Inactive [LP CYOA] Overlord

[Kipeci]

How many people you need to convince for a given option to win depends on who you are convincing, as that changes vote distribution and flopping results. Yes, it's a pain in the ass to count flops, new as 11.

Thanks for being a bro and assembling these tallies, we take it for granted a lot but it's pretty critical stuff to keep us on track.

Also, it seems that 2D is now winning? This is wonderful advance for village protection that could hopefully be replicated elsewhere along suitable leylines, provided that they have enough advance notice the village can camouflage the whole thing and block out raiders. What's more is that, according to treave, the magical protection setting is apparently going to be strong enough that the place can tank a direct hit from Gigadyne provided that Trider doesn't invest too much of his crazy load of mana into the strike now that he's gone and had a rank increase since the last demonstration.

Not that I think we should try to directly nuke the goblin village, but I think that opens up more options for cleansing armies besieging it off the face of the Earth without as much worry about taking the village with it.

 

[Nevill]

I am more interested in whether or not this thing can block Rin's vulnerability to Cloakies. It can stop/warp light or magic, but can it do something about these 'mind-waves' or whatever they use to whisper sweet nothings in Rin's ears?

 

[Kipeci]

I wouldn't get my hopes up about preventing a cloak infiltration given that construction is going to take a while even if it can block whatever factor is being used, but I guess that could happen. At least I hope we'll have the shield in place before they come over to make trouble.

treave, do we have any idea of what Rin intends to do while we're babysitting in Grahferde since we asked her to stay?

 

[TOME]

I'll flop to 1.B>D. I don't like the prospect of being openly a criminal.

 

[Nevill]

Are we somehow secretly a criminal now? We have Wist's case pinned on us already.

I know E is being more of that, but I do not think the difference is qualitative.

 

[Kipeci]

I'm most worried about both buying the governor the most time free of meddling from the Duke like he wanted and giving our potential double agent the most reasonable story that won't land her in trouble. That's what E does. If we need to deal with certain specific people later who will admittedly be made more suspicious of us by this, our own B rank Charisma will go a long way in helping them to change their minds when we correct them with our better version in which we generously healed her eyes and all.

 

[TOME]

I don't care about the snake at all. I don't think she is loyal to us nor that she is capable of it. Taking heat so that she'll get to operate more freely is stupid because we don't have a clue what she is really working on.

 

[Nevill]

I don't think she is loyal to us nor that she is capable of it.

What do you mean by loyalty?

She is not our right-hand woman, and we are not ones who are being fed misinformation and have to base our actions on it.

So there is merit in her operating more freely, because she is doing harm to the one who believes her.

 

[Kipeci]

I don't care about the snake at all. I don't think she is loyal to us nor that she is capable of it. Taking heat so that she'll get to operate more freely is stupid because we don't have a clue what she is really working on.

The kidnapping and murder of one of the three Knight-Captains of the kingdom regardless of whether or not other people paid for her to be brought back to life and added on top of the intimidating performance at the banquet is such a big deal in comparison to a temporary and non-lethal (thwarted?) kidnapping of a governor's daughter that I don't see it causing any irreparable damage to our Methussian reputation that has not already occurred. My primary emphasis is on making sure that the governor himself falls out of suspicion so that he is able to build up his power to the point that he can break free of the Duke's influence. E is the best option for this; Trider has personally wronged the Duke for no apparent reason, him acting as an asshole in this instance is totally within bounds of expectations unlike more outlandish foreign intrigue or magic beasts and so it brings about the least suspicion on the Governor. It's a bonus to me that it also allows Shara to have the most reasonable story so as to keep her in the Duke's good graces, which gives her the potential of being more useful to us than if she's considered suspicious and put at a distance. Who knows how reliable she is, but this is a good test and she's supposed to be one of the most competent adventurers/spy-types around.

 

[ScubaV]

I'll flop to 1.B>D. I don't like the prospect of being openly a criminal.

D - 3 [p.6] (6)
E - 5 [p.7] (6)

God dammit.

 

[Nevill]

God dammit.

Blame archaen. He was voting E, but switched to D>E in order to avoid B.

 

[TOME]

God dammit.

So there is merit in her operating more freely, because she is doing harm to the one who believes her.

We believe her to be feeding misinformation to the duke. So is it possible she is doing harm to us?

It is a test of loyalty. A way to see if she is willing to play ball. We don't test her loyalty when we tell her to blame us. But if we were to pick something less believable, like A, then that would lessen her ties to the duke and net her a powerful enemy in the for of the archmage. That way we could know if we can work with her or not.

 

[Karwelas]

E
D
A

Problem solved.

 

[Nevill]

A way to see if she is willing to play ball. We don't test her loyalty when we tell her to blame us.

Again, what loyalty are you talking about after establishing that she has none?

She is either willing to lie to the Duke, or she isn't. You are measuring the extent of her lies, but for some reason you ignore that she does.

Blaming us for what we really did, or for what we tell everyone else that we did, are two very different things. One is detrimental to us, another is beneficial as we intend to reap our dividends once the Governor acts.

By lying to the Duke she is endangering her position if found. It does not matter what she lies to him about, as long as she does. If her lies are discovered, she is no longer his trusted agent.

Kipeci is saying that she is useful precisely in that quality of hers, while you want to put it under as much risk as possible to see if she is genuine... but if she is and if she is busted, what use is she?

 

[TOME]

 

[lightbane]

If we need to deal with certain specific people later who will admittedly be made more suspicious of us by this, our own B rank Charisma will go a long way in helping them to change their minds when we correct them with our better version in which we generously healed her eyes and all.

Odd to see you favoring diplomacy instead of something like 'when in doubt, kill them all!', considering you seem to be fond of justified (or non-justified) violence/Angelic shenanigans. In any case, I guess you'll get your wish anyway if E wins and we successfully tell the Golden Snake... To tell everyone we 'attempted' to kidnap the Governor's daughter for the evilulz. If the Prince and Wisteria had doubts, now they won't anymore.

EDIT: Oh, dammit. E won.

 

[treave]

I'll check the votes and update if there's no tie in about 12 hours or so.

If there is that's fine too.

 

[Kipeci]

If we need to deal with certain specific people later who will admittedly be made more suspicious of us by this, our own B rank Charisma will go a long way in helping them to change their minds when we correct them with our better version in which we generously healed her eyes and all.

Odd to see you favoring diplomacy instead of something like 'when in doubt, kill them all!', considering you seem to be fond of justified (or non-justified) violence/Angelic shenanigans. In any case, I guess you'll get your wish anyway if E wins and we successfully tell the Golden Snake... To tell everyone we 'attempted' to kidnap the Governor's daughter for the evilulz. If the Prince and Wisteria had doubts, now they won't anymore.

EDIT: Oh, dammit. E won.

I think our diplomacy should be targeted to have good relations with certain very influential peoples that may later be incorporated into some sort of rule of ours over generically positive relations with whomever even if they don't fit our interests. A better relationship with the Governor is vital because he has a lot of influence over the flow of critically valuable magnatite, and the scope of his political authority seems to be low enough that it could be integrated within the Trider's eventual angelic ascendancy. Similarly, should Shara prove to be vaguely loyal she could very well be the Beria to our Stalin, form the nucleus of some sort of Okhrana-type group and exist in that sort of way on the basis of a personal relationship to Erd since she doesn't seem to be exactly a flag-waving king and country type.

Where I see diplomacy as working out less well is with groups such as the royal family and the Duke, all of whom have much more to lose if a new administration comes into town due to how well and widely established they already are. I envision the need to sweep out or cause some sort of serious demotion to occur to them at one point or another, and to a degree low relations with them helps as it ensures that we're more likely to act in Trider's interests rather than theirs due to their increased tendency to act likes dicks to us. It's unfortunate that Farland and Wisteria think less of us on a personal level, I'll admit that, but in the long term it's better off that way as we must inevitably struggle with them. They are both by birth and occupation strong supporters of the kingdom of Methuss, after all, and there's no room for that in my plans.

I was liking the idea of succumbing to angel instincts and harvesting the world's XP to achieve Erd's maximum potential, yes, but that path was stricken out in a vote quite a while back. It doesn't do to lash out in random violence just to become a pale imitation of that shining idea, so I'm attempting to follow the back-up plan I'd developed in the event of Erd's continued sanity that I described at the time.

 

[Grimgravy]

I think that at some point, the daughter will tell one of her friend who fixed her eyes. How can she not? It's the biggest thing to happen to her possibly in her entire life. Keep in mind, her friends are highly placed. When she does, choice E will fall apart. Our spy will be outed. Investment lost or at least diminished.

If we choose D, we have the accused. We can turn over his corpse. We might even be to brain rape him with Zayan's help and turn over the fiend himself! Regardless we have a fair degree of control over what happens next. I'm not wholly against E, but we do cede control over what happens next in public opinion to our enemy.

 

[Nevill]

I think that at some point, the daughter will tell one of her friend who fixed her eyes. How can she not?

How can she? She can only correspond with her friends through letters, which I assume the Governor would be filtering from now on, because how stupid do you think he is?

That's assuming that he doesn't have an influence on her as a father to just flat out tell her not to mention the topic until it's safe. He said, and she heard him, that if a word gets out of our involvement, they could blind her again. Question of her own safety aside (she might not believe it), why would a daughter worry her father like that just to tell a juicy rumor?

And yes, having Ellen tell the real story - or a part of it - may come handy to lift the accusations among a select people. That remains a possibility, though it may also reveal the 'seceding' of Ontoglia as a part of our plan, so we should be mindful of that.

We can turn over his corpse. We might even be to brain rape him with Zayan's help and turn over the fiend himself! Regardless we have a fair degree of control over what happens next.

But not over what the Adventurer's Guild does. They would investigate Amesdan's disappearance, and they would investigate Ontoglia and the Governor personally.

It's a degree of control.

The moment we start spreading a lie, we are risking the truth to get out. No choice is exempt from that.

 

[Grimgravy]

Don't underestimate women's need to gossip. The governor may filter her letters, but at some point she will have visitors. Or she will visit her friends. The gov may not be stupid but he loves his little girl. She has eyes to see now. I doubt he'll be willing or able to keep her in Ontoglia forever. Her story WILL come out at some point. The nature of women guarantees it. We could accomplish something in the interim, but her telling her story needs to be part of the discussion.

 

[Nevill]

We could accomplish something in the interim, but her telling her story needs to be part of the discussion.

Fine. Eventually the truth may come out. How does it differ from any of the choices?

Say, we pin the blame on Amesdan. We make him come out and say it, even. Or we rot him in our prison. Whatever.

Then Ellen lets slip that it was our doing all along. If you want to make it a part of the discussion, please explain to me how much better is that, and why?

 

[lightbane]

IMO blaming someone else other than us has the main advantage we wouldn't have to worry about bounty hunters trying to cover our back with arrows, nor would we have to be careful to always hide our identity. Plus in Amesdan's case we find a way to get rid of him, instead of letting him stay with us indefinitely and risk the possibility of a break-out.

PS: Also, any non-E choices ensures what few friends we still have in Methuss do not become angry with us, but I doubt anyone of you cares about that.

 

[Grimgravy]

The issue is consistency and building us up. If we choose D and then turn over our patsy, Ellen's miraculous healing (by us) and our saving her (from the patsy) support each other. Ellen's credibility bolster's us. With E, when her story comes out, we will have restored her vision and then taken her hostage. How does that make sense. It's contradictory. Contradictions are not our friends in subterfuge.

E has this short term - 'it makes sense' vibe because it's true. But it's a trap. When Ellen tells her story comes out, it makes no sense. Because we healed her. Altruistically done or not, it doesn't jive with kidnapping.

 

[Nevill]

If we choose D and then turn over our patsy, Ellen's miraculous healing (by us) and our saving her (from the patsy) support each other. Ellen's credibility bolster's us.

Sorry, I don't get it. The 'true story' when it supposedly gets out is that we kidnapped and healed Ellen, then blamed her kidnapping and killing Duke's people on Amesdan who was never there (as Ellen didn't see him and there was no one to save her from). I do not see what bolstering do you speak of - we framed a man to conceal our meddling in the kingdom's affairs.

You are making it sound that the 'truth' that will come out is just another lie where Ellen reaffirms the fact that she was kidnapped by Amesdan, but for some reason tells the part where she was healed correctly. If you believe her ability to stick to a lie, then you neen not worry about the truth in the first place. If you are worried about the truth, then you need to consider the consequences of the whole truth.

When Ellen tells her story comes out, it makes no sense.

It will make perfect sense. If Ellen talks, it will mean that the Governor is lying. In any of the options, it will mean just that. You can't add Trider to them and expect them to check out.

Plus in Amesdan's case we find a way to get rid of him, instead of letting him stay with us indefinitely and risk the possibility of a break-out.

You can get rid of him at any time. Just put it to a vote. Which might fail, because he is our only volunteer for eye research as of now.