Myth: A New Age CYOA

[Fangshi]

Ah, his curiosity gets the best of him.

If you promise to invite him to all of your storytelling sessions then he will not harm Biliku or Uttu, nor will he abduct them, willingly or not, and he will do everything in his power to protect them while they are in his realm. He will expect these sessions to occur for the rest of your lives though. He is not going to make a deal to never touch those girls in exchange for a one off evening of stories, he will want new stories as long as you are alive to give them.

It will also need to be a vote since it is an actual contract you will be signing here and people might not even want to integrate the memories this way.

 

[Nevill]

Lifelong contracts do not sit well with me. As we are seeking immortality, I do not look forward to an eternity of being bound by something.

Tell you what, though.

I will accept his protection for us and the girls for as long as this contract is in action, provided that we can break the deal at any time we see fit.

I will add as a condition, though, that he will not do anything to affect the girls in any way that would make it easier for him to lure them into the Dreaming after the contract is terminated.

If you promise to invite him to all of your storytelling sessions

A shared dream isn't even possible without his help, no? And there can be no storytelling without a shared dream.

 

[Fangshi]

He can agree to that, though it will still require a vote so.

4. A Dream Deal: In exchange for his promise to protect you and your people while in the Dreaming (to the best of his ability) Morpheus would like you to entertain him by telling him stories. You can cancel this contract at any time but when you do his protection will also be revoked. As part of his protection he promises not to abduct any member of your group or detain them, he also promises not to try and influence your companions to return to him at a later date when the contract is not in effect. Do you accept this deal?

A) Yes

B) No


Did I get everything?

A shared dream isn't even possible without his help, no? And there can be no storytelling without a shared dream.

He is an immortal demon prince and you are a pair of mages that do not seem to know the meaning of the word no. I think he can be excused for thinking ahead here, just because you can not do it without him now does not mean you will never be able to do it without him.

 

[Nevill]

Man, I feel like I am bargaining with a rock-star to introduce a pair of excitable and impressionate underage fangirls to him while trying my best to come up with a plan to preserve their virginities.

Because that is probably what I am doing.

Yes, you got it right, but the main purpose of these session is bonding with our crew and memories integration. Morpheus' protection is just a side note.

The stories are meant for ourselves, first and foremost.

Also, 4A.

He is an immortal demon prince and you are a pair of mages that do not seem to know the meaning of the word no.

Now what does he mean? Should we feel offended or flattered?

Also, paging archaen to comment on our fort situation.

 

[Nevill]

Another reason I want Biliku and Uttu with us is because Derryth and Thais are, by any definition applicable, their adoptive parents. And they are a bit worried if they aren't taking the girls in a direction their real parents wouldn't approve of:

Your men laugh and cheer the girl. She winks at you and you laugh, slightly concerned, "Did you just make that up?"

"Yeah!" she proudly beams and you wince a little inside.

Oh the things you are teaching these kids... you wonder what Casgair would say if he were still alive.

But, sadly, both of them are dead, so the only way to see what kind of people they were and what future they envisioned for their children is to learn about them through the kids' stories, dreams, and memories.

Now, I am certain that our ladies are the most wonderful parents one could ever wish for, and there is no better way to spend a holiday than to crush an army of Darkness or two and to genocide entire species of some eldritch demonic creatures, but it would be nice to know for sure.


By the way, Fangshi. How did our extermination campaign with Argus and Ceannard go down? Did any of the enemies manage to escape? Is there anything left to do for Lords Hesse and Welf?

Hmmm... Once we wake up, can we ask Myora and the rest of our staff if Neel is any good as an officer material?

I'd like to determine if we should make them the captain of our trackers, to train our ranged troops, or if we should just invite him to join the Lost outright. The man deserved a raise big time.

After all, we have everything a mercenary can desire, and then some. And apparently, we have a better life insurance policy... just barely. And we are smoking hot. That must count for something, right?

 

[Jester]

Oh btw Fangshi taking into consideration that prince was pleased with our gift and interested in our entourage etc shouldn't Dreaming warm up to us a bit?

4A
Who knows mby even prince will tell a story or two.

 

[Nevill]

Oh btw Fangshi taking into consideration that prince was pleased with our gift and interested in our entourage etc shouldn't Dreaming warm up to us a bit?

It did, by +15 points. Check the rep changes.

 

[Jester]

The Dreaming: warm (+40)
Wasn't that like this since saving him from compound?

Although i only remember it was warm relations so mby it was +25.
Edit. Ok copied current relationships to track them and stop possible mess up on my part.

 

[Jester]

On a side note taking 500--600 wp from empire to pay up half of loan from kingdom might be wise choice, if i recall correctly we wanted to hit empire to steal stock up healing plants for ritual.

 

[Nevill]

On a side note taking 500--600 wp from empire to pay up half of loan from kingdom might be wise choice, if i recall correctly we wanted to hit empire to steal stock up healing plants for ritual.

Exactly.

So would be contacting the magisters of the Heron Guards to heal our friends.

So would be healing the remainder of Trakk's family and settling this matter once and for all.

So would be borrowing a part of Gareth's troops and transferring them to Blackrock Securities. So would be picking some of our spellbooks to sort through them. So would be leaving Nine at the tower now that she is asleep. So would be finding a linguist to translate the Shade's spellbook and someone skilled with trap disarming to tackle TWM's journal.

There is a lot to do in Muirthemne that we can't do here in Myrgard.

 

[Jester]

So would be healing the remainder of Trakk's family and settling this matter once and for all.

Didnt we heal all that are still alive? We must only find Trakk to tell him about that and our ability to get him back legally to kingdom.

So would be contacting the magisters of the Heron Guards to heal our friends.

Hmm Fangshi how much roots we used to heal ritual last time? What is estimated cost of said operation?
If its in our financial power we might try.

So would be borrowing a part of Gareth's troops and transferring them to Blackrock Securities. So would be picking some of our spellbooks to sort through them. So would be leaving Nine at the tower now that she is asleep. So would be finding a linguist to translate the Shade's spellbook and someone skilled with trap disarming to tackle TWM's journal.

There is a lot to do in Muirthemne that we can't do here in Myrgard.

Not sure there should be linguists in Myrgard to, my bet is accademy. Troops transfer might happen. Taking spellbooks is ok. Leaving Nine in tower might be bad idea especially when certain dark lord was talking with our employees. Hope that he didnt ride our vault, still only people who were with us in first place should be able to leak that information and they arent that stupid to do it. On other hand guy is quite cunning so he might know way to trick them. As for TWM our head thief Brigit might be valuable add-on to brainstorming power, still i doubt TWM did anything standard to protect it.

 

[Nevill]

Didnt we heal all that are still alive? We must only find Trakk to tell him about that and our ability to get him back legally to kingdom.

Their bodies, yes. They are a bit insane and suffering from an intense PTSD, probably. We didn't have spells to heal their minds, and we didn't have time to dig into them with our own mental spells.

Legally getting Trakk back isn't even a quarter of the problem. Getting the man to listen to us, then believe us, and then care about it would be far trickier. I'd rather not approach him until we get all three parts of the equation right.

Hmm Fangshi how much roots we used to heal ritual last time? What is estimated cost of said operation?

If you want to know how many roots it took for each (to gauge what you need to do this in the future) Brenna's ritual cost in the high eighties while her father's ran at just over two hundred to build him almost an entirely new body. You have also used up almost all the mandrake roots in the kingdom so if you need more they will not be cheap.

So, 200+ to build a person a body from scratch. Meaning ~200 for Bari, ~150 for Neel, and about 100 for Stigr. With the roots costing about 1 WP for 1 root - yeah, we are financially fucked.

The only way I can see to handle this mess is to approach the magisters of the Heron guard. There might be another way, or there might be something we can do for them to help them cut down the cost. I am not even talking about money here. We don't even know if there are that many root in the whole Empire!

I wonder if there is a way to give some of your lifeforce back to someone. Mandrake roots and blood have a lot in common.

Leaving Nine in tower might be bad idea especially when certain dark lord was talking with our employees.

She is going to slleep for years. We can't risk her for nothing. Each time we are pulling some crazy stunt, each time we risk her falling to the wrong hands. And we are starting to become famous, attracting attention from some very powerful beings, who might recognize her. That would be extremely bad.

Of course, if someone steals her from the tower, that isn't much better.

As for her being the Dark Lord, by now I trust her more than a lot of fellow humans. We'll see what comes out of her integrating the memories of two archmages, but she should not be worse off than she was before, and she wasn't EVUL back then.

 

[archaen]

Leaving Nine in tower might be bad idea especially when certain dark lord was talking with our employees.

We don't know that Faceless was talking to our people in Muirthemne so that shouldn't be taken into consideration when we make plans. That's what we in table top RPG land call meta knowledge . He also helped us put her back together and generally likes us. I think he only steals Nine's head for immediate life saving reasons and he would have to have some reason to suspect she is there.

Fangshi, does poor Caoilainn not dream now? If she can also meditate to get into the dreaming we should teach her. It should help her not go insane if we ever have to remove the bracelets for whatever reason.

Nevill, I will agree to switch to 1.A > 1.Biv if we are going to run the mice to explore the hidden corridor in the keep. We should have the balloon ready to go for an escape if for whatever reason the army has been bribed/taken over and is hostile. If A does not win we should assume the army is hostile as a general rule and not leave the vicinity of the balloon.

I vote 4.A. It doesn't have a penalty clause for us just an abrogation of the deal. I think we need to learn to teleconference ourselves at some point without him.

 

[Nevill]

Fangshi, does poor Caoilainn not dream now? If she can also meditate to get into the dreaming we should teach her.

This, so much. I want to let her have a body, even if it is during our dreams, or rather, especially during our dreams. If Faceless could have entered the Dreaming, so can she. And since she is a part of our group, she would be under Morpheus protection, too.

We don't know that Faceless was talking to our people in Muirthemne so that shouldn't be taken into consideration when we make plans. That's what we in table top RPG land call meta knowledge.

Believe me or not, I forgot all about him. I was thinking about Mazzarin. He was able to track her back to us when he was but a corpse, and he expressed an interest in her. I can see him taking her just like that.

Nevill, I will agree to switch to 1.A < 1.Biv if we are going to run the mice to explore the hidden corridor in the keep. We should have the balloon ready to go for an escape if for whatever reason the army has been bribed/taken over and is hostile.

Sure, but wouldn't that be Jester's D? Anyway, I think A suggests we'll choose what to do when the commanders get here.

The army can not be hostile if it is lead by Hesse and Welf:
1) Albrecht wrote about them. Mayer wrote about them. They are real.
2) There is no army. Those are just personal guards. I think we would be able to tell if thiose are them or not.
3) They are the only Lords we know for sure that are loyal. Just think about it.

Lord Welf is just butthurt because he had to risk his head for a filthy commoner who swindled him out of some sweet deal through Mayer. That's not a crime.

 

[Fangshi]

By the way, Fangshi. How did our extermination campaign with Argus and Ceannard go down? Did any of the enemies manage to escape? Is there anything left to do for Lords Hesse and Welf?

It went well, the odd bunch of thralls, soulless or a necromancer or two might have escaped but no substantial blocks of enemies remain. The Watcher's strength in the north seems to be broken from what you can tell.

Hmmm... Once we wake up, can we ask Myora and the rest of our staff if Neel is any good as an officer material?

He has the skill and the 'presence' to lead but he has never really shown the inclination and now, well, he won't be leading anyone the way he is now.

After all, we have everything a mercenary can desire, and then some. And apparently, we have a better life insurance policy... just barely. And we are smoking hot. That must count for something, right?

It will count for less than you would think.

Oh btw Fangshi taking into consideration that prince was pleased with our gift and interested in our entourage etc shouldn't Dreaming warm up to us a bit?

It did by about fifteen points, if you keep giving him presents and entertaining him then you will be fast friends in no time.

Hmm Fangshi how much roots we used to heal ritual last time? What is estimated cost of said operation?

It will be expensive, probably about 200 WPs per person or so and you will need several wagons full of mandrake roots. As the biggest grower and consumer of mandrake roots in the world, the Heron Guard are probably your best bet to get some though they might be a bit suspicious of you. Eagle might be able to help in that regard though.

I wonder if there is a way to give some of your lifeforce back to someone. Mandrake roots and blood have a lot in common.

Blood could work but you would need a lot of donors to get enough and I am going to assume you will want willing donors and not just homeless people you grab off the streets, so you will likely have to pay them.

Fangshi, does poor Caoilainn not dream now? If she can also meditate to get into the dreaming we should teach her. It should help her not go insane if we ever have to remove the bracelets for whatever reason.

She does not really sleep anymore as she does not grow tired like she used to when she had a body. She probably could dream though if you taught her the necessary meditative techniques (either version would work as they are as much philosophical and sensual as they are physical), though Derryth does not know them yet either.

Current Tally:

Spoiler

Baltika9: 1.C, 2.Bvi (METAL), 3.A>D, 4.A

Nevill: 1.D>A>Biv, 2.Bvi (METAL), 3.E, 4.A

Absinthe: 1.x, 2.Bv, 3.x

Jester: 1.D, 2.Bv, 3.E

Azira: 1.Bi, 2.Bv>Bx, 3.C>E

Kz3r0: 1.D, 2.Bv, 3.E, 4.A

archaen: 1.D>A>Biv, 2.Bvii (Diadem of Dreams - Morpheus' Nightmare), 3.E, 4.A

Grimgravy: 1.C, 2.Bv, 3.C, 4.B

1. 1 abstain
A)
B) 1 vote
i. 1 vote
ii.
iii.
iv.
C) 2 votes
D) 4 votes

2.
A)
B) 8 votes
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v. 5 votes
vi. 2 votes
vii. 1 vote

3. 1 abstain
A) 1 vote
B)
C) 2 votes
D)
E) 4 votes

4. 3 undeclared
A) 4 votes
B) 1 vote

Post Flop:

1. 1 abstain
A)
B) 1 vote
i. 1 vote
ii.
iii.
iv.
C) 2 votes
D) 4 votes

2.
A)
B)
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v. 5 votes
vi. 2 votes
vii. 1 vote

3. 1 abstain
A) 1 vote
B)
C) 1 vote
D)
E) 5 votes

4. 3 undeclared
A) 4 votes
B) 1 vote

 

[archaen]

The army can not be hostile if it is lead by Hesse and Welf:
1) Albrecht wrote about them. Mayer wrote about them. They are real.
2) There is no army. Those are just personal guards. I think we would be able to tell if thiose are them or not.
3) They are the only Lords we know for sure that are loyal. Just think about it.

I'd rather be careful than dead. We know that TWM has the capability to snare our eagles and that this relief force of troops has been mysteriously delayed fighting unknown forces. Let's just say my spidey senses are tingling. We have Jing's luck for harems but our loves are the entire pantheon of the Old Ones.

Sure, but wouldn't that be Jester's D? Anyway, I think A suggests we'll choose what to do when the commanders get here.

Looks like you are right, I guess: 1.D >1.A > 1.Biv

 

[Nevill]

It will count for less than you would think.

Well, it worked for Ceannard.

I wonder what motivated Neel, though, and kept him in the company. The hunt? His friendship with Jawbone? If 4A wins, we might ask Morpheus to take us to him one of these day, just to look at the kind of dreams he has.

It did by about fifteen points, if you keep giving him presents and entertaining him then you will be fast friends in no time.

Uh... are there any perks associated with being friends with a Demon Lord?

Blood could work but you would need a lot of donors to get enough and I am going to assume you will want willing donors and not just homeless people you grab off the streets, so you will likely have to pay them.

I guess the Arrows must be accustomed to it by now.

We'll not only start a metal band, but also an InterImperial Donor Agency.

She probably could dream though if you taught her the necessary meditative techniques (either version would work as they are as much philosophical and sensual as they are physical), though Derryth does not know them yet either.

Well... we'll be learning it, right? Right?

 

[Kipeci]

Why not grab transients from the street?

 

[Fangshi]

Well, it worked for Ceannard.

Different men, different desires.

I wonder what motivated Neel, though, and kept him in the company. The hunt? His friendship with Jawbone? If 4A wins, we might ask Morpheus to take us to him one of these day, just to look at the kind of dreams he has.

Certainly a possibility if Morpheus likes you enough.

Uh... are there any perks associated with being friends with a Demon Lord?

Well, the whole reason you survived those rhyming beasts is because the two of you were acquaintances so yes there are probably advantages to being friends with Morpheus, there are likely disadvantages as well of course.

Well... we'll be learning it, right? Right?

I don't know, is anyone even interested in learning it?

Why not grab transients from the street?

I figured there would be little appetite for doing so but it is certainly an option and if the situation ever arises I will be sure to include it as an option.

 

[Nevill]

I don't know, is anyone even interested in learning it?

Umm... you said we will be learning the 'normal' version and we will be learning the exotic one only if there is a demand.

Caoilainn can't make use of the latter anyway, so...

And yes, we need a reliable way to contact the Dreaming without summoning Shub-Niggurah.

Also, 1.D >1.A > 1.Biv. Explore the door while the commanders get here. Why the hell not?

Watch out for traps and send the mice ahead!

Edit: Fine! Resorting to vote-hustling.

Paging archaen, Kz3r0 and Baltika9, the folks that are most invested in our continued partnership with Morpheus. Would you like to learn a meditation that would have allowed you to experience a lucid dream, which is a state you need to be in if you want to let Morpheus know you want to contact him?

 

[archaen]

I want to learn the meditation just so we can teach it to our bracelet monkey.

 

[Grimgravy]

Put me down for 4B. Dont want to get in too deep with a demon.

 

[Jester]

Their bodies, yes. They are a bit insane and suffering from an intense PTSD, probably. We didn't have spells to heal their minds, and we didn't have time to dig into them with our own mental spells.
Legally getting Trakk back isn't even a quarter of the problem. Getting the man to listen to us, then believe us, and then care about it would be far trickier. I'd rather not approach him until we get all three parts of the equation right.

Mby wipe out their memories about that would be better. As for Trakk false memory whole operation to him mby.

So, 200+ to build a person a body from scratch. Meaning ~200 for Bari, ~150 for Neel, and about 100 for Stygr. With the roots costing about 1 WP for 1 root - yeah, we are financially fucked.

The only way I can see to handle this mess is to approach the magisters of the Heron guard. There might be another way, or there might be something we can do for them to help them cut down the cost. I am not even talking about money here. We don't even know if there are that many root in the whole Empire!

I wonder if there is a way to give some of your lifeforce back to someone. Mandrake roots and blood have a lot in common.

hmm or mby some kind of battery? We need raw power and we tend to kill people, spill blood etc. If we would make aoe gathering device with inventor help. Hmm we would need to wake her up, or mby research a way to quickly grow some kind of substitute. If not mby mechanical limbs.

Leaving Nine in tower might be bad idea especially when certain dark lord was talking with our employees.

She is going to slleep for years. We can't risk her for nothing. Each time we are pulling some crazy stunt, each time we risk her falling to the wrong hands. And we are starting to become famous, attracting attention from some very powerful beings, who might recognize her. That would be extremely bad.

Of course, if someone steals her from the tower, that isn't much better.

As for her being the Dark Lord, by now I trust her more than a lot of fellow humans. We'll see what comes out of her integrating the memories of two archmages, but she should not be worse off than she was before, and she wasn't EVUL back then.

I had Faceless on my mind not Nine with that dark lord part, still Alric is quite interested into undercity. Dont know if our safety protocols will hold. Hedron Guards are trained to deal with magic? On one hand its secluded place so accidental detection is unlikely, on other its place Empire is interested in. My point of view is that if Thais and Derryth will fall to any powerful entity, Nine will be screwed to. When she is with us enemies need to get through 2-3 high talented mages and usually big meat shield wall and thats concrete protection.

 

[Jester]

Leaving Nine in tower might be bad idea especially when certain dark lord was talking with our employees.

We don't know that Faceless was talking to our people in Muirthemne so that shouldn't be taken into consideration when we make plans.

Emmm didnt we send letter through eagle to rest of gang? Amena did get letter from us and there was mention of Brigit and Gareth letter before i think. Dont we know that she is there?

 

[Nevill]

Mby wipe out their memories about that would be better. As for Trakk false memory whole operation to him mby.

Well, falsification is rarely the best answer. Truth tends to come up sooner or later.

A mind wipe does not really solve anything that murder also doesn't. It is not that much better, too.

Nah, I am for healing them and letting them keep their memories. And for telling them what really befell them. If they will hate us for it, so be it, they have the right. It just does not seem right to keep lying to them about everything.

When she is with us enemies need to get through 2-3 high talented mages and usually big meat shield wall and thats concrete protection.

Our 'meatshields' more often than not amount to our two girls and Berty.