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[LP CYOA] Epic

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
Losing one has its drawbacks, however... Sekhenun herself doesn't know what since it's an experimental weapon. Suffice to say, you can make more, but metaknowledge tips here strongly suggest you don't make it a habit of losing a piece of yourself.

:hmmm:

Look, we'd definately loose the sword. It WILL happen if we pick C. You try living forever and not losing something. Hell, even us mortals lose our keys every other day. We will be able to make a new one, but the question is are we willing to gamble that the rewards will outweigh the cost of the loss - which is still unkown...
 

oscar

Arcane
Joined
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I imagine the weakness is along the lines of if we lose it, the person who has it could boil it down into a soup or something and consume it and gain some of our powers.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
Do we know it works like that? Maybe we can catch up to Naram and diablerize--oh, wait wrong thread...
 

newcomer

Learned
Joined
May 23, 2012
Messages
919
We don't really plan to die & have our sword taken into a museum right? So just create it I guess... And make sure we don't die :smug:
 

treave

Arcane
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Codex 2012
Re: the first choice

1A will also allow you to understand Naram and Shulgi's motivations thus far (they worked together in Sumeria initially to discover more about their powers and the voices, while you were off traipsing in the desert), as well as that of any other immortal that you meet in the future - i.e. where do they stand in this? It provides context. The voices will tell you what it all is about, but probably not all at once and when it suits them. You'll be able to force something out of them after the sceptre issue, though.

Esquilax explained my intention for 1B and 1C pretty well :
The biggest problem with 1C) is that we probably won't understand a lot of the communication between the Gieloth. We can get at stuff like emotions through telepathy, but we don't have the context to understand their culture, their hierarchies, their mission on this place, what they're doing with human beings, etc. Figuring all that shit out will be like playing a game of broken telephone in Chinese - we just don't have the appropriate context to understand them at the moment.

However, if we pick B, given Sukhenun's position among her people, we can learn a lot. Sure, we won't know about the nature of our "masters", but we can learn a lot of stuff about what their purpose is on Earth, whether some of them can coexist with us, that sort of thing.

Sekhenun is pretty much the living encyclopedia on Gieloth right now, so B can be seen as the specific knowledge choice (and allows your telepathy to work on them fully as you now understand their nature), while C is the general knowledge choice, i.e. you learn not only about a bit of the Gieloth, but also about whatever is going on around the world.

As far as the Honourblade goes...
- You can name it something else.
- It doesn't have to be a sword - it's a living extension of yourself and the forging process will allow it to shift in shape.
- As a part of you, it also possesses your powers - if you need to touch someone to access their mind, sticking the weapon in will do just fine too. You can light it on fire without coating it in oil first. Or make it into a laser sword if you have sufficiently developed light manipulation powers. It repairs itself and shit. Well, among other things.
- I can't guarantee that if you lose the sword, whoever picks it up won't be able to use its powers for him/herself.
- It grows along with you... but only if it's spending time by your side. The boost starts out small, but as you and the weapon both level up, it increases.
- It's not sentient... for now. But it does have a psychic presence, which is identifiable as you.
- I can't guarantee it will r00fles if you talk to it.
 

oscar

Arcane
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Alright flipping to the sword. It's just too damn cool and really suitable for a Bronze Age hero. Sure invisibility would be very practical and useful but what the hell.
 

ScubaV

Prophet
Joined
Feb 20, 2011
Messages
1,022
Yep, I'll be a flip-flopping lemming (in my original post) to second C. This does seem like a really cool ability and quite possibly a unique reward based on our choices so far. We can probably learn light manipulation later. It's worth the risks.

Treave's clarifications make A and B for the first option more tempting, but I still want that spy network. I have a feeling the next chapter or two is going to be less Gieloth focused and more to do with human empires and the scheming of immortals within them. C here also strikes me as something of a unique opportunity.
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
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Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
CC takes it in the end.

***

Chapter 3.12: The World Is Your Oyster

You feel your brain wobble as the knowledge pours into you. Before you can analyze any of it, a loud babble of alien tongues assails your mind. You shout out in confusion.

Sorry, I forgot to teach you how to tune it out. Hold on.

The torrent of alien voices subsides as Sekhenun helps you filter out the chatter.

You should be able to pick up important messages in the network as they appear now. I've moulded your brain to be able to receive and filter the messages -

"You did what to my brain!?"

Oh, I'll spare you the explanation. You wouldn't understand it anyway. What you can do now is just receive. You can't transmit. I'd have to drastically change your brain for that.

"I think I'll skip on that one." Friendly as she might seem, allowing her so much access to your brain would be too naive even for you.

You'll also find that I've given you knowledge regarding the creation of an experimental weapon I have been working on for my people for the past decade. I call it the Honourblade, a name befitting one as honourable as you. Don't you think it's an absolutely lovely name?

You can't tell for sure, but you feel a slight mocking to her tone.

"What does this... uh... Honourblade... do?"

Don't be lazy. All the information is in your own mind now. Go read up on it yourself.

"Right, right. Thanks, I guess." You get up, and remove your hand from where you have placed it, from Sekhenun's forehead. "You are free to go. Where will you head to?"

If you're concerned that I'll resume my prior activities... no, I won't be doing that. What I just did for you labels me as a traitor to my kind - not that I particularly care, they don't do much for me anyway - so it'd be best if I went into hiding for a few centuries. Oh, don't worry about me. I'll survive.

"I'm not worried about you."

Sekhenun's head crawls off for a while on multiple little tendrils, and then stops.

Here comes my ride.

One of Naram's sheep comes bounding around the corner, its sheep tongue flapping as it does. Sekhenun extends her tendrils and latches onto its head. The tendrils enter the eyes, ears and nose of the sheep, and you see her head begin melting into the sheep. "That's disgusting." you say. The sheep trembles a while as the head completely melds with it, and then opens its mouth. "Oh, I'm sure you'll see much worse in the future. Run along now, if you don't want to be buried under a ton of bricks." So saying, the sheep trots over to a nearby wall and presses a brick in with a hoof. The temple begins to shake and tremble, and Sekhenun runs off, commandeering the body of the sheep.

"We'd better go too!" you yell to your companions, who are still pale in the face from all they have seen and heard. You see Akil picking up Sekhenun's headless body, slinging it over his shoulder. "By the gods, Akil, what are you going to do with that?" Akil shouts back at you, "Proof! Master Runi, it's proof that we killed Sekhenun! This will end her cult once and for all!"

Ah. Smart boy.

"You guys have some answering to do once we escape the temple, so shut up for now." you warn the voices. They do so. The balance of control in your own body seems to have shifted ever since they allowed you to do as you wish with the Sceptre. You exit the temple, running out into the courtyard just as it crashes down behind you. That was an exhilarating run, but you would not like to repeat the experience. Around you, the remnants of the cultists stare in shock. Countless dead sheep and guards lay sprawled across the place, their dead bodies lit up by the torches. It was just after midnight. As your companions sink to the ground, catching their breath, you gesture at Akil to toss Sekhenun's body in front of you. He does so. You grab the body by the leg, and dangle it up in front of you. "Your false god is dead!" Your voice booms across the courtyard. Their shock turns into disbelief, and then panic. The cultists flee, running until their legs take them out of Heliopolis. It looks like this city will be free of the cult's influence with no further hassle.

***

Now that you have accomplished your mission in Heliopolis, you begin analyzing the knowledge you have received from Sekhenun. You also question the voices on the existence of these masters. According to them, the masters are all 'twats' and 'jerks', and they call themselves 'gardeners', while the Gieloth are treated as weeds. The masters had a presence here nearly two thousand years ago, but something happened and they were kicked out. The voices won't tell you what happened.

The communication network of the Gieloth is already awash with news of Sekhenun's disappearance, but you fail to catch what the other Gieloth feel about it, only that they think it is an extremely newsworthy event.

"The world is a globe. Wow, who'd have ever thought of that." you mutter. You begin organizing the information in your mind, marking out areas of interest.

Egypt:
The Children of Sekhenun are still rife in the place despite Sekhenun's defeat. Their infiltrators remain in place in the courts of all three warring states of Egypt; Memphis, Heracleopolis and Thebes. Left to their own schemes, undirected, they would probably just prolong the war.

Sumeria:
There is a strong Gieloth presence in Babylon, but their Assyrian counterparts have not managed to infiltrate into high society thus far. They are active, however. The two would-be successors to Akkad are still warring for supremacy.

The North:
Far in the cold north, there appears to be a rising power that has united the squabbling tribes. More and more Gieloth are starting to venture there, attracted to the growing civilization.

The West:
Across a great ocean to the west, the Gieloth are thriving. There, their greatest stronghold lay. It is the center of their power on this world, now that their Egyptian base has been destroyed.

The East:
The Gieloth have a presence in the Near East population just a few months travel from Sumeria, but further east reports have come in of the Gieloth there having been wiped out by hunting dogs - probably a reference to immortals.

***

A. You decide to remain in Egypt and clean up the Children. The task should be easy, and you plan to advance the growth of Egypt. Your work here is not yet done.

B. You return to Sumeria. The Akkadian Empire shall rise again! Well... even if it doesn't, you want to cultivate Sumerian society further and continue where you left off.

C. You head north, investigating this 'rising power' referred to in the Gieloth reports. The emergence of a new kingdom not from the ashes of some old empire is an event worth observing.

D. You get on a boat and start paddling west. The Gieloth will learn to fear you and your daredevil bravery! Crushing their greatest stronghold on this world single-handedly might even spark an exodus of Gieloth as they fear to stand on the same planet you are on.

E. You trek east. You can take out the Near East Gieloth on your way, and find out what has happened in the Far East. If other immortals have appeared besides the ones you know of, it might be good to get in contact with them.
 

Esquilax

Arcane
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4,833
As much as I'd love to run off to either Sumeria to make our people great again or head further east to get into contact with a few immortals to get a better idea of the nature of this struggle, I think that Ean's sense of responsibility wouldn't allow him to leave Egypt in such a mess. We should stay here and make Egypt prosperous again.

We should also start thinking about potential names for our cool new sword while we're at it.

Given all that we have on our plate, being King again is probably a bad idea. Fortunately, we know somebody who'd make a great ruler/statesman. Somebody who is noble, smart, kind, brave and charismatic: Akil. Might even be a good idea to let him take the credit for killing Sukhenun.

A
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
Wouldn't want the remaining tentacles to undo all the work we just did. A it is then.

Nevermind C.
 

Collage

Educated
Joined
Jul 13, 2012
Messages
59
C, though I'm willing to flop to A. Becoming God-Emperor of Rome (and greater Europe) is just too tempting.
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
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Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
You guys can vote on a weapon name. It's going to be your faithful companion through the ages after all. Just don't misplace it and start making Honourblade mk II : The Quickening to replace the sword, that'd be sad.
 

oscar

Arcane
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Perhaps we should wait for the name until it has actually taken a life or done something cool.
 

Collage

Educated
Joined
Jul 13, 2012
Messages
59
Do we really have to vote? Obviously the blade should be called Shepard.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
Eve would work for a name. I kinda think we should give it a proper name as it will eventually be something we can talk with.

And I'm switching to C. If we clean up all the Children in Egypt we won't have much of a spy network there.
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
Eve would work for a name. I kinda think we should give it a proper name as it will eventually be something we can talk with.

I don't like Eve, because it doesn't fit in with Ean's Sumerian heritage. I looked up this online dictionary of Sumerian words, don't know how authentic it is, but I think it's a good base.

http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/eden.htm

What about SHI: the Sumerian word for "soul" or "breath of life". Fitting for a blade that is both part of us and something we breathed sentience into.

Or ABZU: meaning "primeval". It also is good for a blade that will be with us for the ages.

ANBAR: "heavenly metal". A combination of these might make a cool sword name.

Anbar-Shi sounds like a fucking cool name, m4davis. Rolls off the tongue nicely and it has a cool meaning behind it that's appropriate to our character.
 

Smashing Axe

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
2,835
Divinity: Original Sin
I don't like Eve, we're not Jewish.

I'm voting A for Esquilax's reasons. Let's mop up and make our bro Akil Pharaoh.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
A, though C also seems interesting.
 

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