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Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
treave: Nah, I meant retard test, as in "Is he still a fucking retard?" kind of way. What, all you bros think I want to fuck the xeno just for the lulz? I'd go play Mass Effect if that were the case. Sure, it would be lulzy by itself(and if none of you have noticed, I'm all for the lulz), but once we got her on the "please fuck me, master" level, a top Gieloth scientist, is there anything she won't do, make or say to please Ean?

Edit: And, yeah, I don't share your hopes.
 

newcomer

Learned
Joined
May 23, 2012
Messages
919
What, all you bros think I want to fuck the xeno just for the lulz? I'd go play Mass Effect if that were the case.

But I do :(
For the sake of Lulz :(

But you have a point there... Sticking with 3C for now, will see later..
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
What, all you bros think I want to fuck the xeno just for the lulz? I'd go play Mass Effect if that were the case.

But I do :(
For the sake of Lulz :(

But you have a point there... Sticking with 3C for now, will see later..
Don't get me wrong, bro. Lulz is one of the primary motivators. Alongside pragmatism and me wanting to believe.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
I, for one, am looking forward to "deep negotiations" with Sekhenun in regards to "devastating, penetrating deep strikes against the enemy's rear" against then Masters by our main "penal legions", while the Spess Mehreen forces execute "simultaneous and crippling deep strikes" around the "flanks" of the enemy." All the while drinking the "love juice"of the Gieloth and "devouring their raw and, ahem, "bloody" "steaks." During a 'romantic" dinner with Sekhenun, during which we discuss "operational strategy" for the evening.


I can do this all day, bros.
:troll:
Edit: treave, I'd e really appreciative if Ean would pull his smugface when he tells Sekhenun: "My way or the highway, doll."
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
ABA
ABD
CBD
ABD
CBD
ABD
BBA
ABA
BBA
CAC
ABA
CBD
BBC
CBC
CAC
BBA
CAD
CAD

Assassination:
A – 6
B – 4
C – 8

Cult:
A – 4
B – 14

Info:
A – 6
B – 0
C – 4
D – 8

***

Chapter 5.4: Mehlu

“O Dreadful One, Mehlu will soon be here. Shall we get into position? Shall we strike the first blow of our rebellion?” The cultist bows, not looking you in the eye. He speaks with a respectful tone, eagerly anticipating your orders.

You stop adjusting your rags and look at the cultist. “Dreadful One? What is that supposed to mean?”

“The Mistress revealed that you were the Dread Master, son of Ereshkigal who will bring death to the enemies of our God!”

You stop him before he begins babbling, and give the order for positions to be taken. Garam was slightly gullible and fervent in his belief, which was why Sekhenun had recommended that you work with him on this mission. At least, he would obey your orders. You had been camped out at a rocky ledge overlooking the road with about twenty other cultists for the past two days, awaiting Mehlu’s arrival. The plan was to disguise your assassination as a bandit raid, as you didn't fancy your chances of wading single-handedly through a hundred men to get to Mehlu's head with just your current strength. A distraction was needed. Bandit attacks seemed to happen more frequently nowadays, and even Marduk’s patrols were occasionally raided if they thought they could get away with it. The inspection task force also brought with them supplies with which to reinforce the fort – if you were lucky, you would make away with those supplies in addition to taking Mehlu’s life. The attack did not need to be thorough, as you figured a quick ambush would throw the forces into disarray enough for you to do what you came here to do. With Mehlu dead, the soldiers would be too panicked to guard the supplies. That was the best case scenario. The only way this plan would fail would be if Mehlu was stronger than you thought… you would just have to fight as hard as you could.

***

Sure enough, the Gieloth appeared on the road, riding at the head of his men. He cut a handsome, darkly tanned figure, decked out in ornate bronze armour, with a three-pronged golden spear that was rumoured to have been ripped from the hands of his former best friend. The supply caravans were trailing at the end of the line. Bandits would not usually attack a force a hundred-men strong – Mehlu apparently felt no need to be cautious. It seems that he was overconfident about his recent victories, and pleased with his new position. Grinning, you raise your ragged scarf, masking your nose and mouth. The cultists did the same. You raise your hand, readying the archers to fire.

Then, there was something else. You sense many humans, on the other side of the road, where a high cliff made it impassable. Their heads begin appearing over the top of the cliff. You hold fire; it would be better to err on the side of caution for a while. A few seconds later, rocks begin raining down from the cliff-side, taking Mehlu’s men by surprise and disabling quite a few. Ropes flew off from the edge, hanging down the side of the rocky wall. As you watch in astonishment, men began climbing down the ropes swiftly and as naturally as walking on a straight path. They leapt upon the Babylonian soldiers, weapons at the ready and screaming a guttural warcry. There were maybe thirty of them fighting fiercely. Were they bandits?

“Gutians!” whispered Garam. “There were rumours of a tribe of them still remaining here in the west, engaging in petty banditry like the savages that they are, but to come so close to Babylon…”

You remember hearing about the Gutians when you were last in Sumeria, many decades ago, though you did not pay their tale much attention as they were a spent force by the time you reawakened. The Guti were a barbarian people, a nation of many tribes. When he was young, Sargon himself had campaigned against them, driving them further into the mountains to the east. After Shulgi's second defeat, coalition of about a dozen tribes had swept in to take advantage of the power vacuum, terrorizing the city states of Sumer. Although Akkad had been burnt to the ground before that, the rebuilding city was razed again by the Gutians, scattering whatever people still lived there once and for all. For a while, the Gutians nominally ruled all of Sumeria, demanding tribute and grabbing kingship by the force of arms. Their reign soon collapsed on itself. Unused to 'civilized culture', they were also unable to administer the empire that they had stolen. As the riches of Sumeria declined under their stewardship, the Gutians began quarreling over spoils and power. Barely a hundred years after their arrival, the Gutian dynasty broke up and each tribe grabbed its own city to rule… and all of them were defeated soundly when Marduk forged the Babylonian Empire from the ashes of Akkadia.

The God-King had apparently practiced a no-tolerance policy towards the Gutians – those that did not flee back east, from where they came, were put to the sword with no exceptions. The elderly, women, and children; none of them were spared. Any Gutians remaining so close to Babylon, Marduk’s seat of power, must have tremendous guts.

“… they have tremendous balls.” Garam mutters, with a look of appreciation. You can understand that, as the Gutians were wreaking havoc on Mehlu’s ranks. “Should we attack now, O Dreadful One? This could be a good chance!” Looking at the battle again, you think that the Gutians would be retreating soon, with nothing but dead to show for it. They fought bravely, but Mehlu’s spear was darting out with terrible accuracy, wounding and killing the barbarians with ease. A large Gutian suddenly barrelled into Mehlu, knocking him from his horse. Raising a ridiculously large sword, he began attacking the Gieloth general, who barely had time to defend himself. A momentary flash of panic ran through Mehlu’s mind, and you could see the tendrils begin to writhe from his wounds…

***

A. You order the cultists to begin the attack immediately. You might still be outnumbered with your cultists joining the fray, but the Gutians have fought well and you would like to aid them while they are still on the battlefield. You are confident that you will be able to pull off the assassination while Mehlu is distracted with the large Gutian.

B. You hold off your attack for as long as possible. Your cultists are inexperienced, and throwing them into a battle when you are unsure of how the Gutians would react would be folly. The confusing melee that results would be the death of them. Once the Gutians have fled, you will attack while the wounded Babylonian soldiers are distracted by taking care of their dead brethren.
 

ScubaV

Prophet
Joined
Feb 20, 2011
Messages
1,022
A - time to think with our stomach. Who cares if a few of Shulgi's cultists die? They're cockroaches anyway. We don't want to lose the chance to go Highlander on Mehlu. And perhaps we can forge a nice working relationship with the Gutians.
 

Smashing Axe

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
2,835
Divinity: Original Sin
The guy with the sword is probably an immortal. It seems odd for a regular human to put the inhuman monstrosity off-guard.
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
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Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
For what it's worth, before we get sidetracked into discussing whose hidden hand is behind the Gutians, you can only sense humans, and one Gieloth in the battle - Ean would have mentioned any inhuman presence if he noticed them. No surprises like that here. Either he's very good at concealing his nature, like Sekhenun, or he's human.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
For what it's worth, you can only sense humans, and one Gieloth in the battle - Ean would have mentioned any inhuman presence if he noticed them. No surprises like that here. Either he's very good at concealing his nature, or he's human.
So, he's either Naram/Shulgi or human, eh? Good to know.
 

TOME

Cuckmaster General
Joined
May 25, 2012
Messages
1,820
B - Let them fight it out and see what happens. Maybe we don't have to do anything.
 

CappenVarra

phase-based phantasmist
Patron
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
2,912
Location
Ardamai
A - a perfect distraction; if we planned it, would we have made an attack from two sides? yes we would. so, backstab for x5 damage while they're looking the wrong way.

And who cares about the Gutians - by the time the battle is done, there'll be less than 10 of them left alive; then we can chat and see if they can be useful, or just wipe them out. And we get the perfect cover - the Gutians did it! Sheesh.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
A - a perfect distraction; if we planned it, would we have made an attack from two sides? yes we would. so, backstab for x5 damage while they're looking the wrong way.

And who cares about the Gutians - by the time the battle is done, there'll be less than 10 of them left alive; then we can chat and see if they can be useful, or just wipe them out. And we get the perfect cover - the Gutians did it! Sheesh.
I'll quote your post from way back in root's WH40KLP:
3) because the voices told me the obviously superior option is a trap?
Guess what, you were right.
This is way to good to be true. An ambush of disorganized barbarians attacking a famous general with a hundred troops? Said experienced and brave general being taken by surprise and overpowered by a human? Fifty bucks say that is Naram in disguise.
 

CappenVarra

phase-based phantasmist
Patron
Joined
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Messages
2,912
Location
Ardamai
I'll quote your post from way back in root's WH40KLP:
3) because the voices told me the obviously superior option is a trap?
Guess what, you were right.
This is way to good to be true. An ambush of disorganized barbarians attacking a famous general with a hundred troops? Said experienced and brave general being taken by surprise and overpowered by a human? Fifty bucks say that is Naram in disguise.
Your reasoning is solid :salute: However, for an explanation why I'm sticking with my vote in this particular instance, re-read that quote. The voices tell me to vote A, and what man dares disobey the voices? Most certainly not I, no sir...
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
I doubt that the barbarian attacking Mehlu is Naram. Naram doesn't strike me as a barbarian king, and if it were Shulgi, he would simply have decided to ressurect his cult instead. If he isn't human, he's probably a Gieloth from the Indus Valley who is seeking revenge against Mehlu for betraying his brethren:

Mehlu – a Gieloth hailing from the Indus Valley, who has been made a general for participating bravely in the successful defeat of his brethren.

...a three-pronged golden spear that was rumoured to have been ripped from the hands of his former best friend.

“There were rumours of a tribe of them still remaining here in the west, engaging in petty banditry like the savages that they are, but to come so close to Babylon…”

This tribe hasn't been seen in Babylon in ages, and they hail from the east (i.e. near Persia or the Indus Valley where Mehlu is from). It's very unusual that they are so close to Babylon to begin with. Seems to me that someone from the east has managed to rile them up and set them on a mission of revenge against Mehlu. That's my theory, at any rate.

Of course, this guy could still be human. Even Marduk has a human bodyguard, so I guess it could be some bad motherfucker who wants to destroy tentacles.

However, if we want allies, I say we should look elsewhere. This whole thing screams of "too good to be true". These barbarians serve someone else, and I'd rather take the time to develop our own support base rather than rely on someone else's. We've got enough bullshit to deal with when it comes to figuring out Sekhenun's motives, I don't want to add more intrigue into the mix.

Even after this assault, we will still have the advantage of secrecy, so I feel we should really take our time here instead of getting greedy trying to snatch up a huge victory. Ean is well fed from earlier and Mehlu's people will be diminished from the battle with the barbarians - we can take this guy, we don't have to take him down right now.

The best reason for A is a potential alliance with the tribesmen, but considering that there is very likely a hidden power behind the Gutians, we should choose B. There's no rush here. We still have anonymity, let's build things up slowly. Still, A isn't so bad either I suppose. I just don't want to deal with power struggles and intrigue.

VOTING B
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
B - too good to be true. Something's up. Best to wait and see...
 

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