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treave

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Codex 2012
Chapter 5.17: In the Shadow of Olympus

The ground trembled beneath your feet. The great mountain of the gods towered over you, casting a vast shadow beneath the sun. All around you the corpses of Egyptians, Sumerians and Greeks lay, tangled amongst one another like lovers in a final, obscene dance. They had lived, fought and died for gods that thirsted only for power and cared not a whit for those that worshipped them. You tear your eyes away. The hunger had been growing faster and faster ever since you stepped off Ares's lavish ship and onto Greek soil. You would have to feed soon, or risk losing control.

Above you, sounds of battle resounded through the craggy mountain paths. No mortals had dared climb Olympus before this, and the Olympians themselves had not seen fit to build any fortifications of any kind, secure in their power over Greece. It was amazing that they had lasted as long as they had against the well-drilled and powerful armies of Marduk. Here and there, you see smashed and charred towers similar to the one you had destroyed in Tjaru. As you followed the sounds of battle, the bodies littering the mountain grew ever fewer, but the wounds decorating their corpses grew ever worse. You wonder if you should attempt to sneak past the battle, or cut your way past the remaining soldiers engaged in combat. There were still hundreds left. Marduk was at the very front of the lines, with only two of his lieutenants left. Zeus and his consort appear to be the only immortals remaining on Olympus, directing the last of their men from his throne. Ares was coming after you, but you do not know when he will reach the mountain.

With an ominous rumble, the sky grew dark. Storm clouds gathered above the very peak of the mountain, spitting out blue arcs of lightning. Zeus was a weather god, was he not? His wrath would soon come. The fragment of Vajra that you had brought with you thrummed as it sensed the gathering of power, and for a brief moment it appears as if it'll fly right out of your robes and towards the peak. Sekhenun had said that there was a possibility that you might be able to use it to gain an edge over Marduk, though there was a risk that he could snatch it from you. It looks like Vajra may play a role in the coming battle if you bring it up there.

You look at Iltani, standing besides you with a look of feigned bravery in her eyes. Perhaps you could have her bring the piece away, back to Babylon and to safety. It was an important task that only she was able to do right now. If not, the upcoming confrontation was so risky that you would have to send her away anyway, though you would have to really commit yourself to convince her somehow. On the way here, you had tried everything, even promising marriage, and yet she did not leave. You are no longer sure you can keep her safe - you are very uncertain you can keep yourself safe...

***

We're keeping the previous style for a while, but I suppose updates can be a bit quicker. The key points to note here will be your hunger: feed, or take the risk of wielding it against the enemy, whether you try to sneak through the battle or create a distraction by yourself from the back of the lines, possibly trapping Marduk between you and Zeus, and whether you pass Vajra (yeah a bit of an ass-pull there, sorry :troll:) to Iltani, which will make her return to Babylon safely (as long as she doesn't run into Ares going down the mountain), or you convince her via other means and see if you can use Vajra in the coming battle. Of course, other ideas are fair game.
 

Baltika9

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This is a choice between taking risks and doing it the bland, boring way. I'm all for risks. We'll need every edge, Vajra and our hunger included. I'm not sure if we should be involved in the battle below, but assisting the Greeks to break through could work to our advantage. Or, it could waste our time, let Ares catch up with us and waste our time even more. No, the right choice is to get to Marduk ASAP. Maybe we'll get lucky and Iltani will be the one thing that saves our hide in the end.
So, A: Keep Vajra, don't feed and run to Zeus and Marduk like all hell is chasing us.
Edit: Wait a second: what gives us hunger points: feeding or starvation?
 

treave

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Codex 2012
Intermission: The Fall of Athens
The town of Athens has been razed to the ground very thoroughly, and sub-specimen 912580[THS] has been destroyed along with it. Batch IDs 57889[HPS], 77109[APL], and 79580[HRM] have been lost. 63234[ATN] was routed but rescued by the intervention of 77110[ART]. 57889[HPS] attempted using a fragment of a Key against the warlord that calls itself Marduk, but failed. Said fragment is now in Marduk’s possession. Instructions have been given for the priority of its retrieval.​
Marduk has engaged in abnormal levels of overt violence for a Gieloth. Surveys indicate that the Aegean is unlikely to recover for centuries to come.​
***​
234jme;ofk!!!!!!!!!!!!E1adw!@3819273801234cf​
934#z*h#**d110101[r*#*’[**$I to2ynhvcu fucks1asvz35zlhjouldn’t have​
ag3152dgdhj6asswipe’s experi2412nt12zzbut n124562uld happen’ x12bow I’m th315nas6e31 mess up.​
3zzc2Head fi126ou23561s we are 12576azxccked.$,4289!52@34834192343015364zex9334#*#sd**!1103110*3#***$1​
2-0d9fj3m,4kjkl!!0#_]#($%&^+!253234324​
 

Azira

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Codex 2012
Subspecimen Theseus destroyed.
Batch IDs Hephaestos, Apollo and Hermes lost, Athena routed but rescued by Artemis.
Hephaestos' part of Vajra captured by Marduk.

...

Vajra is mentioned as part of a "Key". Uh-oh...

:troll:

It could also just be a key to unlocking the true potential of an immortal...
 

Esquilax

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Azira: I think it's a Key because it probably opens a door back into Earth for the Masters to come through after they've been banished 2,000 years ago. If Zeus gets all the pieces, that's very bad news.

I have three possible plans given the situation:

A) Stall Marduk until Ares gets here by killing and devouring his lieutenant Shamash. Marduk may have his ace in the hole in the form of the Devourer Fragment, but we have our own in the form of Edem. Devouring Marduk is too dangerous given the fact that we haven't fed in so long and his incredible will could overtake ours (or worse, he defeats us and takes the last piece of Vajra), but devouring Shamash sounds like a very good idea.

He can't concentrate on Zeus and on us at the same time, but I am betting that even with us causing trouble, he'll still see Zeus as the priority target. After all, Marduk would reason that once he devours Zeus, we're no longer going to be a threat.

Our action here would only delay the inevitable, though, because Marduk will devour Zeus. However, with a well-fed Ean, the piece of Vajra, and a timely intervention by Ares directed towards Marduk, I think we can win this. Once Ares arrives, he'll know exactly why we've been taunting him, and only then will he be able to bury the hatchet.

B) Devour Iltani. This is pretty grimdark, but this could be the Theseus situation coming full-circle. We need to pull the reins on our hunger so we don't go crazy and end up devouring Marduk in our famished state.

It would work, but the problem would be the Aftermath; Zeus is an avatar of the Masters and would be just as hostile to us as Marduk is. Yeah, we'd get Marduk this way, but then we've still got to fight Zeus AND Ares. Zeus is not going to be any more likely to ally with us than Marduk is. More than likely, he'll just kill us, take our piece of Vajra and then gain the full power of the weapon now that he has all the components.

I suppose it could work if we don't bring Vajra with us, but then that would make defeating Marduk even harder.

C) Sneak our way past the battle using our abilities as a blank and towards Zeus to kill him before Marduk has a chance to get him. A preemptive strike using the toxin that Sekhenun gave us would work and take Zeus out of the equation. From there, we would have two pieces of Vajra to use against Marduk.

We'd probably have to feed on Iltani here as well. Devouring Marduk seems like a very shitty idea in our state.

These are all tentative ideas, personally I'm leaning towards A.
 

Baltika9

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Esquilax: Or, our hunger could be our last chance against Marduk. If all else fails, we'll be the Devouring God. I could think of worse outcomes. Of course that is where we'll need that last hunger point.
Edit: Devouring Iltani? That is abominable!
Why would you waste a willing meatshield like that?
 

CappenVarra

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Batch IDs 57889[Hephaestus], 77109[Apollo], and 79580[Hermes] have been lost. 63234[Athena] was routed but rescued by the intervention of 77110[Artemis]. 57889[Hephaestus] attempted using a fragment of a Key against the warlord that calls itself Marduk, but failed. Said fragment is now in Marduk’s possession. Instructions have been given for the priority of its retrieval.
Vajra is the key and the gate? And all three pieces are now on this battlefield (with Ean, Marduk and Zeus)? Whoa.
 

Smashing Axe

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Divinity: Original Sin
A) Stall Marduk until Ares gets here by killing and devouring his lieutenant Shamash.

The problem with this is that it reveals our nature to Marduk, who we know through the powers of divination (okay, meta) will try to devour us if he starts to loose. Him knowing our nature makes it an automatic win for Marduk. However, I do agree that we need to feed on something. I regret not eating Ares' sons.

Marduk may have his ace in the hole in the form of the Devourer Fragment, but we have our own in the form of Edem. Devouring Marduk is too dangerous given the fact that we haven't fed in so long and his incredible will could overtake ours (or worse, he defeats us and takes the last piece of Vajra), but devouring Shamash sounds like a very good idea.
I recall wayback when Sek first talked about Vajra that she said Marduk would not be capable of utilising it. I don't see why that would have changed. Okay, if he eats Zeus, then maybe he'll be capable of interfacing with it.
He can't concentrate on Zeus and on us at the same time, but I am betting that even with us causing trouble, he'll still see Zeus as the priority target. After all, Marduk would reason that once he devours Zeus, we're no longer going to be a threat.
I agree, although it's possible Marduk may just try to devour us.
Our action here would only delay the inevitable, though, because Marduk will devour Zeus. However, with a well-fed Ean, the piece of Vajra, and a timely intervention by Ares directed towards Marduk, I think we can win this. Once Ares arrives, he'll know exactly why we've been taunting him, and only then will he be able to bury the hatchet.
I think you're giving too much credit to Ares here. Most likely he'll just try to attack us in a three way fight.

When all is said and done though, if we feed, and Marduk tries to feed on us, we may be able to eat him. But only if he remains unaware of our true nature.

I don't have time atm to address your other proposals. Sorry to go VD on you, just aiming for expediency. I mostly agree with your proposals, there's just a couple of weaknesses in them that could be our Achilles heel.
 

Baltika9

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Wait, Ares is a battlefield leader, right? Then, if we tip the battle int the Greeks' favor, he'll have forces to arrive to. And I think that an army emboldened by their god of war will be rather useful. And remember, we're a blank, so he can't sense us on the battlefield. We can just put on a uniform and hide.
Plus, while we're in Marduk's rear, we may even get to snack a bit on his soldiers.
 

Esquilax

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Ares is coming to Olympus alone, Baltika9.

There are a few things that are clear to me if we want to succeed:
  • We must feed. The sooner, the better.
  • Both Zeus and Marduk must die. I can't foresee a scenario in which an avatar of the Masters would just let us go after we disposed of Marduk for him. We've made ourselves an enemy of the Masters, so neither of them can live after this. Zeus with a fully assembled Vajra is even worse than Marduk is.
  • Ares is coming, we need to lure him away from ourselves and towards Marduk
The problem with this is that it reveals our nature to Marduk, who we know through the powers of divination (okay, meta) will try to devour us if he starts to loose. Him knowing our nature makes it an automatic win for Marduk. However, I do agree that we need to feed on something. I regret not eating Ares' sons.

Like I said, Iltani's right there. We can lie to Gudersu and tell him she saved our life against Marduk. It's horrible, but we just might have to do it. I have no desire to become some Devouring God because that'll attract the attention of the Masters and Earth will be in deep shit once again. If this works out, we need to lay low for the next few centuries and work on finding a cure for our condition with Sekhenun. I believe that Ean is still a good man, but now that he knows the big picture, he can't let another Theseus situation occur.

A variation of C that could work is this:

D) Place Iltani in a coma with psionics, then feed off her. Give Iltani the final piece of Vajra, then send her off to Babylon. Once we run up the mountain, rendezvous with Edem, asking him to shield our mind from Hera while we take out Zeus with the help of our toxin and steal his piece of the Vajra. Once we've deprived Marduk of his meal, let 'er rip. Edem can watch our backs against Ares when he shows up.

I recall wayback when Sek first talked about Vajra that she said Marduk would not be capable of utilising it. I don't see why that would have changed. Okay, if he eats Zeus, then maybe he'll be capable of interfacing with it.
...

I agree, although it's possible Marduk may just try to devour us.

Fuck. You're right about Vajra, he'd also have two pieces at that point. I'm hoping that he'd be a little woozy from his meal and not at full power at that point with A. With the power boost from devouring Shamash, a piece of Vajra, Ares and Edem, we would have a chance.

I think you're giving too much credit to Ares here. Most likely he'll just try to attack us in a three way fight.

When all is said and done though, if we feed, and Marduk tries to feed on us, we may be able to eat him. But only if he remains unaware of our true nature.

I don't have time atm to address your other proposals. Sorry to go VD on you, just aiming for expediency. I mostly agree with your proposals, there's just a couple of weaknesses in them that could be our Achilles heel.

I actually prefer that you're looking for holes in my idea here. We need something airtight if we're going to come out of this one alive and with Marduk dead. So feel free to tear things apart until we get it right. I'm offering these suggestions in part to get people thinking so that they come up with something better than I did.

I agree that I'm probably giving too much credit to Ares - he'll be seeing red the moment he sees us. However, we have two things working in our favour: (1) is the voices in Ares' head. We had a defective batch, but our meathead pal probably didn't - if he sees us at Olympus, the voices are going to order him to kill Marduk despite his own personal vendettas. Er... at least, I sure fucking hope so. Masters don't much like us either, but Marduk is a much higher priority target. (2) is our co-conspirator, Mindfucker Jr. I'm sure he can be very persuasive.

Edit: Fuck, TOME is right. Having three pieces of Vajra on Mt. Olympus seems like a terrible idea. Having all three pieces of the key might just unlock the doorway for the Masters. Goddamnit. Devouring Zeus causes a shitload of problems too.
 

TOME

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Whoa, I'm away a week and there is ten pages of text:incline:

treave: Was Egypt screwed anyway, regardless of what we did? Or what was the turning point?

I think sneaking past Marduk and defeating and devouring Zeus is the way to go here. Give the part of Vajra to Iltani and her take it to babylon. Seeing as it is a key, we don't want all pieces in the same place. Or did it give more power, like Anbar-Shi? I seem to have missed that part. Also get Zeus' part of Vajra.

So basically, voting Esquilax's C. But no eating Iltani!
 

Baltika9

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Esquilax: I know he's coming up alone. But there are still Greek soldiers on the other side of Marduk's army. If we thin the ranks and get Ares up there, coupled with Zeus' weather manipulation, we might actually give them a fighting chance to slow Marduk down.
That way, we can also snack on some Bablyonians. And there will be no need to lie to Gudersu about Iltani dying to protect us from Marduk, wehen she can make it true. She's a willing meat-shield right now, one with guts, too.
Ares is a leader as much as he is a fighter, or at least that's the impression I have. He'd be much more useful as a general, I'd think.
Our best outcome is not letting Marduk devour Zeus, because we don't want any attention from the masters.
Edit:
The first turning point for all this was where you got laid out for a year or more, not being able to prevent the war from starting - so you can track this all the way back to the Theseus debacle.
All this, because of one stupid, lovestruck bitch. Goddamn, love really does make the world a terrible place. No worse than my one-liners, at any rate.
And now that we know that about Vajra, the piece is staying here. I think Iltani is a very, very useful willing meathsield.
Edit2: treave does Ean know if Edem is still alive and with Marduk? Also, could you be arsed to draw up a Masters' report on Ean? I'm curious.
 

treave

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Codex 2012
treave: Was Egypt screwed anyway, regardless of what we did? Or what was the turning point?

Good question. Marduk never meant to defend Egypt properly, at best it served as a distraction for his purposes (which Zeus was cautious enough not to fall for, as he sent only Ares). Remember that he headed to Egypt personally himself before going to Greece, meaning that it was likely he'd have met with the Pharaoh...

At any rate, Egypt was ill equipped to fight off Ares, particularly since most of their troops were under Marduk's command over in Greece, having being convinced (or 'convinced') that it was the best way to win the war. Your intervention would have determined how successful you were in preserving Egypt. Before the dump you guys were well on track to keeping Egypt in tip-top condition even if Marduk became the most powerful being on the planet. Leaving Egypt when you did means that the terror twins and the few thousand Greeks remaining may cause some havoc, but less than it would have been if Ares was around.

The first turning point for all this was where you got laid out for a year or more, not being able to prevent the war from starting - so you can track this all the way back to the Theseus debacle.

Staying in Egypt back then to rejoin the army in view of the war and not hunt for Sekhenun would've also given you the possibility to stop Egypt from allying with Marduk if you did well at strategy and basically succeeded in not losing and doing heroic shit like earn Athena's respect by outwitting her on the battlefield. That again changes things up, though how Marduk would've reacted to Egypt's favourite son returning to lead its armies is another matter altogether. Without the additional Egyptian bodies, Marduk's occupation of Greece would not have gone as fast as it did.

Not to say that there was no benefit to going to Sumeria - it granted Ean personal power and shook up Marduk's legacy (and more Sekhenun points. Collect enough and something happens! :lol:)

I think sneaking past Marduk and defeating and devouring Zeus is the way to go here. Give the part of Vajra to Iltani and her take it to babylon. Seeing as it is a key, we don't want all pieces in the same place. Or did it give more power, like Anbar-Shi? I seem to have missed that part.

You can think of it like Vajra waking up now that its pieces are getting closer to one another. From now on it is possible to draw power from the piece that you have. If you manage to gain control over the completed Vajra you have a fighting chance against Super Marduk.
 

ScubaV

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I've kind of skimmed over stuff so far and here's my skeleton plan:

-Send Iltani to Babylon with our Vajra piece. We can't afford either Zeus or Marduk getting the whole key if we fail.
-Feed on injured soldiers on our way up Olympus. Hopefully this will get rid of the hunger pangs and keep us out of the main fighting and the eyes of Zeus/Marduk.
-Sneak past the battle lines to Zeus. From their either try to kill/eat him or just wait for Marduk to come and pop out at the most opportune time while they are busy dueling.

I wonder if Ares can even recognize us. Obviously if he sees us fighting he'll know, but if we're sneaking or trying to blend in I don't think he can sense us.
 

treave

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Codex 2012
Baltika9, Edem's still around. And there is no report on Ean at all. He went off the grid back when he lost his powers. Hardly important enough to notice, all things considered.
 

Azira

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You can think of it like Vajra waking up now that its pieces are getting closer to one another. From now on it is possible to draw power from the piece that you have. If you manage to gain control over the completed Vajra you have a fighting chance against Super Marduk.

Vajra is Important to us as well as our opponents.
What kind of power can we draw from it, enough to deduce its purpose?
 

treave

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Codex 2012
Right now it's allowing you to throw electricity at people in addition to a slight boost in all parameters.
 

Bloodshifter

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Okay just caught up and I must say I cant believe A2 won that time why you no eat them!!!

lolled at the letter to Ares and I am glad we went to Greece can't believe we didn't coma the girl though

Esquil A shines to me but D is also another every good Chance Marduk is the STRONGEST enemy out there right now if we do meet Edem and are able to "persuade" him to help us then give up Varja tell Iltani to run off with the weapon HOPEFULLY Ares is too incensed to stop and decide to pick up the uber weapon (he is not stupid sadly just hot blooded) take Iltani with us keeping her off to the side of the "main" battle a few miles should do it leaving Edem guarding her (AKA run if shit hits the fan) (her life to me is of SECONDARY concern) keep Varja sneak to the "duel" and jump in when (1) Ares gets there using our shape-shifting change our skin tone to match Zeus's and shout out as we attack "RUNI you shall pay for your crimes hopefully Ares and Zeus will gang up against Marduk kill him (with us "disappearing") then reappear to slaughter the two weaken Gods then we shall Dine! (2) Zeus is clearly overmatched against Marduk so we step in help the poor bastard (still shape-shifting our skin color) down playing our abilities UNTIL Ares shows then Pulling (1)
 

ScubaV

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The Esquilax D plan looks pretty similar to mine, so let's go with that.
 

Kipeci

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Hold up, I've got to say that we SHOULD NOT devour Iltani in any way that does not demonstrate our cunning linguistics.

If we're able to rationalize our way into devouring the body and soul of the daughter of the bro-est guy we've met on the chance that maybe that'll help us beat Marduk, don't think there won't be plenty of repercussions for that. What's to stop us from becoming any different from him if we let our hunger control us in that way?

In an absolute pinch, I could stand us devouring a couple of the people still left alive on the battlefield. It wouldn't be honorable, but at least it's not nearly so heinous. But if we take that hard a swing towards the DEVOUR SOUL!!! end of the spectrum by consuming Iltani, I'm not sure we could recover.
 

Baltika9

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This will be a stretch, bros, but bear with me here (especially Storyfag and Esquilax. Paging you here.). Maybe Zeus doesn't need to die here. Maybe the only guy we really need to take out here is Marduk and call it quits while we're ahead. The Masters will throw a hissy fit after (and hopefully if) Marduk eats their little sockpuppet. Now, what do you think would happen if an unknown, and, if recognized, panic inducing entity kills/devours both of them/the thing that devoured their little cocksleeve/kills their Vajra-wielding Avatar/kills and devours Super Marduk with Vajra? Def Con One would be an understatement, I think. And yes, apparently they are aware what happens to their Immortals. We don't even know about the Avatar. Maybe it's a direct conduit for a Master/all of them?

Maybe all we really need to do here is contact Edem, kill Marduk quick and easy , get his Vajra pieces and GTFO while we still can. Let Zeus and the foaming-at-the-mouth-red-in-the-eyes-running-up-the-mountain-yelling-"MAXIMUM FUCK!!!"-death-machine, AKA Ares, clean the mess up and rebuild Greece. We have more important shit to do.
It's a pity we never got to talk to Marduk. I wonder what his motivations were? Was it just power? Or has he decided to get the whole EMPRAH thing started before us?
Edit: Maybe he took the whole "sympathizing with humans" to it's logical conclusion?
Edit2: OTOH, maybe this is our one and only chance to deal with Zeus for good and on more-or-less comfortable terms. I mean, we could just rush Marduk with Edem now, get Vajra and kick some more ass, again with Edem.
 

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