[LP CYOA] Pilgrimage

[Darth Roxor]

Since no one posted the message, I guess I will now that Loretta solved it.

WE FOUND THE KING IN THE SKY BUT THERE WAS ALSO A KING IN THE DEPTHS FROM HIM ALL OUR WORKS COME. WE HAVE BOUND HIM THERE AND NONE MUST FREE HIM LEST ALL OUR WORKS TURN ON US ALL.

Fucked if I know what it means tho.

Easy

King in the sky - GAWD OF THE FLAME

King in the depths - *sip* SATAN!

 

[Azira]

Rant:

Kurze's probably working to free the king in the depths. I think this has to do with the Flame.
It probably works on the juxtaposition of heaven and earth. There's "God" above, and "Satan" below. The fire's earthly, what the Ashguard have is heavenly.

Possibly.
The alchemists will lose their power if he from whom they get it is freed.
Possibly.

You'd probably be better off ignoring me.

 

[Darth Roxor]

as above so below

 

[Rex Feral]

Or maybe we're supposed to breed something of an Antichrist, therefore freeing the king of the depths. Fuck if I know, the last two pages were cryptography for me.

 

[Zwist]

While dicking around on wikipedia looking for obvious alchemistical meanings of "The thing in itself"(which again is close to the Kantian "das Ding an sich" which is definitely not translatable with "truth") I found the following for stages a Philosophers stone must go through:
nigredo, a blackening or melanosis
albedo, a whitening or leucosis
citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis
rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis

So if our hand starts turning white, we at least know why the heck we are still alive.

 

[Loretta]

Stumbled upon this dude while browsing Cghub. Looks like someone to me...

 

[Loretta]

Sweet! We are dual-wielding Philosophy!
Blunt Iron Dagger? Are sharpening stones a rarity?

 

[Kayerts]

from my understanding of what little alchemy I researched the thing in itself is its quintessence, its essential matter that defines it. so that could be understood as 'the truth of the thing', no? also the credo must be true, otherwise faith is impossible, as well as any moral principle (at least of that time. i'm no philosopher).

Discounting that "thing in itself" is strongly associated with a specific Kantian idea (that ended up being a red herring), the logical connections there are still weak and inconsistent between the three parts of the hint, to the extent that they could've been used to generate a number of other keywords. (We look at a loose synonym of "thing in itself" to get "quintessence," and then we ask ourselves, "What word, plus 'of the thing,' loosely means quintessence?" Then we look at "moral" and "credo" and ask ourselves, "What is one required property of these two things, for them to be good?")

That said, if I stumbled across a note scrawled in blood by a demon-worshipping, mercury-swilling, heretical alchemist, my first thought wouldn't be "hey I bet this is a really fair puzzle."

 

[Azira]

E1

 

[Zwist]

C2.
Booom.

 

[Jaedar]

We didn't do all the alchemy training for nothing.

I feel like saving the mercenary is good.

C1

 

[Kz3r0]

D2

 

[Rex Feral]

D isn't going to work. It might have if we would have explored the keep. Now we will surely get lost and get into trouble.

A seems pretty pointless. These creatures don't seem like they can be stopped by mere walls. They might fly, teleport or whatever so it sounds like a bad idea.

B implies we get rid of Kurze. However root stated we have no persuasion skills whatsoever and he already saw us scared like fuck. So it probably won't work and even if it will, why would we want to get rid of him ?

The only thing that remains is C. It sounds like a horrible idea to me, and we might get burned (literally) but I believe it's the best choice we have since we already know something about alchemy.

And for the second choice I'll go with 1 of course, I'm trying to role-play a humane villain. And of course making friends and allies is always a good thing. Up till now we can't trust anyone.

So my choice is C1.

 

[Darth Roxor]

‘A memory,’ he says, very slowly, ‘rises. From the dark mind of the dead little boy who never came to this place. Black and cold nights. Father gone. Laughing snarling nursemaids who taught the dead little boy how to be afraid, who passed on his grandmother’s wicked stories.’

When the voices of children are heard on the green,
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast,
And everything else is still.
"Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down,
And the dews of night arise;
Come, come, leave off play, and let us away,
Till the morning appears in the skies."

"No, no, let us play, for it is yet day,
And we cannot go to sleep;
Besides, in the sky the little birds fly,
And the hills are all covered with sheep."
"Well, well, go and play till the light fades away,
And then go home to bed."
The little ones leaped, and shouted, and laughed,
And all the hills echoed.

When the voices of children are heard on the green
And whisperings are in the dale:
The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind,
My face turns green and pale.

Then come home my children, the sun is gone down
And the dews of night arise
Your spring & your day are wasted in play
And your winter and night in disguise.

(also C1)

 

[Kipeci]

c1

 

[Storyfag]

C1

 

[tuluse]

I'll follow the crowd, C1.

We should have kept Alia alive if we want potential allies.

 

[Kz3r0]

E) 2)

 

[treave]

the way things are going, we'll soon have to keep a body count by proxy for the pilgrim...

HARD men making HARD decisions. Collateral is expected.

 

[Kz3r0]

And using iron as a talisman to negate their power?

 

[Jick Magger]

Could we define 'cannot stand' here? Is it like the Tolkien "Orcs cannot stand sunlight but they'll bear with it if Sauron tells them to" kind? Or some mystical "Will literally burst into fire at the touch" type of 'cannot stand'?

Or is the vagueness of the option intentional?

Ehhh, fuggit; C1. Groupthink, ahoy!

EDIT: F1, use our knowledge of alchemy and lore, along with the materials necessary, to craft grenades or other such explosives laced with untempered iron shrapnel.

Worst case scenario, we blow our last good hand off and are forced to jerk off with our rotting off-hand forever.

 

[Jaedar]

Hey, if we save the mercs, can't we do E and something else(C) at the same time?

 

[Zwist]

Yes. If we build a bomb, let us put cold iron shrapnel in it.
BOOOOOOOOOOM.

 

[Jick Magger]

Grapeshot grenades! Grapeshot grenades!

 

[Rex Feral]

Indeed. Bombs with cold iron. That way we use the lore update root gave us.

EDIT: Fuck, now both mercenaries are in trouble. We should save them.