[LP CYOA] 傳

[treave]

Ah, I see. An old-schooler, eh? You can just do the BB codes manually and it should work ( e.g. [C O L O R=#ff0000] [/C O L O R] <- no spaces), but I'm not about to enforce it as a rule if it's too troublesome for you. It's just a suggestion, not an Imperial Edict.


...rest of you lovely chaps should have no excuse unless you have some medical condition that leaves you weakened should you type in red text.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I know I can use BB. Just takes a lot of time to load and what not...

And E. Just saying.

 

[treave]

Could be worse... Every update could come with massive maps of China and photos of picturesque Chinese scenery that are vital to understanding the update.

 

[Azira]

Could be worse... Every update could come with massive maps of China and photos of picturesque Chinese scenery that are vital to understanding the update.

Do eeet!

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

C, thought I suppose I would tolerate E.

I don't think we should abandon the guy. He might make a good ally, and his wife has treated us so nicely.

E strikes me that it could bite us in the ass. He might try to double-cross us as we are double crossing him.

I don't like any of the other choices. We are here to heal the guy, and heal the guy we shall.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

C can work badly just as well. Just because he's a trained swordsman doesn't mean his unarmed skill is bad, does it?

 

[Azira]

B is still healing him. Only, we're trying to keep Cao'er safe and practice our sneak, herbalism and pressure points (incidentally our best skills) at the same time.

 

[Kipeci]

What is this heresy I'm reading about not permitting Cao'er to join the harem? The chicken seen was probably the fourth most arousing thing I've read on the Codex, she's a keeper.

Anyway, onto why I vote C.

A. You agree to leave with the old sword and the single-page book as payment. If they attempt to attack you, you will try to slip away. If necessary you will kill them. You cannot let Cao’er get wrapped up in this. It is unfortunate for Master and Madam Rong, but you cannot help them, not against the viper in their own blanket.

We'd get paid off with his insults and would scamper away, at which point his dudes would try to whack us. Old man dies, Yao's reputation is bludgeoned and it's just generally appearing to be a bad choice, even if we manage to slip away.

B. You agree to leave, but once you are in the woods you will attempt to give the disciples the slip. You will put Cao’er some place safe and ask her to show you how to heal Master Rong. Picking up what you can, you will then sneak back into the school alone - bringing Cao’er along will be too difficult for your skills - and attempt to cure him yourself.

The same as above except that we grow a pair and go back, hoping that Cao'er's instructions to us will be enough to bridge the gap of our rather poor skills (Rank 2 - You understand what you should be doing, but you are not very good at doing it.) in herbalism and pressure points. We will be leaving Cao'er alone in the woods with a band of disciples attempting to kill us if we do manage to shake them in the first place, and that worries me. It doesn't matter if Cao'er kills them or if it's the reverse-- we'll be in for some bad news if either party has contact with the other, and won't be able to do anything about it. Considering how we're kinda her guard, that's... not good.

C. You refuse Rong Zhiyu to his face. He is a bully of the worst sort - he would never have tried this with Master Yao. He can do his best if he dares, but you bet that he will be too cowardly to face you in a fight. Even though he is five years older than you and trained properly in the sword, a swordsman is nothing if you can prevent him from drawing his blade. You have your legs.

Risky, I guess, but I really want to test out our physical capabilities. If you read the texts about the Huashan and Songfeng sects, you'll see that it's pretty much all about swords with a dabbling in sabers and spears. Nowhere is unarmed combat mentioned, so his training probably wasn't too heavy on that-- it says that masters in their arts are deadly with a stick, but it didn't say anything about them being that way without one. If we can prevent him from drawing his sword, we're a decent way towards winning, and we can probably make it due to our hefty agility. Furthermore, our freakish strength for someone as young as us can possibly have us pin him.

It is true that he probably doesn't want to fight us. It's going to look sketchy if we're involved in an altercation-- after all, why would we have come if we were just here to poison him? We could have never showed up and he'd reach the same end, so it's difficult to pin such blame on us without us actually creating evidence by trying to poison him. If he's attacking the healers, though, it may be that he's hiding something.

D. You offer to help him. What is wrong with poisoning? You will ask Cao'er to hold back and only pretend to heal, while you give more poison to Rong Muben yourself. Rong Zhiyu may be dislikeable, but his father won't live forever anyway and it'll be good to have him as an ally by helping him now.

We may be unorthodox, but we should try to have a bit of a soul. I also don't think that Cao'er would appreciate this, and naturally Yao wouldn't. Considering how this guy poisoned his own father, I'm not sure how trustworthy we can count him to be as our ally-- if we have to resort to blackmailing, well, that still makes us one more target.

E. You pretend to offer to help him. You tell him Cao'er can use more lethal poisons to ensure that his father dies. Of course, that will be a trick, and Cao'er will be doing her best to heal him instead. Hopefully he will fall for this proposal. You will try to expose him afterwards; there is no point healing him and not dealing with the son if he's just going to try the same thing again after you leave

This is probably the best option, actually. Cao'er might misunderstand and make a scene, but she did just show herself to be a bit more canny in dealing with people than we'd given her credit for. It might also be that Zhiyu accepts our words and then immediately tells someone else, which would be a bummer... I still prefer kicking action, but this would probably be fine.

 

[Smashing Axe]

B is still healing him. Only, we're trying to keep Cao'er safe and practice our sneak, herbalism and pressure points (incidentally our best skills) at the same time.

Except B requires us to somehow escape with Cao in tow whilst surrounded by four well-trained warriors who are looking to kill us. How exactly is it the safest option for her? What experience has she with stealthing in the woods?

 

[Jester]

]Tsundere princesses, I can deal with. Psycho ninja chicks, sure. MILFs, no problem. Tentacle babes from outer space, hell yeah.
Just...no.

Wait what MILF? I Do not remember that story.

Pfft. Just have to prevent her from killing anything and she'll be nice and shy. Or is that too big of a challenge for Tigerbro? Not man enough I see. He will fail to walk the Way with this type of attitude.
The Way of the Harem King does not discriminate. All women are as One when your goal is that of the Boundless Harem, without limits. Your love encompasses the universe!

Pimp-fu is strong in this one.

...rest of you lovely chaps should have no excuse unless you have some medical condition that leaves you weakened should you type in red text.

Its my bane, but for my aim of playful trickster i will surpass my limits. Other colour like Boysenberry or Cadet are acceptable?

Vote E > B

 

[Esquilax]

First off, I'd like to say that I am totally against any attempts to help this slimy motherfucker, and I'm glad that we're on the same page here. As crazy as Master Yao is, the man has an unblemished rep, and should this man die, that reputation will be tarnished.

First, we need to go into possible motives:

Rong Muben is the master and founder of the school. He had once been a senior disciple on Huashan, reputed for his light swordsmanship. After creating a reputation for himself, he had married and settled down in the forest near Tuzhonglin twenty years ago. There, he had built his Songfeng Sword School. The school is relatively reputable but not large - there are at most thirty or forty students. Apparently Rong Muben has combined his honour with an utter lack of ambition, lacking the will to expand his school. He has not challenged any other schools in ten years, preferring to spend his time cultivating himself in meditation. Times have been hard recently, and the son has just returned a few months ago from a year’s stay at Huashan Sect, where his father had trained.

It's all here. The boy thought his old man was running the academy into the ground, so he got a bunch of like-minded people in the school to go along with his plot to kill him. treave, do we know why the son returned? I have a sneaking suspicion that the Huashan guys may have kicked him out because they thought he was an asshole and they didn't want him around. With nowhere else to go, offing the old man and taking over seems like the smart play for him.

I'd like to point out that in a straight-up fight, this guy would kick the shit out of us. The guy is a bully, and a bully only picks on people that they feel confident that they can beat up. He's focused his training entirely on swordsmanship over the past year while we've been with Master Yao, so he's specialized in this sort of thing. To make matters worse, our natural strength and athleticism is negated by the fact that he's five years older than us, so we can't win on raw talent either. However, treave, would C involve just kicking him in the head right away, before he can draw his blade?

I think E is doable. Despite the fact that Cao'er has trouble with people, she understands social cues quite well and is tactful enough to shut the fuck up when necessary. Also, she really trusts us a whole lot: remember that she refuses to even sleep in a different room than us, so she needs us around. I think she'll trust us enough to follow through with the plan to dupe Rong Jr.

Except B requires us to somehow escape with Cao in tow whilst surrounded by four well-trained warriors who are looking to kill us. How exactly is it the safest option for her? What experience has she with stealthing in the woods?

First off, they aren't going to kill us. Rong Jr. is an asshole, but he would be a complete fucking idiot to try and off the Killer Physician's apprentices unless he really had to - he'd be in a world of shit then. He's just sending a crew of people to tail us so that we don't fuck up his plans, though of course this is subject to change. Second, the Shadow Step works best in the wilderness, which is exactly where we'd be with B. With the boost from the qinggong we'd have a stealth rank of 3, which would make us competent at it. It would be nice if we had the Traps skill to help in picking off the guys following us, but we might be able to misdirect them away from Cao'er while we're doing our work.

I can't say I'm completely sold on B, but I could see it working. The real problem would be what we'd do once we ended up reaching Master Rong's body. It's a sensitive operation and we'd have to follow the instructions of Cao'er to the letter. We're smart, so it's doable, but she's obviously much better at this sort of thing.

 

[treave]

treave, do we know why the son returned?

As far as you know it seems to have been some sort of foster programme, sending him over for some training so that he can improve the school when he returns. Daddy may have pulled some strings to get him in. You haven't heard any rumours about him getting booted from Huashan.

As for C, should it come to a fight you are confident you can prevent him from drawing his sword with kicks and proper positioning due to being in a rather enclosed space. If he tries to grab your kick, you have your Jinshetuipi qinggong.

Then again, our character is the confident sort who believes he can do anything.

Edit: By the way Jing has no compunction about killing. As the prince's companion he was trained to kill in his name should the order ever come, or the need ever arise. He won't hesitate when striking to eliminate a threat, especially if it's not someone he knows. I mean, he's not likely going to go 'oh noes just killed a man' after the deed or spare someone who attempts to kill him out of chivalry, unless your choices restrain him from doing so.

Just a bit of information that may be useful in the future, as you collect more foes.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Wonder if Rong Jr. will wise up if he hint that we're on to him. He's an arrogant berk, though, so he just might not go full paranoid on us.

 

[Storyfag]

Both E and C are options I'd like to see play out. E > C

 

[Azira]

C'mon people. Let the tigerbro get his stealth on, vote B!

 

[Kipeci]

I'd like to point out that in a straight-up fight, this guy would kick the shit out of us. The guy is a bully, and a bully only picks on people that they feel confident that they can beat up. He's focused his training entirely on swordsmanship over the past year while we've been with Master Yao, so he's specialized in this sort of thing.

I have no doubt that he could skewer us in an instant if he managed to get his sword out, but we're pretty quick and have managed to pick up a decent collection of unarmed moves that could work fairly well for this situation. As you say, he's focused his training entirely on swordsmanship-- thus, he banks almost entirely on having a sword or possibly a saber or spear.

First off, they aren't going to kill us. Rong Jr. is an asshole, but he would be a complete fucking idiot to try and off the Killer Physician's apprentices unless he really had to - he'd be in a world of shit then.

Remember, this is a guy who 'oozes confidence' who would be taking over a school of trained fighters. Does a confident bully with dozens of soon-to-be minions if this plan works out sound like the kind of guy who'd be scared by a kook doctor from the woods?

He's just sending a crew of people to tail us so that we don't fuck up his plans, though of course this is subject to change.

I'm going to take the word of a guy who lives in this setting over our speculation that the Doctor would scare everyone into not attacking.

You are also not new to the jianghu any more. Grinning at Rong Zhiyu, you know that there is a chance that those disciples will attempt to cut you and Cao’er down in the dark, once you’re safely away from the school.

 

[Baltika9]

I'm going for C.

Remember, this is a guy who 'oozes confidence' who would be taking over a school of trained fighters. Does a confident bully with dozens of soon-to-be minions if this plan works out sound like the kind of guy who'd be scared by a kook doctor from the woods?

Well, with a name like "The Killer Physician"...

 

[Bloodshifter]

C

 

[Nevill]

Ok, let's break it down.

The Brazilian Slaughter did an excellent analysis. A is right out, We came here for different reasons - partly compelled by greed, partly by promises of power, and partly because we were trying to save a life. A fulfills none of that, while simultaneously failing Yao and putting us in danger.

B relies on our measly healing skills to save one's life, and if we are seen sneaking around in the middle of the night, you might guess who will get blamed for the poisoning or even an untimely demise of an old man. And no way in hell I am leaving my eyes off Cao'er.

Not even going to ponder about D. Fuck this shit.

C is a direct confrontation with him and probably those four that could be waiting just behind him. He probably send others away before he came to us, but if we could get to somebody else, we could put an end to this. But this also puts Cao'er at most risk...

C can work badly just as well. Just because he's a trained swordsman doesn't mean his unarmed skill is bad, does it?

So we either get in a fight with this guy, who has a bunch of fighter guys backing him up, son of the master or expect that mr. Bully backs away without issue. This guy I think we can take, but his mother will be angry and then we're going to be knee-deep in angry swordmen.

Bros, I think we are on the wrong track here. What is the worst he can do to us? Chop our heads off? If he could do it with apprentices who came to save his father's life and get away with it, he could slice the old man in half himself instead of being discreet about it. The very same fact that he had to be subtle and use poison instead of making his father retire forcibly shows that he is not in charge of the situation yet. He has some scumbags following him, but they are still a minority. He might try to intimidate us - and he does, - but the last thing he needs is to make a ruckus, unless we corner him. He won't risk it in public while he thinks he has the upper hand. This choice actually poses the least danger for the well-being of Cao'er - I'm definitely not going to take chances and walk her hand in hand with four thugs in a forest.

And if he is stupid enough to try and evict us by force - we don't even need to fight him. Well, we could, but why expose ouselves to unnecessary risk? All we have to do is to scream bloody murder and attract enough attention - he is the one that would need to explain himself after his mother said we would always be welcome in Songfeng.

I don't think we can count on her, she loves her son and will most likely consider us a liar. We need to cure the old man. Will he be ready for a fight as soon as he wakes up? Probably not, so we can't count on him.

If you are not keen on explaining to his mother that she cherished a viper in her bosom - and I'm not - keep in mind that you don't have to. If she was not going to question you when she thought you were about to take her life, she is certainly not going to do so if you wanted to keep your reasons to yourself. We don't owe her an explanation - it is she that owes us her life, for Christ's sake. Attract her attention, have her pick the most loyal disciples and ask her to pull an all-nighter guarding the door while you spend the night in the old man's room in case he has a relapse or something. I think it was already established that she will do anything if we say it is for her dear husband's recovery.

Then, when the man is on his feet, you can decide how to proceed. We still need to be careful here, the situation probably needs to be dealt with inside the family, otherwise the school reputation will take a major hit (they have a hard-on for honor), the disciples will scatter (they are few as it is, and they are already divided), and the school itself will come to ruin.

E could work, but it has too many uncertainties. For starters, why would he agree to your help, when he can always poison the man himself, if not to try and frame you after the act? And who is better to frame than an outsider? He will plan to betray you, this is a given. What if someone overhears you? Can you trust Cao'er to go with the act? What if he eventually understands your trick and tries to accuse you before you could accuse him? Cao'er would do more harm than good as a witness if it comes to finger pointing - she hid the fact that Muben was poisoned, and with E you will be the one making an offer to help Rong Zhiyu. And finally, whed did any of you get the impression that our principles-before-reason Tigerbro is a enough of a schemer to double-cross a double-crosser?

C it is.

 

[Zero Credibility]

You make a persuasive argument for C. It is certainly not in his interest to move against us openly unless his back is against a wall. The problem is that once we cure his father his back might very well be against a wall. If his father knows he poisoned him he could very well be desperate enough to do anything to stop us right now. And he doesn't have to kill us right here to stop us - he can have his minions knock us out, drag us away and bury us in the forest. Then he can make up some story about how we stole something and ran away during the night. Of course, if we could raise an alarm before he can pull that off he would be pretty much finished. Hey treave just how big is this compound? Are there likely to be other people nearby (preferably his mother) close by to call them if we scream bloody murder right now? For that matter, if shit does happen, are there other ways out of this room (like a window) besides the door where probably his thugs are waiting for us?

I might consider flipping to C > E, but I'm just worried that this guy is already on the edge and that if a fight breaks out we might not be able to protect Cao'er fully.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

[quote="Nevill]
Tigerbro is a enough of a schemer to double-cross a double-crosser.
[/quote]
Scholarly arts+ Honourable outlook+ Poison Flim-flam= Poetic Justice.

It's all very well to whack him straight up, but consider-
Regardless of the strength of his position, his old man's known for honour. Challenging him outright, fighting him straight, will cause a stink. Misguided as he might be, he would not want the school to suffer on account of his father's folly. The bad impression he'd create by beating by the school's founder, that he'll want even less. So his actions may not have any connection to the strength of his position.
As well as Tigerbro can handle the fight, he's fighting for two here, himself and Cao'er. While we can, to some degree trust her in a verbal game, we have no call to risk her in a straight fight of any kind. Especially if she goes all "Uhihihihihi" there for some reason, which will strengthen any excuse of self-defense Rong Jr. will come up with.

 

[Kipeci]

Remember, the worst that could happen is that we spend the next 30 pages arguing whether we should be a dog or goat doctor in the new playthrough.

 

[Nevill]

It is certainly not in his interest to move against us openly unless his back is against a wall. The problem is that once we cure his father his back might very well be against a wall. If his father knows he poisoned him he could very well be desperate enough to do anything to stop us right now. And he doesn't have to kill us right here to stop us - he can have his minions knock us out, drag us away and bury us in the forest. Then he can make up some story about how we stole something and ran away during the night. Of course, if we could raise an alarm before he can pull that off he would be pretty much finished.

I don't expect him to attack us outright just yet. He'll threaten us, and should we spend the night by ourselves, he will definitely try to get rid of us when no one is looking. Which is why I suggested calling for Mrs. Rong immediately and barricading ourselves in the room with the old man under whatever excuse we can think of. Should he try and knock us out (which is harder than killing us, mind you), I'll bet on Jing holding out long enough to raise one hell of an alarm, what's with the evasion tech and kicking in the nuts.

 

[Kipeci]

Exactly.

 

[treave]

How would you know who will be around to pick up your cries of help? You have no way of knowing that. As for exits, there's a small wooden window.

Also, the concept of saving face is very important. Our character understands that fully.