples don't either. And if they are such poor fighters that they didn't stand a chance against us, how are they going to pull that off if we weren't able to? That challenge is only going to get them killed.
Not really.
We don't have to get the head of the pirate leader as long as the Songfeng disciples don't either. And if they are such poor fighters that they didn't stand a chance against us, how are they going to pull that off if we weren't able to? That challenge is only going to get them killed.
Bloodshifter
Educated
B
This is pretty weird actually, if I remember my history correctly a significant number of the Wokou pirates were not actually Japanese and were just an assortment of brigands from all nearby nations who took to piracy in troubled times. That would explain the families here, but I'm not sure about them if these guys are more or less homogeneously Japanese... I mean, maybe it's the case that they're brides like the friend we were supposed to be watching out for, but I vaguely remember that something from the update implied that to be unlikely. If this is a recent influx of pirates sponsored by Japan, one would think that they'd have left the family at home away from the risks unless they were intending to invade and make a home for themselves. But then, wouldn't there be an actual army sent, not a bunch of ragtag pirate families? I'm still sticking to my vote for C because obviously something's going to go horribly wrong here with that option and I don't want to be responsible for that goofing, but I really hope that B clears this up when it wins.
It's the ninja that does it. I'm sure. This Bandwagoning is really impressive. 
No, the farming part is fine, they've got to eat and some agriculture is a good idea to make stores of food last longer. That's not what's strange about this. One question raised is whether they made the village or took over it.
Nevill
Arcane
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2009
- Messages
- 11,211
No, the farming part is not fine, it is definitely strange. China is a big and powerful country, and the pirates can only afford to hit its shores if they are sure they can escape retaliation. Remember, we were planning to burn their ships because we were sure they'd try to get away. But a patch of fertile land is not something that you can just leave and hope to find somewhere else. These guys aren't nomads, they are settlers - they can't run away, they have too much to lose.
If you can grow food to feed yourself, why would you risk retaliation when you can not pack your things and move away in a matter of minutes, and when there is no impressive military force to defend yourself with? If you are not afraid of retribution, why would you grow anything instead of raiding the shores for food supplies? It does not add up.
And one more thing. If these guys were pirates, the last thing they would want is for their village to be discovered by someone from the lands they've raided. Yet the man we encountered offered to let us go, as if he thinks there is no reason for us to bring reinforcements and invade. He thinks that we are neutral parties in all of this, and that we can part ways peacefully. This is not how raiders behave.
If you can grow food to feed yourself, why would you risk retaliation when you can not pack your things and move away in a matter of minutes, and when there is no impressive military force to defend yourself with? If you are not afraid of retribution, why would you grow anything instead of raiding the shores for food supplies? It does not add up.
And one more thing. If these guys were pirates, the last thing they would want is for their village to be discovered by someone from the lands they've raided. Yet the man we encountered offered to let us go, as if he thinks there is no reason for us to bring reinforcements and invade. He thinks that we are neutral parties in all of this, and that we can part ways peacefully. This is not how raiders behave.
China is a big country, but it is not presently one that has its shit together. There's the chance of retaliation, but certainly not from the government-- you'll notice that the guy who was supposed to take care of them didn't really do much of anything, even to send the expeditionary force any sort of aid. It's also probable that the land of that island isn't particularly fertile, and that they are farming it in an attempt to get whatever food is possible out of it in addition to their raiding efforts instead of solely depending on it. With a large enough number of pirates, it's rather impractical to think that a little island could support them, especially considering that the resultant crops are rather likely to be pretty dodgy. I think that their default is stealing food and they grow some crops to supplement it. You'll also notice that Jing mentioned 'attempts' to farm the land-- nothing is growing that's edible as far as he could see, there were just furrows in the ground.
Pirates can also operate pretty flagrantly and openly when they don't think there's a force big enough to crush them, and given the sad state of China's government, I don't think that they're too afraid of an attack from the navy. It's clearly been common knowledge for a while as to where exactly the pirates live.
Pirates can also operate pretty flagrantly and openly when they don't think there's a force big enough to crush them, and given the sad state of China's government, I don't think that they're too afraid of an attack from the navy. It's clearly been common knowledge for a while as to where exactly the pirates live.
Nevill
Arcane
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2009
- Messages
- 11,211
You don't farm for a week or two. If you are trying to farm, you are planning to be here for a long while.
When a government finally decides to act, what would you do then? You can't take up your lands and your houses with you. Nomads can pull off raids against a superior force, settlers can't.
Not to say that these people aren't behind the recent raids, but they certainly don't make their living this way. Either they are not responsible, or there is a mighty good reason they are doing this stuff despite all the risks it entails.
When a government finally decides to act, what would you do then? You can't take up your lands and your houses with you. Nomads can pull off raids against a superior force, settlers can't.
Not to say that these people aren't behind the recent raids, but they certainly don't make their living this way. Either they are not responsible, or there is a mighty good reason they are doing this stuff despite all the risks it entails.
Of course they don't make their living through farming, I've said all that it's a supplement to piracy or at least something for the folks left on the island to make themselves useful for while they're off raiding. If they're going to be on some land that they think is vaguely arable, then why not make use of it if it's at all possible for as long as the time they're on the island? Sure, it'd be gone if the government acted, but the government is paralyzed and either can't or won't act against them and they know it. They don't need to be moving around every other week because, barring some absurdly wealthy merchant getting mad and assembling a force against them or something, they're safe at their pirate base. Even then, they might still have it covered-- if they have more guys like the one here, those pugilists are going to be slaughtered even if they get past the traps.
kazgar
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2008
- Messages
- 11,370
The Pirate Leader
“I’ll speak to your leader. Take me to him,” you say.
The man is silent. “Not a choice I would agree with,” he says, finally. “Very well. Try to keep up.” In a blur, he vanishes, the bushes seemingly untouched in his wake. You follow, making a bit more noise in comparison as you run through the forest. He leads you back to where you had seen the line of women and children earlier on, though you are headed in a slightly different direction to where they had went. Further in, you come across a small cave entrance, guarded by two spearmen of military bearing. The man speaks a few quick sentences to them in their foreign tongue, and the guards bow before standing aside to allow you entry.
You are forced to duck to enter the cave; it is a narrow squeeze, but a few steps in the space widens out more comfortably. You stumble, your hands grasping the wet rock to steady your feet. “You cannot see?” asks the man, somewhere in the darkness ahead of you. You wonder how he can make his way around in such total absence of light. There is the sound of shifting cloth, then a quiet scratch, and a slow glow appears in front of you. The man passes you a small torch. “I am sorry,” he says. “Sometimes I forget. Come, now that you have light, move faster.”
After a few more twists and turns through the narrow rock corridors, you finally see light in front of you, at the end of the tunnel. You follow the man out into a small, earthen room, well-lit by numerous torches. The air is damp; you can smell the sea. The room seems to have been decorated after the fashion of a war room of some sort – there are long, white and blue banners strung down from the ceiling, while a map of the coast is pinned up across a wooden board at the end of the room. Men in scaled cuirasses sit cross-legged in a neat line on both sides of the room, their posture straight and firm. At the center of the room stands a young man, similarly protected in that foreign armour. A curved sword hangs by his side; you recognize it as a wodao, commonly used by his people. His bearing marks him as one used to command. A map of the island is rolled out across the floor and he is placing small wooden checkers across it in a simulation of what you can only think to be the coming battle.
The man escorting you goes to his knees in front of the youth, confirming your suspicions about his identity. They exchange words in their tongue; the pirate leader’s eyes flick towards you for a few seconds and back to his subordinate. Suddenly, one of his men begins shouting at you, getting up and gesticulating angrily. You do not understand a word, so unfortunately all you can do is look back at him and smile bemusedly. He takes a step forward, his manner threatening. His sword is halfway out from its sheath when your hand flashes forward and grips him by the throat. He chokes and sputters, his eyes shining with panic as he tries to breath. As one, the room reacts, men leaping to their feet and placing one hand on their swords. You note, however, that the man who had intercepted you in the forest, and the leader himself, remain rather unmoved.
You grin under your mask, saying, “Unfortunately I am not well-educated enough to speak the language of Nippon. Could anyone versed in Han convey this message? Find a better way to test me.” The leader that barks out a command. They heed it instantly, returning to their positions on the floor. You release the man you are holding by the throat, allowing him to cough as he retreats.
“It was a misunderstanding,” says the pirate leader in Han. Then, he speaks another sentence in his language, gesturing at his men to leave. Though the man in black does not move from his liege’s side, all of the other pirates bow to their leader and file out of the room through a different entrance from the one you used.
“Now that we are alone here, will you take off your mask and give me your name, warrior?” asks the leader. “I find it disconcerting to have to talk to that… visage.”
You laugh, pulling off the pig’s mask. “I suppose I could allow you that courtesy. You may call me Xu Jing.”
The young man repeats your name, attempting to get the pronunciation right.
“Ah, so he was masked, my lord? I thought there was something wrong about his head,” muses the man in black as he unravels his own mask, revealing an older man of about fifty. “Was I correct about his age, however?”
“Indeed, uncle Yoriwaka, on both accounts. It surprises me, that the pugilists would send someone so young as a scout.”
You had not figured it out in the dark, but out here in the light, you realize that the man in black, Yoriwaka, is blind. He makes a good show of disguising it; he blinks and shifts his eyes around just like a seeing person would, but if anyone paid enough attention they could notice the subtle differences.
“Ah, you know about the pugilists? You are rather well-informed for a pirate leader.”
“Your people were not hiding their advertisements for fighters to join a pirate hunt. I would be no leader if I did not keep an eye on the movements of those we have wronged and seek to do wrong upon us in return,” sighs the young man. “I am Yorimitsu of the Minamoto clan. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Xu Jing.” You think you have heard of that clan before – they were supposed to be some big shots in Japan, equivalent to nobility. If only the scholar were here right now; he’d probably remember more than you do.
“What is a member of a famed clan doing all the way out here as a pirate? Is it at the behest of your government?” you ask.
Yorimitsu laughs. “If you think Nippon is attempting to invade, you have thought wrong. We are exiles, cast away from the court due to brotherly strife. I, and fifty of my loyal retainers, as well as their family, were sent away from our homeland, never to return. We sought refuge at the Tang court, but all they granted us was this island, Tetsuhashi.”
“We had not heard of that,” you say. “At least, everyone is certain that you are nothing more than low-born pirates.”
“The prefect of Yangzhou, at least, knows of us, and he exacts tribute in return for the navy turning a blind eye to our deeds. Furthermore, your eunuchs and ministers did not want to be seen as interfering with the internal affairs of other nations. It was not widely announced, and this island was of no value to anyone. A perfect place to dump some political exiles and forget about them. But we had to take what we could get. We were in no position to negotiate.”
“And so you resorted to piracy.”
“Not by choice, but necessity. I will apologize for the harm we have caused to your people, and I do not claim my actions are righteous or just, but I do not regret taking those measures. We have tried and failed to farm here time after time. My duty is to my retainers and their families. If that means I have to take from your people to feed my own, I will do so.”
“Why not just settle on the mainland? If you managed to found a village on this island, it should not be too difficult to eke out a living on more fertile ground.”
“I have considered that option, but there are two problems standing in the way. Firstly, after so many months we have yet to identify a suitable location nearby on the mainland. None of the villages will take us in – we have tried, and failed, to even trade with them, before resorting to raids. I am afraid foreigners are not very welcomed here. The city’s market is different, but no less useless to us – there are powerful merchants linked to the prefect that have barred us from trading. Understandable, as some of them do business in my home country and they would not want to incur the displeasure of the Taira. Secondly, if we were to venture further inland, we would not have the supplies necessary to make the long march. I hear that bandits are rife upon the roads, and the total number of women, children and elderly I have to protect number nearly two hundred. Why would I risk the lives of my people when we have begun getting comfortable here?” declares Yorimitsu.
You scratch your head, sighing. “Then why did you express a desire to meet me? What do you think I can do for you?"
“It was obvious that they would send a scout beforehand - it is only prudent to do so on the eve of an attack. If I were lucky, the scout that came would be a reasonable person. Given uncle Yoriwaka’s account of your skills, you must be a highly respected pugilist despite your age, probably a warrior of some renown, if you were entrusted with the mission to scout the battleground by yourself. I hope that you will warn your fellows to leave the island. We are fully prepared for their attack; any battle will exact grievous casualties on both sides.”
If he thinks you are a highly respected pugilist, he must not have done enough research. He might be regretting that very soon. You laugh again. “You sound like a bright leader. At least, you seem to have given all this more thought than I have,” you say. “Why, it almost sounds like if you are gone, your people will fall apart in very short order.”
“That is a correct assessment,” he says calmly in response to your veiled threat. “If taking my head could solve this conflict, I would offer it gladly. However, I do not see any alternative that strikes me with enough confidence to leave my people to their own means. My task is not yet done. That is why I ask for your aid. You will be well compensated – we have kept some treasures from the pirates that were here before us. I only require that you convince the pugilists to turn around and leave.”
Even if you do so, there would still be the problem of their piracy to handle - as long as they were raiding, they would face the risk of reprisal. Chasing the pugilists away is not a long term solution. Of course, you could think about that after you talk to the pugilists for him... or you could settle the problem once and for all right now.
***
A. You will side with the Minamoto and attempt to negotiate a deal for the pugilists to leave. Of course, given that your reputation is hardly that of ‘highly respected’ in their eyes, as Yorimitsu seems to think it is... this will not be easy. In fact, you think your chances of negotiating are so low that you would probably fare better attempting to beat them all down by yourself, but if that is what Lord Yorimitsu wants...
1. You ask about Miss Zhou’s friend – you will send her away with Miss Zhou and the boat. They will not cross paths with the pugilist fleet, but at least this way they will not be here if fighting does break out.
2. You ask to bring Miss Zhou here – she will definitely be of use in ‘negotiations’. You do not think she will be able to convince her father by herself, but you have the added option of making a more persuasive argument of your own if you have her 'hostage'.
***
B. Taking his head will solve matters; at least, it will solve matters for you. You may have been at a disadvantage in the dark, but in the light you are confident things will be different. You attack Yorimitsu. Once he is dead, his people should be scattered and unable to muster any reasonable resistance, leaving them easy pickings for the pugilists when they arrive.
***
C. You decide not to take sides for now. You ask for Miss Zhou’s friend – judging from his personality, Yorimitsu has no real reason to keep her here in an impending attack, and take her back to the ship. Then, you will wait and see how the battle plays out before deciding how you should act.
“I’ll speak to your leader. Take me to him,” you say.
The man is silent. “Not a choice I would agree with,” he says, finally. “Very well. Try to keep up.” In a blur, he vanishes, the bushes seemingly untouched in his wake. You follow, making a bit more noise in comparison as you run through the forest. He leads you back to where you had seen the line of women and children earlier on, though you are headed in a slightly different direction to where they had went. Further in, you come across a small cave entrance, guarded by two spearmen of military bearing. The man speaks a few quick sentences to them in their foreign tongue, and the guards bow before standing aside to allow you entry.
You are forced to duck to enter the cave; it is a narrow squeeze, but a few steps in the space widens out more comfortably. You stumble, your hands grasping the wet rock to steady your feet. “You cannot see?” asks the man, somewhere in the darkness ahead of you. You wonder how he can make his way around in such total absence of light. There is the sound of shifting cloth, then a quiet scratch, and a slow glow appears in front of you. The man passes you a small torch. “I am sorry,” he says. “Sometimes I forget. Come, now that you have light, move faster.”
After a few more twists and turns through the narrow rock corridors, you finally see light in front of you, at the end of the tunnel. You follow the man out into a small, earthen room, well-lit by numerous torches. The air is damp; you can smell the sea. The room seems to have been decorated after the fashion of a war room of some sort – there are long, white and blue banners strung down from the ceiling, while a map of the coast is pinned up across a wooden board at the end of the room. Men in scaled cuirasses sit cross-legged in a neat line on both sides of the room, their posture straight and firm. At the center of the room stands a young man, similarly protected in that foreign armour. A curved sword hangs by his side; you recognize it as a wodao, commonly used by his people. His bearing marks him as one used to command. A map of the island is rolled out across the floor and he is placing small wooden checkers across it in a simulation of what you can only think to be the coming battle.
The man escorting you goes to his knees in front of the youth, confirming your suspicions about his identity. They exchange words in their tongue; the pirate leader’s eyes flick towards you for a few seconds and back to his subordinate. Suddenly, one of his men begins shouting at you, getting up and gesticulating angrily. You do not understand a word, so unfortunately all you can do is look back at him and smile bemusedly. He takes a step forward, his manner threatening. His sword is halfway out from its sheath when your hand flashes forward and grips him by the throat. He chokes and sputters, his eyes shining with panic as he tries to breath. As one, the room reacts, men leaping to their feet and placing one hand on their swords. You note, however, that the man who had intercepted you in the forest, and the leader himself, remain rather unmoved.
You grin under your mask, saying, “Unfortunately I am not well-educated enough to speak the language of Nippon. Could anyone versed in Han convey this message? Find a better way to test me.” The leader that barks out a command. They heed it instantly, returning to their positions on the floor. You release the man you are holding by the throat, allowing him to cough as he retreats.
“It was a misunderstanding,” says the pirate leader in Han. Then, he speaks another sentence in his language, gesturing at his men to leave. Though the man in black does not move from his liege’s side, all of the other pirates bow to their leader and file out of the room through a different entrance from the one you used.
“Now that we are alone here, will you take off your mask and give me your name, warrior?” asks the leader. “I find it disconcerting to have to talk to that… visage.”
You laugh, pulling off the pig’s mask. “I suppose I could allow you that courtesy. You may call me Xu Jing.”
The young man repeats your name, attempting to get the pronunciation right.
“Ah, so he was masked, my lord? I thought there was something wrong about his head,” muses the man in black as he unravels his own mask, revealing an older man of about fifty. “Was I correct about his age, however?”
“Indeed, uncle Yoriwaka, on both accounts. It surprises me, that the pugilists would send someone so young as a scout.”
You had not figured it out in the dark, but out here in the light, you realize that the man in black, Yoriwaka, is blind. He makes a good show of disguising it; he blinks and shifts his eyes around just like a seeing person would, but if anyone paid enough attention they could notice the subtle differences.
“Ah, you know about the pugilists? You are rather well-informed for a pirate leader.”
“Your people were not hiding their advertisements for fighters to join a pirate hunt. I would be no leader if I did not keep an eye on the movements of those we have wronged and seek to do wrong upon us in return,” sighs the young man. “I am Yorimitsu of the Minamoto clan. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Xu Jing.” You think you have heard of that clan before – they were supposed to be some big shots in Japan, equivalent to nobility. If only the scholar were here right now; he’d probably remember more than you do.
“What is a member of a famed clan doing all the way out here as a pirate? Is it at the behest of your government?” you ask.
Yorimitsu laughs. “If you think Nippon is attempting to invade, you have thought wrong. We are exiles, cast away from the court due to brotherly strife. I, and fifty of my loyal retainers, as well as their family, were sent away from our homeland, never to return. We sought refuge at the Tang court, but all they granted us was this island, Tetsuhashi.”
“We had not heard of that,” you say. “At least, everyone is certain that you are nothing more than low-born pirates.”
“The prefect of Yangzhou, at least, knows of us, and he exacts tribute in return for the navy turning a blind eye to our deeds. Furthermore, your eunuchs and ministers did not want to be seen as interfering with the internal affairs of other nations. It was not widely announced, and this island was of no value to anyone. A perfect place to dump some political exiles and forget about them. But we had to take what we could get. We were in no position to negotiate.”
“And so you resorted to piracy.”
“Not by choice, but necessity. I will apologize for the harm we have caused to your people, and I do not claim my actions are righteous or just, but I do not regret taking those measures. We have tried and failed to farm here time after time. My duty is to my retainers and their families. If that means I have to take from your people to feed my own, I will do so.”
“Why not just settle on the mainland? If you managed to found a village on this island, it should not be too difficult to eke out a living on more fertile ground.”
“I have considered that option, but there are two problems standing in the way. Firstly, after so many months we have yet to identify a suitable location nearby on the mainland. None of the villages will take us in – we have tried, and failed, to even trade with them, before resorting to raids. I am afraid foreigners are not very welcomed here. The city’s market is different, but no less useless to us – there are powerful merchants linked to the prefect that have barred us from trading. Understandable, as some of them do business in my home country and they would not want to incur the displeasure of the Taira. Secondly, if we were to venture further inland, we would not have the supplies necessary to make the long march. I hear that bandits are rife upon the roads, and the total number of women, children and elderly I have to protect number nearly two hundred. Why would I risk the lives of my people when we have begun getting comfortable here?” declares Yorimitsu.
You scratch your head, sighing. “Then why did you express a desire to meet me? What do you think I can do for you?"
“It was obvious that they would send a scout beforehand - it is only prudent to do so on the eve of an attack. If I were lucky, the scout that came would be a reasonable person. Given uncle Yoriwaka’s account of your skills, you must be a highly respected pugilist despite your age, probably a warrior of some renown, if you were entrusted with the mission to scout the battleground by yourself. I hope that you will warn your fellows to leave the island. We are fully prepared for their attack; any battle will exact grievous casualties on both sides.”
If he thinks you are a highly respected pugilist, he must not have done enough research. He might be regretting that very soon. You laugh again. “You sound like a bright leader. At least, you seem to have given all this more thought than I have,” you say. “Why, it almost sounds like if you are gone, your people will fall apart in very short order.”
“That is a correct assessment,” he says calmly in response to your veiled threat. “If taking my head could solve this conflict, I would offer it gladly. However, I do not see any alternative that strikes me with enough confidence to leave my people to their own means. My task is not yet done. That is why I ask for your aid. You will be well compensated – we have kept some treasures from the pirates that were here before us. I only require that you convince the pugilists to turn around and leave.”
Even if you do so, there would still be the problem of their piracy to handle - as long as they were raiding, they would face the risk of reprisal. Chasing the pugilists away is not a long term solution. Of course, you could think about that after you talk to the pugilists for him... or you could settle the problem once and for all right now.
***
A. You will side with the Minamoto and attempt to negotiate a deal for the pugilists to leave. Of course, given that your reputation is hardly that of ‘highly respected’ in their eyes, as Yorimitsu seems to think it is... this will not be easy. In fact, you think your chances of negotiating are so low that you would probably fare better attempting to beat them all down by yourself, but if that is what Lord Yorimitsu wants...
1. You ask about Miss Zhou’s friend – you will send her away with Miss Zhou and the boat. They will not cross paths with the pugilist fleet, but at least this way they will not be here if fighting does break out.
2. You ask to bring Miss Zhou here – she will definitely be of use in ‘negotiations’. You do not think she will be able to convince her father by herself, but you have the added option of making a more persuasive argument of your own if you have her 'hostage'.
***
B. Taking his head will solve matters; at least, it will solve matters for you. You may have been at a disadvantage in the dark, but in the light you are confident things will be different. You attack Yorimitsu. Once he is dead, his people should be scattered and unable to muster any reasonable resistance, leaving them easy pickings for the pugilists when they arrive.
***
C. You decide not to take sides for now. You ask for Miss Zhou’s friend – judging from his personality, Yorimitsu has no real reason to keep her here in an impending attack, and take her back to the ship. Then, you will wait and see how the battle plays out before deciding how you should act.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2012
- Messages
- 28,363
I'm not against a peaceful resolution, but maybe we could attempt to employ them against bandits in return for letting them off and such. It'll be hard as fuck right now though, I'm not certain that we're in a position to negotiate successfully, considering our actions thus far.
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