Choose your path to greatness, obscurity or death. A multiple choice LP

[Anabanana]

Seconding H: Before we do anything, let's get the scholar in and see if he can give us any information about any of this stuff. Since GameOver is worried about his safety, let him ride together with a horseman and instruct them to ride outside the courtyard to safety ASAP if anything happens. Get rid of the saddle if there's not enough room for two people and made them ride bareback. Heck, let's assign an additional two soldiers to be his personal bodyguard at all times while he investigates stuff. Make one of them light infantry, who will have the mobility and flexibility to deal with any close-range physical threats, and one of them an archer to get rid of threats before they can get close to the scholar.

I think that somebody well-versed in history and mythology might be able to give us clues about what's going on here. For example, the yellow and red fountains of light might be commonly known as founts of poisonous gases among Avarlos researchers, and we wouldn't know because we're all uneducated peons. I think that having the scholar in here won't be too dangerous if we take the precautions I suggest. the potential benefit of gaining information about this place and preventing a premature end to Kyoss's adventure far outweighs the risk. Sure, it could be that the scholar knows nothing about this, or that what he knows is inaccurate or out-of-date, or that he can only guess, but we won't know unless we bring him in and at least take a look at all this crap.

A, B, and C, unless the scholar tells us that it's dangerous to do so. Seconding the suggestion to let the spy scout out the grove first, but have some soldiers follow behind to back him up.

EDIT: Changing my vote from D to C in light of Smashing Axe's post.

 

[Smashing Axe]

ABC

I don't feel strongly about the first two choices, C seems important, we might find some writing in the buildings the scholar could read that would give some hint as to the nature of this place.

 

[Baltika9]

ABF.

Also, Grey Viper's and newcomer's suggestions for scholar and not having anyone enter the keep.

 

[Anabanana]

Throwing in another vote for keeping away from the keep for now.

 

[Monty]

ABC

Most of us seem to agree that checking the bodies first is essential, as it may give us a clue as to how they died and what we should look out for. I'm torn between F and C as the third choice, but I think I agree with Smashing Axe here. If we can't discover much about the fountains of light then checking the low buildings (NOT the keep) for clues may be a good idea before investigating the larger source of light.

 

[Curufinwe]

ABF

I also agree to the suggestion regarding the scholar.

G: For now, let's just observe. DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING. For all we know there's an ancient curse at work here, and everybody knows from tales and legends that touching cursed objects or corpses is a very bad thing to do. So for now the investigation should be visual only.

 

[Kz3r0]

A
B
F

 

[Hoodoo]

Yah need a scholar for sure. Putting a bit of context on this slaughter and some extra info on courtyard/grove/phenomenons could be crucial.
Also why is Irene asking a 16yr old boy what she should do. Obvs wants to bone us.

 

[Vernydar]

Also why is Irene asking a 16yr old boy what she should do. Obvs wants to bone us.

You are here as an advisor, so it stands to reason she would consult with you. And you performed well up to now. Of course if you suggest something moronic, she will not listen to you. You're not in command yet.

Or she wants to bone you.

 

[Anabanana]

G: For now, let's just observe. DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING. For all we know there's an ancient curse at work here, and everybody knows from tales and legends that touching cursed objects or corpses is a very bad thing to do. So for now the investigation should be visual only.

Seconding this.

 

[newcomer]

Or she wants to bone you.

Anyone wants to suggest her to bone Kyoss in this "romantic" setting

Or maybe suggest that she calms the soldiers (including Kyoss of course) with her body

Well I guess this is a much better way to suicide & premature end this LP compared to charging a centipede naked, right Vernydar ?
And btw, don't include this as my vote for G. The other voters will kill me if Kyoss really get killed for this

 

[Stygian Lurker]

ABF

 

[GreyViper]

I really hope its not one of the they went insane and turned on each other scenario.

At regular intervals all around the courtyards, rutilating fountains of light rise from the paved floor, yellow, orange and red. They rise, twist, change color and dance in the air silently. There are at least twenty of them that you can see from here, all bigger than a bonfire. And from behind the keep you can see a... halo, yellow, orange and red, constantly changing color, as if there was an even bigger source of light behind it. You can't see from here though, it seems to be exactly the other side of the keep, you just see the light shooting out from behind it.

Cant help to think this phenomenon as fumes, but what function does it serve? I can understand if it works like this enemy besieges the keep. The besieged activate the trap locking enemy into courtyard, the yellow, orange and red, halo gets bigger engulfing enemy. Enemy turns on itself, defenders profit.
If its not deadly, then whats the point of the pattern, hmm maybe we should see if keep is open or closed?

 

[Vernydar]

Winning options are, considering 3-2-1 points assigned to your first, second and third option respectively,

A - 48 points
B - 33 points
F - 10 points

Also accepted: call in the scholar to help you and avoid entering the keep until you know more. Same for touching these people.

I see you're starting to be a bit paranoid. Excellent This could increase your life expectancy.

Update will be up in 1-2 hours.

 

[Vernydar]

70 – Hot and cold

After talking for a bit you and Irene decide to bring in the scholar. He's a stubborn, unsociable man but he's well learned, or so Jacob assured you. And the first thing you should inspect are the bodies of these people, you want to know more before risking your lives needlessly. You also agree on the fact that it would be best to avoid directly touching them for now, who knows what reason they died for. The soldiers are a bit reassured by this, they really didn't look forward to blindly stepping inside this place full of bodies....

For about a hour you all try to carefully inspect the bodies closest to the door, avoiding contact, trying to understand what happened here. Finally the scholar talks in his usual, gruff tone, summing up what you discovered here

"Well, as far as I can see, these are all soldiers of Avarlos. They all have the same equipment, and the style of their armors, weapons and uniforms are well known. I even had the luck of studying a few in the capital a few years ago. And they are identical to these ones. But they were not all part of the same unit. Note the decorations on their armors. Avarlos used to have different ones for each unit of the army as far as we know. And these people belonged to two different units, as you can see for yourself. And it is obvious if you look at them that they killed each other."

"Now this is very interesting, we have no knowledge of such intestine fights. But the doors to this place were closed, the walls and towers are intact, these people were allowed inside, and then the fighting began. A revolt? Maybe a betrayal? I have no idea, but I think they died in combat."

You all consider the implications of these possibilities. Of course it is also possible that something else happened, something more... "exotic". But for now you have no proof of that, and so the betrayal or revolt do seem plausible enough. You are Irene talk over things again, and then decide to inspect those fountains of light next. They are one of the strangest things here for sure,and you cannot truly avoid them. You will have to pass near them in order to move inside this courtyard, better try to understand what they are.

The soldiers are rather afraid as you start to walk across the courtyard, but at least they approve of you not disturbing the bodies of the fallen. You know very well that there are old superstitions about the living dead all across Eskal, you do not want to give them reason to fear. As you slowly approach the closest fountain of light, you notice that it's rising from a small depression in the paved floor. The light is rising from there, yes... As you reach the place you feel the shallow breaths of soldiers and civilians alike. You can't blame them.

It is unmistakable, you have already seen this. Etched in the depression in the pavement are complicated patterns, burning of a yellow, orange and red flame, the colors changing continuously. They are very bright and shoot light outside of the depression, resulting in the fountains of light you saw from far away.The flame patterns are very familiar indeed. Not identical, but so similar to the ones you saw on your metal artifact that you are sure beyond any possible doubt that there is an extremely strong correlation between them.

And these flaming patterns are obviously active even now, spreading their light all around. And they are placed regularly around the courtyard, a clear sign of a very precise design. Could your metal artifact also have been crafted in ancient Avarlos? But, there is a slight difference compared to what happened at Nokos. Apart from the colors, who are obviously different from the blue-purple flames you saw back then, you do not feel the unnatural warmth. Rather you feel somewhat cool, comfortable. Also, you do not know why but you feel rather.. calm. Relaxed even. At ease. It is a strange, strange sensation....

You wonder if your metal artifact is heating up or not. It is still in your pocket after all, wrapped in thick cloth. You try to feel the temperature with your hand, grasping at the cloth, and you suddenly feel the hair on your neck standing up. The metal, even across the cloth, is deathly cold. Colder than metal left outside on an icy winter night. So cold that the cloth is starting to become rigid.

Why? What is happening, why is it so cold? You quickly look around, and apart from Irene everyone seems to be motionless, unable to grasp the scene in front of them. Irene is somberly looking around, but even her composure is a bit ruffled. Still, you're the only one who looks calm.

What will you do Kyoss? What do you plan to do about the metal artifact, or the flaming symbols? Or will you move on? Open update, too many variables.

 

[Curufinwe]

Ok. First thing first. The bodies. Apparently they died of natural causes (being a sword through your heart the most natural cause). Probably harmless, let's ignore them for now. Charge someone to guard them to make sure nothing falls into our party's pockets and that's it for now.

Second, the lights. I'm not too comfortable with Kyoss feeling so calm. Two possibilties:
1) The fires are wards of some sort, interacting with our good ole' metal piece to give a calming effect. Might have been useful during sieges to keep important, magical people happy and comfortable.
2) The fires are wards of a nasty sort. They don't like our metal piece (our metal piece sure as hell doesn't like them) and are trying to keep Kyoss in place to unleash a meteor swarm up his ass.

Either way, I think we better move back and look at the pretty lights from afar. We don't want magical symbols to sprout out of Kyoss' pockets, that would be... difficult... to explain. Also, unwrap the metal piece from its cloth, for maximum effect.

We can stay away and look at what the fires do to other people. If we need to cross the path, we'll have to leave the metal piece somewhere before doing it. Or again, we risk magical symbols to spill out, which is a big no no.

 

[GameOver]

I don't think there is really anything to do about the flaming symbols except ask the scholar if he knows anything about them. We can speculate among ourselves what we think it is but all of this is not explainable with our current knowledge. I would suggest moving in a host of scholars to study them after we fully secure the courtyard that way we might be able to get some more information from them after the mission is complete. It would be pretty sweet for our government to tap into this technology/magic. Other than that, I suggest we tell nobody about our stone and we move on to the halo of light.

I second ScubaV's suggestion of coming back later alone to investigate this on our own in privacy with the shard.

I am putting my whole vote towards AnaBananas suggestion. I also think that we should send some soldiers and Irene to the large halo, at the very least.

Anyone else get the feeling Kyoss' parents were murdered by someone and the shard is a part of the reason why?

 

[ScubaV]

Yeah, I don't think that there's really anything we can learn from these lights with the knowledge we have, short of experimenting with the shard. I think we should move on for now and consider coming back alone to see if we can learn anything with the shard.

 

[Monty]

Yes, I agree - it's unlikely we'll learn anything more just by staring at the lights given our current knowledge. Perhaps we will come across more clues as to their nature in the buildings or the keep, so let's move on for now. I don't think we should unwrap the shard though. For a start, it's in our pocket and it would be quite obvious if we started unwrapping it. It's also so cold as to stiffen the wrapping so it would probably be damn uncomfortable to keep it unwrapped in our pocket. Given that we want to keep the shard to ourselves for now it's best not to draw attention to it - perhaps come back on our own at a later date as ScubaV suggested.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Another thing to consider is that the lights are wards that will kill and the shard lets us bypass them

 

[Anabanana]

A few things.

1. Ask the scholar what he thinks of the flames.

2. Ask Irene if she's feeling any strange sensations at the moment. The description explicitly mentions that we're the only ones that seem calm, but we don't know if the coolness is affecting other people. I suspect all of the effects are constrained to us, but we really should find out if the yellow/white/red flames are affecting the others, and how. If Irene reports any strange sensations, ask the scholar his opinion on what could be causing it.

3. DO NOT, for the love of God, go near the large halo of yellow/white/red flames behind the keep. If merely being near one of the small flames is doing this to our metal shard, do you really want to know what's going to happen if we go towards the halo? On that note, DO NOT unwrap the shard or do anything to it. Ice burns are painful. Also, it might be protecting us, and we don't need to draw attention to it right now.

4. With that, I propose that we investigate everything else in the courtyard, that is, the low buildings and the grove, to find out more clues and make sure that the area is generally safe, and then pull everybody out for now. We need to figure out what the deal is with the flames before doing something as risky as going inside the keep. It's going to take too long to get a whole team of scholars here, so we'll have to make do with the one we've got. Here's what I propose: we tell Irene and the scholar about our metal shard and what happened when we went near the flames. The scholar will probably know more about it than we do, so we have to tell him in order to make progress, and Irene is our commander - she needs to have this information in order to make the best decisions for this mission. We should also tell them that this metal shard thing is something that we want to keep secret. I think we can trust them to be discreet, seeing as they're already being trusted to carry out a secret mission and all. In any case, this is not the time for being all secretive about something that seems crucial for the success of the investigation and/or the lives of our team. After we tell them, enter the external courtyard again with the three of us and do some experiments with the small fountains of light. What we do after that will depend on the results.

SPECULATION TIME

If you read the previous update where our shard went all blue and purple flamey, you'll see this:

After a minute you realize that you're hyperventilating, and trembling due to sheer agitation.

On the contrary, you feel quite warm.

Also, the artefact was literally sizzling hot.

In contrast, the effects we've been experiencing this update:

Rather you feel somewhat cool, comfortable. Also, you do not know why but you feel rather.. calm. Relaxed even. At ease. It is a strange, strange sensation....

You wonder if your metal artifact is heating up or not. It is still in your pocket after all, wrapped in thick cloth. You try to feel the temperature with your hand, grasping at the cloth, and you suddenly feel the hair on your neck standing up. The metal, even across the cloth, is deathly cold. Colder than metal left outside on an icy winter night. So cold that the cloth is starting to become rigid.

See where I'm going with this? The effects we're experiencing are the complete opposite of what we did in the previous update. I'm thinking that's the effect of the red/yellow/flames. Maybe it's function is to defend against magical artefacts like the one we have by inversing their effects. Instead of making us all hot and bothered, it makes us cool and relaxed.

If we extend that theory a bit, we can also explain why the two units turned on each other. They might have been wearing something that increases their aggression towards enemies (I assume that that would be the keep, in this case - they might have been deployed together to try and breach it). Under the influence of the flames, that something made them incredibly aggressive towards friends instead.

In that case, I want Kyoss to:

5. Search the corpses, keeping an eye out for anything that has markings similar to our shard or the fountains of light. (I wouldn't mind doing this after we explore the grove and the low buildings though.)

 

[Bloodshifter]

A few things.

1. Ask the scholar what he thinks of the flames.

2. Ask Irene if she's feeling any strange sensations at the moment. The description explicitly mentions that we're the only ones that seem calm, but we don't know if the coolness is affecting other people. I suspect all of the effects are constrained to us, but we really should find out if the yellow/white/red flames are affecting the others, and how. If Irene reports any strange sensations, ask the scholar his opinion on what could be causing it.

3. DO NOT, for the love of God, go near the large halo of yellow/white/red flames behind the keep. If merely being near one of the small flames is doing this to our metal shard, do you really want to know what's going to happen if we go towards the halo? On that note, DO NOT unwrap the shard or do anything to it. Ice burns are painful. Also, it might be protecting us, and we don't need to draw attention to it right now.

4. With that, I propose that we investigate everything else in the courtyard, that is, the low buildings and the grove, to find out more clues and make sure that the area is generally safe, and then pull everybody out for now. We need to figure out what the deal is with the flames before doing something as risky as going inside the keep. It's going to take too long to get a whole team of scholars here, so we'll have to make do with the one we've got. Here's what I propose: we tell Irene and the scholar about our metal shard and what happened when we went near the flames. The scholar will probably know more about it than we do, so we have to tell him in order to make progress, and Irene is our commander - she needs to have this information in order to make the best decisions for this mission. We should also tell them that this metal shard thing is something that we want to keep secret. I think we can trust them to be discreet, seeing as they're already being trusted to carry out a secret mission and all. In any case, this is not the time for being all secretive about something that seems crucial for the success of the investigation and/or the lives of our team. After we tell them, enter the external courtyard again with the three of us and do some experiments with the small fountains of light. What we do after that will depend on the results.

SPECULATION TIME

If you read the previous update where our shard went all blue and purple flamey, you'll see this:

After a minute you realize that you're hyperventilating, and trembling due to sheer agitation.

On the contrary, you feel quite warm.

Also, the artefact was literally sizzling hot.

In contrast, the effects we've been experiencing this update:

Rather you feel somewhat cool, comfortable. Also, you do not know why but you feel rather.. calm. Relaxed even. At ease. It is a strange, strange sensation....

You wonder if your metal artifact is heating up or not. It is still in your pocket after all, wrapped in thick cloth. You try to feel the temperature with your hand, grasping at the cloth, and you suddenly feel the hair on your neck standing up. The metal, even across the cloth, is deathly cold. Colder than metal left outside on an icy winter night. So cold that the cloth is starting to become rigid.

See where I'm going with this? The effects we're experiencing are the complete opposite of what we did in the previous update. I'm thinking that's the effect of the red/yellow/flames. Maybe it's function is to defend against magical artefacts like the one we have by inversing their effects. Instead of making us all hot and bothered, it makes us cool and relaxed.

If we extend that theory a bit, we can also explain why the two units turned on each other. They might have been wearing something that increases their aggression towards enemies (I assume that that would be the keep, in this case - they might have been deployed together to try and breach it). Under the influence of the flames, that something made them incredibly aggressive towards friends instead.

In that case, I want Kyoss to:

5. Search the corpses, keeping an eye out for anything that has markings similar to our shard or the fountains of light. (I wouldn't mind doing this after we explore the grove and the low buildings though.)

+1 for this guy's Idea sadly I missed out on last vote

 

[Hoodoo]

Suggestions sound good

but +1 for telling NOBODY about the shard.

check the soldiers ( not touching) for similair metals though. Then ask Irene what she plans to do.

 

[Baltika9]

+1 for keeping our mouth shut about the shard.

 

[Anabanana]

Let's at least tell the scholar so he can help us out. We can quietly murder him later to prevent blabbering - or use him as experiment fodder on the huge flaming halo in the back. If he dies, we kill two birds with one stone. If he doesn't, we can figure something out later. This central courtyard has long been rumored to be full of dangers, so nobody will be too suspicious if he dies in an unfortunate accident.

I mean we're going to have to tell SOMEBODY about the shard sooner or later in order to figure out what the fuck is up with it. Might as well be now, where having more knowledge about it may well save us (and this LP) from a premature death.