[LP CYOA] Epic

[Omicron]

A

 

[Tigranes]

Why do we have go to back to Sumer? We could just make ourselves the Lord of Egypt. We already know that Shulgi in particular has a head start on us in controlling the internal affairs of the Sumerian Kingdom; if we put all our eggs into the royalty there, then Sargon will die sooner or later, and we will be facing an uphill battle. It's quite clear what our course of action should be - we need to leverage our greatest strengths and sources of support to create a kind of power-base that is favourable to our methods and abilities.

I'm not sure, though, if now is the time to deliberately engineer Sargon's death or something of the sort. Voting B for now which makes it a draw, but I'll think about it - we don't have a lot of info about things yet.

Edit: Guess B needs some votes right now after all.

 

[Esquilax]

Why do we have go to back to Sumer? We could just make ourselves the Lord of Egypt.

I believe our jackal-spawning friend has already laid claim on Egypt. We're going to be making enemies and fighting regardless of where we go. To me, this isn't so much a choice about whether we protect the King or not, it's about whether we take the time to find out what this other immortal is capable of and use the opportunity to strike him down. If you want to be Lord of Egypt, it would make more sense to take the opportunity to try and "kill" the other immortal on the battlefield.

 

[TOME]

B.

That idiot king! He should have stayed with the right flank while we went after the boss. We need to give him a harsh lesson after the battle is over.

 

[newcomer]

Now I'm wondering just how many immortals are there... but considering this is the ancient Sumerian, I guess we won't have too many of them... right?
Might be just my rant... ugh... right now I really want to scream "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!"

After we claim our lordship of Egypt, maybe it's time to strike back & give Shulgi & Naram a lesson

 

[Quetzacoatl]

B.

 

[anus_pounder]

A.

I'm not sure roll fizzlebeef here would make a particularly smart king. Lets curry favor with the king by not only saving his ass but also by getting rid of the biggest threat in the egyptian ranks. With our efforts in the overall egyptian campaign, a lordship of sorts should be guaranteed for now, which isn't so bad.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

A.

 

[treave]

Vote is currently tied at 6:6, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[ScubaV]

Tough call. B will probably win us the battle, but might lose us the king. A should keep the king safe and give us some info on the other immortal, but might lose the battle or decimate our forces in victory. I think I'll go with B. As treave said, the king is no slouch, hopefully he can keep himself alive. If worse comes to worst and he dies we can use the army to set ourselves up as Lord of Egypt. It's a shame to lose out on learning about the other immortal though.

 

[treave]

Well, that's the tie-breaker. Update incoming.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

How far into the future will this lp go? Present day or the 23rd century?

 

[treave]

Your arrival on the right flank is heralded by the smashing of two of the jackal-beasts under your wheels. The men cheer at your presence, and you feel the fear from them diminish. "Disperse!" You shout your orders at the men. The beasts were strong enough that a line of spears would be easily broken even if the Sumerians try to hold one. Instead, you get the men at the front-lines to break off and surround each beast from all sides, making full use of your numerical superiority over the monsters. As the melee draws out, you note another group of jackal-beasts approaching. You charge.

By reading the base intentions of the monsters, you are able to time your chariot's charge perfectly – they are mere automatons that attack blindly, and are easy to predict for you. Half a dozen more fall to your wheels. You turn and stab your spear into another as you pass by; as your momentum wrenches the spear free of the beast's head, it crumbles back into sand and disperses with the wind. As you break clear of the group, you see that the men are now acquitting themselves admirably against the jackal-beasts now that the initial shock of the monsters' appearance has worn off. It doesn't take long before they are finishing off the last of their opponents.

Riding to a vantage point, you scan your eyes around the battlefield, trying to spot the king. The men on the left appear to have reached the walls of Memphis and are doing well. You see the king's flag flashing its colours in the distance, running in circles around the Egyptian lines; King Sargon is clearly doing what he loves best; laughing like a maniac while he crashes his chariots into enemy lines. over and over It's worked for him so far. The jackal-beasts hunting the king appear to have been tied up in combat by most of his personal guard.

Can't say it's smart of him to go on charging without his bodyguards.

Right on cue, a torrent of sand erupts where the king's chariot was. You curse at this turn of events.

Looks like it's there. You'll probably want to check that out.
It's going to be dangerous though, boy.

You ride your chariot back to the men in a hurry, who have obediently reformed their lines and await your orders. The right flank had a clear path of movement; the Egyptians evidently thought that they would have been routed by the jackal-beasts and arrogantly dismissed the need to send any troops this way. You direct them to close in and act as a hammer to the anvil of your main force which was led by the king. At any rate, the chariot charge had shaken the Egyptians considerably; the arrival of the right flank would be sufficient to rout them. Having given your orders, you ride on ahead, heading towards where you last saw the king. Duty called you out here and duty demands that you ensure his safety, as one of the royal guard. There is little resistance on your ride; the chariots of the Egyptians have been swept away by the king's charge, and their auxiliaries have been pushed back by the spear phalanxes following him. The few warriors that do dare stand in your way fall swiftly to your spear and wheels.

***

A sudden, alien intent washes over you briefly before subsiding. You see the king's chariot in front of you, lying on its side. The king is on the ground, prone, while a withered old man approaches him slowly from the left, a dagger in hand. The old man is clearly the source of the strange feeling. You are unable to understand what you read from him.

"Is that the person you were talking about?" you ask the voices.

Person? It's not someone, more like... something.
Yes, that thing's part of the reason why we're here.

You are intrigued, and ask your next question.

"Can it be killed?"

The answer from the voices was a yes, and that is all you need to know.

***

A. You charge! Ululating, you ride down the old man with your chariot, trampling his elderly frame underneath the hooves of your donkeys and your solid wooden wheels.

B. You raise your shield in anticipation of any attack, keeping your senses alert and in full swing. Although you are unable to read his intent, you should still be able to warn yourself of any imminent danger should you concentrate.

C. Grabbing a short spear from your chariot, you hurl it at the old man. You are in range and unlikely to miss at this distance. Even if you miss, you'll have drawn his attention.

D. You sense something wrong with this old man, something you may not be able to handle. Memphis is not worth this trouble. You abandon the king and the army, and flee into the wilderness.

 

[treave]

How far into the future will this lp go? Present day or the 23rd century?

If we get that far, space ships and FTL and galactic conquest.

 

[Tigranes]

C serves the function of B, no?

 

[treave]

It does, and so does A - getting run over by a chariot is quite distracting.

B is the more defensive, keeping-my-eyes-open option; if anything unexpected happens you will be able to react faster.

 

[newcomer]

The kings should not die, at least not now...

Maybe I'll go for C, since it's more distracting than B, although I also want to be more defensive...

After I think of it, a spear might not even touch a guy who cannot be touched by the chariot wheel. Better protect the king with our body! A

 

[Quetzacoatl]

C.
Another question for Treave.
Will there be any "game over"? Our protagonist can't die and or be killed after all.

 

[treave]

As mentioned earlier, if you get tossed in a black hole it's game over unless someone comes up with a plausible explanation for your escape. If you get incinerated and baked into concrete and sunk into the ocean, you will be back in... oh... a few thousand years, at least. You were granted immortality by some strange event, not born into it; this also implies that your eternal life and your powers can be taken away.

There are ways to put you out of commission almost indefinitely, and depending on where along the timeline it happens, we can end the LP on that note.

 

[newcomer]

As mentioned earlier, if you get tossed in a black hole it's game over unless someone comes up with a plausible explanation for your escape. If you get incinerated and baked into concrete and sunk into the ocean, you will be back in... oh... a few thousand years, at least. You were granted immortality by some strange event, not born into it; this also implies that your eternal life and your powers can be taken away.

There are ways to put you out of commission almost indefinitely, and depending on where along the timeline it happens, we can end the LP on that note.

Btw treave, what will happen if at our time of death our body is stabbed by an non-removable object, such as impaled permanently with a (metal spear with both ends on the wall) on the head... Can an immortal at least move / manipulate objects with special abilities to remove that spear, and if he will risk another death because the spear damages the brain

 

[XenomorphII]

C

 

[treave]

This is where things become a bit weird; somehow, the consciousness of the immortal is no longer in the brain itself, or else everytime they regenerated brain damage they would lose memories and powers. Anything more specific would be spoilers, though. It's end-game stuff.

 

[oscar]

C

 

[SerratedBiz]

C. You people are fools if you think this man can simply be run down after he just poofed into the battlefield - fools, I tell you!

 

[XenomorphII]

I figure the king tried A, so we should not.