On the shoulders of giants: a new multiple choices LP!

[Clotstein]

Fuck, we're screwed, we either become fire worshiping berzerking morons, or we become seriously weakened. C would mena back to square one, basically, except we would have more (and more powerful) enemies. B could possibly mean the end of the LP, but what the hell, we may even survive, or maybe the wielder refuses to butcher the tribe he intended to lead to glory. If only we had been more carefull, we could have crafted an empire based on the magical mastery of all elements. But no, we had to jump to the first taste of power we found instead of biding our time. Now we're screwed, we may even have to ally ourselves with the barbarians to stop this crazy bastard.

B Elemental multikult faggotry or death!

 

[TOME]

I knew this would happen. As for choices, A will lead us conquering nearby tribes and later on we are massacred by union seer tribe and forest tribe or the mystical being that are watching us. B will get some of our tribe members killed but it will make others suspicious of Wielder. C will get us a new tribe faraway.

C/B.

 

[Kipeci]

Some of our tribe members are already going to die regardless of what option we take! How in the world does killing off some of the people most suspicious to the Wielder in addition to the water shamans and their supporters who are apparently going to be killed off anyway help to 'make others suspicious' of the Wielder?

 

[oscar]

Lets try and make this transition as bloodless and peaceful as possible. You guys are acting like getting to kick ass for the Fire god is some horrible fate.

 

[Curufinwe]

Ok guys. 9 A, 11 B. B wins. The council will fight.

The councilors looked at each other. They could spot a few, very few men escaping camp while the Wielder waited for their answers. But most importantly, they could see that more than half the fighting men of the tribe were gathering around the water shamans in a battle line.
The councilors again looked at each other, then nodded. The eldest gave a sad smile, then turned to the Wielder: "No. We will not bow to you. Never. This is not what the tribe is. We were fools, yes. But we will not stay fools in this. We will kill you this time, we won't repeat our previous mistakes."

The Wielder seemed taken aback, then recovered his composure and growled: "Very well. If this is how it has to go down." He brought his arm forward, bringing the gem to bear: "You. You will be the first to die."

A column of fire erupted from the eldest's position. He didn't even have time to scream. It was too quick. Only charred remains marked the spot.

The Wielder then turned to his fire spirits. He said just one word: "Kill".

And kill they did. The spirits simply walked forward, grabbing whoever was not prostrating themselves on the ground, burning them to death in a fiery embrace.
The warband that was forming in the middle of the camp didn't last minutes. Their weapons were ineffective, their pleas for mercy unlistened to, their death meaningless. The twenty spirits just waded in the middle of their formation, grabbing, punching, dealing death mercilessly, mechanically, unfeeling.
The water shamans prayed to the water spirit, but their prayers went unanswered. They died a fiery, meaningless death, like everyone else who stood in the Wielder's path.
The Wielder waited in the back, only occasionally using his gem to burn would-be heroes that attempted to take his life.

Within the hour, the camp was a scene of devastation. Trembling, crying men and women laid, still prostrate, to the ground. In the middle of the settlement, a pile of charred corpse was the only testament to the heroic, but futile resistance of the council and the water shamans. More than a hundred had died.

The Wielder finally raised his arms and called out to the fire spirits: "Stop. It is done."

He walked forward, calling the tribe to him: "Do not be afraid, my children. Although horrifying, today's deeds were necessary. Our tribe harbored a terrible rot within. A rot that needed to be cleansed by holy fire. Now the cleansing is done. You, who are left, are the best, the brightest, the most dedicated to my vision. You will be rewarded, my children. We will embark on a path of righteous conquest. Our enemies will be as dust beneath our feet. We shall be... unstoppable. We... will conquer all – he shouted – in the name of the holy spirit of fire!"

The men and women, those who had chosen to side with the Wielder, took comfort in those words. First one, then a handful, then whole the crowd started chanting 'In the name of the holy spirit of fire!' in time with the Wielder's words.

The council last stand ends here. In death.


END OF ACT II: THE WIELDER REIGNS SUPREME.




Ok. After action report. Yes, you... er... lost. As in... died. I'm seriously perplexed here. You spent the last 10 updates following the path to give the Wielder back his power and start a warlike, conquering fire theocracy. Heck, you even gave him back his gem so he could come back at full power. And don't say it wasn't obvious, because it was, to the point I was afraid it was TOO obvious.
Then, when he gets back to camp full powered, with 20 fire elementals you can do absolutely crap about, you suddenly do a 180 degree and go William Wallace and Leeroy Jenkins combined and very effectively commit suicide. In game terms, you completely lost control of any choice regarding the tribe and, furthermore, your 'characters' (the council) are all dead.
So yep, game over. Nice run and all, but game over.

Now, I have a few options ahead of me. I can start a completely new LP (after a few days to lay down the groundwork) in a different setting. It will also lead to a new vote, in a new thread, to choose what kind of setting you'd like to see.
Or, we can stay in this one setting after a time jump and taking control of another group (further voting in the thread regarding where to go).
Either way, the Obsidian Embers are now officially NPCs.

First though, I'll leave this open for an 'history' update with my GM analysis of your choices so far and comments.

 

[Internet]

What's so bad about this update? We finally have the final showdown with the Wielder that we were just postponing since you we decided not to kill him when we had a chance.

On one hand we have multiculturalism, diplomacy, trade, exploration and powerless shamans.
On the other hand fire elementals and perpetual war in the name of a crazy dude.

B could get us killed immediately, while A will get us killed when we eventually try to climb Olympus and piss off some powerful dudes.

I need to think this through.

Edit: too late!

 

[Curufinwe]

What's so bad about this update? We finally have the final showdown with the Wielder that we were just postponing since you we decided not to kill him when we had a chance.

On one hand we have multiculturalism, diplomacy, trade, exploration and powerless shamans.
On the other hand fire elementals and perpetual war in the name of a crazy dude.

B could get us killed immediately, while A will get us killed when we eventually try to climb Olympus and piss off some powerful dudes.

I need to think this through.

Too late, Internet :D Had 20 votes within two days and some, assumed everyone had voted already. If it comforts you, your vote wouldn't have flipped the outcome either way.

 

[Curufinwe]

Now for the AAR.

This was the first time I wrote a CYOA, was a complete newbie at it, and it showed. Originally I hadn't planned to get stuck before the metal age this long, but then the plot took over and that was it. We had quite a long period with pretty boring tech-like updates so, when plot elements started to be available to you, I decided to introduce 'mini-events' that spanned multiple updates. You had three (the crap at the mountain with the eruption and all that (no, I didn't expect you guys to go straight for the gem before exploring the other caves, there was stuff there too), the battle with the barbarians and the Wielder's play for power).

Then I had an almost month long hiatus (I couldn't sustain anymore the daily updates, it was becoming a chore and not something I enjoyed, sorry about that), thanks alot for the patience shown in that period.

You had a pretty freakish 'game over' close call during the first event too, when just one vote had the tribe listen to the seer's advice and escape. Had you staid there, you would have been hit by the eruption in your teeth. Wouldn't have been nice to see. Not a complete game over, but you would have started back from square one, with just an handful of survivors.
The second mini-event went as planned, it was meant to finally introduce you to the barbarian threat that had been looming on the horizon for so long. Battle plan you conjured up was more than decent, especially the choice of the battle's spot and the heavy use of ranged weaponry.
Then the Wielder's event... well, didn't go as I thought. As I wrote in the last post, you had pushed for the Wielder to gain power and had gone down the path that would give him the most. So I honestly didn't think you would, at the last second and after giving him back all of his powers and more, rebel. And die pitifully. Twenty fire elementals against less than one hundred primitive spearmen... slaughter, sorry.

And that's it. In game, the LP so far lasted I'd say 200ish years, all in all. Most of those before you got to the mountain, then ten or so at the mountain and ten-fifteen at the new camp (horrible positioning choice, btw )

So, the situation right now is there's an angry fire theocracy being born on the lake's shores, but you have no further say on its development.

Time for comments on your parts then, hoping you enjoyed this half as much as I did.

 

[oscar]

Yeah that was weird. I, and the clear majority of people, supported the Fire Wielder but then you all voted 'nah fuck this guy' at perhaps the 5th opportunity you had before to stop him.

But I took it more as we simply take over as the "guiding hand" of the tribe. I never felt we were actually the council members themselves. Like those choices over which character would speak most convincingly and win an argument. I believe the reason many people voted B was that it would give the people a memory of resistance to the Wielder, which would mean that if his rule became too disadvantageous for the tribe we could perhaps get a coup or rebellion event. In any case I don't think many thought that transitioning from the tribal government to a despotic theocracy would result in game over.

I see no reason we can't still play as the Obsidian Embers. Just that we'll be doing a lot more fighting and conquering of heathens. I personally think it would be pretty fun playing as the Fire Wielder as he strives to spread the light of the Fire.

Anyway, great LP Curufinwe and I hope you make more in any case whether it be in this setting or a new one.

 

[Vernydar]

Well. Personally, I do not have regrets for the ways I voted. I was coherent with my decisions, I voted against the wielder from the start, and kept voting against him. I did think that voting B in this update was more than likely futile, but I thought it good rp. And maybe, useful in the long run as to show the people how ruthless the wielder is. I did not predict the tribe becoming NPCs, but then again it is plausible.

The eruption was another major setback, but one I think we did not have that many chances to predict. Sure, we could have just gone somewhere else in that mountain. Down below, maybe, and never bothered the fire gem... But once we reached that lava chamber, there was no real solid reason to go all crazy and restrain the wielder and go back.

As for the new camp, I am happy to see I was right in saying that the shore on the lake was a horrible position. I thought it from the start, too close to the forest, little to no defenses.

More or less, every choice resulted in what I thought it would,except the one that caused the eruption. And the fact that you made the tribe an npc tribe. But I had a lot of fun with this.

If you feel like writing another lp, I would like to continue in this setting. But, not after much of a time jump, I'd like to either start in the same time frame, or even earlier yet. Would be nice to know that there's an angry fire theocracy somewhere else XD

 

[Curufinwe]

I see no reason we can't still play as the Obsidian Embers. Just that we'll be doing a lot more fighting and conquering of heathens. I personally think it would be pretty fun playing as the Fire Wielder as he strives to spread the light of the Fire.

Anyway, great LP Curufinwe and I hope you make more in any case whether it be in this setting or a new one.

That was what I had assumed until last update too. And with A, you would have stayed in a supporting role of the Wielder in his bid for conquest. With B the vote suddenly went 'No, fuck this. Rather die than go with the Wielder'. The Wielder always was and always would be an NPC controlled by me, but with A you would have submitted to him. You would have done tactics, him (me) would have done strategy.
Seriously didn't expect this about face at all.

Elaborating on this further: there was a camp within you that knew what the Wielder was about and wanted anyway to go with him. Legitimate, coherent choice. Others, especially Vernydar, never wanted anything to do with the Wielder and voted that way.
But I felt the majority wasn't really thinking long-term. I was right, since the majority kept voting 'more power to the Wielder, more power to the Wielder, trust him' and suddenly, when it was too late, went 'No, the Wielder sucks, let's kill him' when you had at least 3 opportunity to off him safely beforehand.

He would have rebelled either way (he was fed up with shoveling dung, can't blame the bastard) but him rebelling alone, him rebelling with a handful of followers or him running away would have been very, very different to him coming back to camp with fire elementals and his gem. At that point, there was no possible way to come out of it with a victory.

 

[Curufinwe]

Well. Personally, I do not have regrets for the ways I voted. I was coherent with my decisions, I voted against the wielder from the start, and kept voting against him. I did think that voting B in this update was more than likely futile, but I thought it good rp. And maybe, useful in the long run as to show the people how ruthless the wielder is. I did not predict the tribe becoming NPCs, but then again it is plausible.

Yes, you were coherent. The Cassandra of the thread, and you were more or less right all along, regarding the Wielder.

The eruption was another major setback, but one I think we did not have that many chances to predict. Sure, we could have just gone somewhere else in that mountain. Down below, maybe, and never bothered the fire gem... But once we reached that lava chamber, there was no real solid reason to go all crazy and restrain the wielder and go back.

True enough. Except paranoia. I personally wouldn't have gone along with 'that fire keeper is being mind controlled clearly, let him do what he wants' but that's what the voters chose. But to be fair, you had no idea about what could have happened and couldn't have known, so nothing to recriminate there.

As for the new camp, I am happy to see I was right in saying that the shore on the lake was a horrible position. I thought it from the start, too close to the forest, little to no defenses.

Yep. Complete crap. It was good as a temporary spot to get back the tribe's bearing after the eruption, but after that I would have moved.

More or less, every choice resulted in what I thought it would,except the one that caused the eruption. And the fact that you made the tribe an npc tribe. But I had a lot of fun with this.

If you feel like writing another lp, I would like to continue in this setting. But, not after much of a time jump, I'd like to either start in the same time frame, or even earlier yet. Would be nice to know that there's an angry fire theocracy somewhere else XD

The time jump is more for my convenience than anything else. I'd like to play around with a more evolved time frame, would give me tons more options. And I could say 'east' instead of 'in the direction of the hills upriver' which was starting to drive me crazy.

Anyway, not starting a vote or anything regarding the next LP or the continuation of this one yet.

 

[TOME]

What would have happened with C?

And next time you guys want to give unlimited power to deranged, crazy NPC, please think again.

Thank you for a great LP! Hopefully there will be a new one.

 

[Curufinwe]

What would have happened with C?

C would have let some people attempt to escape from the Wielder and start out again elsewhere (most likely abandoning fire worship). The escape itself would have been a mini-event, not granted to succeed at all, especially considered how much power you guys had given the Wielder. But a chance at least. B was just instant death, pretty much.
Again, I was positive you people would have gone with A on this one. It was the coherent choice with all previous ones.

 

[TOME]

Well I think there were a few voters who didn't think the Wielder as powerhungry maniac and changed their vote when the Wielder revealed his true colors. And I don't think A would have been very wise choice in long term. Sooner or later something would have screwed us over.

 

[Monty]

Yes, am disappointed that A didn't win. It's easy to say now, of course, but we could have followed the template the wielder laid down. He played a devious long game, accepted his temporary humiliation, bided his time and triumphed in the end. Would have been fun to do the same instead of suiciding.

Anyway, thanks for your efforts Curufinwe, been fun to follow and some interesting debates (won't forget the arguments over bear cavalry for a while).

 

[Kipeci]

Aw.

I knew that B was not as good as A, but I thought we'd at least continue and that it wouldn't be a game over, just that we'd have a reduced population and much more difficulty in sparking off any sort of rebellion if the Wielder outlived his usefulness.

Would the Wielder have followed us if we'd gone with that other tribe with the zebras?

 

[Tigranes]

I missed the last couple of updates.... but yeah, what the hell? We gave him back the Gem, gave him a walking army of awesome fire spirits, then we FOUGHT him? Seriously? We didn't want to control the fire spirits in battle?



Anyway, thanks Curufinwe, that was awesome. I know how regular updates can become a chore, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way out of that. If you're up to it I think it'll be good to have us restart in the same setting - it'll be fun to explore the setting more, not relearn everything again, and also to dig up info about the Obsidian Embers.

 

[Curufinwe]

Anyway, thanks for your efforts Curufinwe, been fun to follow and some interesting debates (won't forget the arguments over bear cavalry for a while).

I did toy with the thought of actually giving you bear cavalry, I must admit it. In the end though I said to myself 'Ok, no. That's just too weird, can't do'. :D

 

[Curufinwe]

Aw.

I knew that B was not as good as A, but I thought we'd at least continue and that it wouldn't be a game over, just that we'd have a reduced population and much more difficulty in sparking off any sort of rebellion if the Wielder outlived his usefulness.

Would the Wielder have followed us if we'd gone with that other tribe with the zebras?

Who knows...

 

[Curufinwe]

I missed the last couple of updates.... but yeah, what the hell? We gave him back the Gem, gave him a walking army of awesome fire spirits, then we FOUGHT him? Seriously? We didn't want to control the fire spirits in battle?



Anyway, thanks Curufinwe, that was awesome. I know how regular updates can become a chore, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way out of that. If you're up to it I think it'll be good to have us restart in the same setting - it'll be fun to explore the setting more, not relearn everything again, and also to dig up info about the Obsidian Embers.

Yes, indeed. I honestly tried to give you a way out of it without bowing to the Wielder (that was C, would have started an escape chain of events. Likelihood of game over there was pretty high, but not 100% like B who was just suicidal).

Regular updates aren't really a chore, it was the DAILY updates that were too much after a month and some of it. I can handle regular, just not daily. Once every few days, sure.

Anyway, I'm toying with a few ideas if you want to stay in the same settings, will think about it a bit then elaborate.

 

[Urist McLurker]

I, also, didn't see us as the council but rather the guiding hand. I decided to pick B after being mainly convinced by Esquilax and somewhat by Vernydar that it was the choice I wanted, just not for the same motivations than them. I voted B so that the council would die, for the reason that the wielder would hopefully lack any possible seed of rebellion to deal with later on. Standing up to the wielder in the short-term so nothing was in his way in the long-term, rather than risk the nay-sayers of the wielder to have a chance to vote against him in the future. I think most of us that voted B understood and fully believed that the council would die, just not that them dying meant game over.



A great LP and I'm sure everyone will agree with me that if only we had gotten bear cavalry, we would have won this fight about the spirits of flame and fire.
About regular updates, if you decide to do another LP such as this wonderful one. I think daily updates do more harm than good, a couple days, a few days, allows everyone to vote and/or discuss their different viewpoints. And if it makes it more enjoyable for you, then I see no reason not to stick to roughly regular updates.

 

[Kipeci]

Anyway, I'm hoping that we stay in this setting, but continue on as, say, that other fire tribe that warned us earlier about the eruption and had the zebras.

 

[Collage]

Can't we stay with the same tribe? Would be fun conquering the world with an army of fire. If not, I'd love to see a new Civilization-style CYOA with less magical elements and more hardcore caveman-to-the-stars story arc.

 

[Curufinwe]

I, also, didn't see us as the council but rather the guiding hand. I decided to pick B after being mainly convinced by Esquilax and somewhat by Vernydar that it was the choice I wanted, just not for the same motivations than them. I voted B so that the council would die, for the reason that the wielder would hopefully lack any possible seed of rebellion to deal with later on. Standing up to the wielder in the short-term so nothing was in his way in the long-term, rather than risk the nay-sayers of the wielder to have a chance to vote against him in the future. I think most of us that voted B understood and fully believed that the council would die, just not that them dying meant game over.

Well, your choice was basically 'No, never, we would rather die than serve you!' be it as the councilors or as the guiding hand. I did consider not to make it a 'game over' event too, but it wouldn't have made much sense in my eyes. Choices have consequences, always. If you wanted to go on with the Wielder route, A was there to be chosen.
Besides, choosing B made absolutely no sense in light of the last updates, where you always gunned for the most Wielder-friendly choice.
That's it, basically.