[LP CYOA] 傳

[Esquilax]

I've realized that we actually might be able to track down the Cult after we talk with BJ tomorrow. We've made good money for the Beggars and improved our relationship with them significantly. Maybe if we head to Wufushan after our encounter with BJ, one of the Beggars in that town might be willing to tell us where they were headed. I don't know if our current +30 relationship will be enough for them to trust why we might be asking them about the Cultists, but they might help us here. Emphasis on the "might" part.

Regardless, going after the Cult right now would probably be a better move in terms of getting them to trust us. Talking to them immediately gives off the impression that we're eager to aid them.

To unskilled martial artist and civilians that are attacked (again), that won't be so noticeable. All they need right now is a guy that looks vaguely like us, physically , can fight well with strength and agility, and our face can be faked by anyone with talent in acupuncture. Leaving now without securing our identity will leave available for exploitation, that's the consequence of going anonymous, simple as that. That is, if they don't have us help them carry out the "frame Zhang" plan*. If you have the real apprentice on your side, why would you send out impostors?

This is ridiculous. "All they need is a guy who can fight as well as us, with the same attributes and style as us, and an acupuncturist talented enough to have someone look similar to us." They could do this anyways, regardless of what we vote for. In any case, you are really reaching with that argument. Maybe all of the Masters that we were talking to were WiB impostors as well - after all, what are the odds that such respected figures in the orthodox would all be gamblers who like booze and whores?

They know who we are, they know what we look like, and they know what we fight like. Our neigong, our ultra-aggressive style and our brutal techniques aren't exactly very easy to imitate. What more do we need to secure our identity?

*I have a theory on this: their plan was to stir shit up against Zhang through their members pretending to be his disciple, make him a public menace and force the orthodox sects do debate and DISCUSS! whether or not and how they should deal with him. While they're doing that, the number of victims is rising while the sectarians are talking, public demands intervention and before the orthodoxes react, bam, the cultists already intervened and took him down, making the sectarians look horrible in the public's eyes and making themselves look efficient and powerful by taking out the most savage and powerful of the unorthodox Masters and securing for themselves the position of the Southern Great. These people are after the hearts and minds of China.

There could be some truth to this. It sounds plausible, though of course we don't have the full picture. In any case, the tournament was full of weirdness, with three very suspicious occurrences: (1) the WiB Zhang impostor with the close-but-not-quite Yuhua Duqing Palm, (2) the Kunlun committee member who tried to provoke us into a fight against Yu Gan, with BJ possibly part of the conspiracy as well, and (3) the emergence of the Fire Temple of Gushnasp, which seems to share the same goals as the WiB in terms of destabilizing the country and sinking the credibility of the orthodox sects. C1 seems to be the only choice that tries to advance our knowledge of the situation here.

Btw, it struck me that B3 might be better than B2. Bai Jiutian will probably be peering into the medicine pouch to see if it's actually there, and he might not even realize he's been hit with the itching powder. So he'll be standing there, scratching himself furiously and looking stupid while we turn down his ridiculous challenge - might be a good way to embarrass him.

 

[treave]

Kipeci - C1 > B3
Zero Credibility - B2
Smashing Axe - B2
ERYFKRAD - B2
Kashmir Slippers - B2
Ifeex - B2
Tigranes - B3
XenomorphII - C2
Nevill - C1
Esquilax - C1
Elfberserker - C2
The Brazilian Slaughter - C1
Ganymede - B2
ScubaV - C1
Lambchop19 - C1 > C2 > B3
Azira - A3
Baltika9 - B2
Rex Feral - A3 > B2
Jester - C1
Grimgravy - B3 > B2
asxetos - B2
cort - C1
a bear named spigot - C1

***

Current tally:

A3 - 2
B2 - 10
B3 - 0
C1 - 9
C2 - 2

treave, when are the polls losing?

In a few hours or so.

 

[Baltika9]

This is ridiculous. "All they need is a guy who can fight as well as us, with the same attributes and style as us, and an acupuncturist talented enough to have someone look similar to us." They could do this anyways, regardless of what we vote for.

Yeah, but in the case of B, we also stay around and do our own deeds, which makes any defamation pretty difficult.

Honestly, I don't really care about the cult individually, they're all going to be too dead soon to do anything anyway, for daring to touch our Yunzi, the future Khatun of the Tujue Empire. The more important topics are domestic collaborators and conspiracies which will be simpler to uncover if we're in the midst of them and not in the process of being "reformed and reeducated" in a temple somewhere far, far away. Then, there's also this Shadow Wolf character, who is either Huluzi or the real Yunzi, if Faceless was not really her.
The thing that concerns me with not going with them is that we're abandoning Yunzi to their machinations and also breaking our promise to her (it'll also be pretty fun to tsundere with her, "Oh, these scars? Yeah, I was whipped about a hundred times and almost raped by pigs for saving your back at the camp. Why? ...it's not like I like you or anything.") But then again, is this really Yunzi?

 

[cort]

If polls are still open, voting for C1.

 

[Kipeci]

So, again, what makes you think we'll do better at unveiling domestic conerns than the heads of the sects who have far more connections and resources for such an investigation? All we'd have is an ancient suggestion to go to Yuhua Hall, a lead that looks pretty sketch as we know that the folks involved would have been rogue agents who left it a while back.

This is standing opposed to an invitation that no one else can use.

Again, if we're going to go with B, we might as well make it have the itching powder.

 

[Baltika9]

So, again, what makes you think we'll do better at unveiling domestic conerns than the heads of the sects who have far more connections and resources for such an investigation? All we'd have is an ancient suggestion to go to Yuhua Hall, a lead that looks pretty sketch as we know that the folks involved would have been rogue agents who left it a while back.

Because we can go places and do things openly that they cannot. Absolutely no one says that we can't cooperate with the Frathouse Bros (and Miecao) in this.

Again, if we're going to go with B, we might as well make it have the itching powder.

Actually, the itching powder is good if we want to win the duel and make BJ Blazckowicz look like a fop. With B, it just makes us look childish and immature as fuck.

 

[Esquilax]

Honestly, I don't really care about the cult individually, they're all going to be too dead soon to do anything anyway, for daring to touch our Yunzi, the future Khatun of the Tujue Empire. The more important topics are domestic collaborators and conspiracies which will be simpler to uncover if we're in the midst of them and not in the process of being "reformed and reeducated" in a temple somewhere far, far away.

My entire point all along this DISCUSS!!! is that this conspiracy and the Cult coming onto the scene aren't a coincidence. They have been operating underground, they have links with the Wudu Cult and they might have a good idea of who the WiB's are, considering they have the same goals and ideas in mind. What does this have to do with sitting in a temple somewhere? I don't know where you're getting that part from.

This conspiracy consists of two parts: one part involves the orthodox world, which is mainly the agents that they have within the committee, and the other part involves the WiB's and possibly organizations like the Fire Temple that want to discredit the Eight Sects and destabilize the country. We can't really penetrate the orthodox sphere of the conspiracy because we are an outsider, but we can definitely put ourselves in the position to get to the root of the unorthodox side of it. In our part of the pugilistic world, our reputation as Zhang's apprentice is an advantage, not a drawback, and we should capitalize on that.

Because we can go places and do things openly that they cannot.

You mean, like "Have a conversation with, and/or possibly even infiltrate the very organization that is at odds with the Masters?" You mean doing things like that? Because C1 definitely involves going places and doing things openly that the Masters and their followers can't do.

 

[Nevill]

Btw, it struck me that B3 might be better than B2. Bai Jiutian will probably be peering into the medicine pouch to see if it's actually there, and he might not even realize he's been hit with the itching powder. So he'll be standing there, scratching himself furiously and looking stupid while we turn down his ridiculous challenge - might be a good way to embarrass him.

No.You can not be sure that BJ is the one who will receive the itching package. The leave might sit there for a while, a bomb ready to explode in our faces. It might even happen that we would be on the receiving end - say, when we get hurt defending the honor of the pugilistic world against Zoroastrians and BJ would be forced (by Master's pressure, or by public opinion) to share his medicine once again. Or we might hurt Yunzi in a decisive battle when we go all out, and there would be nothing else left to do but rely on the powder to save her. Karma is a bitch like that.

The powder is applied only when a person have suffered a serious injury. Making their life hell until they recover on top of that seems a bit overkill. I have nothing against playing a prank on BJ, but for anyone else it isn't worth is - and you can't choose it's target.

The thing that concerns me with not going with them is that we're abandoning Yunzi to their machinations and also breaking our promise to her (it'll also be pretty fun to tsundere with her, "Oh, these scars? Yeah, I was whipped about a hundred times and almost raped by pigs for saving your back at the camp. Why? ...it's not like I like you or anything.") But then again, is this really Yunzi?

- You know, you could have just stayed with us and none of this would happen.
- Uh... it didn't really occur to me back then.

And it is our Yunzi. I have a lingering suspicion that this LP would delve into the concept of fate in a variety of ways. I can not believe it could have been anyone but her.

 

[Baltika9]

By the way, Rex Feral flopped to "anything but C1,"

I'm gonna flop to whatever has most votes except C1. If we go with A or B we still have a choice regarding what we're doing next. If we go with C1 we lock ourselves on this path. I rather we do the Yuhua Hall main plot after we finish Zhang's chores, but it's still better than running off with some persians, completely forgetting our assignments.

Which makes the score 9-7, in favor of B2.

 

[Kipeci]

We never take the cult option.

Do you have any other reasons for voting B2? I can't see why you flipped back from the flop you'd just done.

 

[Baltika9]

Because, as adorable as Yunzi is, Master Zhang is just better. Bros b4 hoes, now and forever.

 

[Tigranes]

I've been thinking and rereading. I think if we do stay in the central plains, the Masters will probably get in touch with us. We are too useful an asset not to use, and story-wise it's not like we'll sit around and do nothing. It's hard to predict how this will work, however. We may train with the Masters; we may get more info from them and try and track down the real WiB and threads on the ZJ plot, which might lead us closer to Shun's mission. I don't think we'll find out much at all about any of those things, or about the Masters, by going West with C. Either way, of course, we won't be able to fulfill ZJ's mission until the big tournament-thing.

 

[Kipeci]

What does Master Zhang have to do with any option? We could still work on his challenge by beating the crap out of other guys come the challenge, and that'd still leave us with almost half a year to go.

I see that you guys want to learn from the masters here, but the foreign styles seem to at least be equivalent and they're naturally harder to obtain than native ones that we could ourselves pick up later.

 

[Baltika9]

Fire is too generic and boring, I'd rather wait for Wang and Zhang to conclude their research. I want something like lightning.

 

[Kipeci]

When did they say that they were studying lightning qi? And provided that we're able to start up a more fiery blend of our own, wouldn't that actually help us to adopt another radically different qi thing? At any rate, their moves only lend a burning aspect to their attacks, not any actual fire, so we're probably not going to be able to fart electricity out even if your lightning qi plan is somehow possible.

 

[Baltika9]

It's not a plan, just what I want to have if it's at all possible. They can keep their burning effects, I'd rather take Zhang's and/or Wang's techniques.
I'm starting to feel update withdrawal

 

[Kipeci]

Wang has sequestered himself for possibly years on a mountain while Zhang doesn't want to see too much of us until we complete his challenge. Both of these preferences definitely lie beyond six months from now, so why not at least check these guys out? If we don't like them, there's almost always some sort of 'screw this, flee to the desert' option, so if we can't stand them we could just go back.

 

[Baltika9]

And investigating the cult undercover and learning all they have to offer will demand a lot of time from us, likely more than six montgs. Unless we backstab at the tournament. In which case we don't get a lot out of them anyway. Look, the points for both have been discussed to death already. I flopped in a moment of weakness for Yunzi.

 

[a bear named spigot]

C1.

 

[Kipeci]

It doesn't need to be a massive undercover investigation. We could try to have as little as a decent conversation to clear some things up before going off to do whatever it is that you want to do for half a year. Any potential news about the Tujue and the like would be nice, and this seems to be the only thing approaching a lead since we skipped out on talking to that one guy at the tournament.

 

[Rex Feral]

With my flopping I take it it's now B2, 9 - C1, 9. Anyone for a tie breaker ?

I'm actually cool with both outcomes, since Esquilax had some good arguments about C1.

I still think however that C1 is a bad choice since they might enslave us or at least render us incapable of following up with the other objectives we have, for a while, by putting us to tests, manipulating us, using us to defeat or assassinate orthodox sect members. And when we're there we don't have much choice. Sure, we could refuse but that would make the whole infiltration point useless.

And I despise cults.

 

[Nevill]

Grimgravy - B3 > B2

There are conditional flops to take care of that.

 

[Baltika9]

Actually, with Grimgravy's conditional flop, it's 10-9, in favor of B2. Honestly, I just want the update already.
And B has more votes than C does.

 

[Azira]

Flippeti-flopping is all the rage. Good thing I don't do conditional voting. I'd feel dirty.

 

[treave]

Current tally:

A3 - 2
B2 - 10
B3 - 0
C1 - 9
C2 - 2

I'll start working on it now.