[LP CYOA] Epic

[treave]

Chapter 1.10: At The Walls of Akkad

Going into that tunnel is probably going to get you buried alive.
I don't fancy spending a thousand years trapped with you under tons of rock, so let's do the other thing.

You do the other thing. The walls of Akkad are formidable, but you can scale them easily. At least, you could if you had two working hands. The king instructs some of his royal guard to infiltrate the tunnel, and begins preparing the rest of the army to storm the city once the gates are opened. He then pulls you to one side. "If you find my son, kill him. But Shulgi must be captured alive." You can tell that Sargon plans to extract the secrets of immortality from Shulgi. You nod, acknowledging his order.

***

The assault begins at dawn. In the dim light, you sneak forward with your men, carrying the tall ladders which are vital to your success. Their height advantage and the range of your shortbows means that your archers are unable to provide covering fire without being peppered by arrows themselves. Your one-handedness means you opt to go without a spear, bringing along just a shield, a sword and an axe.

Two hundred metres more to the walls. So far so good - the guards at the wall must not be very alert, despite the torches you see patrolling the top. Then again, Sargon had left the least competent troops behind to guard his kingdom. The man was not big on defense.

One hundred metres more to the walls. If your luck holds, you might be able to get to the top of the walls and take them by surprise.

Fifty metres more. No such luck. You are within range for your telepathy to begin sensing the enemy, and you feel one of their minds startle. A shout rings out. "The enemy! The enemy is here!"

You reply with a yell of your own. "Men, fall into position! Shields up and ready!" The men, well-drilled, form a phalanx and raise their shields as one - just in time, as a rain of arrows begin to fall upon you. You hold your shield above you and lead the march to the walls. From behind, you hear the occasional scream as some of the arrows manage to find their way through the shield wall, whether it is by luck or by skill.

Thanks to your timely orders, most of your men do manage to survive to the wall. The slight incline of the walls means that the climb won't be as laborious, but it also means that the archers have a free line of sight to continue shooting. Sargon's soldiers begin raising the ladders, bracing them just beneath the top of the wall so that the archers would not be able to remove them.

You would not be able to scale the ladders while holding your shield, so you sling it across your back. You look up. The climb is about fifteen metres.

***

A. You let your men go ahead of you. They can climb, albeit slowly, while protecting the ones below them with their shield. You need to play this smart - a slow and steady ascent will ensure you manage to reach the top of the wall. This mission is a distraction and there is no rush.

B. You go first, fuck the shields, you'll just try to read when the arrows and rocks are coming and somehow dodge your way to the top of the ladder with one hand. The men will be awed. You just hope you don't fail and plummet to the ground - that would be pretty bad for morale.

 

[Cassidy]

B: What kind of immortal warrior would hide behind mortals like a coward?

 

[Urist McLurker]

Hrm. Difficult choice, we've been seen repetitively leading from the front, we didn't pussy out of trying to scale walls with just one hand to start with, and the choice to chicken out of it now might send the wrong message to the men when they need to know that they can do it the most.
On the other hand(hurr hurr lol), I feel like it's just a very stupid thing to do, but it might hone our abilities more, and if we do fail and plummet to the ground? Hopefully we'll be able to get back up before the siege is over.

B, though open to flopping.

 

[newcomer]

The fuck it option sounds fun! B

 

[Quetzacoatl]

B.

 

[XenomorphII]

B.

Let's take that damn wall!

 

[Esquilax]

B)

A

We've lead from the front the entire time and these men have the utmost faith that the gods are watching over them. We can't afford to let morale plummet now. Unless we fall. Which would really fucking suck.

The assault begins at dawn. In the dim light, you sneak forward with your men, carrying the tall ladders which are vital to your success. Their height advantage and the range of your shortbows means that your archers are unable to provide covering fire without being peppered by arrows themselves. Your one-handedness means you opt to go without a spear, bringing along just a shield, a sword and an axe.

I'm hoping our bravery will inspire our archers to get in range to cover us while we go up the ladder.

EDIT: treave If it isn't too late, I've decided to flip-flop. If everything's written up already though, fuck it, let's go up the ladder.

 

[newcomer]

If we are falling, just shove our hand into the wall & kick the wall to create a footing.. After all, what are these superpowers for?
And for the climbing, maybe we can just duck (lower the head position & let the shield on our back take care of the arrows) if it is not possible to dodge

And that said, why didn't we just punch the outer gate?

 

[eklektyk]

B
only thru inspiration our soldiers will be able to create long enough distraction
and some soldier mass grave off main road is easier on us than undeground tunnelM:

 

[Curufinwe]

A

We're already seen as close to superhuman and divine by the soldiers. We definitely don't want to cross that threshold. Sargon is jealous and pissed off with us enough as it is. He can't hurt us, but our best bet is to stay with him and quietly get the fuck out of Akkad when he dies, which will be soon (he's an old man).

 

[oscar]

A, slow and steady wins the race here.

 

[newcomer]

We're already seen as close to superhuman and divine by the soldiers. We definitely don't want to cross that threshold. Sargon is jealous and pissed off with us enough as it is. He can't hurt us, but our best bet is to stay with him and quietly get the fuck out of Akkad when he dies, which will be soon (he's an old man).

I don't really think we need to get out of Akkad, after all if we kill Rimush & his other sons we can claim the kingdom for ourselves after Sargon dies from a "Suspicious Accident", and obviously the soldiers will agree

 

[ScubaV]

I'll go with A here. I think we've earned enough respect that urging each man up the ladder as he gets to it won't affect our standing. And I have a feeling we're going to want all our available strength for when the city is breeched, fending off Shulgi and/or preventing Sargon from taking immortality.

 

[Curufinwe]

We're already seen as close to superhuman and divine by the soldiers. We definitely don't want to cross that threshold. Sargon is jealous and pissed off with us enough as it is. He can't hurt us, but our best bet is to stay with him and quietly get the fuck out of Akkad when he dies, which will be soon (he's an old man).

I don't really think we need to get out of Akkad, after all if we kill Rimush & his other sons we can claim the kingdom for ourselves after Sargon dies from a "Suspicious Accident", and obviously the soldiers will agree

Do we really want to become an immortal, god-king figure without knowing absolutely shit about the larger picture? I have this sensation it will paint a big, white and red target on us. The tentacle monsters afterall tend to stay in the background, from what we've seen. They might have their reasons for it.

 

[newcomer]

Do we really want to become an immortal, god-king figure without knowing absolutely shit about the larger picture? I have this sensation it will paint a big, white and red target on us. The tentacle monsters afterall tend to stay in the background, from what we've seen. They might have their reasons for it.

I've thought of some strategies to anticipate this:
1. Pretend to die & shapeshift into crown prince, OR
2. FUCK IT! You fake your death & run into wilderness, OR
3. Right before the high priest place the crown on your head, you screamed "FUCK THIS SHIT!" and run into wilderness

 

[Kipeci]

A.

B would be great to pull off if we were a regular soldier, but we need to keep in mind that we're in a command position. We need to protect the soldiers under our command, and only A does that by the use of shields to keep climbers from being stuck with arrows. If we go by B, and by chance we manage to pull it off, where does that leave our soldiers? It's not as if they could replicate our feat.

B is only really useful (if it works) for establishing us as a badass, which has already been done. A gives more security to our troops, and we particularly need their help in our wounded state. B has too much risk for relatively little gain.

 

[oscar]

If we win here I see no reason why we should leave. The king will soon die, and while he does have other heirs,

it should be pretty easy to launch a coup and reign as God-Emperor over the entire Fertile Crescent. We probably won't be able to push science and the arts as well as Shulgi could, but there's nothing really stopping us (well other immortals) from pulling an Alexander the Great (except without the dying and fragmentation of empire).

 

[treave]

Well, I'm using historical names, but not exactly following our real timeline. There's plenty of anachronisms and 'creative liberties' that I've taken. Anyway...

It'll be like this: you will have a chance to influence history wherever you are, but wherever you are not would likely progress as they would have historically. So if you fuck this shit and go off into India, Europe would begin developing historically, provided none of the other immortals start messing shit up.

As for the choice, the soldiers are trained enough that they know how to climb with shields at the ready, whether or not you decide to go ninja. Sorry if I didn't make it clear enough.

 

[treave]

A 5
B 6

Welp. B takes it by a feather, despite a last minute surge of more prudent voters. Let's see how it goes...

 

[treave]

Chapter 1.11: Prince's Folly

You did not come all the way out here to cower behind the shields of your men.

You leap up the ladder, climbing with one hand, to the cheers of the soldiers. Being on a ladder, you have little room to maneuver; your telepathy and swift reactions allow you to evade the worst of it, hopping and swinging around the ladder's rungs like a monkey on crack. Still, the volume of the arrows ensures that some of them nick you anyway. The pain is bearable, and you concentrate on not letting any strike you in the head – that would be extremely unfortunate. The soldiers raise their shields and follow behind you at a much more sedate pace.

Halfway up, a lucky soldier manages to drop a rock straight on your head. Stunned, you are forced to stop moving, and an arrow promptly strikes you in the shoulder, You are too distracted to keep your composure, and two more follow, burying themselves in your arm and thigh. Your feet slip... and step on a flat piece of wood. You regain your grip and spare a glance behind you. One of the soldiers has moved up behind you and used his shield to give you a foothold. Grateful, you continue your climb with renewed vigor.

It is a difficult climb, and by the time you near your target, you are still bleeding from a few dozen cuts, with many more that are healing. No less than ten arrows are still stuck in various parts of your body, making you look like a pincushion. The arrow through your cheek particularly irks you. You jump the last metre of wall, clearing the top and pouncing on a surprised archer, smashing his face in with your good hand. As the enemy soldiers surround you, you draw your axe. You move in anticipation of their intentions, ducking, whirling, and darting through the melee. You could have taken them all, all three hundred of them, if not for your wounds. Slowed down by the injuries you have suffered, your body cannot keep up, and you find yourself taking more and more cuts which begin turning into near-fatal misses – fatal for a mortal, at least. Exhaustion, it seems, is still a factor in your fighting capability.

Still, you buy enough time for your men to clamber over the wall. They rush to your aid, hacking and slashing their former comrades with righteous indignation. The battle goes well, and you feel that you could actually win the wall. Their arrival provides you some respite from the endless combat, and as you slow down your pace, you feel your lighter wounds beginning to knit together. A tall, cloaked man appears from the melee and charges you with a sword. You recognize him.

Rimush, son of Sargon. You wonder what he is doing on the walls; he was never the sort to lead an army from the front, unlike his father.

“Prince Rimush, your father bids me take your head.” You greet him curtly, stating your intention. Rimush sneers at you and aims a slash at your neck. “That's King Rimush to you, Ean. How you are still stinking up the army with your dirt-like existence is something only my father can explain. Now, get off my wall.” You deftly parry his blow, before realizing that something is wrong.

You cannot read the prince. Where there ought to be waves of emotions and feelings, you can feel nothing but a blank void. Has Shulgi done something?

Yup, probably that kid's learnt how to block you out.
It's going to be tricky business for you. Don't rely on your mind-reading too much.

“What's the matter?” taunts Rimush upon seeing your hesistation. “Lord Shulgi has bestowed a blessing upon me. Do you fear how strong and quick I have now become? This is power only a god can give!” Gleeful, he continues to attack. Still, even if you cannot read his mind, his skills are only about as good as the average grunt. He seems to have been terribly misled of the nature of Shulgi's 'blessing'. You have the edge in experience and skill, and despite your handicap, you easily disarm him of his weapon within seconds. His sneering face turns panicked and he tries to grab for your weapon instead. You land a kick to his chest, sending him sprawling. As you put your axe to his neck, he cries out.

“I... no, mercy! Mercy on me! I renounce Shulgi! He is no god, the protection he claims to peddle is false!”

Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that...

Seeing that you remain unmoved, Rimush changes his pleas for mercy. He offers you information, instead, hoping it will save his life.

“I have been at Shulgi's side, and I know what he is planning. If you promise to spare me, I will tell you everything! If you don't hear what I have to say, you will die. You and my father both!”

***
(Well, let's try out a simple two-part choice)

A. You agree to listen to him. What he says could be of tremendous importance – if Shulgi was planning something, you have to know what.

B. You do not listen to his words. You do not trust him to tell the truth – listening to his lies may affect your decisions in the future, and lead you into trouble.

---


1. You spare him... and drop him off with his daddy once you have secured the wall. The king might want to hear what he has to say with his own ears. What King Sargon does with him after that is none of your concern.

2. You spare him, and let him leave unharmed. Sometimes the voices in your head are capricious and illogical.

3. You spare his body the burden of having to carry his stupid head any longer. It would be easier to bring just the head to his father later. Anyway, the King requested a corpse, but he didn't mention if you needed to bring the whole thing.

 

[treave]

EDIT: treave If it isn't too late, I've decided to flip-flop. If everything's written up already though, fuck it, let's go up the ladder.

Whoops, sorry. I had everything written out, then something cropped up for me to attend to, and I only came back to the computer to post it just now. If you guys are okay with a change (vote on it, Y or N, especially now that you've seen where the wall choice leads you and you might want to see where the tunnel goes), I can have the B update up in... uh, 8 hours. Time zones meaning I have to sleep now. B update is mostly written, just needs some tweaking.

 

[XenomorphII]

A. 1. If the information is worth anything or particularly useful (something the king would need to know). 3 If the info is not something the king needs to know.

EDIT: A3. We can share the information (or misinformation) with the king later as we see fit.

 

[Smashing Axe]

B3, his mind has been blocked from telepathy and he was here on the walls, attacking us by himself. Sounds like a plant or distraction. Whatever Shulgi is doing requires swift action.

 

[treave]

A. 1. If the information is worth anything or particularly useful (something the king would need to know). 3 If the info is not something the king needs to know.

It'll sound important, at least. Something that appears to be vital to defeating Shulgi. That's all I can say about this right now.

 

[Esquilax]

treave: Nah, let's keep going with this. N

Rimush isn't a warrior, he has no loyalty to Shulgi and he doesn't want to die. He's already broken spiritually, he's going to tell us what he knows. That being said, I am pretty sure that Shulgi gave Rimush false information to bait us into a trap: he already had been deceived into thinking he had a snowball's chance in hell against us in combat, and he showed up on his own. If he knows anything, I doubt it would help us.

Acting on the assumption that the information is false, we should hand the kid off to Sargon. Let Sargon fall into whatever trap that Shulgi has in store for him. Then while he thinks that Ean is stupid enough to fall into it (and he will, given that we've been at the King's side every single time), we can take advantage of the element of surprise and hit Shulgi. Payback is a motherfucker.

B1