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Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
A Naram's the only reason why we were able to wake up unmolested if anything we owe him a favour since he killed Shugi

Who gives a shit about favours? If he was here to perform a ritual and harness power from the sceptre, as far as I'm concerned, we don't owe him shit. What is with this sudden man-crush some of you bros have on Naram all of a sudden? The dude happened to intervene at the right time, doesn't mean that he was doing it to help us. We barely knew enough about him then to form a solid opinion of him then, we know even less about him now. Why trust this man and not Akil? Or better yet, fight her now that we're out in the open? It's the worst possible choice.

Go with A, but watch him closely. I don't trust any immortal but us.

We can't watch him, because we'll be fighting Sekhenun to keep her distracted. And if you're so mistrustful of him, why let him take the sceptre in the first place? You don't trust him, but you take his word for everything he just told us and let him do whatever it is he wants, it makes no sense. We know Naram was originally a charismatic/trickster type from his origin, so if he's planning to screw us over, it won't be direct. It'll be... something like this. Something reliant on deception.

He obviously can't take us on in direct combat, so he has to resort to other means.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
Naram is actually pretty bro. Think about it: he didn't want rulership of a city when it was offered to him and he chose to go after the tentcles rather than try to take over the world like Shugi (and us) - even after he defeated Shugi he didn't take over and become a king like we did, he just wandered off.

All that said it's this "master" I don't trust. So...
C. Break that shit.

edit:

You guys really want some all powerful superbeing to come and tell us what to do? Seriously, the last time we had a master/king he turned out to be a whiny bitch who cut our hand off.
 

Urist McLurker

Learned
Joined
May 1, 2012
Messages
238
Location
Virgintraded
C.
We reached a stalemate before because we were in her element. Now we're at an even battlefield, and we have another immortal with a desire to stop Sekhenun and any remaining Gieloth or monsters or what have you with us, even if he's injured.

I would hope Ean'll inform Naram that we nearly beat Sekhenun on our own earlier before breaking the scepter though; my only concern is that Naram will go batshit crazy at seeing us break the scepter and try to attack us.

I'd rather not introduce a being we know nothing about when we do know we can beat Sekhenun without it.
 

ScubaV

Prophet
Joined
Feb 20, 2011
Messages
1,022
C

I don't trust Naram at this point. We know nothing about him and he seems suspiciously friendly toward us when we've had almost no interactions together. That said, I don't particularly trust the voices or this master either. The voices obviously knew about the ritual and didn't tell us, plus Sekhenun's words (“Then again, a dog of the gods can do nothing but hunt now, can it?”; " You are exhibiting some very interesting behaviour for a dog. They tend not to act as you do after so many years...") also point to some strangeness going on. With time, I'm sure either the voices will tell us or we can unlock the Gieloth knowledge stored in our head.

I worry that this ritual is either going to give crazy powers to potential rivals or summon some being that will restrict our autonomy severely. Sekhenun is outside the womb-chamber, we've got another immortal (though weakened), and all four of our bros. I think we have a good chance of defeating her.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
C

I don't trust Naram at this point. We know nothing about him and he seems suspiciously friendly toward us when we've had almost no interactions together. That said, I don't particularly trust the voices or this master either. The voices obviously knew about the ritual and didn't tell us, plus Sekhenun's words (“Then again, a dog of the gods can do nothing but hunt now, can it?”; " You are exhibiting some very interesting behaviour for a dog. They tend not to act as you do after so many years...") also point to some strangeness going on. With time, I'm sure either the voices will tell us or we can unlock the Gieloth knowledge stored in our head.

I worry that this ritual is either going to give crazy powers to potential rivals or summon some being that will restrict our autonomy severely. Sekhenun is outside the womb-chamber, we've got another immortal (though weakened), and all four of our bros. I think we have a good chance of defeating her.
Flipping the flop to C.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
Baltika9 c
m4davis a
Smashing Axe b or c
oscar b
newcomer a
Esquilax c
CappenVarra c
Arpad b
anus_pounder a
TOME b
Kipeci a
Bloodshifter a
XenomorphII a
Collage C
Azira d
Tigranes c
Lambchop19 c
Urist McLurker c
ScubaV c

With C in the lead smashing_axe's vote being C if B fell behind, the total is now:
A 6
B 3
C 9
D 1
 

Collage

Educated
Joined
Jul 13, 2012
Messages
59
Go with A, but watch him closely. I don't trust any immortal but us.

We can't watch him, because we'll be fighting Sekhenun to keep her distracted. And if you're so mistrustful of him, why let him take the sceptre in the first place? You don't trust him, but you take his word for everything he just told us and let him do whatever it is he wants, it makes no sense. We know Naram was originally a charismatic/trickster type from his origin, so if he's planning to screw us over, it won't be direct. It'll be... something like this. Something reliant on deception.

He obviously can't take us on in direct combat, so he has to resort to other means.

Good points. However, invoking the Sun God doesn't necessarily mean he'll automatically be your servant - he's probably not some friendly genie. I've flipped my vote to C.

EDIT: Lurking for a year or two apparently hasn't given me the ability to into quotes.
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
Chapter 3.10: Sekhenun's End

The voices are silent.

We'll let you decide on this. We're... ah... washing our hands of all responsibility.
We should be giving him a way back here, but honestly, we don't really want to see that insufferable twat again either.

You have the opportunity to act with free will right now. It seems that the voices aren't too keen on bringing this Ra back either. Since they're unwilling to be responsible for this, though... well, you don't really care for gods anyway.

You crush the Sceptre with your hands and stomp on the pieces. Naram is dumbfounded. "You... traitor."

Well, that's it.
He's going to be really, really pissed if he ever finds out you did this.
We just have to make sure he never finds out. Stay optimistic, guys!

"If we work together, Naram, we can beat her -"

"YOU BLASPHEMER!" Naram jumps at you, his elderly form growing lesser in age. His hands close around your throat but you easily force them apart. He begins screaming and ranting. "Do you have any idea of how many worthless divine artifacts they have all over the place that they claim are able to summon the gods? Do you have any idea how long I spent trying to find something that could bring our masters back again? First Shulgi, and now you turn away from our masters!" His form changes again. Muscles bulge, his teeth lengthen into needle-like fangs, and his fingers turn to razor-sharp claws. You find his strength increasing rapidly, and you kick him away from you.

Masters? Didn't he talk about just one master before?

Naram roars in anger as he completes his transformation, standing a whole head taller than you. Samun and Kamun move to attack, coming from each side of him in perfect harmony. Their swords bite into his sides, but Naram does not appear to feel it. He bats them aside with a casual swing of his trunk-like arms. "How do you know this was not another of the fake artifacts, Naram?" you ask. "If Sekhenun knows, she would have destroyed it too."

"She doesn't, you fool! She doesn't know!"

"What don't I know?" Sekhenun stands in the doorway behind Naram, dressed in a tunic that was much more modest than her previous outfit. Her face was a mask of anger. You probe at her mind - there are shields up. You can't penetrate them - but you have no reason to believe she is not as angry as she looks.

Uh oh.

"Naram, we can beat her if we work together." you whisper urgently.

Sekhenun attacks before he can reply, her arms morphing and dividing into numerous tentacles that wrap around Naram's body. In the next instant, he changes form again, shrinking down into his normal size before darting underneath the tentacles. Sekhenun laughs, childlike. Her extended tentacles come shooting back towards Naram's back. You rush forward to guard him - as it is, he is still ostensibly on your side. It does not take more than a swing of your sword to cut down the tentacles. Sekhenun hisses at you. "So you are a dog after all. You disappoint me." You hear Naram give a small chuckle. He leaps over Sekhenun while her attention is focused on you, and lands behind her. You prepare to attack at the same time.

"I will not fight besides one who would betray me. Enjoy the hospitality of the Gieloth. May you rot for all eternity in their belly." Naram mutters angrily. Then he runs, dashing off into the corridors of the temple. "Wha - hey! Naram!" A sudden movement from Sekhenun snaps your attention back to her. She leaps at you while you're off guard, taking on a clawed, lithe form. You fend off the first couple of blows, but the third scratches your skin. You realize instantly that your regeneration isn't kicking in.

She's one tough cookie. She knows how to nullify the regen.
Oh man, maybe we should've just sucked it up and got the twat back to help us?

You shrug mentally. This just means that you have to fight as if you were mortal; you have not forgotten how. You adopt a defensive stance - your speed matches hers, and Sekhenun has little skill in battle. You taunt her with this. "You aren't very good at fighting for a god, are you?"

"I'm not a god of war, I'm a god of science!" she retorts, angrily.

Taking no more than a few more scratches, your countering strikes drive her back out of the chamber and into the corridor. In close combat, you are in your element. She was foolish to engage you like this - you are no Naram. You notice, however, your attacks weren't giving her any damage. Every cut you make in her body regenerates in mere seconds. You also don't see the tell-tale signs of host possession - her wounds bleed normally, with no signs of black tendrils writhing underneath.

Frustrated at being unable to reach you, Sekhenun gives an annoyed yell and falls back to using her limbs as tentacles. That proves to be a fatal mistake - you know how to fight tentacles very well, and she does not use it any better than her sisters used their tendrils. You duck and chop your way past their predictable flailing - giving her no time to shift her shape again - and you remove her head as she gasps in surprise. Wasting no time, you kick over the headless body and cut open the spine... only find that there is no core. It appears to look like a normal human spine in all aspects.

"Runi!" You hear Mutyre yelling from within the chamber, where they were taking care of the injured Samun and Kamun. "The head!"

Sekhenun's head had sprouted little tendrils which it was using to try to crawl away from you. You can't help but grin as you walk over to it, and put a foot on it, stopping it from moving.

you dog

"What?"

You dog. Get your foot off me. I yield.

"Begging for your life? Do you think I would trust you to be left alive?"

I don't expect you to. I trade my life in return for information. Your leash has told you little, Pahnrath's knowledge is fractured - I can give you more. I am the most learned of my sisters.

Having said that, her mental shields drop, and her mind opens up. You tentatively probe it - it appears that she will not be able to overpower you psychically, and it isn't a trap. Sekhenun's head looks up at you, expressionless. You do not feel any hope coming from her, only resignation.

"The last time I did this, I slept for three hundred years."

Information overload. We know too much for any human to digest even in ten thousand years. I will give you just enough that it will not fry your brain. Again.

"And for that, I let you go?"

If you wish to be something other than a mere dog, yes.

The head closes her eyes. Naram's sheep appear to have done a thorough job of cleaning house, as you sense no other living thing besides sheep in the temple. No matter what you choose, her power is broken here.

***

1. Sekhenun's Deal
A. You accept her offer of information.
B. You refuse her offer of information.

***

2. Sekhenun's Fate
A. You take advantage of her open mind to shatter it, just like you did with Pahnrath. You will take all the information.
B. You crush her head under your foot. She holds no hope for herself - show her that she is right.
C. You seal her head in a nearby jar and take it with you. You've always wanted a pet Gieloth!
D. You allow her head to crawl off. You are an honourable immortal, and even with your enemies you honour your deals.

(Some options might seem redundant, but it'll contribute to Ean's personality. Also, if you choose to pick information, there's an upcoming choice on what you will learn about.)
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
Awesome update. Hmm, it seems we've got a lot of different possibilities here. Right now I'm leaning towards the BB: Suffer not the alien to live option, but I'm not sure.

I think that this quote bears mentioning:


Chapter 2.7 said:
The fragmentation of the creature's mind under your assault had another side effect other than putting you into a coma - you were now haunted by glimpses of knowledge from their alien civilization. There was a whole repository of knowledge buried within your mind, but to access it in its entirety would probably do worse to your brain. It would be ill-advised to attempt such a stunt, and you decide to decipher it slowly. It may take you decades, or even centuries, but sooner or later all their secrets will be open to you.
 

m4davis

Scholar
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
557
A
B
She should of brushed up on her history remember what we did to Rimush
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
A.
C.

I think taking all the info at once will fry us for 10000 years and there's a lot of cool stuff that we'd miss out on historically, but if we take her head with us we may be able to get more out of her in little bits.

Naram is officially no bro btw - just a brainwashed little doggy. So glad we ruined 300 years of his work and didn't resurect the twat either.
 

Bloodshifter

Educated
Joined
Jul 7, 2012
Messages
542
Location
Somewhere with dead bears
B
B
we can't risk it she is mentally stronger then us there is no doubt about that she will trample ANY defences we have.
(if I may)E ask her if she wishes to leave with us seeing as Egypt is over in that jar of course
 

Smashing Axe

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
2,835
Divinity: Original Sin
I think this choice is more about personality. A D, if we give our word we should keep to it. It's the only choice to keep Ean from becoming a cynical asshole, other than B X
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
BB

We already have access to much of the information that we will gain sooner or later, and with the three gieloths dead, we have that luxury of time, surely. What we need to do is not risk any more comas and use this key victory to our advantage in Egypt, doing what we failed to do in Assyria.
 

XenomorphII

Prophet
Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Messages
1,198
A
C

We technically keep our word that way while leaving the door open to future prospects from her in exchange for her freedom.
 

Kipeci

Arcane
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
3,027
Location
Vicksburg
A
C

We done goofed with the staff and unnecesarilly enraged the only other immortal we know of who hadn't despised us, but this is still salvageable.
 

oscar

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2008
Messages
8,034
Location
NZ
AD

She has been reasonable with us, we will be reasonable with her.
 

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,518
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
I'm pretty :smug: about Ean snuffing Naram and still beating Sekhenun. We need info however. Naram obviously knows much more about all this than we do, and even if we do have some of the Gieloth knowledge tucked away inside our minds, having a "guide" would be useful. We should be honourable and let her go, this would be in keeping with the previous choices we've made for the classical hero type:
AD
We've beaten her soundly. We're the strong, but uninformed immortal here. She should be wary of us, and she knows we could end her right here, right now. She might trick and deceive us, but we're sensing that she does not have the power to take us down psychically in her current condition.
Get the info. We need it. Then be honourable and let her go. Having a good rep as an immortal could serve us well.
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
In other conditions, inside her own temple, with cultists and children at her command, while she thought clearly and without being enraged, it would have been a much tougher fight. Naram may be a "brainwashed little doggy", but he did help you out a lot just by showing up with his flock in tow. Had you chosen to enter the temple earlier in the story, he wouldn't have arrived at the right time to serve as a distraction. ;)
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
We done goofed with the staff and unnecesarilly enraged the only other immortal we know of who hadn't despised us, but this is still salvageable.

Shulgi might be a power-hungry asshole, but better that than a blind fanatic. I don't quite understand the reasoning behind AC - this is kind of a "shit or get off the pot" choice, so the only thing that makes sense to me is either killing her or letting her go and taking the information. Keeping her in a jar is foolish because any idiot could free her whenever.

Both choices are honorable in their own way since they don't involve breaking our word. I see Ean as a classical sort of hero, and I very much like that his actions have been noble and principled for the most part. I'd prefer that he stays that way.

I am very wary about trying to trick or deceive Sukhenun like this: she wants to give us information psychically in exchange for her life, so I think the moment she touches our mind and senses even a hint of deceit, she'll try and scramble our brains to set us back another 300 years. We tore her to shreds in this battle, but I'm afraid that if it comes down to a battle of psychic powers, we won't fare so well.

VOTING AD. Voting BB.

That makes a lot of sense, Lambchop19.
 

Kipeci

Arcane
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
3,027
Location
Vicksburg
Shulgi might be a power-hungry asshole, but better that than a blind fanatic.
We're hardly in a position to call someone else a blind fanatic when our kneejerk reaction was to break that rod up despite knowing almost nothing about the situation other than that the spirits controlling our body were somewhat bummed about it. If he gets angry that hundreds of years of his efforts were wasted and that he'd have to search for hundreds, thousands, maybe more years to find a similar artifact if one even exists, I don't call that fanaticism. Up to the point where we ruined the efforts of most of his current life and the foreseeable future for no decent reason, he had been pretty bro, or at least he wasn't actively horrible like Shulgi.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
In other conditions, inside her own temple, with cultists and children at her command, while she thought clearly and without being enraged, it would have been a much tougher fight. Naram may be a "brainwashed little doggy", but he did help you out a lot just by showing up with his flock in tow. Had you chosen to enter the temple earlier in the story, he wouldn't have arrived at the right time to serve as a distraction. ;)

Naram had his uses - very true. But he didn't do it just aid us did he? Even if he did, his worship of these "masters" does conflict with our desire for independence.

She could be a useful ally/vassal...
Ally? A very dangerous one. She can stop regen. I rather doubt even Naram or Shugi can do that at this point. BTW, if we can find out from her how she does that...

I am very wary about trying to trick or deceive Sukhenun like this: she wants to give us information psychically in exchange for her life, so I think the moment she touches our mind and senses even a hint of deceit, she'll try and scramble our brains to set us back another 300 years. We tore her to shreds in this battle, but I'm afraid that if it comes down to a battle of psychic powers, we won't fare so well.
Thought of this. Hopefully since we're technically keeping our word with AC she won't sense duplicity. And we're doing her a favor in letting her live at all so we won't be feeling illwill...

I understand why you want to be honorable, but letting a highly intelligent Gilioth who already has the ability stop stop our regen - who knows what further defenses she'll develop now that she's fought us - leave to rebirth more of her kind is a big mistake. If you want to be honest you might as well just vote both Bs and be done with it.
 

XenomorphII

Prophet
Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Messages
1,198
Regarding why AC is a good choice:

Sek is a near immortal and made a poorly worded deal and she should be punished for it. I imagine that while she won't like us much (inevitable at this point) it might garner some respect from her (we keep our word, but are not naive enough to just let an opponent walk away), and even if it doesn't we can probably force more info from her later on in exchange for her freedom (and she would have no reason not to follow though with it as we would have kept our word in the previous deal, she would just be more careful about how she worded her agreement). Seeing as how knowledge is our great weakness and she claimed to be more akin to a god of science that war, keeping her around for even a slight bit of extra milking seems to me like it would be a good idea as it might give us an advantage against our rivals in the long run.

Also in regards to Shulgi and Naram. I imagine Shulgi (when/if he returns) would be much more angry and bitter towards Naram then us (we ruined a few weeks of rule, Naram a century) and we should keep that in mind, and perhaps use it to have them after each other (or even help Shulgi deal with Naram, who undoubtedly hates our guts and probably will for some time).

Edit: Also keeping her around would allow for deep (and I mean very deep) emotional engagement were captor and captive fall in love!
 

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,518
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
Immortal head of Sekhenun reminds me a bit of this oglaf character (top line of images, bottom is the deranged sexual vampire and a random gook):
furniture2.jpg
 

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